I'm John Batche for visiting with Professor Robert Schmull.

The book is Mr. Churchill in the White House, the untoldster of a Prime Minister and two Presidents.

There are enormous anecdotes here.

Robert's book is enormously entertaining.

Eleanor finds Churchill rude and a little wild wandering around in his bathrobe smoking cigars. Henry Stimson

doesn't like him at all, neither does George Marshall. However Congress loves

him. The first speech is in December of

1941 as the professor says it's a huge hit. Everybody in America gets inspired. Churchill was

garrulous and he had a turn of phrase that was magical and it inspired in the way that leaders are meant to.

However, we go through that first meeting, which was success because it brought

together the two, the combined joint commands to stay with the Europe first and not the Pacific despite the fact that Japan

and attacked America, not Germany. Hitler decided to declare war on the US

just days after December 7. But you're first and Roosevelt comes back to the White House

after that first visit, very successful first visit in June of 1942. Six months later, what's happened in the

interim are successes in the Pacific, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway. However, there are blow after blow delivered against the British

Empire by the Japanese and by the Germans. And the worst of all is to Brooke. What happened to Brooke Bob that brought Churchill down to made

him so low in that second visit? What happened was that the the German forces the axis forces overran to brook which was a fort it was also a port in Libya, and it was considered a stronghold, a very important

stronghold for the British and Commonwealth forces.

And something like 33,000 prisoners of war were taken.

And it arrived, the news of it arrived with Winston Churchill sitting across from Franklin Roosevelt.

And in the book I try to really sort out the details of what actually happened.

And I would say up front, I think they're still in dispute as to what actually happened.

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