Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the greatest president to ever lead the United States of America. He was a very fascinating, strong-willed, intelligent, and courageous man. Many difficult events happened during FDR’s presidency that many other presidents before would have buckled under the pressure, but not him. He seemed to always have a plan for every challenge thrown his way. America could use a president like him today to help this nation achieve greatness once again. Roosevelt was born on January 30th, 1882 to a Mr. James Roosevelt who was 53 at the time of birth and a Mrs. Sara “Sallie” Roosevelt whom was 26 at the time of birth. His father, James, was a very wealthy business man and took his family overseas many times, something most families in this time period did not get to experience. He attended a public school for about six weeks and the rest of his time was spent in a private school by the name of Groton. He then went on to study history and eventually get his BA degree from Harvard. Yet, that was not enough for FDR. He continued his education at New York’s Columbia Law School and passed his bar exam in 1907. (Tothero www.presidentialtimeline.com) While studying at Columbia he married a distant cousin of his named Eleanor Roosevelt. They had six children, five of which survived infancy. Only three years after passing his bar exam, Roosevelt landed a job in the New York state senate; then again in 1912. Through the spoils system, which granted people jobs that were sometimes less qualified and just knew the right people; in this case it was Woodrow Wilson, FDR gained the position of secretary to the Navy. Teddy Roosevelt, the nation’s 26th president and FDR’s distant relative, also held this job title before he became president. Roosevelt served in this position until 1920 the same year he decided to run for vice president under James M. Cox on the democratic ticket that “lost overwhelmingly” to Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. (“Franklin”) Roosevelt then went back to studying law. Sadly, in 1921, while vacationing in Canada, FDR was plagued with polio which paralyzed him from the waist down. Through his courageousness and work ethic he eventually regained some feeling in his legs and was able to somewhat walk on his own. Warm Springs, Georgia was a place loved by Franklin. He believed it had healing powers and helped with his condition. Although, it could have been that a woman by the name of Lucy Rutherford often met with him while staying in Warm Springs. Lucy was the woman that FDR had an affair with for most of his life even after 1918, the year his wife had caught him in this affair, she never caught them again. (McKay) Despite his handicap he stayed in politics and in 1928 won the election for governor of New York and won again for reelection in 1930. With many financial problems swirling around our nation Roosevelt decided to start surrounding himself with a tight group of very high intellectuals ready to start making changes. Finally in 1932 a well deserving Roosevelt was elected as our nation’s 32nd president. He and John Garner as his vice defeated an “incumbent” Hoover with slightly over half of the popular vote, but 472 of the 531 electoral votes. (Kelly www.about.com) “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” (FDR quotes) This quote was heard in his inaugural address along with many promising new ideas that could greatly improve America’s twenty-five percent unemployment rate. Within the first week being in office Roosevelt abolished the much hated prohibition amendment. Not that it did much good anyhow, besides feeding gangsters money with their underground breweries. In FDR’s famous “100 days” included his “fire side chats” which were heard on the radio helped explain the details of his ideas. His “New Deal” created programs to drag the country out of its depression. Some of these more important programs include: * Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA) - This program paid farmers to plant less crops. That way the supply of crops would decrease and the price would increase. * Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – This program pretty much paid young men to plant trees, “it wasn’t much, but it was something”. * Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) – This program offered insurance to deposits made to banks. Drawing the population to trust banks once again. * Rural Electrification Administration (REA) - This program was introduced in order to give electricity to rural areas. * Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – This program was created in order to regulate stock exchanges, so that another crash could be avoided. * Social Security Board (SSB) – This program gave retirees money to live the rest of their lives on. * Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – This program allowed for hydro resources to be developed from the Tennessee River. (“FDR’s New Deal” www.angelfire.com)
In 1936 Franklin was elected to a second term. It was a much closer race than the last election and Roosevelt was criticized by many of his peers for even running again. None the less he won and the next four years saw the continuation of economic stability, military building, and another European war. In 1940 FDR defied usual tradition and ran for a third term. Once again he was criticized by many and once again he won the election. Roosevelt and his newly appointed vice president, Henry Wallace, mainly kept all eyes toward World War II during the third term. America had supported the allies through the lend-lease program for several years while maintaining our isolationism theory.
For the United States, World War II started on December 7th 1941, “a day that will live in infamy.” (“FDR quotes”) The Japanese bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack. A day after the bombings Roosevelt gave his famous Pearl Harbor speech and formally declared war for the last time in United States history. After winning many important battles on the Eastern and Western front Roosevelt finally had a meeting with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill in November of 1943 at Tehran. Churchill was weary of Stalin, but Roosevelt wanted to prove his loyalty to Russia and agreed with how to finish the war and post war reparations. In the last conference between Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill at Yalta they confirmed that German surrender is demanded and that Germany will be divided into four zones; each individual zones belonging to The U.S., The U.S.S.R., Great Britain, and France. The famous photo of these three leaders at Yalta is one of the very few photos of Roosevelt. In 1944 Roosevelt accomplished a feat that no other president had or even tried before, he won his fourth presidential election. This time he chose Harry Truman as his running mate. On April 12th, 1945 Franklin Delano died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Truman succeeded him and foresaw the German surrender about a month later. A few months after the German surrender the Japanese refused to follow suit and Truman agreed to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima August 6th, 1941; something that is questioned if Roosevelt would have ever agreed to. On August 9th, 1941 another atomic bomb was dropped this time on Nagasaki after Japan had still not surrendered. Finally after five days Japan unconditionally surrendered on August 14th. Even though some of FDR’s many ideas were questioned on their value he still lives as one of the greatest if not the greatest presidents to ever serve our country. His marriage had many problems and he was handicapped but neither should downplay his effectiveness as our 32nd president. He brought America out of the Great Depression and led us into and throughout most of a world war. Franklin will forever be remembered for these achievements and many of his New Deal programs still go on today. Roosevelt won four terms as president, something that would be near impossible today as the world is changing every second and the population is always demanding different things of our Commander in Chief. In 2012, Roosevelt, if still alive, would be running for his 20th term and I would still vote for him. Not because it would seem like tradition by then but because if he could accomplish what he did back then, why wouldn’t he be able to do it again now?

Works Cited
"FDR 's New Deal." N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/newdeal/>.
"FDR Quotes." Inspirational Quotes. Sharp Business Solutions, n.d. Web. 27 May 2011. <http://www.inspirational-quotes-and-quotations.com/fdr-quotes.html>.
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Hyde Park, N.Y.: 2010. Print.
Kelly, Martin. "Franklin D. Roosevelt." American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://americanhistory.about.com/od/franklinroosevelt/p/pfdroosevelt.htm>.
McKay, Doug. American History III. Southern State Community College, Hillsboro, OH. 23052011. Lecture.
Tothero, Ken. "Franklin D. Roosevelt." The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=32>.

Cited: "FDR 's New Deal." N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2011. &lt;http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/newdeal/&gt;. "FDR Quotes." Inspirational Quotes. Sharp Business Solutions, n.d. Web. 27 May 2011. &lt;http://www.inspirational-quotes-and-quotations.com/fdr-quotes.html&gt;. "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Hyde Park, N.Y.: 2010. Print. Kelly, Martin. "Franklin D. Roosevelt." American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2011. &lt;http://americanhistory.about.com/od/franklinroosevelt/p/pfdroosevelt.htm&gt;. McKay, Doug. American History III. Southern State Community College, Hillsboro, OH. 23052011. Lecture. Tothero, Ken. "Franklin D. Roosevelt." The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. &lt;http://www.presidentialtimeline.org/html/timeline.php?id=32&gt;.