- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered one of America's
greatest presidents, may have been mentally impaired at his meeting with
Stalin at Yalta - a condition that led him to make many costly errors about
the post-war settlement. Although his doctors knew of it, the public remained
unaware of his condition, a report claims.
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- Sixty years after the Yalta summit, a leading US psychiatrist
said FDR's condition led him to make repeated diplomatic and political
mistakes, such as failing to prevent Stalin seizing Manchuria and ensure
that Poland was free of Soviet control. The previously assiduous president
did not read important documents and generally failed to stand up to the
Soviet leader.
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- "We are saying that the president was mentally impaired
and was not able to process information thoroughly and accurately,"
said Alen Salerian, a former senior consultant psychiatrist to the FBI.
"We are offering the medical evidence for it."
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- FDR's poor physical health during his fourth and final
term in office has been well documented. Indeed, in April 1945, just two
months after the Yalta meeting, FDR died of a brain haemorrhage. But Mr
Salerian said his study was the first analysis of FDR's mental condition
and the impact it had on his judgement.
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- In a peer-reviewed article published tomorrow in The
Forensic Examiner, Mr Salerian says an examination of previous documents
and reports about FDR's medical condition has allowed him to perform a
diagnosis. Despite the obvious drawback of not being able to examine or
speak with his "patient", Mr Salerian has no doubts about his
conclusions.
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- During his last term, FDR was known to be suffering from
hypertension and congestive heart failure. Mr Salerian believes that this
led to hypoxia - a shortage of oxygen to the brain - and subsequent cognitive
impairment. "Mr Roosevelt was not receiving enough oxygen to his brain
tissue," he told The Independent. "It's not easy to function.
As result, his intellectual and cognitive abilities were compromised."
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- The meeting between FDR, Stalin and the British Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill, took place at the Crimean resort from 4-11
February 1945. With the course of the war clear and Germany's defeat only
a matter of time, the meeting was held to agree a post-war settlement -
not just in regard to Germany and Japan, but in relation to the creation
of an international body.
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- Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing, in their book Cold
War, said the conference represented the high-water mark of Allied wartime
collaboration. But they added: "Yalta revealed cracks in the Grand
Alliance."
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- FDR's priorities were to get agreement on the formation
of the United Nations, and to get Russia to join the war against Japan.
He was less concerned about Europe. Stalin was focused on establishing
a series of buffer states with the West to ensure that the Soviet Union
would not be threatened.
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- ©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=613155
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