It was widely known at the time that Roosevelt had had polio as a youth, but the story was that he had heroically overcome it.
What was kept completely secret until he died was the fact that he was wheelchair bound. That fact was never admitted. Photographers were not allowed to take pictures of him when he was wheeled up to a platform to speak. Instead, he would be wheeled into place and THEN the cameras would start rolling. At Yalta, Churchill and Stalin were also seated, to make them look equal.
That’s also why he gave his fireside chats, sitting down. Because he couldn’t really stand up.
It says something about our free press that for two decades not one of them ever said that he was confined to a wheelchair. It was only decades after he died that the facts finally came out.
And, yes, he was a disaster to our country, the one man most responsible for the Big Government that is bankrupting us today.
I read another book about the incredible lengths to which FDR went to conceal his handicaps, including the very difficult and painful measures he took to be seen standing or walking when necessary. I must admit it inspired a certain admiration. Our world today is so full of whiners who are all too eager to wear their personal difficulties on their sleeves. So politics aside, I have to tip my cap to a man with the fortitude to maintain a strong front while literally dragging himself through his daily life.