The United States that elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt president in 1932 was quite different from the country that mourned his death thirteen years later in 1945. Getting out of the Great Depression was the primary issue of Roosevelt's first presidential campaign and it remained his paramount concern during his first two terms in office until world war became unavoidable.
FDR was born in Hyde Park, New York, on 30 January 1882, to a wealthy family who spent part of each year living in Europe. Roosevelt attended both Harvard College and Columbia University School of Law where he was an undistinguished student. His cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, was a role model for him throughout his life. Not only did he marry Theodore's niece, but he also followed in his footsteps to live a life of public service.
Roosevelt's early political career included several terms as a senator in New York and the role of assistant secretary of the navy under President Woodrow Wilson. He was later nominated for vice president with Democratic presidential hopeful James M. Cox. They lost by a wide margin.
Shortly after the loss of this election, Roosevelt was stricken with poliomyelitis and was unable to walk without the help of braces and assistance. This did not stop his rise to political prominence, however. After some years of recuperation, he was persuaded to run for governor of the state of New York.
He won and served in that capacity through the most catastrophic months of the Depression. In 1932, he became the Democratic nominee for president. When he was elected, he began a term of service that was, and still is, the longest presidential term in the United States.
In his first term, Roosevelt launched the New Deal, a campaign to mend the ailing economy. This reform package promised aid to farmers, public development of electric power, a balanced budget, and anti-trust legislation. During his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt was largely successful in securing a coalition of Democrats and Republicans in Congress to ensure passage of his reforms.
Roosevelt continued to be reelected through his ability to build a constituency and secure social reforms in domestic affairs. It was not until his third term that matters beyond America's borders demanded the president's attention. Roosevelt had practiced an isolationist policy in response to the war in the Pacific and Hitler's rise to power. But when Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor, isolationist policies were abandoned.
"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 . . . . There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend not their homes alone but the tenets of faith and humanity on which their churches, their government, and their very civilizations are founded."
Thus began a speech to Congress by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that resulted in an almost unanimous vote to declare war on Japan.
In a matter of days, Japan's Axis ally, Germany, also declared war on the United States. From that point on, "Dr. Economy," the name Roosevelt had earned for his reform policies, became "Dr. Win the War" for the duration.
Throughout the war, Roosevelt guided the alliance among heads of state in countries fighting the Axis powers. He met often with Churchill in wartime conferences held in the United States and abroad. The Normandy invasion, or Operation Overlord, launched in June 1944, was the supreme Allied effort. Overlord led to Germany's surrender and victory in Europe. With the loss of a powerful ally, Japan eventually surrendered to the Allied forces.
But the president did not live to see the final victory. Roosevelt died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945, leaving a nearly victorious nation to mourn the loss of a great leader who had led them through the Great Depression, prompted them to social reform, inspired them through the war, and guided them to unprecedented industrial growth as a nation.
