FDR's Deadly Secret is an expose of the breakdown of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's health during his third and fourth terms of office, and the massive, continuing deception that followed his death.The death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945 sent shock waves around the world. Roosevelt's personal physician had repeatedly asserted that the president was a picture of health and that his death was completely unexpected. A quarter century later, his cardiologist admitted he had been suffering from hypertension and that his death - from a cerebral hemorrhage - was "a cataclysmic event waiting to happen." But even this was a carefully constructed deceit, adding to the trail of deception begun by Roosevelt himself when, at thirty-nine, he contracted polio and realized it might put a premature end to his political career. Thereafter, he could never afford to look sick again; and FDR took extraordinary measures to ensure he would not. His doctors routinely admitted no more serious ailment than a head cold or an intestinal flu. But the true diagnoses were very different.In this medical detective story and narrative of a presidential cover-up, a physician-journalist team performs an exhaustive study of all available medical reports of FDR's health and a comprehensive review of thousands of photographs. They reveal that, at his death, Roosevelt was suffering from cancer that had likely metastasized to his brain. He had suffered not only from severe cardiovascular disease but also from melanoma, the deadliest cancer known in the 1940s - and he had known about his ailments for years, going to enormous lengths to hide their full extent from even his close associates and family, and especially the American public. Roosevelt's condition was not merely physically disabling; it must have substantially affected his ability to make decisions and to function mentally in the days when the nation was imperiled by World War II.This raises the question: Was Roosevelt an even greater president than we knew, for having prevailed despite being wracked with illness? Or was he indeed the sick man of Yalta, a world leader who should never have shouldered the burden of a wartime presidency in his debilitated state? Read Less