In the dark days of the Depression and the tumultuous years of the Second World War, one man was instrumental in stirring the Unites States through these difficult times. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States was born in 1882 to a wealthy New York family. While studying law at Columbia University, Roosevelt married his 5th cousin Eleanor Roosevelt. Like her husband, Eleanor was a democrat and have a deep interest in politics but she was shy and referred to let her attractive, outgoing husband in public life, taking responsibility for raising their five children. Roosevelt was elected to the New York Senate in 1910 and then served as assistant secretary of the navy for several years under President Woodrow Wilson. He was the democrat’s vice presidential nominee in 1920 but the republic has won the election.
Before the year, tragedy struck when Roosevelt contracted polio and was permanently paralyzed. However, he refused to accept the prognosis and told himself to walk wearing iron braces so he could be photographed standing up vital for someone contemplating a career in public life.
And Roosevelt had his eye set on the highest public office in the land—is the governor of New York, a charismatic politician on 1932 presidential election at the height of the Great Depression.
The country was gripped with unemployment and Roosevelt proposed a new deal, involving massive government spending on relief programs, protection for workers and federal regulation of prices.
“First of all, let me escape my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
By the end of the 1930s, the depression was conquered but Germany’s invasion of Poland so war clouds got on the horizon. Although Roosevelt subscribed to a group naval policy of helping Americas European allies who are under attack, the help did not include military support. When France fell to Germany in 1940, the United States boosted its military capacity but still maintained its neutrality.
All these changed on December the 7th 1941 when the Japanese attacked America’s fleet of Pearl Harbor. The United States committed its military machine to the struggle and turned the tide of the war.
Roosevelt’s early experience as assistant secretary of the Navy served him well as commander in chief of Americas Armed Forces. He worked closely with his military advisers and was actively involved in developing military strategies. Roosevelt’s work with Woodrow Wilson’s administration had also given him an interest in developing a governing world body that would bring countries together to solve conflicts peacefully. Wilson’s League of Nations has not prevented World War II but Roosevelt was determined to pursue his vision.
He worked with allied leaders and Churchill and Stalin to develop the framework of the United Nations and assure the United States is was so entwined in world affairs. It could never again retreat to a policy of isolationism. The three allied leaders met in Tehran in 1943 to discuss the progress of the war to the opening of a second front in Europe. Two years later with the war in Europe before conclusion, they reconvened at the Yalta to develop an agreement on government post war Germany.
The off service of the conference Roosevelt seemed ill at the time and the trip turned out to be his last. The stresses of war he had been taking—health for several years and he died shortly after his return, a month before Germany finally surrendered.
Even more than 60 years after his death, Roosevelt is considered by a majority of Americans to be the greatest President of the 20th century.
Roosevelt said it was approach to public policy that he believe in bold persistent experimentation, taking method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
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