Roosevelt, Franklin D(elano)

b. 1882; d. 1945

32nd President of the USA, born at Hyde Park, New York. President Theodore Roosevelt was a distant cousin. Educated at Groton and Harvard, he graduated in 1904. He studied law at Columbia University, and while there married Eleanor Roosevelt. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1907. He was elected as a Democrat to the New York Senate, 1910 and 1912; and served as assistant secretary to the navy, 1913-20. He was Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1920, and a year later he contracted poliomyelitis. He remained active in national Democratic politics, and in 1928 he was elected governor of New York State. Re-elected in 1930 he acquired a reputation as a moderate progressive and an effective administrator and political leader.

In 1932 in the midst of the economic depression, the Republicans again chose Herbert Hoover as their presidential candidate. At the Democratic national convention Roosevelt was finally nominated. His nomination pledge of 'a new deal for American people' seized the popular imagination, and he won the election easily. Roosevelt chose his Cabinet carefully, but gave little indication as to his programme before the inauguration. While in Florida he escaped an assassination attempt. Roosevelt's inauguration speech pledged immediate and drastic action. With a Democratic majority in Congress, he was able to obtain reform legislation. His plans for national recovery involved industrial regulation, but legislation such as the National Recovery Act of 1933 and the Agricultural Adjustment Act were challenged in the courts and declared unconstitutional.

By 1935 Roosevelt could claim some success, but he was also under political attack from both Left and Right. Nevertheless he was confident of winning re-election as president in 1936, and did so by a landslide margin. His initial effort to reorganise the Supreme Court was not accepted by Congress, but the Court opposition to his legislation diminished. However, Congress proved less easy to handle. In foreign affairs Roosevelt took what steps he could to reinforce the cause of peace, such as by his 'good neighbour' policy in Latin America. In 1938 he began more fully to exercise his influence in European affairs, sending appeals to Hitler during the Czech crisis urging the maintenance of peace. Early in 1939 he told Congress he would take any step short of war to stop aggression. When the European war broke out Roosevelt declared America's neutrality, but later the ban on armaments was relaxed under the 'cash and carry' plan. With the fall of France, however, American public opinion began to change, and demands for a large programme of national defence were made.

In 1940 Roosevelt broke with tradition and stood for a third presidential term. He won comfortably, and quickly introduced his lend-lease proposals, indicating that a better-armed Britain was essential to American liberty and plainly intimating that America would become the 'arsenal of democracy'. In early 1940 he defined the 'four freedoms' essential to world peace. Later he announced that all measures would be taken to ensure delivery of supplies to Britain. Having sent troops to Iceland, he met Churchill and drew up the Atlantic Charter. Roosevelt invited Congress to revise the Neutrality Act.

On 7 December 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States declared war. Roosevelt's task was to make an isolationist public see the conflict not as an occasion to punish Japan but as a world conflict. By the summer of 1942 huge quantities of supplies were being transported overseas for the assistance of the Allies. In 1943 Roosevelt met with Churchill in Casablanca to consider every aspect of the war. At home Roosevelt faced labour unrest. In November 1943 Roosevelt met with Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek to discuss future military operations against Japan, and later met with Stalin for the first time. At home, despite increased opposition to his social policy, Roosevelt succeeded in obtaining the Democratic presidential nomination for the fourth time, and was again elected president.

In February 1945 he met with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta where agreement was reached for joint military operations against Germany. He had accepted joint responsibility with Britain and Russia for the solution of political problems in Europe, and looked forward to the San Francisco conference. Suddenly, however, he died while resting at Warm Springs, Georgia.

There is little doubt as to the exceptional qualities of Roosevelt as president and political leader in both times of serious economic depression and war. His triumph in attacking economic depression was matched by his skill in times of war. Yet despite his personal popularity, his domestic policies in particular were always bitterly opposed by sections of the population. He was also accused of vanity and ruthlessness, even of handing over Eastern Europe to the Russians. His greatness lay perhaps in his pragmatism in dealing with the problems of a complex nation, rescuing the economy and changing basic foreign policy attitudes. During his period in office the national government came to assume responsibility for the economic well-being of Americans and the security of other nations.

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