Joseph Baldwin, a Republican Congressman from New York, later said that Roosevelt and Truman both told him that during their tree-shaded lunch, the President said to his new running mate, “When you have made as much progress as we have… in the last few years, you have to digest it… I want someone to succeed me who is… a little right of center.” Truman presumed that the President was referring to him. Roosevelt told him to stay off airplanes because one of them had to stay alive.
Truman had not seen Roosevelt for a year and was shocked by how much he had aged. After the lunch, he told his aide Harry Vaughan, “I had no idea he was in such a feeble condition… It doesn’t seem to be a mental lapse… but physically he’s just going to pieces. I’m very much concerned about him.”
A few weeks later, while coming out of the White House, an old Army friend told the Missouri Senator to “turn around and take a look,” because he would be living there before long. “I’m afraid I am,” said Truman, “and it scared the hell out of me.”
Source:
Beschloss, Michael R. “Not Nearly as Bad as Sending Them to Gas Chambers.” The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007. 82-3. Print.
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