Executive Dysfunction: Franklin Delano Roosevelts Health and Effectiveness in His Final Term of Presidency

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                Ethan Landrum; 0442-                                                                                        

Table of Contents                                                                Page

Introduction                                                                        2

FDR’s Health and Status Pre-1944 Election                                3 – 4

What is Executive Dysfunction?                                                5

Impaired Drive and Initiative                                                6 – 7

Impaired Judgment and Response Control                                8 – 9

Impaired Ability to Learn from Mistakes and Synthe…                10 – 11

Impaired Communication                                                12 – 13

Short-term Memory and Attention/Concentration Impa…        14

FDR’s Actions and Their Consequences                                15 – 16

Conclusion                                                                        17

Introduction

        The Yalta Conference was the most pivotal point in FDR’s fourth term. He had not lived to see the end of the war, but he had lived long enough to participate, for a second time, at a conference with two other world leaders. Here at the Yalta Conference (or Crimea Conference), the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union met to discuss geopolitical outcomes of the war. Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt for his effectiveness at this political event is both varied and numerous. It was clear to everybody around him that his health was trailing and his energy was lagging, and that illness was upon him many times in his later life. Were Franklin D. Roosevelt’s health conditions during his fourth presidential term consequential enough to render him ineffective executively on a geopolitical scale? Did FDR experience executive dysfunction during his final term, and if so, did it directly affect his presence at the Yalta conference and thus the outcome of history?

        The President made it very clear to the public that his, and by extensions the United States’, goal at the Conference and beyond was to promote democracy and peaceful diplomacy within Europe. He said in his March 1, 1945 speech to the joint-session of Congress,

“The Crimea Conference was a successful effort by the three leading Nations to find a common ground for peace. It ought to spell the end of the system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries—and have always failed” (Roosevelt, 1945).

The President’s fervor was impressive, but that speech alone is home to more criticism because of his incredibly deprived speech ability than because of his moving words. The “successful effort” that FDR refers to has been questioned for over 70 years by historians, politicians, diplomats, geopolitical theorists, and even by his own personal advisors, secretaries, aides and interpreters.

        

FDR’s Health and Status Pre-1944 Election

        Roosevelt’s third term had comprised the United States’ entry into WWII. FDR was almost unanimously nominated for the Democratic ballot, and won the 1944 election in an Electoral College landslide, 432 to 99. Already famous for his paralytic illness and less-than average health, the issue of medical wellness was certainly not a question in the election. The exclusion of the topic of health was made possible by the cover-ups of Roosevelt’s increasingly worse condition. Evidence exists today that puts FDR’s health during this period at a critical state.

Government physicians had already diagnosed FDR with hypertension, or very high blood pressure, as early as 1937. However, more routine examinations revealed that the president’s hypertension was increasing at an alarming rate. On April 5, 1944, seven months before the November election, the President’s blood pressure was measured to be 218/120 (Bruenn, 1970). In both May and September of that year, the number had read 240/130 (Bruenn, 1970). These readings are well beyond those of a typical stage 2 hypertension (120/80 is the average for an adult male)(National Clinical Guidance Centre, 2011).

Published medical documents reveal that the president suffered from congestive heart failure and chronic cardiovascular disease, and that his death was attributed to a massive brain hemorrhage (a likely complication of his chronic cardiovascular disease)(Bruenn, 1970)(McIntire, 1946). Congestive heart failure and hypertension both can lead to hypoxia and cognitive impairment. These diagnoses, among many others, were made upon the comprehensive medical examination of FDR on March 27, 1944 at Bethesda Naval Hospital (Fleming, 2001). As a result of this examination and of many observations made by his closest medical physicians (Navy Surgeon General Dr. Ross McIntire and cardiologist Commander Dr. Howard Bruenn) Roosevelt was  also diagnosed with exercised-induced dyspnea, nocturnal cough, fatigue, bronchitis, generalized edema, gallbladder stones, and an enlarged heart (Bruenn, 1970). FDR’s physicians limited his work schedule to 4 hours daily – an alarming limit for the leader of the free world. FDR spent 105 days in 1944 and 45 days in 1945 away from the White House recuperating from various medical conditions (Ferrell 1992)(Fleming 2001).

        All of these conditions were diagnosed before the 1944 election. Even Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s nominated Vice President had this to say about the president at a luncheon between the two in August of 1944: “The President seemed feeble and when he tried to pour cream into his tea; more went into his saucer than the cup. He is just going to pieces (Fleming, 2001).” The examinations of the President were highly classified and private, their results communicated to perhaps a handful of people, excluding even the closest family members. James Roosevelt, FDR’s son said in his memoir, “I have never been reconciled to the fact that Father’s physicians did not flatly forbid him to run … none of us was warned that Father’s life might be in danger (Roosevelt, 1960).”

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The results themselves beg important questions: would the President have continued running for presidency or even won the election if the public were made aware of these findings? Would the outcome of events during this crucial time have been different if FDR were not the president of the United States?

Executive Dysfunction

Executive skills are those mental abilities that govern complex cognitive or behavioral tasks (Coffey, et. al., 2000). They include drive, the initiation of cognitive activity, sustained motivation to perform tasks, the ability to recognize patterns, the ability ...

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