American History Hit - The King & FDR: The Birth of the Special Relationship

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

In 1939, on the invitation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, King George VI became the first reigning British monarch to set foot on American soil.So what triggered this monumental moment in the transatlantic relationship? How has it trickled down to today's special relationship? And how was King George assisted in his diplomacy by his wife, Elizabeth?In this coronation special, Don is joined by author Sally Bedell Smith to find out more.For more from Sally, you can find her substack here: https://sallybedellsmith.substack.com/Produced by Sophie Gee and Stuart Beckwith. Editing and sound design by Siobhan Dale. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.If you’d like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts, and audiobooks at History Hit - follow today! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to explore even more history? Sign up to History Hit, where you will discover history from around the world. From the American Revolution to prehistoric Scotland, there is plenty to discover. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries with a brand new release every week, exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe to bring the past alive. It is May 1939, and a thick fog has descended on the Empress of Australia as she drifts cautiously past icebergs towards North America.

The ship's horn blasts at intervals, unsettling its prestigious guests. Below deck is King George the 6th. He is about to become the first reigning British monarch to visit the United States and Canada at the express invitation of President Franklin Roosevelt. By his side is Queen Elizabeth, who, to kill the time, is reading Mind Kompf by Adolf Hitler, of which she would later say, even a skip-through gives one an idea of his mentality, ignorance, and sincerity. As the royal couple sits and waits for the fog to clear, they leave behind a Europe on the brink of war. Hitler has already invaded Czechoslovakia, but ahead of them waits America, with the promise of war.

wartime support and the beginning of what we now call the special relationship. As the fog lifts and the Empress of Australia gathers pace towards the new world, both King George and FDR must set their minds toward their coming meetings, how the fates of both their nations will be called into question in the coming years. Hello and welcome back to American History Hit. I'm your host, Don Wildman. The United States and Great Britain have what is famously referred to as our special relationship. A term coined by Winston Churchill in 1944 in the midst of World War II that refers to our solid alliance based on a shared identity of democratic ideals and values.

Great Britain is our strongest ally in the world, been so for nearly 200 years, ironically so, given the revolution we once waged against them. One of the most interesting moments in building this foundational relationship happened before we joined the Second World War in June of 1939 when George the 6th and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived for an unprecedented royal visit to the United States. Movies have been made about this event. It is a pivotal moment in the storied history of our two nations. And given the royal coronation we are soon to witness, the transition from the era of Queen Elizabeth II to her son Charles, we figured it only fitting to re-examine that famous week when a king and queen arrived on our short

to shore up a relationship. With us today is the esteemed author, journalist, lecturer, Sally Bedell Smith, whose newest book is George the Sixth and Elizabeth, the marriage that saved the monarchy. Sally, welcome to American history yet. Nice to have you. Nice to be here, Don. These are heady times again for those who interested and excited by English royalty,

what with the coronation. An excellent time to look back at this pivotal time and this pivotal couple. What makes George, the Sixth and Elizabeth such an important discussion. It was such an important marriage in the British Royal History. Well, it was, first of all, it was accidental that they became king and queen. And thank goodness they did, because as I was doing my research for this book, including at the Royal Archives in Windsor Castle, I discovered what a really dreadful king he was. Obviously, he stepped down as king because of the abdication and his insistence on

marrying Wallace Warfield Simpson. And a lot of people have wondered if George Siss and Elizabeth were ready for it. They actually were. He as Duke of York and she as Duchess of York had done already a lot of important work. And they had made a really significant visit to Australia to shore up the relations with that far-flung dominion. And he in particular had worked very hard to promote good relationships between workers and business leaders. And he had met a lot of people who were prominent in British society and around the world.

So he was better prepared than people have often given him credit for. Sally, let's back up a minute first before we start this. and really get the basics here. Most certainly younger listeners will not understand the gravity of Edward the 8th's abdication, which happens in 1936. To anyone my age, certainly,

we understand that this was a big shift for English royalty. To that time, at least in modern times, no one had ever done what he was going to do, which was abdicate in favor of his brother because he fell in love with an American divorcee. In 1936, he abdicates. very controversial, especially given the backdrop of what is happening in Europe at the time.

We have Hitler's rise, the Nazis rise throughout the 30s to this point. We have the Olympics in Berlin. These are big, splashy events, lots of news. And then suddenly the English king decides to abdicate for the love of a woman. It's incredible. So his brother takes over, whose name is Albert at the time. I mean, his natural name is Albert. he becomes George the Sixth.

His wife, Queen Elizabeth, let's not forget, she's the queen mother of the Queen Elizabeth. We know, the Queen Elizabeth II. Right. They take over. How equipped was George the Sixth personally for this role? He was better equipped than people gave him credit for. As I said, he had done a lot of significant work. He was, as we now call it, thus there.

But he had learned a lot. And as we all know, from having watched the king's speech, he battled with a stutter for his entire life. And he managed not ever to really overcome it, but to control it and to be able to give extremely moving speeches. He was better prepared than people realized. And after the coronation, Elizabeth wrote to a friend of hers, the curious thing is the We are not afraid. And in those years before World War II, they really sort of stepped up to greatness and two very visible symbols of how effective they were in representing Britain occurred in 1938

when they made a state visit to France. And then in 1939, when they went to Canada and then four days. in the United States. It was a short visit, but it was exceedingly important, had a profound impact. George VI and FDR had begun to communicate as early as the autumn of 1938. They knew what was coming. They knew that Hitler was rearming like mad, that he was preparing to bomb and invade. and they recognized that they had to forge an even stronger alliance. And that was the primary purpose of the visit by, as you say, the first reigning monarch and his queen to the United States. There never really been a reason for a monarch and his queen to come to visit the United States before then.

And his brother, who became King Edward VIII, had made a number of visits in the previous years, but they were all in pursuit of pleasure, playing polo, partying, really making a spectacle of himself. And so Edward the 7th had come, not when he was king, but when he was Prince of Wales and had made a brief visit. So this was indeed the first time that a reigning monarch and a queen came to the United States. And it was very well orchestrated. The purpose was very clear. It was to show the American people who had never seen a king and queen before, who they were. One of the most striking things to me when I was doing the research is how thoroughly prepared they were.

They were very young. He was in his early 40s. She was in her mid-30s, and they had a pretty sophisticated and elaborate briefing book. And they both read it very thoroughly. And when they were going around Washington doing at one point, I think they did 10 engagements in 11 hours. And at every point along the way, they were well-informed, very, very interested. and everyone they met, I think they really astonished people with the amount of knowledge that they had of the United States.

The United States at that point had passed the Neutrality Act. They didn't want to have anything to do with a war in Europe. FDR knew that Britain was the last bastion against a possible assault on the United States by the Nazi government. It's hard to explain to a modern audience how dramatic things really were. In 1938, we have the Munich Agreement, the appeasement of Hitler and the takeover the Sudetenland and all of that. For all of these events of royal nature to be taking place during this time doesn't help matters. They need to things to be very solid and very unified back home. Over here with FDR, we're sort of gearing up, at least FDR is gearing up for sure about a possible war to come. His problem is the isolationism of so many Americans at that time. The last thing they want to do is return to Europe for a second world war. And this is a major factor politically for him. Isolation ran very deep in the United States. And as I mentioned, the Neutrality Act really tied his hands. And he had high on his agenda, the repealing of the Neutrality Act, which did happen eventually.

Tell me about the Isolality Act. Tell me about the Isolality Act. Well, it was a huge problem, and it has understandable roots because even though the U.S. came into World War I on the late side, they didn't want to get involved. And that was the impetus behind the appeasement movement in Britain. They're the ones who saw almost the entire wipeout of a whole generation of young men in the trenches. And nobody from the king and queen on down. wanted a repeat of that carnage. And so they sort of took an inadvisable leap of faith and accepted Hitler at his word at Munich in 1938. And barely six months later, of course, he proceeded to dismember the rest of Czechoslovakia and then to threaten to take over Poland. So they knew that he was serious. And that, you know, that was the backdrop in Europe and why the king and queen sought to demonstrate their solid relationship with France, which was their primary ally on the continent, and the United States.

FDR had reached out in the autumn of 1938, and he had begun a series of letters with George the 6th. addressing him in really very familiar terms, given the nature of protocol at that time. And then at the state opening of Parliament, at the end of that year, the king announced that they would be coming to the United States. And it was unprecedented, obviously. It was intended to show the American people who these two people were and to demonstrate that they would be reliant. reliable allies. For George the Sixth, the mission was quite urgent because he needed to get

some sort of assurances from FDR that they would get help the isolationism, the Neutrality Acts notwithstanding, that they would get some assistance from the United States because they saw quite presciently that there was a pretty good chance. that they were going to be alone. And FDR recognized that. So in a series of discussions that began in the White House when they first arrived in June and continued two more times when they went up to Hyde Park, New York, to stay with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt at their estate,

they mapped out really two life-saving initiatives that were, would really help Britain when the United States was still unable to officially declare war. And this was the basis for battleships agreement. FDR wanted to be able to use islands in the Caribbean that were within the British Dominion. And in return, he gave the United Kingdom battleships that they could use. And the other part was the Len Lees, which was allowing the United States. United States to lend essential material ships, arms, things that they needed, all sorts of

supplies that they needed that they wouldn't need to pay for right away. And it was an ingenious solution that allowed them to supply a lot of material to the United Kingdom. It wasn't paid off until many, many years later, I think it was like 1985. They finally paid it off. They finally paid it off. but it was absolutely vital. And the outlines of that took place in those meetings that George the Sixth and FDR had in Hyde Park. In fact, George the Six wrote a memorandum, including the bases for battleships plan, and he kept it in his red dispatch box for the entire war. It's important to note that he and Roosevelt really bonded on a,

personal level, which made it that much stronger and that they continued their correspondence. Let's talk about this in terms of the itinerary that we have here. There's so many serious themes about this journey, but there is on the top of it, the fun of this whole thing. I mean, the amazing joy that we see in the pictures and so forth of this English couple coming, this royal couple coming to America, the first king and queen hero is a very exciting moment for Americans, wasn't it? It was absolutely thrilling.

At one point, the queen was singing the American national anthem. She had tears in her eyes. And they had a very elaborate procession from Union Station to the White House. And there were something like 750,000 people lining the streets and cheering. It was an extraordinary welcome that even Eleanor, Roosevelt, who had seen more than her share of such things, said that it was one of the biggest welcome she had ever seen. I don't think that Americans were really aware of how bonded they were with the royalty, like we are today. I mean, certainly thanks to Diane and all that, there's this

tight bond. But until that moment in the 1930s, it was a distant world, Great Britain. And prior to this, we really didn't have that much of a relationship, except this sort of distant war relationship that we had and the revolution and so forth. Then there's World War I, and that brings things together, and suddenly we have this impending crisis. So the trip begins in Washington, D.C., the White House, the Congress, et cetera, formalities and so forth. But really the centerpiece of this journey takes place in a more informal environment at FDR's home in Hyde Park, New York. FDR was really planning this thing. He was really orchestrating the whole journey. And it was really meant to personalize this British couple and in general the English

nation. I think you're absolutely right. I mean, it was fascinating to read the letters that went back and forth, particularly between Roosevelt and the Governor General of Canada, the former novelist John Buckin. He was very close to Roosevelt and very close to many of the top officials in the UK. And Roosevelt made it very clear that his main objective was getting George the 6th up to his country home. And really to speak to him

almost as country squire to country squire. It was very much like Sandringham in Norfolk where George the 6th had grown up, where there was a cottage where he lived, and then there was the big house. Well, the house, at Hyde Park was also called the big house. FDR had also been born on that estate.

They both loved nature. This was a level on which they could bond, which was highly unusual. And the setting, as you pointed out, was really very informal. It was fascinating when they went to, FDR had his own little cottage on the estate, and Eleanor had her.

her own little cottage, and they went to both of them, at an FDR's cottage, at Top Cottage. They were given now very famous lunch where they were served hot dogs on silver trays. She really didn't know quite what to do with them, but he munched his as an American would. From biblical fame to its fabled great walls, Babylon was home to kings, conquerors, and wonders of the ancient world. But what do we actually know about this legendary city? And how much is still shrouded in mystery? Join me, Tristan Hughes, every Sunday throughout May on the ancients, as we delve into the story of Babylon.

We'll be covering topics varying from the King Nebuchadnezzar II and how he forged a massive Babylonian empire. We'll be exploring the mystery of the hanging gardens of Babylon, looking at world-renowned objects such as the Cyrus cylinder and also looking at Babylon in the aftermath of one of the most well-known conquerors in the whole of history. Babylon after Alexander the Great. That's all to come this May on the ancients every Sunday.

Was there a lot of opposition to them coming to the United States? Was there political controversy about this? Among the ardent isolationists, yes. But I think that was overwhelmed by the curiosity of people. You just look at the number of people who turned out. I mean, we've talked about the turnout in Washington, but after their stay in Washington, they went to New York, and they came in by boat and met by Governor Ernest Lehman and Mayor Fiorla LaGuardia,

and they proceeded to spend an entire day driving around the streets of New York, which were filled with millions. millions of people shouting and cheering. And they went to the World's Fair and Columbia University. And quite frankly, it was a really strenuous day for both of them. I think it was Lord Tweedsmair said, or somebody said to him in a letter that by the end of it, George, the six muscles in his face had seized up and he couldn't smile anymore. And so it was a real effort for them to be.

be seen by as many people as possible and to just build on what they had done in Washington and really be with the people. I mean, it was afterwards that Lord Tweedsmir referred to George the 6th for the first time as the people's king. And he was in many ways that people didn't realize. It's extraordinary how much. is accomplished in a very short amount of time, you know, and without the media that we have today. I mean, that's how kind of perfectly planned this was and orchestrated by FDR.

The famous picnic that you referred to, which happens at Hyde Park, just a few days into the trip, they've been to D.C. now they're in New York and then they go up to the country house. I just want to read the menu of this particular picnic. It's a published thing. It's a very, you can go to the FDR archives online and see a lot of materials about this. There are a lot of fun. Virginia ham, cold turkey, sausages, cranberry jelly, green salad, strawberry shortcake, and of course, very famously, hot dogs, which they had never had before, these English people. This was all part of a plan to sort of show that they could be normal people and enjoy what normal Americans really liked. That was the whole plan behind it.

It was. And in a letter home, I think, to her daughter, or maybe her mother-in-law, the queen said she was so struck by how democratic the luncheon was, that not only was it the king and queen and president and first lady, but interspersed on all the tables were sort of farm workers and estate workers. And FDR was sending a message there. They were both king and queen were very comfortable in that setting, but there was a level of amusement in the, queen's letters back home saying we had all of our food kind of poured onto one plate,

which was the very opposite of what was done in royal circles. But they appreciated it. And there was a moment also on their first night. I mean, you can never say that FDR was not a very cany and strategic man. He proposed a toast to the queen, but he also, recognized George Sussig's mother, Queen Mary, who he compared to his own formidable mother, Sarah, was also there. So he made it at every possible moment, a personal encounter as well as a forum for very important state business. Let's talk about Queen Elizabeth. She does not get the attention she deserves later becomes the queen mother of queen elizabeth just to be clear about this we have queen elizabeth who's married to george the sixth she's the mother of queen elizabeth the second what was her

role in all of this is there more than meets the eye about her so much more than meets the eye as you point out i think the prevailing view of her is as the jolly queen mum of which she was from from 1952 to 2002, half of her life was as a merry widow. But one reason why I wrote this book, George the Sixth and Elizabeth, was to shine a light on who they were before them, their 28-year marriage, and especially during his 15-year reign, which included, of course, the six years of World War II. And what I learned is that to a much greater degree than people recognize, she was an invaluable partner. She said in later years that the king told her everything.

And she never was specific about it, but I think we can assume that that meant such top secret matters as the Enigma Code, as the tube alloy project that led to the atomic bomb. they were united in all the courageous visits they made to the victims of bombings and their witnesses to the devastation. And she was a source also of strength and wisdom for him. He was, by the way, a far brighter man that people gave him credit for. He was broad-minded. He was democratic in the... a small D sentence. And they just had a partnership that was wonderfully complimentary. She was vitally important to his success, as Winston Churchill said in his finest condolence,

note to her. After the death of George VI in 1952, he said, you know, with your love and support, you helped him reach the pinnacle. And that was exactly right. Behind every great man, an even greater woman, as always, this seems to be the case. There's a very famous anecdote about her on the trip over on the boat, reading Mind Kumpf, you know, reading Hitler's book, my struggle. And she later gives it to the foreign secretary saying, I do not advise you to read it through, or you might go mad, even to skip through, give an idea. of his mentality, ignorance, and obvious sincerity. She was a politician as well as a queen.

She was very astute. The reason she was able to spend the time reading Mind Kampf was that they were marooned around icebergs on their trip over. They were suspended. They were in a state of suspended animation for three days. It was a nice opportunity for the king to relax. And she chose to read Mind Kampf, which I think. was very important. And I thought it was fascinating that she advised the foreign secretary

Lord Halifax to read it as well. It's so weird to think of Hitler as being this question mark in people's minds. What's he really up to? I mean, he's the devil now. And at the time, people were just speculating and trying to figure him out along with the king and queen. Let's nail down what happens as a result of these meetings in Hyde Park. The Lend-Lease program is a very important part of this. What are the real political upshots that happened? Well, the political upshots are. It was fascinating that George VI kept his memo of FDR's instructions on what to do in the event of war. And also, he kept the originals, but he did share the destroyers for bases memo with then

first lord of the admiralty, Winston Churchill. But the lend lease was something that they supported. And months before it was actually passed, they received Harry Hopkins in Buckingham Palace, and Harry Hopkins was probably the most crucial aid to FDR and his having sent him over there to meet specifically with the king and queen, was a very important moment.

They had a real meeting of minds, and then Harry Hopkins went on to become the administrator of Lenleese. And these were vital sources of support for Britain when they were all alone after France and every other European country had fallen. There was a blitz and everything that followed. They were able to, and they had invaluable. help, even though it was sort of sub-Rosa, increasingly evident as time went on. And there were moments. It was fascinating because I was able to read Prince George's diary, which began on the

first day when I went to the Royal Archives, and I was there for three months reading diaries and letters. And the most revelations emerged from his diary, which he began on the first day of of World War II, and he ended about seven years later. But he could see what was coming. He knew that they were going to have to rely on the United States at some point. And there were quite a few moments in those diaries when he expressed a lot of frustration with the United States and FDR. I mean, he understood the dynamics of it from having met with him with the president and having met with other people. But I mean, I think at Hyde Park, I think Roosevelt sort of got sort of ahead of his skis, as it were. He said, oh, he don't worry. The first time a bomb drops on London, we'll be there

for you and other things along those lines, which of course he was incapable of doing. And I think it caused George the 6th to feel a little mift. But on the other hand, he was most appreciative as time went on, and Roosevelt incrementally did more and more and more providing assistance without actually declaring war until December 1941, which obviously the king and everybody else in the British government welcomed because it was a turning point. There are so many little elements that FDR is nailing down. He's got to get bases in the Caribbean.

It's an interesting lens into FDR's. mind at this point as he's strategizing how he's going to fight this war down the road. On one hand, he's got to defend these forces, the convoys that he's sending over with the supplies in this land lease mission. If he's going to do that, he's got to have island bases. And that's that's Bermuda and so forth, right? The king was more than willing. There was a little pushback in his government about giving the United States some measure of control over these colonies. that belonged to the British government.

But they recognized that there was a good bro quo and that they really had to give America the mechanism to use those ports. And the battleships, even though they were fairly ancient, were still invaluable. I mean, they came, of course, after the evacuation at Dunkirk, in which all those. they managed to get hundreds of thousands of soldiers out of France. They had to leave every bit of their equipment behind. So they really needed whatever equipment the United States could supply. So despite all the periodic moments of irritation that I read in King George's Sixth diary, on the whole, they knew they understood that Roosevelt was doing everything.

thing he could, short of declaring war, to help them. And they much appreciated it. And there was a moment in a letter or diary where he won re-election. And he's supposed to be apolitical, but he could express himself more freely in his diary. And he was thrilled because he knew that Roosevelt's policy was rock solid for them. And it just meant that Roosevelt had to continue. using his persuasive powers to turn the isolationist opinion around. And as one little sideline, the queen did a broadcast that was directed to American women, mainly expressing how appreciative she was of all the help that they were giving in ways both large and small. but the women, they move the needle a little bit more in terms of turning away from isolationism than the men did.

And so it was a very sort of canny approach that she took with the backing of the government to appeal to those to the women who were more likely to start shifting opinion. It was really a friendship born, not only between the leaders, but also a renewed. friendship between these nations. Boy, he did Churchill a favor, didn't he? This really laid the groundwork for that relationship. And George the 6th is the one, along with Harry Hopkins, who really encouraged those two leaders to meet, which they did extensively during the war. Churchill spent weeks at a time in the White House.

It obviously inappropriately diminished to some extent the relationship. that George the 6th had with FDR, but it was vital for the way the war was being carried out. Sure. For Churchill to have an even stronger relationship with FDR, planning D-Day. Not the first time that Winston Churchill has overshadowed someone. Where does this special relationship stand today? Is it as strong as it was then? And how is this going in Biden's reign?

Well, I don't have a lot of inside information about what's going on in Biden's reign. But I think you have to say that it was at its apex during World War II. When the Americans started flooding into England, the king and queen began having Thanksgiving receptions for American soldiers in Buckingham Palace. You know, they welcomed them. in every possible way. There was a moment in 1944, late in the summer, when George VI took the Queen and his daughters

up to their estate in Malmoral in Scotland, where he was looking forward to a little break to shoot grouse. And he discovered when he went up there that all the grouse moors had been trampled by soldiers who had been training for D-Day. And he wrote in his diary, Well, it doesn't matter. They were training for what they are now doing in Normandy.

Sure. Well, the victory in World War II solidifies this for sure. I mean, that's the beginning of this special relationship that carries on decades down the road. I mean, it's hard to see this ever altering, honestly. There's so much in common between these two nations. Your book is an examination of this important moment, George the 6th and Elizabeth. the marriage that saved the monarchy. What a timely moment for this book to come out.

You could not have predicted it, I suppose, but you've got a coronation right at the moment. I know, and it's the queen's coronation. I know a lot about it because I wrote a book about her. But this really is the direct comparison is the coronation in 1937 when the last king and queen went through that amazing ritual in Westminster Abbey.

So I couldn't have predicted that. No. all I was thinking about when I was figuring out when it was going to be published is that two days from now is the centenary of when George the 6th and Elizabeth had their wedding in Westminster Abbey, which is also kind of lovely moment to contemplate. Sally Biddell Smith, thank you very much. I really appreciate you coming on American History Hit. Well, I enjoyed it. Thank you, Dom.

Thanks for listening to this episode of American History Hit. I hope you enjoyed it. Please don't forget to like, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. I'll see you next time.