Franklin D.

Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

32nd President of the United States

In office
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945

John N. Garner (1933–1941)

Vice President Henry A. Wallace (1941–1945)
Harry S. Truman (1945)

Preceded by Herbert Hoover

Succeeded by Harry S. Truman

44th Governor of New York

In office
January 1, 1929 – December 31, 1932

Lieutenant Herbert H. Lehman

Preceded by Alfred E. Smith

Succeeded by Herbert H. Lehman

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

In office
1913 – 1920

President Woodrow Wilson

Member of the New York Senate

In office
January 1, 1911 – March 17, 1913

Constituency Dutchess County

January 30, 1882

Born
Hyde Park, New York

April 12, 1945 (aged 63)

Died
Warm Springs, Georgia

Birth name Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Political party Democratic

Spouse(s) Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Roosevelt Halsted

James Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (I)
Children
Elliott Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr.
John Aspinwall Roosevelt

Harvard University
Alma mater
Columbia Law School

Occupation Lawyer (Corporate)

Religion Episcopalian

Signature
 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), the only U.S. President
elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century,
leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. Often
referred to by his initials, FDR won his first of four presidential elections in 1932, while the
United States was in the depths of the Great Depression. His combination of optimism and
economic activism is often credited with keeping the country's economic crisis from devolving
into a political crisis. He led the United States through most of World War II, and died in office
of a stroke, shortly before the war ended.

Roosevelt's approach to the economic situation he inherited is known as the New Deal. The New
Deal consisted both of executive orders and legislation pushed through Congress. Executive
orders included the bank holiday declared when he first came to office; legislation created new
government agencies, such as the Works Progress Administration and the National Recovery
Administration, with the intent of creating new jobs for the unemployed. Other legislation
provided direct assistance to individuals, such as the Social Security Act.

As World War II began, with Japanese occupation of countries on the western Pacific rim and
the rise of Hitler in Germany, FDR kept the US on an ostensibly neutral course. But once war
broke out in Europe, Roosevelt provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi
Germany, with Great Britain the recipient of the most assistance. Upon the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt immediately asked for and received a declaration of war against the
Axis powers. With the nearly total mobilization of the US economy to support the war effort, the
US economy soon recovered.

Roosevelt dominated the American political scene, not only during the twelve years of his
presidency, but for decades afterwards. His presidency created a realignment that dominated
American politics until the election of Richard Nixon in 1968.[1][2] FDR's coalition melded
together such disparate elements as Southern whites and African Americans in the cities of the
North. Roosevelt's political impact also resonated on the world scene for long after his death,
with the United Nations and Bretton Woods as examples of his administration's wide ranging
impact. Roosevelt is rated by historians as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

Personal life
The family name

Roosevelt is an Anglicized form of the Dutch surname 'van Rosevelt,' or 'van Rosenvelt',
meaning 'field of roses.'[3] Although some use an Anglicized spelling pronunciation of
/ˈruːzəvɛlt/, that is, with the vowels of rue and felt, Franklin used [ˈroʊzəvəlt], with the vowel of
the English rose.

One of the wealthiest and oldest families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished
themselves in areas other than politics. Franklin's first cousin, Ellen Roosevelt, was the 1890
U.S. Open Championships women's singles and doubles tennis champion and is a member of the
International Tennis Hall of Fame.
His mother named him after her favorite uncle Franklin Delano.[4] The progenitor of the Delano
family in the Americas of 1621 was Philippe de la Noye, the first Huguenot to land in the New
World, whose family name was Anglicized to Delano.[5]

Early life

FDR in 1893

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde
Park, New York. His father, James Roosevelt, and his mother, Sara, were each from wealthy old
New York families, of Dutch and French ancestry respectively. Franklin was their only child.
His paternal grandmother, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Monroe,
wife of the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe. One of his ancestors was John Lothropp, also an
ancestor of Benedict Arnold and Joseph Smith, Jr. One of his distant relatives from his mother's
side is the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. His maternal grandfather Warren Delano II, a descendant
of Mayflower passengers Richard Warren, Isaac Allerton, Degory Priest, and Francis Cooke,
during a period of twelve years in China made more than a million dollars in the tea trade in
Macau, Canton, and Hong Kong, but upon returning to the United States, he lost it all in the
Panic of 1857. In 1860, he returned to China and made a fortune in the notorious but highly
profitable opium trade[6] supplying opium-based medication to the U. S. War Department during
the American Civil War but not exclusively.[7]

Young Franklin Roosevelt with his father and Helen R. Roosevelt, sailing in 1899.
 Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. Sara was a possessive mother, while James
was an elderly and remote father (he was 54 when Franklin was born). Sara was the dominant
influence in Franklin's early years.[8] Frequent trips to Europe made Roosevelt conversant in
German and French. He learned to ride, shoot, row, and play polo and lawn tennis.

Roosevelt went to Groton School, an Episcopal boarding school in Massachusetts. He was

heavily influenced by its headmaster, Endicott Peabody, who preached the duty of Christians to
help the less fortunate and urged his students to enter public service. Roosevelt went to Harvard,
where he lived in luxurious quarters and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He was
also president of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper. While he was at Harvard, his fifth
cousin Theodore Roosevelt became president, and Theodore's vigorous leadership style and
reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. In 1902, he met his future wife Eleanor
Roosevelt, Theodore's niece, at a White House reception (they had previously met as children,
but this was their first serious encounter). Eleanor and Franklin were fifth cousins, once
removed.[9] They were both descended from Claes Martensz van Rosenvelt (Roosevelt), who
arrived in New Amsterdam (Manhattan) from the Netherlands in the 1640s. Rosenvelt's
(Roosevelt) two grandsons, Johannes and Jacobus, began the Long Island and Hudson River
branches of the Roosevelt family, respectively. Eleanor and Theodore Roosevelt were descended
from the Johannes branch, while FDR came from the Jacobus branch.[9]

Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1905, but dropped out in 1907 because he had
passed the New York State Bar exam. In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious Wall Street
firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, dealing mainly with corporate law. He was first initiated in
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was initiated into Freemasonry on October 11, 1911
at Holland Lodge Nr. 8 in New York City.[10]

Marriage and family life

On March 17, 1905, Roosevelt married Eleanor despite the fierce resistance of his mother.
Eleanor's uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, stood in at the wedding for Eleanor's deceased father
Elliott. The young couple moved into Springwood, his family's estate, where FDR's mother
became a frequent house guest, much to Eleanor's chagrin. As for their personal lives, Franklin
was a charismatic, handsome, and socially active man. In contrast, Eleanor was shy, disliked
social life, and at first stayed at home to raise their children. Despite the fact that Eleanor
disliked sex, and considered it "an ordeal to be endured," [11] they had six children in rapid
succession:

 Anna Eleanor (1906–1975; age 69)

 James (1907–1991; age 83)
 Franklin Delano, Jr. (March 18, 1909–November 7, 1909)
 Elliott (1910–1990; age 80)
 a second Franklin Delano, Jr. (1914–1988; age 74)
 John Aspinwall (1916–1981; age 65).
 Franklin and Eleanor at Campobello Island, Canada, in 1905.

Roosevelt had affairs outside his marriage, including one with Eleanor's social secretary Lucy
Mercer which began soon after she was hired in early 1914. In September 1918, Eleanor found
letters revealing the affair in Roosevelt's luggage, when he returned from World War I.
According to the Roosevelt family, Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce so that he could be with
the woman he loved, but Lucy, being Catholic, could not bring herself to marry a divorced man
with five children. According to FDR's biographer Jean Edward Smith it is generally accepted
that Eleanor indeed offered "to give Franklin his freedom."[12] However, they reconciled after a
fashion with the informal mediation of Roosevelt's adviser Louis McHenry Howe, and FDR
promised never to see Lucy again. Sara also intervened, and told Franklin that if he divorced his
wife, he would bring scandal upon the family, and she "would not give him another dollar."[12]
However, Franklin broke his promise. He and Lucy maintained a formal correspondence, and
began seeing each other again in 1941—and perhaps earlier.[13][14] Lucy was even given the code
name "Mrs. Johnson" by the Secret Service.[15] Indeed, Lucy was with FDR on April 12, 1945—
the day he died. Despite this, FDR's affair was not widely known of until the 1960s.[16]

The effect of this affair upon Eleanor Roosevelt is difficult to underestimate. "I have the memory
of an elephant. I can forgive, but I cannot forget," she wrote a close friend.[17] Though Eleanor
never liked sex, after the affair, any remaining intimacy left their relationship. Eleanor soon
thereafter established a separate house in Hyde Park at Valkill, and increasingly devoted herself
to various social and political causes. For the rest of their lives, the Roosevelts' marriage was
more of a political partnership than an intimate relationship.[18] The emotional break in their
marriage was so severe, that when FDR asked Eleanor in 1942—in light of his failing health—to
come back home and live with him again, she refused.[16]

Franklin's son Elliott claimed that Franklin had a 20-year affair with his private secretary
Marguerite "Missy" LeHand.[19][20]

In 1919 the Roosevelts lived next door to Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, and were present
when a Galleanist anarchist was killed in the botched bombing that was an attempt to assassinate
Palmer. Also in 1919, Franklin Roosevelt helped Éamon de Valera and his fledgling Irish
Republican Army get around export laws for shipping arms used against British troops in the
Irish War of Independence.
The five surviving Roosevelt children all led tumultuous lives overshadowed by their famous
parents. They had among them nineteen marriages, fifteen divorces, and twenty-nine children.
All four sons were officers in World War II and were decorated, on merit, for bravery. Two of
them were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives—FDR, Jr. served three terms
representing the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and James served six terms representing the
26th district in California—but none were elected to higher office despite several attempts.[21][22]
[23][24]

Roosevelt's dog, Fala, also became well-known as a companion of Roosevelt's during his time in
the White House, and was called the "most photographed dog in the world."[25]

Early political career

State Senator

In 1910, Roosevelt ran for the New York State Senate from the district around Hyde Park in
Dutchess County, which had not elected a Democrat since 1884. He entered the Roosevelt name,
with its associated wealth, prestige, and influence in the Hudson Valley, and the Democratic
landslide that year carried him to the state capital of Albany, New York. Roosevelt entered the
state house, January 1, 1911. He became a leader of a group of reformers who opposed
Manhattan's Tammany Hall machine which dominated the state Democratic Party. Roosevelt
soon became a popular figure among New York Democrats. He was reelected for a second term
November 5, 1912, and resigned from the New York State Senate on March 17, 1913.[26][27]

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

FDR as Assistant Secretary for the Navy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in
1913. He served under Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. In 1914, he was defeated in the
Democratic primary election for the United States Senate by Tammany Hall-backed James W.
Gerard. As assistant secretary, Roosevelt worked to expand the Navy and founded the United
States Navy Reserve. Wilson sent the Navy and Marines to intervene in Central American and
Caribbean countries. In a series of speeches in his 1920 campaign for Vice President, Roosevelt
claimed that he, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, wrote the constitution which the U.S.
imposed on Haiti in 1915.[28]

Roosevelt developed a life-long affection for the Navy. Roosevelt negotiated with Congressional
leaders and other government departments to get budgets approved. He became an enthusiastic
advocate of the submarine and also of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied
shipping: he proposed building a mine barrier across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In
1918, he visited Britain and France to inspect American naval facilities; during this visit he met
Winston Churchill for the first time. With the end of World War I in November 1918, he was in
charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely dismantle the Navy. In July
1920, Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Campaign for Vice-President

Cox/Roosevelt poster

The 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Roosevelt as the candidate for Vice
President of the United States on the ticket headed by Governor James M. Cox of Ohio, helping
build a national base, but the Cox-Roosevelt ticket was heavily defeated by Republican Warren
G. Harding in the presidential election. Roosevelt then retired to a New York legal practice and
joined the newly organized New York Civitan Club,[29] but few doubted that he would soon run
for public office again.

Paralytic illness
 One of only a few known photographs of Roosevelt in a wheelchair

In August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick,
Roosevelt contracted an illness believed by his physicians to be polio, which resulted in his total
and permanent paralysis from the waist down. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to accept
that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide range of therapies, including hydrotherapy,
and, in 1926, he purchased a resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he founded a hydrotherapy
center for the treatment of polio patients which still operates as the Roosevelt Warm Springs
Institute for Rehabilitation. After he became President, he helped to found the National
Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). His leadership in this
organization is one reason he is commemorated on the dime.[30][31]

At the time, Roosevelt was able to convince many people that he was in fact getting better,
which he believed was essential if he was to run for public office again. Fitting his hips and legs
with iron braces, he laboriously taught himself to walk a short distance by swiveling his torso
while supporting himself with a cane. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never
to be seen in it in public. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side
by an aide or one of his sons.

In 2003, one retrospective study suggested that it was more likely that Roosevelt suffered from
Guillain-Barré syndrome, not poliomyelitis.[32]. However, without access to FDR's detailed
medical records—which are, by all reports, unaccounted-for[33]-- it is impossible to be certain of
that premise.
Governor of New York, 1929–1932

Governor Roosevelt poses with Al Smith for a publicity shot in Albany, New York, 1930.

Roosevelt maintained contacts and mended fences with the Democratic Party during the 1920s,
especially in New York. Although he made his name as an opponent of New York City's
Tammany Hall machine, Roosevelt moderated his stance. He helped Alfred E. Smith win the
election for governor of New York in 1922. Roosevelt gave nominating speeches for Smith at the
1924 and 1928 Democratic conventions.[34] As the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the
1928 election, Smith in turn asked Roosevelt to run for governor in the state election. While
Smith lost the Presidency in a landslide, and was even defeated in his home state, Roosevelt was
narrowly elected governor.

As a reform governor, he established a number of new social programs, and he was advised by
Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins.

In his 1930 campaign for re-election, Roosevelt needed the good will of the Tammany Hall
machine in New York City; however, his Republican opponent, Charles H. Tuttle, was using
Tammany Hall's corruption as an election issue. As the election approached, Roosevelt initiated
investigations of the sale of judicial offices. He was elected to a second term by a margin of
more than 700,000 votes.[35]

Boy Scout supporter

Roosevelt was a strong supporter of scouting, beginning in 1915. In 1924, he became president
of the New York City Boy Scout Foundation and led the development of Ten Mile River Boy
Scout Camp between 1924–1928 to serve the Scouts of New York City.[36] As governor in 1930,
the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) honored him with their highest award for adults, the Silver
Buffalo Award, which is conferred in recognition of distinguished support of youth on a national
level.[37] Later, as U.S. president, Roosevelt was honorary president of the BSA and attended the
first national jamboree in Washington, D.C. in 1937.[38]

1932 presidential election

Roosevelt's strong base in the most populous state made him an obvious candidate for the
Democratic nomination, which was hotly contested since it seemed that incumbent Herbert
Hoover would be vulnerable in the 1932 election. Al Smith was supported by some city bosses,
but had lost control of the New York Democratic party to Roosevelt. Roosevelt built his own
national coalition with personal allies such as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst,
Irish leader Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and California leader William Gibbs McAdoo. When Texas
leader John Nance Garner switched to FDR, he was given the presidential nomination.

In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt declared:

Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the
“ Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to
share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new
deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to
arms.[39] ”
The election campaign was conducted under the shadow of the Great Depression in the United
States, and the new alliances which it created. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party mobilized the
expanded ranks of the poor as well as organized labor, ethnic minorities, urbanites, and Southern
whites, crafting the New Deal coalition. During the campaign, Roosevelt said: "I pledge you, I
pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people", coining a slogan that was later adopted
for his legislative program as well as his new coalition.[40]

Economist Marriner Eccles observed that "given later developments, the campaign speeches
often read like a giant misprint, in which Roosevelt and Hoover speak each other's lines."[41]
Roosevelt denounced Hoover's failures to restore prosperity or even halt the downward slide, and
he ridiculed Hoover's huge deficits. Roosevelt campaigned on the Democratic platform
advocating "immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures," "abolishing useless
commissions and offices, consolidating bureaus and eliminating extravagances reductions in
bureaucracy," and for a "sound currency to be maintained at all hazards." On September 23,
Roosevelt made the gloomy evaluation that, "Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now
is whether under existing conditions it is not overbuilt. Our last frontier has long since been
reached."[42] Hoover damned that pessimism as a denial of "the promise of American life ... the
counsel of despair."[43] The prohibition issue solidified the wet vote for Roosevelt, who noted that
repeal would bring in new tax revenues.

Roosevelt won 57% of the vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists
consider the 1932-36 elections a realigning election that created a new majority coalition for the
Democrats, thus transforming American politics and starting what is called the "New Deal Party
System" or (by political scientists) the Fifth Party System.[44]
After the election, Roosevelt refused Hoover's requests for a meeting to come up with a joint
program to stop the downward spiral and calm investors, claiming it would tie his hands. The
economy spiralled downward until the banking system began a complete nationwide shutdown
as Hoover's term ended.[45] In February 1933, Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt by
Giuseppe Zangara (which killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak sitting next to him).[46] Roosevelt
leaned heavily on his "Brain Trust" of academic advisors, especially Raymond Moley when
designing his policies; he offered cabinet positions to numerous candidates (sometimes two at a
time), but most declined. The cabinet member with the strongest independent base was Cordell
Hull at State. William Hartman Woodin at Treasury, was soon replaced by the much more
powerful Henry Morgenthau, Jr.[47]

First term, 1933–1937

President and Mrs. Roosevelt on Inauguration Day, 1933.

When Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst
depression in its history. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed. Farmers were in deep
trouble as prices fell by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two
million were homeless. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states, as well as the District of
Columbia had closed their banks.[48] The New York Federal Reserve Bank was unable to open on
the 5th, as huge sums had been withdrawn by panicky customers in previous days.[49] Beginning
with his inauguration address, Roosevelt began blaming the economic crisis on bankers and
financiers, the quest for profit, and the self-interest basis of capitalism:

Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed
“ through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their ”
failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand
indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True
they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition.
Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money.
 Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false
leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored
confidence....The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of
our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure
of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than
mere monetary profit.[50]

Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery and reform." Relief was urgently
needed by tens of millions of unemployed. Recovery meant boosting the economy back to
normal. Reform meant long-term fixes of what was wrong, especially with the financial and
banking systems. Roosevelt's series of radio talks, known as fireside chats, presented his
proposals directly to the American public.[51]

First New Deal, 1933–1934

Roosevelt's "First 100 Days" concentrated on the first part of his strategy: immediate relief.
From March 9 to June 16, 1933, he sent Congress a record number of bills, all of which passed
easily. To propose programs, Roosevelt relied on leading Senators such as George Norris, Robert
F. Wagner and Hugo Black, as well as his Brain Trust of academic advisers. Like Hoover, he
saw the Depression caused in part by people no longer spending or investing because they were
afraid.

His inauguration on March 4, 1933 occurred in the middle of a bank panic, hence the backdrop
for his famous words: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."[52] The very next day
Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act which declared a "bank holiday" and announced a
plan to allow banks to reopen. However, the number of banks that opened their doors after the
"holiday" was less than the number that had been open before.[53] This was his first proposed step
to recovery. To give Americans confidence in the banks, Roosevelt signed the Glass-Stegall Act
that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers during the depression in
California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children at age 32, March
1936.

 Relief measures included the continuation of Hoover's major relief program for the
unemployed under the new name, Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The most
popular of all New Deal agencies, and Roosevelt's favorite, was the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired 250,000 unemployed young men to work on
rural local projects. Congress also gave the Federal Trade Commission broad new
regulatory powers and provided mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners.
Roosevelt expanded a Hoover agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, making it
a major source of financing to railroads and industry. Roosevelt made agriculture relief a
high priority and set up the first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The
AAA tried to force higher prices for commodities by paying farmers to take land out of
crops and to cut herds.
 Reform of the economy was the goal of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of
1933. It tried to end cutthroat competition by forcing industries to come up with codes
that established the rules of operation for all firms within specific industries, such as
minimum prices, agreements not to compete, and production restrictions. Industry leaders
negotiated the codes which were then approved by NIRA officials. Industry needed to
raise wages as a condition for approval. Provisions encouraged unions and suspended
anti-trust laws. The NIRA was found to be unconstitutional by unanimous decision of the
U.S. Supreme Court on May 27, 1935. Roosevelt opposed the decision, saying "The
fundamental purposes and principles of the NIRA are sound. To abandon them is
unthinkable. It would spell the return to industrial and labor chaos."[54] In 1933, major
new banking regulations were passed. In 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission
was created to regulate Wall Street, with 1932 campaign fundraiser Joseph P. Kennedy in
charge.
 Recovery was pursued through "pump-priming" (that is, federal spending). The NIRA
included $3.3 billion of spending through the Public Works Administration to stimulate
the economy, which was to be handled by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. Roosevelt
worked with Republican Senator George Norris to create the largest government-owned
industrial enterprise in American history, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which
built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home
conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley. The repeal of prohibition also
brought in new tax revenues and helped him keep a major campaign promise.
 In a controversial move, Roosevelt gave Executive Order 6102 which made all privately
held gold of American citizens property of the US Treasury. This gold confiscation by
executive order was argued to be unconstitutional, but Roosevelt's executive order asserts
authority to do so based on the "War Time Powers Act" of 1917. Gold bullion remained
illegal for Americans to own until President Ford rescinded the order in 1974.[55][56][57][58]

Roosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the regular federal budget, including
40% cuts to veterans' benefits and cuts in overall military spending. He removed 500,000
veterans and widows from the pension rolls and slashed benefits for the remainder. Protests
erupted, led by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Roosevelt held his ground, but when the angry
veterans formed a coalition with Senator Huey Long and passed a huge bonus bill over his veto,
he was defeated. He succeeded in cutting federal salaries and the military and naval budgets. He
reduced spending on research and education.

Roosevelt also kept his promise to push for repeal of Prohibition. In April 1933, he issued an
Executive Order redefining 3.2% alcohol as the maximum allowed. That order was preceded by
Congressional action in the drafting and passage of the 21st Amendment, which was ratified later
that year.

Second New Deal, 1935–1936

Dust storms were frequent during the 1930s; this one occurred in Texas in 1935.

After the 1934 Congressional elections, which gave Roosevelt large majorities in both houses,
there was a fresh surge of New Deal legislation. These measures included the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) which set up a national relief agency that employed two million family
heads. However, even at the height of WPA employment in 1938, unemployment was still 12.5%
according to figures from Michael Darby.[59] The Social Security Act, established Social Security
and promised economic security for the elderly, the poor and the sick. Senator Robert Wagner
wrote the Wagner Act, which officially became the National Labor Relations Act. The act
established the federal rights of workers to organize unions, to engage in collective bargaining,
and to take part in strikes.

While the First New Deal of 1933 had broad support from most sectors, the Second New Deal
challenged the business community. Conservative Democrats, led by Al Smith, fought back with
the American Liberty League, savagely attacking Roosevelt and equating him with Marx and
Lenin.[60] But Smith overplayed his hand, and his boisterous rhetoric let Roosevelt isolate his
opponents and identify them with the wealthy vested interests that opposed the New Deal, setting
Roosevelt up for the 1936 landslide.[61] By contrast, the labor unions, energized by the Wagner
Act, signed up millions of new members and became a major backer of Roosevelt's reelections in
1936, 1940 and 1944.[62]

Economic environment

Government spending increased from 8.0% of gross national product (GNP) under Hoover in
1932 to 10.2% of the GNP in 1936. Because of the depression, the national debt as a percentage
of the GNP had doubled under Hoover from 16% to 33.6% of the GNP in 1932. While Roosevelt
balanced the "regular" budget, the emergency budget was funded by debt, which increased to
40.9% in 1936, and then remained level until World War II, at which time it escalated rapidly.
The national debt rose under Hoover, and held steady under FDR until the war began, as shown
on chart 1.

National debt from four years before Roosevelt took office to five years after the time that he
died in office.

Deficit spending had been recommended by some economists, most notably by John Maynard
Keynes of Britain. Some economists in retrospect have argued that the National Labor Relations
Act and Agricultural Adjustment Administration were ineffective policies because they relied on
price fixing.[64] The GNP was 34% higher in 1936 than in 1932 and 58% higher in 1940 on the
eve of war. That is, the economy grew 58% from 1932 to 1940 in 8 years of peacetime, and then
grew 56% from 1940 to 1945 in 5 years of wartime. However, the economic recovery did not
absorb all the unemployment Roosevelt inherited. Unemployment fell dramatically in
Roosevelt's first term, from 25% when he took office to 14.3% in 1937. Afterward, however, it
increased to 19.0% in 1938 ('a depression within a depression'), 17.2% in 1939 because of
various added taxation (Undistributed profits tax in Mar. 1936, and the Social Security Payroll
Tax 1937, plus the effects of the Wagner Act; the Fair Labor Standards Act and a blizzard of
other federal regulations), and stayed high until it almost vanished during World War II when the
previously unemployed were conscripted, taking them out of the potential labor supply number.
[65]

During the war, the economy operated under such different conditions that comparison with
peacetime is impossible. However, Roosevelt saw the New Deal policies as central to his legacy,
and in his 1944 State of the Union Address, he advocated that Americans should think of basic
economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights.
 The U.S. economy grew rapidly during Roosevelt's term.[66] However, coming out of the
depression, this growth was accompanied by continuing high levels of unemployment; as the
median joblessness rate during the New Deal was 17.2%. Throughout his entire term, including
the war years, average unemployment was 13%.[67][68] Total employment during Roosevelt's term
expanded by 18.31 million jobs, with an average annual increase in jobs during his
administration of 5.3%.[69]

Roosevelt did not raise income taxes before World War II began; however payroll taxes were
also introduced to fund the new Social Security program in 1937. He also got Congress to spend
more on many various programs and projects never before seen in American history. However,
under the revenue pressures brought on by the depression, most states added or increased taxes,
including sales as well as income taxes. Roosevelt's proposal for new taxes on corporate savings
were highly controversial in 1936–37, and were rejected by Congress. During the war he pushed
for even higher income tax rates for individuals (reaching a marginal tax rate of 91%) and
corporations and a cap on high salaries for executives. In order to fund the war, Congress
broadened the base so that almost every employee paid federal income taxes, and introduced
withholding taxes in 1943.

GDP in United States January 1929 to January 1941

Unemployment (% labor force)

Year Lebergott Darby[70]

1933 24.9 20.6

1934 21.7 16.0

 1935 20.1 14.2

1936 16.9 9.9

1937 14.3 9.1

1938 19.0 12.5

1939 17.2 11.3

1940 14.6 9.5

1941 9.9 8.0

1942 4.7 4.7

1943 1.9 1.9

1944 1.2 1.2

1945 1.9 1.9

Foreign policy, 1933–37

The rejection of the League of Nations treaty in 1919 marked the dominance of isolationism
from world organizations in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian
background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke
isolationist sentiment. Roosevelt's "bombshell" message to the world monetary conference in
1933 effectively ended any major efforts by the world powers to collaborate on ending the
worldwide depression, and allowed Roosevelt a free hand in economic policy.[71]

The main foreign policy initiative of Roosevelt's first term was the Good Neighbor Policy,
which was a re-evaluation of U.S. policy towards Latin America. Since the Monroe Doctrine of
1823, this area had been seen as an American sphere of influence. American forces were
withdrawn from Haiti, and new treaties with Cuba and Panama ended their status as United
States protectorates. In December 1933, Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the
Rights and Duties of States, renouncing the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin
American countries.[72]

Landslide re-election, 1936

In the 1936 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal programs against
Kansas Governor Alf Landon, who accepted much of the New Deal but objected that it was
hostile to business and involved too much waste. Roosevelt and Garner won 60.8% of the vote
and carried every state except Maine and Vermont. The New Deal Democrats won even larger
majorities in Congress. Roosevelt was backed by a coalition of voters which included traditional
Democrats across the country, small farmers, the "Solid South," Catholics, big city machines,
labor unions, northern African Americans, Jews, intellectuals and political liberals. This
coalition, frequently referred to as the New Deal coalition, remained largely intact for the
Democratic Party until the 1960s.

Second term, 1937–1941

In dramatic contrast to the first term, very little major legislation was passed in the second
term. There was a United States Housing Authority (1937), a second Agricultural Adjustment
Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which created the minimum wage. When
the economy began to deteriorate again in late 1937, Roosevelt responded with an aggressive
program of stimulation, asking Congress for $5 billion for WPA relief and public works. This
managed to eventually create a peak of 3.3 million WPA jobs by 1938.

The Supreme Court was the main obstacle to Roosevelt's programs during his second term,
overturning many of his programs. In particular in 1935 the Court unanimously ruled that the
National Recovery Act (NRA) was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the
president. Roosevelt stunned Congress in early 1937 by proposing a law allowing him to appoint
five new justices, a "persistent infusion of new blood."[74] This "court packing" plan ran into
intense political opposition from his own party, led by Vice President Garner, since it seemed to
upset the separation of powers and give the President control over the Court. Roosevelt's
proposals were defeated. The Court also drew back from confrontation with the administration
by finding the Labor Relations and Social Security Acts to be constitutional. Deaths and
retirements on the Supreme Court soon allowed Roosevelt to make his own appointments to the
bench with little controversy. Between 1937 and 1941, he appointed eight justices to the court.[75]
Roosevelt had massive support from the rapidly growing labor unions, but now they split into
bitterly feuding AFL and CIO factions, the latter led by John L. Lewis. Roosevelt pronounced a
"plague on both your houses," but the disunity weakened the party in the elections from 1938
through 1946.

Determined to overcome the opposition of conservative Democrats in Congress (mostly from the
South), Roosevelt involved himself in the 1938 Democratic primaries, actively campaigning for
challengers who were more supportive of New Deal reform. His targets denounced Roosevelt for
trying to take over the Democratic party and used the argument that they were independent to
win reelection. Roosevelt failed badly, managing to defeat only one target, a conservative
Democrat from New York City.[77]

In the November 1938 election, Democrats lost six Senate seats and 71 House seats. Losses were
concentrated among pro-New Deal Democrats. When Congress reconvened in 1939,
Republicans under Senator Robert Taft formed a Conservative coalition with Southern
Democrats, virtually ending Roosevelt's ability to get his domestic proposals enacted into law.
The minimum wage law of 1938 was the last substantial New Deal reform act passed by
Congress.[78]

Foreign policy, 1937–1941

President Roosevelt welcomed President Manuel L. Quezon, the 2nd President of the
Philippines, in Washington, D.C.

The rise to power of dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany aroused fears of a new world war. In
1935, at the time of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, Congress passed the Neutrality Act, applying a
mandatory ban on the shipment of arms from the U.S. to any combatant nation. Roosevelt
opposed the act on the grounds that it penalized the victims of aggression such as Ethiopia, and
that it restricted his right as President to assist friendly countries, but public support was
overwhelming so he signed it. In 1937, Congress passed an even more stringent act, but when the
Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, public opinion favored China, and Roosevelt found
various ways to assist that nation.[79]

In October 1937, he gave the Quarantine Speech aiming to contain aggressor nations. He
proposed that warmongering states be treated as a public health menace and be "quarantined."[80]
Meanwhile he secretly stepped up a program to build long range submarines that could blockade
Japan.
 In May 1938, there occurred a failed coup by the fascist Integralista movement in Brazil. After
the failed coup, the Brazilian government claimed that the German Ambassador, Dr. Karl Ritter
had been involved in the coup attempt and declared him persona non grata. The Brazilian
allegation of German support for the Integralista coup had a galvanizing impact on the Roosevelt
administration as it led to fears that German ambitions were not confined to Europe, but rather to
the whole world. This in turn led the Roosevelt administration to change its previous view of the
Nazi regime as an unpleasant regime that was however basically not an American problem.

On September 4, 1938 in the midst of the great crisis in Europe that was to culminate in the
Munich Agreement, during the unveiling of a plaque in France honoring Franco-American
friendship, the American Ambassador, and close friend of Roosevelt’s William C. Bullitt stated
that "France and the United States were united in war and peace," leading to much speculation in
the press that if war did break over Czechoslovakia, then the United States would join the war on
the Allied side.[81] Roosevelt disallowed this interpretation of Bullitt’s remarks in a press
conference on September 9, stating it was “100% wrong”, and that the U.S. would not join a
“stop-Hitler bloc” under any circumstances, and he made it quite clear in the event of German
aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. would remain neutral.[81] Upon Neville
Chamberlain’s return to London from the Munich Conference, Roosevelt sent him a two word
telegram reading “Good Man”, which has been the subject of much debate, with the majority
opinion arguing that the telegram was meant to be congratulatory with the minority opinion
opposing that interpretation.[82]

In October 1938, Roosevelt opened secret talks with the French on how to bypass American
neutrality laws and allowed the French to buy American aircraft to make up for productivity
deficiencies in the French aircraft industry.[83] The French Premier Édouard Daladier commented
in October 1938 that "If I had three or four thousand aircraft Munich would never have
happened", and was most anxious to buy American war planes as the only way of strengthening
the French Air Force.[84] A major problem in the Franco-American talks was how the French
were to pay for the American planes, and how to bypass the American neutrality acts[85] In
addition, the American Johnson Act of 1934 which forbade loans to the nations that had
defaulted on their World War I debts was a further complicating factor (France had defaulted on
its World War I debts in 1932).[86] In February 1939, the French offered to cede their possessions
in the Caribbean and the Pacific together with a lump sum payment of ten billion francs, in
exchange for the unlimited right to buy on credit American aircraft.[87] After torturous
negotiations, an arrangement was worked out in the spring of 1939 allowing the French to place
huge orders with the American aircraft industry; though most of the aircraft ordered had not
arrived in France by 1940, Roosevelt arranged for French orders to be diverted to the British.[88]

When World War II broke out in 1939, Roosevelt rejected the Wilsonian neutrality stance and
sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily. He began a regular secret correspondence
with the First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill in September 1939 discussing ways of
supporting Britain. Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became
Prime Minister of the UK in May 1940.

In April 1940 Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, followed by invasions of the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France in May. The German victories in Western
Europe left Britain vulnerable to invasion. Roosevelt, who was determined that Britain not be
defeated, took advantage of the rapid shifts of public opinion. The fall of Paris shocked
American opinion, and isolationist sentiment declined. A consensus was clear that military
spending had to be dramatically expanded. There was no consensus on how much the U.S.
should risk war in helping Britain. In July 1940, FDR appointed two interventionist Republican
leaders, Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy respectively.
Both parties gave support to his plans to rapidly build up the American military, but the
isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the nation into an unnecessary war with Germany.
He successfully urged Congress to enact the first peacetime draft in United States history in 1940
(it was renewed in 1941 by one vote in Congress). Roosevelt was supported by the Committee to
Defend America by Aiding the Allies, and opposed by the America First Committee.[89]

Roosevelt used his personal charisma to build support for intervention. America should be the
"Arsenal of Democracy," he told his fireside audience.[90] On September 2, 1940, Roosevelt
openly defied the Neutrality Acts by passing the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which gave 50
American destroyers to Britain in exchange for military base rights in the British Caribbean
islands and Newfoundland. This was a precursor of the March 1941 Lend-Lease agreement
which began to direct massive military and economic aid to Britain, the Republic of China, and
later the Soviet Union. For foreign policy advice, Roosevelt turned to Harry Hopkins, who
became his chief wartime advisor. They sought innovative ways to help Britain, whose financial
resources were exhausted by the end of 1940. Congress, where isolationist sentiment was in
retreat, passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, allowing the U.S. to give Britain, China and
later the Soviet Union military supplies. Congress voted to commit to spend $50 billion on
military supplies from 1941–45. In sharp contrast to the loans of World War I, there would be no
repayment after the war. Roosevelt was a lifelong free trader and anti-imperialist, and ending
European colonialism was one of his objectives.

Third term, 1941–1945

Election of 1940

The two-term tradition had been an unwritten rule (until the 22nd Amendment after his
presidency) since George Washington declined to run for a third term in 1796, and both Ulysses
S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt were attacked for trying to obtain a third non-consecutive term.
FDR systematically undercut prominent Democrats who were angling for the nomination,
including two cabinet members, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and James Farley, Roosevelt's
campaign manager in 1932 and 1936, Postmaster General and Democratic Party chairman.
Roosevelt moved the convention to Chicago where he had strong support from the city machine
(which controlled the auditorium sound system). At the convention the opposition was poorly
organized but Farley had packed the galleries. Roosevelt sent a message saying that he would not
run, unless he was drafted, and that the delegates were free to vote for anyone. The delegates
were stunned; then the loudspeaker screamed "We want Roosevelt... The world wants
Roosevelt!" The delegates went wild and he was nominated by 946 to 147. The new vice
presidential nominee was Henry A. Wallace, the liberal intellectual who was Secretary of
Agriculture.[91]
In his campaign against Republican Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt stressed both his proven
leadership experience and his intention to do everything possible to keep the United States out of
war. He won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 38 of the 48 states. A shift to
the left within the Administration was shown by the naming of Henry A. Wallace as Vice
President in place of the conservative Texan John Nance Garner, who had become a bitter enemy
of Roosevelt after 1937.

Policies

Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Argentia, Newfoundland aboard HMS Prince of Wales
during their 1941 secret meeting to develop the Atlantic Charter.

Roosevelt's third term was dominated by World War II, in Europe and in the Pacific. Roosevelt
slowly began re-armament in 1938 since he was facing strong isolationist sentiment from leaders
like Senators William Borah and Robert Taft who supported re-armament. By 1940, it was in
high gear, with bipartisan support, partly to expand and re-equip the United States Army and
Navy and partly to become the "Arsenal of Democracy" supporting the United Kingdom, French
Third Republic, the Republic of China and (after June 1941), the Soviet Union. As Roosevelt
took a firmer stance against the Axis Powers, American isolationists—including Charles
Lindbergh and America First—attacked the President as an irresponsible warmonger. Unfazed
by these criticisms and confident in the wisdom of his foreign policy initiatives, FDR continued
his twin policies of preparedness and aid to the Allied coalition. On December 29, 1940, he
delivered his Arsenal of Democracy fireside chat, in which he made the case for involvement
directly to the American people, and a week later he delivered his famous Four Freedoms speech
in January 1941, further laying out the case for an American defense of basic rights throughout
the world.

The military buildup spurred economic growth. By 1941, unemployment had fallen to under 1
million. There was a growing labor shortage in all the nation's major manufacturing centers,
accelerating the Great Migration of African Americans workers from the Southern United States,
and of underemployed farmers and workers from all rural areas and small towns. The homefront
was subject to dynamic social changes throughout the war, though domestic issues were no
longer Roosevelt's most urgent policy concerns.
 When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt extended Lend-Lease
to the Soviets. During 1941, Roosevelt also agreed that the U.S. Navy would escort Allied
convoys as far east as Great Britain and would fire upon German ships or submarines (U-boats)
of the Kriegsmarine if they attacked Allied shipping within the U.S. Navy zone. Moreover, by
1941, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers were secretly ferrying British fighter planes between the UK
and the Mediterranean war zones, and the British Royal Navy was receiving supply and repair
assistance at American naval bases in the United States.

Thus, by mid-1941, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the Allied side with a policy of "all aid
short of war."[92] Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
on August 14, 1941, to develop the Atlantic Charter in what was to be the first of several
wartime conferences. In July 1941, Roosevelt ordered Henry Stimson, Secretary of War to begin
planning for total American military involvement. The resulting "Victory Program," under the
direction of Albert Wedemeyer, provided the President with the estimates necessary for the total
mobilization of manpower, industry, and logistics to defeat the "potential enemies" of the United
States.[93] The program also planned to dramatically increase aid to the Allied nations and to have
ten million men in arms, half of whom would be ready for deployment abroad in 1943. Roosevelt
was firmly committed to the Allied cause and these plans had been formulated before the Attack
on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan.

Pearl Harbor

Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan, December 8, 1941.

After Japan occupied northern French Indochina in late 1940, he authorized increased aid to
the Republic of China. In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder of Indo-China, he cut
off the sales of oil. Japan thus lost more than 95% of its oil supply. Roosevelt continued
negotiations with the Japanese government. Meanwhile he started shifting the long-range B-17
bomber force to the Philippines.[95]
 On December 4, 1941, The Chicago Tribune revealed "Rainbow Five," a top-secret war plan
drawn up at President Franklin Roosevelt's order. "Rainbow Five" called for a 10-million man
army invading Europe in 1943 on the side of Britain and Russia.[96]

On December 6, 1941, President Roosevelt read an intercepted Japanese message and told his
assistant Harry Hopkins, "This means war."[97] He never warned Admiral Husband Kimmel or Lt.
Gen. Walter Short after reception of the message before the Pearl Harbor attack.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, destroying or
damaging 16 warships, including most of the fleet's battleships, and killing more than 2,400
American military personnel and civilians. In the weeks after the attack the Japanese conquered
the Philippines and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, taking Singapore in
February 1942 and advancing through Burma to the borders of British India by May, cutting off
the overland supply route to the Republic of China. Antiwar sentiment in the United States
evaporated overnight and the country united behind Roosevelt. It is at this time Roosevelt gave
the famous "Infamy Speech" in which he said this:"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date
which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked
by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Despite the wave of anger that swept across the U.S. in the wake of Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt
decided from the start that the defeat of Nazi Germany had to take priority. On December 11,
1941, this strategic Europe First decision was made easier to implement when Germany and Italy
declared war on the United States.[98] Roosevelt met with Churchill in late December and planned
a broad informal alliance between the U.S., Britain, China and the Soviet Union, with the
objectives of halting the German advances in the Soviet Union and in North Africa; launching an
invasion of western Europe with the aim of crushing Nazi Germany between two fronts; and
saving China and defeating Japan.

Internment of Germans, Japanese and Italians

There was some pressure to intern German Americans and Italian Americans even while the
United States declared its neutrality.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor by forces of the Japanese Empire, there was growing pressure to
imprison Japanese and Japanese-Americans on the West Coast of the United States. This
pressure grew due to fears of terrorism, espionage, and/or sabotage. On February 19, 1942,
President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which imprisoned the "Issei" (first generation
of Japanese who immigrated to the US) and their children, "Nisei" (who were US citizens).

After both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy unilaterally declared war on the United States,
German Americans and Italian Americans were also interned more widely.
War strategy

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of China (left), Roosevelt (middle), and Winston Churchill
(right) at the Cairo Conference in 1943.

The "Big Three" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin), together with Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek cooperated informally in which American and British troops concentrated in
the West, Russian troops fought on the Eastern front, and Chinese, British and American troops
fought in the Pacific. The Allies formulated strategy in a series of high profile conferences as
well as contact through diplomatic and military channels. Roosevelt guaranteed that the U.S.
would be the "Arsenal of Democracy" by shipping $50 billion of Lend Lease supplies, primarily
to Britain and also to the USSR, China and other Allies.

Roosevelt acknowledged that the U.S. had a traditional antipathy towards the British Empire. In
One Christmas in Washington,[99] a dinner meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill is
described, in which Roosevelt is quoted as saying:

"It's in the American tradition, this distrust, this dislike and even hatred of Britain – the
Revolution, you know, and 1812; and India and the Boer War, and all that. There are
many kinds of Americans of course, but as a people, as a country, we're opposed to
Imperialism—we can't stomach it."

The U.S. War Department took the view that the quickest way to defeat Germany was to invade
France across the English Channel. Churchill, wary of the casualties he feared this would entail,
favored a more indirect approach, advancing northwards from the Mediterranean Sea. Roosevelt
rejected this plan. Stalin advocated opening a Western front at the earliest possible time, as the
bulk of the land fighting in 1942–44 was on Soviet soil.

The Allies undertook the invasions of French Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) in
November 1942, of Sicily (Operation Husky) in July 1943, and of Italy (Operation Avalanche) in
September 1943. The strategic bombing campaign was escalated in 1944, pulverizing all major
German cities and cutting off oil supplies. It was a 50-50 British-American operation. Roosevelt
picked Dwight D. Eisenhower, and not George Marshall, to head the Allied cross-channel
invasion, Operation Overlord that began on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Some of the most costly battles
of the war ensued after the invasion, and the Allies were blocked on the German border in the
"Battle of the Bulge" in December 1944. When Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Allied forces
were closing in on Berlin.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese advance reached its maximum extent by June 1942,
when the U.S. Navy scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Midway. American and Australian
forces then began a slow and costly progress called island hopping or leapfrogging through the
Pacific islands, with the objective of gaining bases from which strategic airpower could be
brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be invaded. Roosevelt gave way
in part to insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against
Japan; he always insisted on Germany first.

Post-war planning

The "Big Three" Allied leaders (left to right) at Yalta in February, 1945: Churchill, Roosevelt
and Stalin.

The "Big Three" Allied leaders (left to right) at Yalta in February, 1945: Churchill, Roosevelt
and Stalin.By late 1943, it was apparent that the Allies would ultimately defeat Nazi Germany,
and it became increasingly important to make high-level political decisions about the course of
the war and the postwar future of Europe. Roosevelt met with Churchill and the Chinese leader
Chiang Kai-shek at the Cairo Conference in November 1943, and then went to Tehran to confer
with Churchill and Stalin. While Churchill viewed Stalin as a tyrant, when warned of potential
domination by a Stalin dictatorship over part of Europe, Roosevelt responded with a statement
summarizing his rationale for relations with Stalin: "I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that
kind of a man. . . . I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from
him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world
of democracy and peace."[100] At the Tehran Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill told Stalin
about the plan to invade France in 1944, and Roosevelt also discussed his plans for a postwar
international organization. For his part, Stalin insisted on the redrawing the frontiers of Poland.
Stalin supported Roosevelt's plan for the United Nations and promised to enter the war against
Japan 90 days after Germany was defeated.

By the beginning of 1945, however, with the Allied armies advancing into Germany and the
Soviets in control of Poland, the issues had to come out into the open. In February, Roosevelt,
despite his steadily deteriorating health, traveled to Yalta, in the Soviet Crimea, to meet again
with Stalin and Churchill. While Roosevelt maintained his confidence that Stalin would keep his
Yalta promises regarding free elections in eastern Europe, one month after Yalta ended,
Roosevelt's Ambassador to the USSR Averill Harriman cabled Roosevelt that "we must come
clearly to realize that the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal
liberty and democracy as we know it."[101] Two days later, Roosevelt began to admit that his view
of Stalin had been excessively optimistic and that "Averell is right."[101] Americans of Eastern
European descent criticized the Yalta Conference for failing to curtail the Soviets' formation of
the Eastern Bloc. Regarding earlier wartime decisions, a desire to maintain a good working
relationship with Stalin during the war may have been a factor in Roosevelt's reluctance to agree
with Churchill's proposal to aid the Poles in the Warsaw Uprising against Stalin's wishes and
suppressing a report by George Earle that assigned responsibility for the Katyń Massacre to the
Soviets.[102]

Fourth term and death, 1945

Election of 1944

Roosevelt, who turned 62 in 1944, had been in declining health since at least 1940. The strain
of his paralysis and the physical exertion needed to compensate for it for over 20 years had taken
their toll, as had many years of stress and a lifetime of chain-smoking. By this time, Roosevelt
had numerous ailments including chronic high blood pressure, emphysema, systemic
atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease with angina pectoris, and myopathic hypertensive heart
disease with congestive heart failure. Dr. Emanuel Libman, then an assistant pathologist at
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, reacting to Roosevelt's appearance in newsreels,
remarked in 1944 that "It doesn't matter whether Roosevelt is re-elected or not, he'll die of a
cerebral hemorrhage within 6 months."[103]

Aware of the risk that Roosevelt would die during his fourth term, the party regulars insisted that
Henry A. Wallace, who was seen as too pro-Soviet, be dropped as Vice President. After
considering James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, and being turned down by Indiana Governor
Henry F. Schricker, Roosevelt replaced Wallace with the little-known Senator Harry S. Truman.
In the 1944 election, Roosevelt and Truman won 53% of the vote and carried 36 states, against
New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.

Last days, death and memorial

The President left the Yalta Conference on February 12, 1945, and flew to Egypt and boarded
the USS Quincy operating on the Great Bitter Lake near the Suez Canal. Aboard Quincy, the
next day he met with Farouk I, king of Egypt, and Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia. On
February 14, he held a historic meeting with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, a
meeting which holds profound significance in U.S.-Saudi relations even today.[104] After a final
meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Quincy steamed for Algiers,
arriving February 18, at which time Roosevelt conferred with American ambassadors to Britain,
France and Italy.[105] At Yalta, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commented on
Roosevelt's ill health: "He is a very sick man. He has all the symptoms of hardening of the
arteries of the brain in an advanced stage, so that I give him only a few months to live".[106]
 Roosevelt meets with King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia onboard the USS Quincy at the Great
Bitter Lake

When he returned to the United States, he addressed Congress on March 1 about the Yalta
Conference,[107] and many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while
seated in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical incapacity. (He
opened his speech by saying, "I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting
down during the presentation of what I want to say, but...it makes it a lot easier for me not to
have to carry about ten pounds of steel around on the bottom of my legs." This was his only
public mention of his disability.) But mentally he was still in full command. "The Crimean
Conference," he said firmly, "ought to spell the end of a system of unilateral action, the exclusive
alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have
been tried for centuries – and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a
universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join."[108]

During March 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his
Yalta commitments over Poland, Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin
accused the western Allies of plotting a separate peace with Hitler behind his back, Roosevelt
replied: "I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are,
for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates."[109]

On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to Warm Springs to rest before his anticipated appearance at
the founding conference of the United Nations. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I
have a terrific headache." He collapsed, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The
president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage
(stroke). At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died. As Allen Drury later said, “so ended an era, and
so began another.” An editorial by The New York Times declared, "Men will thank God on their
knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House," after
Roosevelt's death.[110]

At the time he collapsed, Roosevelt had been sitting for a portrait painting by the artist
Elizabeth Shoumatoff, resulting in the famous Unfinished Portrait of FDR.
 Roosevelt's funeral procession

In his latter years at the White House, Roosevelt was increasingly overworked and his daughter
Anna Roosevelt Boettiger had moved in to provide her father companionship and support. Anna
had also arranged for her father to meet with his former mistress, the now widowed Lucy Mercer
Rutherfurd. Shoumatoff, who maintained close friendships with both Roosevelt and Mercer,
rushed Mercer away to avoid negative publicity and implications of infidelity. When Eleanor
heard about her husband's death, she was also faced with the news that Anna had been arranging
these meetings with Mercer and that Mercer had been with Franklin when he died.

Roosevelt's death was met with shock and grief across the U.S. and around the world. His
declining health had not been known to the general public. Roosevelt had been president for
more than 12 years, longer than any other person, and had led the country through some of its
greatest crises to the impending defeat of Nazi Germany and to within sight of the defeat of
Japan as well.

As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the
Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park. After her death in November 1962, Eleanor was buried
next to him.

Less than a month after his death, on May 8, came the moment Roosevelt fought for: V-E Day.
President Harry Truman, who turned 61 that day, dedicated V-E Day and its celebrations to
Roosevelt's memory, paying tribute to his commitment to ending the war in Europe. He also kept
flags across the U.S. at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, again to pay
tribute to Roosevelt's commitment to ending the war in Europe.

Civil rights issues

Roosevelt's record on civil rights has been the subject of much controversy. He was a hero to
large minority groups, especially African-Americans, Catholics, and Jews. African-Americans
and Native Americans fared well in the New Deal relief programs, although they were not
allowed to hold significant leadership roles in the WPA and CCC. Roosevelt needed the support
of Southern Democrats for his New Deal programs, and he therefore decided not to push for anti-
lynching legislation that might threaten his ability to pass his highest priority programs.
Roosevelt was highly successful in attracting large majorities of African-Americans, Jews, and
Catholics into his New Deal coalition. Beginning in 1941 Roosevelt issued a series of executive
orders designed to guarantee racial, religious, and ethnic minorities a fair share of the new
wartime jobs. He pushed for admission of African-Americans into better positions in the
military. In 1942 Roosevelt made the final decision in ordering the internment of Japanese,
Italian, and German Americans (many not released until well after the war's end) during World
War II. Beginning in the 1960s he was charged[111] with not acting decisively enough to prevent
or stop the Holocaust which killed six million Jews. Critics cite episodes such as when, in 1939,
the 936 Jewish refugees on board the SS St. Louis were denied asylum and not allowed into the
United States.

Administration, Cabinet, and Supreme Court appointments

1933–1945
The FDR Cabinet
OFFICE NAME TERM
Franklin D. 1933–
President
Roosevelt 1945
Vice 1933–
John Nance Garner
President 1941
1941–
Henry A. Wallace
1945
Harry S. Truman 1945
1933–
State Cordell Hull
1944
Edward R. 1944– Official White House portrait of Franklin D.
Stettinius, Jr. 1945 Roosevelt
1933– President Roosevelt appointed eight Justices
War George H. Dern
1936 to the Supreme Court of the United States, more
1936– than any other President except George
Harry H. Woodring
1940 Washington, who appointed ten. By 1941, eight
of the nine Justices were Roosevelt appointees.
1940–
Henry L. Stimson Harlan Fiske Stone was elevated to Chief
1945
Justice from the position of Associate Justice by
1933– Roosevelt.
Treasury William H. Woodin
1934
Henry Morgenthau, 1934–  Hugo Black – 1937
Jr. 1945  Stanley Forman Reed – 1938
 Felix Frankfurter – 1939
Homer S. 1933–
Justice  William O. Douglas – 1939
Cummings 1939
 Frank Murphy – 1940
1939–  Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice) –
Frank Murphy
1940 1941
 James Francis Byrnes – 1941
 1940–  Robert H. Jackson – 1941
Robert H. Jackson  Wiley Blount Rutledge – 1943
1941
1941–
Francis B. Biddle Roosevelt's appointees would not share
1945
ideologies, and some, like Hugo Black and Felix
1933– Frankfurter, would become "lifelong
Post James A. Farley
1940 adversaries."[112] Frankfurter even labeled his
1940– more liberal colleagues Rutledge, Murphy,
Frank C. Walker Black, and Douglas as part of an "Axis" of
1945
opposition to his judicially conservative agenda.
1933– [113]
Navy Claude A. Swanson
1939
Charles Edison 1940
1940–
Frank Knox
1944
1944–
James V. Forrestal
1945
1933–
Interior Harold L. Ickes
1945
1933–
Agriculture Henry A. Wallace
1940
1940–
Claude R. Wickard
1945
1933–
Commerce Daniel C. Roper
1938
1939–
Harry L. Hopkins
1940
1940–
Jesse H. Jones
1945
Henry A. Wallace 1945
1933–
Labor Frances C. Perkins
1945

Legacy
 The Four Freedoms engraved on a wall at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in
Washington.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's gravesite in the Rose Garden in their Hyde Park home.

A 1999 survey by C-SPAN found that by a wide margin academic historians consider
Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Roosevelt the three greatest presidents, consistent
with other surveys.[114] Roosevelt is the sixth most admired person from the 20th century by US
citizens, according to Gallup.

A bottle from Wheaton Glass Industries' presidential collection recognizing FDR, with the
reverse side inscribed "...we have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Both during and after his terms, critics of Roosevelt questioned not only his policies and
positions, but also the consolidation of power that occurred because of his lengthy tenure as
president, his service during two major crises, and his enormous popularity. The rapid expansion
of government programs that occurred during Roosevelt's term redefined the role of the
government in the United States, and Roosevelt's advocacy of government social programs was
instrumental in redefining liberalism for coming generations.[117]

Roosevelt firmly established the United States' leadership role on the world stage, with
pronouncements such as his Four Freedoms speech, forming a basis for the active role of the
United States in the war and beyond.

After Franklin's death, Eleanor Roosevelt continued to be a forceful presence in U.S. and world
politics, serving as delegate to the conference which established the United Nations and
championing civil rights. Many members of his administration played leading roles in the
administrations of Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, each of whom embraced Roosevelt's political
legacy.[118]

Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park is now a National historic site and home to his Presidential
library. His retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia is a museum operated by the state of Georgia. His
summer retreat on Campobello Island is maintained by the governments of both Canada and the
United States as Roosevelt Campobello International Park; the island is accessible via the
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge.

The Roosevelt Memorial is located in Washington, D.C. next to the Jefferson Memorial on the
Tidal Basin, and Roosevelt's image appears on the Roosevelt dime. Many parks and schools, as
well as an aircraft carrier and a Paris subway station and hundreds of streets and squares both
across the US and the rest of the world have been named in his honor.

Reflecting on Roosevelt's presidency, "which brought the United States through the Great
Depression and World War II to a prosperous future", said FDR's biographer Jean Edward Smith
in 2007, "He lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation from its knees."[119]

Coat of Arms
 An older version of the Roosevelt coat of arms, painted by Alexander Liptak.

The Roosevelts can trace their ancestry to Claes Maartenszen van Rosenvelt, who used for his
coat of arms a white shield charged with a bush displaying three roses in their natural colours all
on a grassy mound, and for a crest three ostrich feathers each divided into red and white halves.
The arms Roosevelt used were slightly modified, ridding the arms of the mound and using three
stemmed roses rather than a full rose bush.

The arms are in a style of heraldry called canting, which tries to depict a family name pictorially.
The name van Rosenvelt means "from the field of roses" in the native Dutch, thus the arms used
by the Roosevelts are a visual representation of the name.

Roosevelt made much use of his arms, from decorating christening robes with the family roses,
to bookplates, to signet rings, to full displays in the family home. Roosevelt gave to his wife,
Eleanor, a gold pin of the full arms as a wedding gift. When King George VI made a state visit,
Roosevelt had frames decorated with his crest of three ostrich feathers handed out to members of
the royal entourage, most likely done in good humour because the Roosevelt crest would have
seemed very similar to the badge used by the Prince of Wales which also included three ostrich
feathers.