HOWARD BRUENN
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it is claimed by some right wing conservatives was very ill at the famed 1945 Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin. They argue that he gave Stalin too much as he was too ill to stand up to Stalin. Their myth is that “The Soviets got Eastern Europe because FDR was sick.” However Churchill was in fine physical shape and he and Roosevelt had worked out a style of dealing with Stalin where Churchill was the aggressive one and Roosevelt was the nice guy. Churchill’s personal physician at Yalta,, Lord Moran, not as familiar with Roosevelt, made his famous statement—Quote 643317—which is used by those arguing that FDR was impaired as their main source of evidence other than the result.
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Dr. Bruenn graduated from Columbia University in 1925 and from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1929. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander. Shortly after a transfer to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where he was chief of cardiology, Dr. Bruenn gave President Roosevelt a routine physical examination and was then assigned to be the President's attending physician. After the President's death, Dr. Bruenn had a private practice until he retired in 1975.