52 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY SIX PRESIDENTS AND “SANCTUARY” One example from U. S. history would be President Dwight Eisenhower’s remodeling and frequent use of a presidential retreat in north central Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains that he renamed Camp David after his grandson. However, few people know that originally, the U.S. government developed the location as a quick hideaway for President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. Nicknamed “Shangri-La” by Roosevelt after James Robinson’s novel, The Lost Horizon, the rough and somewhat unkempt camp proved to be a far cry from Roosevelt’s family manor at Hyde Park, New York, or even what the press called the “Little White House,” his modest refuge in Warm Springs, Georgia, which Roosevelt had built in 1932 when he served as governor of New York. The Catoctin Mountains camp held advantages the other two locations and the official White House did not have. FDR regarded it a secret location away from the prying eyes of the press and public and most of all, he could reach it by car in a relatively short time, unlike Hyde Park or Warm Springs. “Shangri-La” was only seventy miles away, and Roosevelt easily traveled there to relax and host guests. Even though it took two hours to travel by car due to wartime speed restrictions to make rationing even more effective, from late August of 1942 until his death in April of 1945, Shangri-La became a regular location where FDR could find brief but regular respite from the intense pressure of leading the Allied world in World War II. One of the first individuals whom the president hosted on his first stay at Shangri-La, Averill Harriman, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, had just returned from an overseas junket that not only included meetings at Moscow with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, but also conferences in Tehran and London. Less than a year later, Roosevelt entertained British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a weekend visit to Shangri-La amid the important Trident Conference in Washington, D.C. Churchill later recorded that the location was “in principle a log cabin, with all the modern improvements.” As the small motorcade entered the presidential retreat, Churchill recalled that “in front was a fountain and pool of clear water,” which included “a number of large trout newly caught in a neighbouring [sic] stream” where the president would later fish. He also wrote that FDR’s personal secretary, General “Pa” Watson, had brought along part of the president’s immense and treasured stamp
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