Justin - FDR

Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness began in 1921, when the future President of the United States was 39 years of age and vacationing with his family at their summer home on Campobello Island. Roosevelt was diagnosed with poliomyelitis two weeks after he fell ill. He was left with permanent paralysis from the waist down, and was unable to stand or walk without support (though some anonymous eyewitness accounts dispute this.) Despite the lack of a cure for paralysis he tried a wide range of therapies and was rumored to have met with inventor and industrialist Howard Stark. His belief in the benefits of hydrotherapy led him to found a center at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1926. He laboriously taught himself to walk very short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs by swiveling his torso, supporting himself with a cane, and he was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public. His bout with illness was well known before and during his Presidency and became a major part of his image, but the extent of his paralysis was kept from public view. A 2003 retrospective diagnosis of FDR's illness favored Guillain–Barré syndrome rather than polio, a conclusion criticized by other researchers.

Warm Springs

October 3, 1924 was the first time Roosevelt traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia and it soon became his home away home.^[19] For many years to come Warm Springs would be where Franklin would retreat in comfort and do rehab for his legs.^[19] It was here that Howard Stark reportedly delivered Roosevelt’s first set of “steel braces.”[citation needed] At Warm Springs they practiced hydrotherapy.^[19] On April 29, 1926 he bought the center with the intention of making it into a rehabiliation place to for polio patients.^[19] Roosevelt had high hopes for the center but abandoned them to focus on his main goal in life, being the President.^[19] [fact checking needed]

Howard Stark

The Roosevelt and Stark families had ties going back for generations, therefore many scholars attribute no special relevance to the inventor meeting with the Roosevelt before he became President. Some conspiracy theorists point to a few anomalous stories from anonymous witnesses, witnesses that later recant or otherwise change their story or witnesses that have been deemed unreliable.

·         When using his early “braces,” multiple witnesses claim to have heard “queer machine like noises” coming from Roosevelt’s legs.

·         Multiple people purportedly witnessed Roosevelt walking alone at night outside. All claimed it appeared a “natural walk” not the stiff legged walk of the braces.

·         An aide, in the first edition of his memoirs, repeatedly referenced Roosevelt “pacing in the Oval Office” and other standing and walking. He later claimed that he “saw the President as a giant,” and “with his energy and intellect, I did not see him as disabled.” (Later editions fix all such discrepencies.)

·         A Soviet defector claimed to have witnessed an act of “super-human strength” at the  Tehran Conference.

White House staff and Secret Service that served during Roosevelt’s time all claimed “confidentiality” when asked about his disability.

Assault on Stalin (excerpt from page on the Tehran Conference)

The conference was to convene at 16:00 on 28 November 1943. Stalin arrived well before, followed by Roosevelt, brought in his wheelchair from his accommodation adjacent to the venue. Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles (11,000 km) to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, was met by Stalin. This was the first time that they had met. Churchill, walking with his general staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later.^[4]

During first day, Stalin repeatedly complained that a “bear”(himself) should have to negotiate with “a half man”(Roosevelt.) After hours of such insults and little progress, Roosevelt gave a lengthy speech about “the difficulty in appearing strong, but not too strong” before standing and driving his heel through the thick oak seat of Stalin’s chair, shattering it. Afterwards, negotiations went smoothly and Stalin would refer to Roosevelt admiringly as “a bear disguised as a mouse.” [citation needed]