BEYOND THE money, the recognition, and the opportunity to advise a fledgling democracy, Roosevelt also had a very personal reason for wanting to take this trip: It would give him a chance to see his twenty-three-year-old son, Kermit, who had been living and working in South America for more than a year. Kermit was a quiet middle child, the third of Roosevelt’s six children. He was smart, disciplined, and a skilled athlete, and he had inherited his father’s passion for far-flung places and physically challenging adventures.
