SOURCE: "The President's Style and World View," and "Roosevelt and His War Strategy," in FDR & Stalin: A Not So Grand Alliance, 1943-1945, University of Missouri Press, 1993, pp. 25-56.

In the following excerpt, Perlmutter probes Roosevelt's enigmatic worldview and evaluates the merits and faults of his wartime strategy.

The President's Style and World View

How did Roosevelt arrive at decisions? What was the nature of the process? What or who influenced him? What information did he consider in making key decisions? What was his frame of reference at Teheran and Yalta? How did the president conduct the war day by day? What personal experience did he bring to the war? How did he perform as war leader, and how did he come to the decisions that shaped the postwar world?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt became a legend in his time, but beyond the legend lies an enigma. Roosevelt left little...