The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

by A.J. Baime

Surrounded by some of his highest-ranking advisors (Leahy, Marshall, Admiral King), Truman picked up a telephone and was patched through to Britain. He heard for the first time the unmistakable voice of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, crackly over a secure transatlantic phone line. A transcript of this conversation exists. “Is that you, Mr. President?” Truman said, “This is the president, Mr. Prime Minister.” “How glad I am to hear your voice.” “Thank you very much, and I am glad to hear yours.” Churchill told Truman that Himmler had approached Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, claiming that Hitler had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was not expected to survive long. Thus Himmler was offering the surrender of the German forces to the United States and Britain. However, nothing was said of the Russian forces, who had on this very day surrounded Berlin completely.