“THE ENCLOSED TOOK ME ENTIRELY BY SURPRISE” (FDR, APRIL 6, 1945)
(ROOSEVELT, Franklin D, ROOSEVELT, Eleanor, STIMSON, Henry). Joseph Lash Archive. Washington, D.C. / Warm Springs, 1945. Seven items.
1945 archive of rare presidential materials largely concerning charges of communism aimed at Eleanor Roosevelt’s intimate friend and future biographer Joseph Lash, including a typed letter to FDR on War Department letterhead printed “SECRET,” signed by Secretary of War Stimson, informing FDR of congressional inquiries about Lash from from a special committee on “subversive personnel”—prompting FDR to write three urgent memos from Warm Springs, one to Stimson telling him to “take no action,” one to Eleanor Roosevelt about “the same crowd… trying to ‘get’ Joe,” and a third to his son-in-law John Boettiger asking him to contact Stimson, the latter memo dated only three days before FDR’s sudden death from a cerebral hemorrhage, also containing a warm autograph note signed by Eleanor Roosevelt to her son-in-law Boettiger. $5000.
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