Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
English | 2021 | ISBN: ‎ 1250206960 | 403 pages | True epub | 1.59 MB

A gripping and groundbreaking account of how all but one of FDR's ambassadors in Europe misjudged Hitler and his intentions
As German tanks rolled toward Paris in late May 1940, the U.S. Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, was determined to stay put, holed up in the Chateau St. Firmin in Chantilly, his country residence. Bullitt told the president that he would neither evacuate the embassy nor his chateau, an eighteenth Renaissance manse with a wine cellar of over 18,000 bottles, even though "we have only two revolvers in this entire mission with only forty bullets."
As German forces closed in on the French capital, Bullitt wrote the president, "In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you." As the fighting raged in France, across the English Channel, Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy wrote to his wife Rose, "The situation is more than critical. It means a terrible finish for the...