who did president roosevelt let join the u.s. navy during world war ii

President Woodrow Wilson, his foe from the 1912 election, had invited him to stop in for a chat.

When a reporter asked about his health, he replied, “I am worth more than several dead men yet.”īefore he could stand beside a slide projector and present his findings about his Amazon trip, however, Roosevelt had an appointment to keep.

But Roosevelt had not lost his flip humor. The changes to the former president’s appearance were so stark that the New York Times ran before and after pictures. New lines etched his face and the familiar boom was gone from his voice. Roosevelt made it out of the Amazon, though thirty-five pounds lighter and leaning on a cane. Roosevelt grew infirm and feverish as he deliriously repeated the opening lines of the dream poem Kubla Khan: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree. A bullet still lodged in his chest from an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1912 further compromised his health.

The wound became infected, and tropical fever engulfed his body. While trying to save a canoe from being swept away by the River of Doubt, he had injured his calf. Only a week before, Roosevelt had appeared in New York a jaundiced, frail version of his legendary robust self, after a seven-month trip deep into the Amazon jungle. On May 26, 1914, Teddy Roosevelt ventured to Washington, D.C., to deliver a lecture at the National Geographic Society.

Who did president roosevelt let join the u.s. navy during world war ii