Summary

Taking place in February 1945, well after the presidential election, Chapter 6 depicts Truman in a very different setting: playing piano for a group of American servicemen at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Truman’s performance is spiced up considerably by the presence of 20-year-old actress Lauren Bacall, who poses atop his piano and gazes at the new vice president lustily, prompting hoots and cheers from the audience.

Meanwhile, at the Yalta Conference in Crimea, President Roosevelt meets with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Roosevelt is months from death at this point and showing it in his shaking hands and discolored face. Stalin exploits this, along with the convenient location and his army’s position in Europe, to ensure control over Eastern Europe after the Nazis surrender. At this conference Roosevelt also asks Stalin to enter the war...