The Untold History Of The United States

would go up in flames... 265 00:20:41,866 --> 00:20:47,532 ...when Roosevelt, angry and frustrated, wrote a remarkable letter to the assembled delegates... 266 00:20:47,705 --> 00:20:51,539 ...in which he flatly turned down the presidential nomination. 267 00:20:51,709 --> 00:20:55,794 ROOSEVELT: The Democratic Party has failed when it has fallen to the control... 268 00:20:55,963 --> 00:21:00,958 ...of those who think in terms of dollars instead of human values. 269 00:21:01,135 --> 00:21:04,924 Until the Democratic Party shakes off all the shackles of control... 270 00:21:05,097 --> 00:21:09,933 ...fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and appeasement... 271 00:21:10,186 --> 00:21:13,679 ...it will not continue its march to victory. 272 00:21:13,856 --> 00:21:18,646 The party cannot face in both directions at the same time. 273 00:21:18,819 --> 00:21:24,656 Therefore, I decline the honor of the nomination for the presidency. 274 00:21:25,659 --> 00:21:29,197 STONE: His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, saved the day. 275 00:21:29,538 --> 00:21:32,701 The first president's wife ever to address a convention... 276 00:21:32,875 --> 00:21:37,585 ...she told disgruntled delegates that, "We face now a grave situation." 277 00:21:37,755 --> 00:21:42,716 You cannot treat it as you would treat... 278 00:21:42,885 --> 00:21:47,755 ...an ordinary nomination in an ordinary time. 279 00:21:47,932 --> 00:21:51,891 STONE: The party bosses buckled and put Wallace on the ticket. 280 00:21:52,102 --> 00:21:54,810 They would, however, come back for their vengeance. 281 00:21:54,980 --> 00:21:59,224 I've just heard the news of my nomination, and there is just one thing I want to say. 282 00:21:59,568 --> 00:22:03,436 I am confident that under the leadership of President Roosevelt... 283 00:22:03,614 --> 00:22:07,733 ...we shall have a united Democratic Party, victory in November... 284 00:22:07,910 --> 00:22:10,777 ...and security for the American people. 285 00:22:37,273 --> 00:22:40,106 STONE: But the crisis over Wallace never went away. 286 00:22:40,401 --> 00:22:43,564 The previous vice president, Cactus Jack Garner... 287 00:22:43,737 --> 00:22:46,604 ...an affable outgoing Texan, had said: 288 00:22:46,782 --> 00:22:50,275 GARNER: This job ain't worth a barrel of warm piss. 289 00:22:50,578 --> 00:22:55,664 STONE: Nonetheless, Wallace stuck out like a sore thumb on Capitol Hill. 290 00:22:55,833 --> 00:23:00,578 He was a spiritual man fascinated by Navajo tribal religion. 291 00:23:00,754 --> 00:23:04,088 He studied Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. 292 00:23:04,258 --> 00:23:09,549 The Washington scene with its cocktail dives and smoky members' clubs didn't suit him. 293 00:23:09,722 --> 00:23:13,841 He didn't drink or smoke. He preferred to play tennis and box. 294 00:23:14,101 --> 00:23:19,687 He liked to spend evenings reading and throwing boomerangs on the Potomac. 295 00:23:19,899 --> 00:23:22,891 In a sign of his great confidence, Roosevelt made Wallace... 296 00:23:23,068 --> 00:23:27,983 ...Chairman of the Board of Economic Warfare in charge of the national economy. 297 00:23:28,157 --> 00:23:32,071 Wallace was at the height of his influence in Washington. 298 00:23:33,829 --> 00:23:38,494 1941 would be a year of epic change. 299 00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:41,910 The fuhrer of Germany had fulfilled his promise to the German people... 300 00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:45,705 ...and reversed the shame of World War I. 301 00:23:45,883 --> 00:23:49,376 [IN GERMAN] 302 00:23:53,015 --> 00:23:55,097 STONE: The Germans now were at their height. 303 00:23:55,351 --> 00:24:01,142 Foodstuffs from France, Holland, Denmark, Norway. Luxury goods, industries thriving. 304 00:24:01,357 --> 00:24:07,478 The thousand-year retch of the future looked like it might come true after all. 305 00:24:07,696 --> 00:24:10,233 But as history repeatedly shows... 306 00:24:10,532 --> 00:24:15,572 ...the fatal flaw arises not from without, but from within. 307 00:24:15,746 --> 00:24:21,207 And Hitler, at the zenith of his arrogance, attacked the Soviet Union. 308 00:24:22,711 --> 00:24:27,251 The concept of lebensraum, or living space was described first by him... 309 00:24:27,549 --> 00:24:34,216 ...in his 1925-6 two-volume autobiography, Mein Kampf. "My Fight." 310 00:24:34,515 --> 00:24:38,884 He stated that the future of the German peoples lay in the east... 311 00:24:39,061 --> 00:24:42,725 ...and would need to be carved out of the USSR. 312 00:24:42,898 --> 00:24:46,607 NARRATOR: One-sixth of the Earth's surface, reaching from east to west... 313 00:24:46,777 --> 00:24:48,688 ...nearly halfway around the world... 314 00:24:48,862 --> 00:24:52,071 ...and southward from the North Pole to the borders of India. 315 00:24:52,241 --> 00:24:56,576 One cou