Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the leader of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. He built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended in victory shortly after he died in office.
Born into the prominent Roosevelt family in Hyde Park, New York, he graduated from both Groton Schooland Harvard College, and attended Columbia Law School, which he left after passing the bar exam to practice law in New York City. In 1905, he married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt. They had six children, of whom five survived into adulthood. He won election to the New York State Senate in 1910, and then served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Roosevelt was James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's 1920 national ticket, but Cox was defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding. In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness diagnosed as polio and his legs became permanently paralyzed. While attempting to recover from his condition, Roosevelt founded a polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs, Georgia. Although unable to walk unaided, Roosevelt returned to public office after his election as governor of New York in 1928. He served as governor from 1929 to 1933, promoting programs to combat the economic crisis besetting the United States.
In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover and began his presidency in the midst of the Great Depression. During the first 100 days of the 73rd U.S. Congress, he spearheaded unprecedented federal legislative productivity. Roosevelt called for the creation of programs designed to produce relief, recovery, and reform. Within his first year, he began implementing these policies through a series of executive orders and federal legislation collectively called the New Deal. Many New Deal programs provided relief to the unemployed such as the National Recovery Administration. Several New Deal programs and federal laws such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act provided relief to farmers. Roosevelt also instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor. In addition to the economy, Roosevelt sought to find a compromise on Prohibition with the urban and rural wings of the Democratic Party. After campaigning on a platform to repeal it, Roosevelt implemented the Beer Permit Act of 1933 and enforced the 21st amendment. Tax revenue collected from alcohol sales would go to public works as part of the New Deal. Roosevelt frequently used radio to speak directly to the American people, giving 30 "fireside chat" radio addresses during his presidency and became the first American president to be televised. The economy improved rapidly during Roosevelt's first term and he won re-election in 1936, in one of the most lopsided victories in American history.
Despite the popularity of the New Deal among supporters of Roosevelt, from 1936 onwards, New Deal legislation was frequently struck down by the US Supreme Court, which maintained a conservative bent. The dispute between Roosevelt and the Court resulted in Roosevelt lobbying for the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 (or "court packing plan"), which would have expanded the size of the Supreme Court. The bill was blocked by the newly formed bipartisan Conservative Coalition, which also sought to prevent further New Deal legislation. During the recession of 1937–1938, Roosevelt launched a rhetorical campaign against big business and monopoly power in the United States. Other major 1930s legislation and agencies implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Social Security, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Roosevelt was re-elected in 1940 for his third term, making him the only U.S. president to serve for more than two terms. By 1939 another World War was on the horizon which prompted the United States to respond by passing a series of laws affirming neutrality and rejecting intervention. Despite this, President Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China, the United Kingdom, and eventually the Soviet Union. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an event he called "a date which will live in infamy", Roosevelt obtained a congressional declaration of war against Japan. On December 11 Japan's allies, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States. In response, the US formally joined the Allies and entered the European theater of war. Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins and with very strong national support, he worked closely with British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet general secretary Joseph Stalin, and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in leading the Allied Powers against the Axis Powers. Roosevelt supervised the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe first strategy, initiating the Lend-Lease program and making the defeat of Germany first a priority over that of Japan. His administration co-ordinated massive wartime efforts such as the construction of the Pentagon and the Manhattan Project, which saw the creation of the atomic bomb. His foreign policy mirrored Wilsonian ideals which prompted Roosevelt to make his highest postwar priority being the establishment of the United Nations. Roosevelt expected the United Nations to replace the now defunct League of Nations and to be led by Washington, Moscow, London, and Nanjing.These states collectively called the Big Four would work to resolve all major world problems. It was under his wartime leadership that the United States became a superpower on the world stage.
Roosevelt won re-election in the 1944 presidential election on his post-war recovery platform. His physical health began declining during the later war years, and less than three months into his fourth term, Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Vice President Harry S. Truman assumed office as president and oversaw the acceptance of surrender by the Axis powers. Since his death, several of Roosevelt's actions have come under substantial criticism, such as the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Nevertheless, he is consistently ranked by scholars, political scientists and historians as one of the greatest presidents in American history.
Biography[]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York in 1882 to a wealthy family, and he studied law at Harvard and Columbia Universities. He married his cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1905. He became active in politics, and in 1910 was elected to the New York senate. In 1913 he became Assistant Secretary for the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1921, he was stricken with polio, and henceforth was confined to a wheelchair. In the days before television, this did not seriously harm his political career, and he was elected Governor of New York as a reforming Democratic Party member in 1928.
Presidency[]
He was elected President in 1932 on a promise to end the Great Depression with wide-ranging government reform, and implemented this in his New Deal programme, which gave work to millions of people and hope to the nation. While its economic efforts remain controversial, it did create teh impression that his policies had overcome the economic crisis, and became the basis of his longevity in office. Furthermore, he was quick to recognize the effectiveness of the new medium, radio. Through his regular "fireside chats", he thus was the first president to become familiar to a majority of US citizens. In the 1936 presidential election he won a crushing victory, gaining every state except Maine and Vermont.
In his second term from 1937 to 1941, inherent weaknesses of the New Deal became more obvious, in particular many of his policies' shortsightedness and their expensive reliance on subsidies. Moreover, the unconstitutionality of some of his policies led to an all-out confrontation with the US Supreme Court, though his attempt to pack the court with liberal justices failed. At the same time, he skillfully steered the USA away from policies favored by isolationists, who had succeeded in passing a series of Neutrality Acts through the US Congress. After the fall of France in 1940 he made the USA a powerful supporter of Britain's war effort, most importantly through the Lend-Lease Act. Thus, in August 1940, by his Destroyer Transfer Agreement with Winston Churchill, he exchanged fifty pre-1914 US destroyers for naval bases in the West Indies, Newfoundland, and British Guyana, thus providing Britain with much-needed convoy escorts.
World War II[]
In 1940, he ran for an unprecedented third term against the Republican Wendell Wilkie. He met much opposition from Southern Democrats, but he benefited from the upswing in the US economy resulting from the military expansion. A firm supporter of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, he denied Japan war supplies, a policy which helped to precipitate the latter's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which in turn triggered the subsequent declarations of war against the Axis Powers. The USA now found itself in alliance not only with Britain, but also with the Soviet Union. He extended the lend-lease agreement to the latter, but was subsequently criticized for being too trusting of Joseph Stalin, particularly by conceding too much Soviet influence over a postwar Europe. By contrast, his relationship with Winston Churchill was excellent, though he had to work hard to convince the British Prime Minister to embark on a cross-Channel attack, which eventually came to pass at D-Day.
On the strength of his wartime leadership, he won a fourth term in office in 1944. However, his health soon deteriorated, so that he died two months after participating in his last major wartime conference at Yalta. He was succeeded by Harry S. Truman. Perhaps the greatest US president of the twentieth century, he fundamentally changed the nature of US policies, through extending the role of the federal government to guarantee a stable framework for harmonious economic and social development, and through eventually establishing the USA as a major actor in world politics.
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