Roosevelt, Franklin Delano << ROH zuh vehlt, FRANK lihn DEHL uh noh >> (1882-1945), was the 32nd president of the United States. Roosevelt, a Democrat, held the office from 1933 to 1945. He was elected president four times and occupied the White House for over 12 years—longer than any other president in American history. Roosevelt led the United States through two of the greatest crises in the country’s history: the Great Depression of the 1930’s and World War II (1939-1945).
During the Depression, the United States and countries throughout the world struggled with high unemployment and declining business activity. Roosevelt led an ambitious government program—known as the New Deal—to help relieve economic distress. During World War II, he led the nation in a successful military operation that had farther-reaching consequences than any other war effort in history. Roosevelt died in 1945, three months after the start of his fourth term. Since that time, historians have often ranked him, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, as one of the nation’s greatest presidents.
Loading the player...Franklin Roosevelt
Roosevelt was born into a wealthy and socially prominent New York family. He was a distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. Franklin’s admiration of his cousin inspired his own entry into politics. Before becoming president, Franklin served in the New York State Senate, as assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, and as governor of New York.
A new era in American history began under Roosevelt. For the first time, the federal government took strong action in an attempt to restore a troubled economy. Roosevelt said he wanted to help the average American, whom he called the “forgotten man.” He promised relief for unemployed workers and struggling farmers.
Under Roosevelt’s leadership, the government put stronger controls on business and finance than ever before. The government spent billions of dollars on relief and public works, and it set up dozens of new agencies. Many of the agencies became known mainly by their initials. They included the WPA (Works Progress Administration), CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), and NRA (National Recovery Administration). Roosevelt himself became widely known as FDR.
President Roosevelt was both bitterly hated and deeply loved. Critics charged that his policies gave the federal government too much power. They accused Roosevelt of taking over many rights that should have belonged to the states. Many Americans thought his government controls over business threatened the country’s free enterprise system—a system that traditionally allows people to carry out economic activities free from government control. However, millions of Roosevelt’s supporters considered him a friend and protector of the “common man.”
Roosevelt’s cheerful personality and optimistic outlook helped give hope to a troubled nation. He had two famous “trademarks.” They were the glasses that he wore clipped to the bridge of his nose and the cigarette holder that jutted upward from his mouth.
People in all parts of the world admired Roosevelt for his personal courage. At the age of 39, polio almost completely paralyzed the main muscles below his waist. Still, he refused to give up his career of public service. During his presidency, most people knew he had developed polio. The extent of his disability, however, was largely hidden from the public.
Early life and family
Boyhood.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on Jan. 30, 1882, in the village of Hyde Park, New York. The family estate, called Springwood, was on the east bank of the Hudson River. Franklin was the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano, both descendants of prominent families that had arrived in America before the American Revolution (1775-1783).
James was 53 years old when Franklin was born. He dabbled in business but devoted most of his time to running the family estate. James was in poor health during Franklin’s youth, but he remained active in local affairs. He served as an official at the nearby St. James’ Episcopal Church. Sara was 26 when she gave birth to Franklin. She was strong, intelligent, and confident of her values and way of life. Franklin had a half-brother, James Roosevelt Roosevelt, the son of James and his first wife, Rebecca Brien Howland, who had died in 1876.
Franklin grew up with all the advantages that wealth and social standing could bring. By the age of 10, he had met the American writer Mark Twain, President Grover Cleveland, and members of European royalty. By the age of 15, he had traveled to Europe eight times.
Franklin’s parents raised him with loving firmness. They taught him that a gentleman cares for the poor, does not flaunt his wealth, and does not burden others with his problems.
Education.
As a boy, Franklin was schooled by tutors and had few friends his own age. In 1896, at the age of 14, Roosevelt entered Groton School, an exclusive boarding academy near Boston. Groton sought to prepare its students for positions of leadership in society. Roosevelt made good grades but remained something of an outsider among his fellow students.
In 1900, Roosevelt enrolled at Harvard University. He majored in history, but his real interests lay outside the classroom. He joined a number of social clubs and earned some campus fame as editor of the school newspaper, The Crimson.
After graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School, but he withdrew before completing his degree. He had learned enough, however, to pass the state bar examination. He took a position as managing clerk with a New York City law firm before pursuing a career in politics.
Roosevelt’s family.
Roosevelt and his distant cousin Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) had known each other slightly since childhood. He began to court her seriously while at Harvard, and in 1903, they became engaged. Franklin and Eleanor married on March 17, 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor’s uncle, gave the bride away. Loading the player...
Eleanor Roosevelt
The Roosevelts had six children: Anna Eleanor (1906-1975); James (1907-1991); Franklin Delano, Jr. (who died in infancy in 1909); Elliott (1910-1990); Franklin Delano, Jr. (1914-1988); and John (1916-1981). James and Franklin, Jr., both served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Entry into politics
State senator.
Since his teens, Roosevelt had idolized his cousin Theodore. So when an opportunity presented itself, Franklin launched his own career in politics. Theodore was a Republican, but Franklin followed his father by joining the Democratic Party.
In 1910, Roosevelt accepted an invitation from state Democratic leaders to run for a seat in the New York State Senate. Republicans had dominated the district for over 50 years, and it seemed unlikely that an inexperienced Democrat could win. But Roosevelt appealed to voters with his earnestness and energy. He spoke out against corruption in government and “big-city bosses.” The Republicans, meanwhile, suffered from divisions within the party. Roosevelt surprised veteran politicians by winning the election.
Roosevelt took his seat in the State Senate in January 1911. Early in his term, Roosevelt led an effort to defeat a U.S. Senate candidate favored by Tammany Hall, the powerful Democratic group in New York City. At that time, the state legislatures elected U.S. senators. Roosevelt’s action brought him great publicity, yet some of his colleagues found him arrogant. Louis McHenry Howe, a reporter, saw promise in Roosevelt and quickly became his most valuable adviser.
Assistant secretary of the Navy.
In 1912, Roosevelt endorsed Democrat Woodrow Wilson for the presidency. After Wilson was elected, he appointed Roosevelt assistant secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt was an outspoken supporter of naval expansion and called for a larger role for the United States in world affairs. He sometimes said things that set him at odds with his boss, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. But Daniels recognized Roosevelt’s talent and taught him much about national politics.
In 1914, Roosevelt sought the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from New York. However, Tammany Hall strongly opposed him, and Roosevelt lost by a wide margin.
The United States entered World War I (1914-1918) in April 1917. Roosevelt wanted to serve in the military, but Daniels persuaded him to stay at his desk. In 1918, Roosevelt toured European battlefields and met with military leaders overseas.
Family crisis.
From the beginning of their marriage, Franklin and Eleanor had slowly drifted apart. Franklin was confident and outgoing, but Eleanor often felt overwhelmed by the demands of being a political spouse. Probably in 1916, Franklin fell in love with Eleanor’s social secretary, Lucy Mercer. When Eleanor learned about the relationship in 1918, she insisted that Franklin either stop seeing Lucy or agree to a divorce. Some family insiders believed the crisis matured Franklin and made Eleanor more determined to be her own person.
Candidate for vice president.
In 1920, Democratic leaders selected Roosevelt as the party’s candidate for vice president. Roosevelt was handsome and energetic, and he had built a strong record as assistant secretary of the Navy. Party leaders also felt that he, as a New Yorker, would provide regional balance with the party’s presidential candidate, James M. Cox of Ohio.
Cox and Roosevelt lost in a landslide to the Republican team of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. But Democratic leaders did not blame Roosevelt for the outcome. Roosevelt used the experience to build relationships with party leaders and to assemble a staff that would stay with him long after the campaign.
Battle with polio
Polio strikes.
In August 1921, Roosevelt and his family vacationed at their summer home on Campobello Island, off the coast of Maine. An avid outdoorsman, Franklin loved to sail and swim. But one afternoon, he returned home feeling chilled and weary. Too tired to dress for dinner, he went to bed early. The next morning, as he climbed out of bed, he found that his left leg was numb. Before long, he ran a high fever and suffered terrible pain. Doctors diagnosed the illness as poliomyelitis, also called pronounced infantile paralysis, or polio.
At age 39, Franklin Roosevelt was almost completely paralyzed below his waist. Never again would he walk without heavy leg braces. From then on, such routine tasks as getting into and out of bed, bathing, and dressing all required great effort.
Treatment.
Despite his disability, Roosevelt resolved to lead a normal life. He refused to accept that his paralysis was permanent, and he was determined to restore health to his muscles. Roosevelt tried all the cures and therapies known at the time. When one failed to work, he tried another. Eventually, he placed his hopes for recovery with the mineral-rich waters of Warm Springs, Georgia. In 1926, Roosevelt bought the springs and the surrounding land. The next year, he and a group of friends established the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. For many years, the foundation provided low-cost treatment for polio patients.
Roosevelt never regained full use of his legs, but he managed to live with his disability. Through strenuous exercise, he learned to lift himself into and out of a wheelchair. With the help of heavy steel leg braces, he managed to stand on his feet for long periods. He even had an automobile outfitted with hand controls so that he could drive.
Roosevelt feared that the public would be unwilling to elect a “cripple” to high office, so he worked to hide the severity of his disability. He prohibited news photographers from taking pictures of him in a wheelchair, being lifted into or out of automobiles, or being carried up flights of stairs. As a result, few people during his lifetime knew the extent of his disability.
Still, Roosevelt played a major role in the efforts that ultimately led to the virtual elimination of polio in the United States. He helped establish the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which eventually financed the research that led to a vaccine for polio.
Return to politics
Even as he was learning to adapt to his disability, Roosevelt was planning his political comeback. Aided by Louis Howe, he began corresponding with Democratic leaders throughout the country. In 1924, Roosevelt returned to the national scene at the Democratic National Convention, where he nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for president. Thundering cheers met Roosevelt as he moved slowly to the podium, aided by his son James. Smith did not get the nomination, but Roosevelt gained attention as a Democratic leader.
In 1928, Roosevelt again nominated Smith, and this time, Smith won the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Smith promptly asked Roosevelt to run for governor of New York. At first, Roosevelt refused, wanting instead to continue his polio treatments at Warm Springs. But Smith believed that Roosevelt’s candidacy would strengthen his own chances of carrying the state, and he finally persuaded Roosevelt to run. In the election for governor, Roosevelt won a narrow victory. Smith, however, lost both New York state and the presidential election to Herbert Hoover.
Governor of New York.
As governor, Roosevelt became a spokesman for a number of liberal causes. He supported old age insurance, regulation of utilities, conservation of natural resources, and abolition of the death penalty. Following the onset of the Great Depression, he set up a statewide system of relief for the unemployed—the first such system in the nation. Roosevelt used the new medium of radio to explain to the public why unemployment relief and other reforms were needed.
Roosevelt won reelection in 1930 by 725,000 votes—at that time the largest margin of victory in New York’s history. The election proved his popularity and established him as the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932.
Election of 1932.
Despite his front-runner status, Roosevelt faced obstacles on his way to the nomination. Some critics doubted his personal fitness for the presidency. Even Roosevelt’s bubbling optimism struck some as oddly inappropriate in the midst of the worst economic crisis in the nation’s history. Still, with the help of Louis Howe and James A. Farley, the Democratic Party chairman in New York, Roosevelt secured the nomination on the fourth ballot. For his running mate, he chose one of his rivals for the nomination, John Nance Garner of Texas, the speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Roosevelt flew to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, thus becoming the first candidate of a major party to accept the nomination in person. “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal of the American people,” he told cheering delegates.
The Republicans, meanwhile, renominated President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis. Almost all political experts predicted a Democratic sweep in the November elections, and Roosevelt waged a cautious campaign. He offered few specifics and pledged to cut government spending and waste. As expected, Roosevelt swept to victory. He received 57 percent of the popular vote, compared with 40 percent for Hoover. He carried 42 states to only 6 for his opponent.
An uneasy transition.
The economy—and the nation’s spirits—hit bottom in the months between Roosevelt’s election in November and the March inauguration. One of every four workers was jobless, and the nation’s banking system teetered near collapse. Two meetings between Roosevelt and President Hoover to discuss emergency measures during the transition period accomplished nothing. Loading the player...
Great Depression
On Feb. 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, a bricklayer suffering from mental illness, tried to assassinate Roosevelt in Miami. Roosevelt escaped injury, but the shots fired by Zangara killed Mayor Anton J. Cermak of Chicago. In the aftermath of the shooting, Roosevelt showed courage and poise. Over the objections of Secret Service agents, he remained at the scene until emergency help arrived.
Roosevelt’s first administration (1933-1937)
On March 4, 1933, Roosevelt took charge of a nation on the edge of economic collapse. His first inaugural address is famous for Roosevelt’s assurance that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But many who heard the speech at the time found another passage even more stirring. The new president said that if Congress failed to act immediately, he would ask Congress for the power to take action himself. He would seek “broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”
Loading the player...Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) inaugural speech
The banking crisis
was Roosevelt’s first and most urgent concern. For several weeks, anxious depositors, worried about the stability of their banks, had been withdrawing large amounts of cash and gold. The ”runs” on banks ruined many institutions. Since the start of the Depression, bank failures had wiped out the life savings of millions of depositors.
To prevent a collapse of the nation’s financial system, Roosevelt declared a “bank holiday.” This action closed every bank in the United States until the Department of the Treasury could examine every bank’s books. Institutions in good financial condition were allowed to reopen. Those in doubtful condition remained closed until they could regain a firm footing.
On March 12, 1933, Roosevelt gave the first, and perhaps most important, of his famous “fireside chats,” in which he spoke to the nation over radio. In plain language, he explained the causes of the bank crisis and the steps the government was taking to resolve it. The bank holiday, coupled with the reassuring fireside address, calmed public fears and ended the bank panic. 
The Hundred Days.
On March 9, 1933, Roosevelt had called Congress into special session. Thus began the period of busy legislative activity that became known as the “Hundred Days.” From March 9 to June 16, Congress passed—and Roosevelt signed—some 15 major recovery and relief measures. The measures eventually became known as the “First New Deal.”
The laws sought to address the economic crisis in a variety of ways. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) regulated farm production and offered farmers the promise of higher prices for their products. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) allowed the president to set up codes of fair competition for businesses and industries. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) cooperated with the states in relieving hardships caused by unemployment and drought. The Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put thousands of jobless Americans to work. Other programs came to the rescue of homeowners, bank customers, and stock market investors. See New Deal (table: Leading New Deal agencies). 
Roosevelt and his group of advisers became known as the “Brain Trust,” and many people considered them the masterminds of the entire New Deal. However, Roosevelt was more interested in providing leadership and educating the public than in crafting legislation. Of the 15 major bills of the Hundred Days, most originated in Congress. Many, such as unemployment relief and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), had legislative histories long predating Roosevelt’s time in office.
Another legislative development came in December 1933. That month, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution ended Prohibition, the ban on making, selling, or transporting alcoholic beverages.
Opposition to the New Deal.
Roosevelt remained popular, but by 1934, his administration faced increasing criticism. Millions of Americans were dissatisfied with the slow pace of recovery. Leaders of business and finance complained that Roosevelt had abandoned his campaign promise to cut spending. Critics also said that New Deal regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), were destroying the free enterprise system. Clashes between labor and management often erupted into violence. Even some of Roosevelt’s admirers began to worry that he had lost his reassuring touch.
Second New Deal.
In 1935, Roosevelt moved to quiet the political unrest. He demanded action on an ambitious legislative agenda, much of which was already under consideration in Congress. What followed was an outpouring of legislation comparable in importance, if not in volume, to that of the Hundred Days. The period became known as the “Second Hundred Days,” or the “Second New Deal.”
During 1935, the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act, enforced the New Deal’s earlier promise to protect labor’s right to form unions. The Social Security Act set up a national system of unemployment compensation and old-age and survivor’s insurance. Roosevelt also supported the creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Under the direction of Roosevelt adviser Harry Hopkins, the WPA built thousands of bridges, hospitals, roads, and schools. It hired out-of-work actors to put on plays, artists to create paintings at post offices and train stations, and authors to write state and city guidebooks.
Foreign policy.
Roosevelt described his foreign policy as that of a “good neighbor.” This phrase came to be used to describe the U.S. attitude toward the countries of Latin America. Under Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, the United States took a stronger lead in promoting good will among these nations.
In 1934, Roosevelt’s government canceled the Platt Amendment, which had given the United States broad powers to become involved in Cuban affairs. The government also withdrew American occupation forces from some Caribbean republics, and it settled long-standing oil disputes with Mexico. The United States signed trade agreements with a number of Latin American countries between 1934 and 1937. These countries included Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In 1935, the United States signed treaties of nonaggression and conciliation with six Latin American countries. The United States also signed several trade pacts with Canada.
Roosevelt also used personal diplomacy. In July 1934, he took a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, and thus became the first president to visit South America. In 1936, he attended the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On the way home, he visited Montevideo, Uruguay.
Roosevelt hoped that trade could resume between the United States and the Soviet Union. Partly for this reason, the Roosevelt administration recognized the Soviet government in November 1933. The United States and the Soviet Union had broken off diplomatic relations after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1933, for the first time in 16 years, the two countries exchanged diplomatic representatives.
Praise and criticism.
As Roosevelt neared the end of his first term, millions of Americans viewed him as a friend and savior. They hung his pictures in their homes, named their children after him, and flooded the White House with personal letters, poems, and even song compositions. Roosevelt’s opponents were similarly passionate. Some critics spoke of him as a dangerous radical who threatened to destroy the American way.
Eleanor Roosevelt, meanwhile, emerged as a major public figure in her own right. She wrote books and articles, held press conferences, gave speeches, traveled widely, and championed civil rights and other causes.
Election of 1936.
The Democrats nominated Roosevelt for a second term in 1936. The Republicans, meanwhile, nominated Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. During the campaign, Roosevelt urged voters to ask themselves, “Am I better off now than I was four years ago?” Although the Depression was far from over, voters responded with a resounding “yes.” Roosevelt swept every state except Maine and Vermont and received nearly 61 percent of the popular vote.
The 1936 election signified the emergence of the New Deal coalition (partnership)—a combination of voting groups that would shape national politics for decades to come. Most farmers, intellectuals, unemployed workers, wage earners, and members of minority groups supported the New Deal and voted Democratic. Most southerners and residents of big cities also backed the party.
Roosevelt’s second administration (1937-1941)
In 1933, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States had established that presidential terms begin on January 20. Roosevelt’s second inauguration, in 1937, was the first to take place on that date.
Roosevelt faced a variety of challenges in his second term. Chief among them were struggles with the Supreme Court of the United States, an economic downturn, and the beginning of World War II.
The Supreme Court.
During Roosevelt’s first term, he faced several challenges to the New Deal from the Supreme Court. In 1935 and 1936, the court had struck down a host of measures, including the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). It also had overturned important state laws, creating a legal “no man’s land” where neither the federal nor state governments could act. If the court continued on its course, it might strike down the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and other New Deal proposals.
Shortly after the inauguration, Roosevelt proposed a reorganization of the Supreme Court. One of his proposed changes would have given Roosevelt the power to appoint up to six additional justices to the court. Roosevelt described the plan as a way to improve the court’s efficiency. Critics, however, charged that the proposal was an attempt by Roosevelt to “pack” the court with justices who agreed with his own views. In addition, Roosevelt offended lawmakers by springing the plan on them with no warning. Roosevelt’s plan never made it to a formal vote in either house of Congress.
Roosevelt’s struggle with the court injured his political reputation, encouraged his foes, and damaged Democratic Party unity. It also spurred the growth of a conservative coalition of Republicans and southern Democrats in Congress. This group, though small in number, blocked many New Deal measures.
Still, soon after Roosevelt presented his plan, the Supreme Court appeared to reverse itself. The court voted in favor of New Deal measures, such as the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act. In addition, a series of retirements and deaths among the justices eventually allowed Roosevelt to appoint eight new members to the court.
Recession of 1937.
The United States suffered a serious setback in 1937, when the country experienced an economic recession. A recession is an economic downturn that is shorter and less extreme than a depression.
Between 1933 and 1937, the economy had improved. Prices, profits, and national income had risen, and unemployment fell from about 25 to 14 percent. At long last, the country seemed to be recovering from the Great Depression. In fact, Roosevelt and his advisers now began to worry that the pace of economic recovery threatened uncontrolled inflation, or sharp rises in prices. To prevent an inflationary surge, Roosevelt slashed federal spending for relief and public works. He also encouraged the Federal Reserve Board to tighten credit requirements, or lending rules. Soon after these actions went into effect, however, the recession of 1937 struck. The downturn was so severe that it threatened to wipe out all the gains made since Roosevelt took office. Critics labeled the downturn “the Roosevelt Recession.”
Members of the administration debated the causes of the recession and the ways to bring about recovery. Roosevelt was not convinced that spending was the best way to stimulate the economy, but he nonetheless canceled his spending cuts.
Despite the recession and other setbacks, Roosevelt had a number of legislative successes in his second term. From 1937 to 1939, Congress passed major farm legislation, created a public housing program, expanded the Social Security system, enacted a landmark child labor measure, and established a national system of minimum wages and maximum hours.
The road to war.
Foreign policy surged to the forefront during Roosevelt’s second term, when a series of international crises demanded the president’s attention. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, political unrest and poor economic conditions had enabled radical dictatorships to come to power in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, began a brutal campaign of hatred and violence against Jews and others. Aggressive actions by Germany, Japan, and Italy threatened the uneasy peace that had existed since the end of World War I.
Most Americans viewed these developments with alarm. At the same time, they questioned whether the United States, with so many troubles of its own, should take an active role in addressing these global issues. By the 1930’s, the majority of Americans had come to believe that the United States had made a mistake by entering World War I. Most people did not want the country to become involved in another worldwide conflict.
On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, and World War II began. Two days later, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. Roosevelt immediately pressed Congress to aid the Allies—the United Kingdom, France, and later the Soviet Union—in the war with Germany.
Roosevelt’s request brought heated debate. On one side were the interventionists, who supported aid to the Allies short of an American declaration of war. On the other side were the isolationists, who feared being dragged into an unnecessary war. Isolationists accused Roosevelt of warmongering—that is, of trying to get the United States into the war. The president and his supporters argued that the isolationists were ignoring the dangers of Nazi Germany.
In most cases, Congress gave Roosevelt what he wanted. For instance, it changed the nation’s neutrality law that had prohibited the United States from furnishing weapons or other war supplies to nations at war. At Roosevelt’s request, Congress also approved a huge increase in defense spending. Roosevelt directed some of these funds to the Manhattan Project, a top-secret drive to develop the atomic bomb.
Roosevelt took some bold steps without congressional authorization. Following a major German offensive in the spring of 1940, which ended in the fall of France, Roosevelt negotiated a deal to help the British. The United States gave the United Kingdom 50 destroyers (warships) in exchange for 99-year leases on British naval bases in the Western Hemisphere.
Roosevelt brought into his Cabinet two prominent Republicans: Henry L. Stimson as secretary of war and Frank Knox as secretary of the Navy. These moves served as a nod to bipartisanship (agreement between political parties) and strengthened the voice of interventionists within his administration. Both men favored all-out aid to the United Kingdom. The United States adopted its first peacetime selective service, or military draft, law in September 1940.
Election of 1940.
During Roosevelt’s time, the Constitution did not limit the number of terms a president could serve. However, no previous chief executive had ever served longer than eight years. As the international situation worsened, Roosevelt’s supporters encouraged him to seek a third term. Roosevelt waited until the last moment to make his intentions clear. In one of the most suspenseful political conventions in history, the Democrats nominated Roosevelt for the third time.
Roosevelt would have a new running mate in the 1940 election, however. Democratic delegates chose Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace to replace Garner as the vice presidential candidate. Meanwhile, the Republicans nominated Wendell L. Willkie of Indiana, a corporation president who was new to politics. Willkie supported Roosevelt’s foreign policy and favored many New Deal programs.
The Republicans based their campaign on the tradition that no president had ever sought three consecutive terms. Roosevelt defended his administration’s programs and promised to try to keep the nation out of war. Roosevelt carried 38 of the 48 states to win his third term as president.
Roosevelt’s third administration (1941-1945)
In the months following Roosevelt’s third inauguration, the nation edged closer to war. On March 11, 1941, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. The law authorized the U.S. government to provide war supplies to any nation that the president deemed vital to the nation’s security.
In August 1941, Roosevelt met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on a cruiser anchored off Newfoundland, Canada. The two men adopted a declaration that became known as the Atlantic Charter. They pledged not to seek gains, “territorial or otherwise”; to respect the right of every nation to choose its own form of government; to guarantee freedom of the seas; and to conduct peaceful world trade. 
Pearl Harbor.
Relations between the United States and Japan had become increasingly tense. Roosevelt was concerned that continued Japanese aggression would force the British to shift resources away from the European war to the defense of its colonies in Southeast Asia. Roosevelt imposed on Japan a number of tough economic and trade restrictions. The United States cut off vital exports to Japan and barred the withdrawal of Japanese funds from American banks.
On Dec. 7, 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull met with two Japanese diplomats. While they talked, Japanese planes launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which lay at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japanese leaders hoped to knock out the Pacific Fleet so that it could not block Japan’s expansion in Asia. The attack destroyed or damaged many U.S. ships and aircraft and killed nearly 2,400 Americans. Loading the player...
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Franklin Roosevelt responds to Pearl Harbor attack
President Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day. He said that December 7 was “a date which will live in infamy.” The United States declared war against Japan on December 8. Three days later, on December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States then declared war on those countries.
The United States goes to war.
Roosevelt suggested the name United Nations for the alliance that fought the Axis nations of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Although the group came to be known as the Allies, it formed the basis for the peacetime United Nations organization that was established in 1945. 
After Pearl Harbor, the United States faced a situation as dire as that of the Great Depression. Abroad, the Axis powers had put the United States and its allies on the defensive, with Germany and Japan dangerously close to winning the war. At home, the situation was equally bleak. Production snags, labor shortages, ethnic and racial tensions, and general confusion hampered preparations for war.
Early on, Roosevelt made a key strategic decision. Even though it was Japan that had attacked the United States, he made the defeat of Germany his first priority. He reasoned that Germany posed the greater threat to the security and strategic interests of the United States.
Roosevelt’s top commanders, including Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, argued for an American and British invasion across the English Channel into Nazi-controlled France. The Soviet Union, which had suffered huge casualties during German offensives, also favored this strategy. Winston Churchill and his advisers, however, argued for a different course of action. They favored postponing the invasion of France and instead launching a joint offensive to drive the Axis forces from North Africa. Roosevelt wavered on this question for six months. Then, to the frustration of his top commanders and the Soviet Union, he sided with Churchill.
On Nov. 8, 1942, Allied troops commanded by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower of the U.S. Army landed in Algeria and Morocco, in North Africa. After the landings began, Roosevelt spoke by radio to the French people in their own language. He explained the need for the Allies to drive the Axis forces out of French territory in North Africa. The last Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in May 1943. Later that summer, the Allies invaded southern Italy and began pushing north.
It would not be until June 1944 that the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Allied troops launched the cross-Channel invasion into France. June 6—the date of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in northwestern France—became known as D-Day. The fighting in Normandy continued late into August and ended with an Allied victory. See Normandy, Battle of.
The Big Three.
During the war, Roosevelt traveled outside the United States a number of times for conferences with Allied leaders. He became the first U.S. president to leave the country during wartime. Early in 1943, he met with Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco. The two leaders announced that they would accept only unconditional surrender by the Axis nations. In other conferences, Roosevelt discussed problems of war and peace with both Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin came to be known as the “Big Three.” Roosevelt also conferred with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of China in 1943. 
In November 1943, the Big Three met at Tehran, Iran. During and after this conference, Roosevelt worked to get Churchill and Stalin to agree on major war aims. At Tehran, he refused to have lunch with Churchill before meeting with Stalin. The president did not want Stalin to think he and Churchill had made a separate agreement. Still, Stalin distrusted his allies’ intentions and rarely consulted them. See Tehran Conference.
The home front.
Roosevelt’s domestic leadership was critical to the war effort. His fireside chats helped reassure the nation and drive both the military and civilians to meet ambitious wartime goals. After a sluggish start, American war industries achieved astonishing feats, producing many of the guns, tanks, planes, and ships used by the Allied armies. In the end, this productivity was perhaps the single most important contribution to victory made by the United States.
The most dramatic development on the home front was the economic recovery, which was driven by the huge increase in government spending for war purposes. The production of war materials provided so many jobs that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to about 1 percent in 1944.
Congress granted Roosevelt broad authority to manage the military aspects of the war. But on matters not directly related to war conduct, Roosevelt was frequently at odds with lawmakers, including members of his own party. The conservative coalition of Republicans and southern Democrats in Congress chipped away at the remaining programs of the New Deal.
In 1944, lawmakers from both parties came together to pass, by unanimous votes, the first GI Bill, the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, for veterans of World War II. The measure guaranteed education assistance, medical benefits, unemployment insurance, and low-interest home loans to veterans of the war. Of the many laws enacted during the Roosevelt presidency, the GI Bill probably ranked second only to the Social Security Act in its long-term impact on the economy.
Roosevelt generally supported civil rights. In February 1942, however, he approved measures against Japanese Americans that many people now consider unnecessary and discriminatory. The president yielded to political pressure and ordered the internment (confinement) of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry in the United States. At that time, many Americans viewed people of Japanese descent as potentially dangerous and disloyal. With little warning, the U.S. government forced people to leave their homes and live in camps. A government commission later concluded that the internment was the result of racism, war hysteria, and poor leadership. See Japanese American internment.
Roosevelt created a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to prevent defense industries and the federal government from treating workers unfairly because of their race. But fearing a white backlash that might endanger the war effort, he declined to end segregation (separation of the races) in the armed services.
Election of 1944.
The Democrats nominated Roosevelt for the fourth time in July 1944. Delegates replaced Vice President Wallace, who was unpopular with many in the party, with Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri. The Republicans, meanwhile, nominated Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York for president and Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio for vice president.
Roosevelt’s biggest obstacle to reelection was his health. Earlier in the year, Roosevelt’s doctors had diagnosed him with heart disease at an advanced stage, but Roosevelt rallied. A grueling campaign swing through New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago convinced his supporters that he was back in top form. Roosevelt won an easy election victory, carrying 36 of the 48 states.
Roosevelt’s fourth administration (1945)
Roosevelt often claimed that he yearned to retire to his home in Hyde Park, New York. He struggled with his health, and he looked tired and pale. But with the war still in progress, he continued his presidency into a fourth term.
Yalta Conference.
Just days after his fourth inauguration, Roosevelt met Churchill and Stalin at Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea in the southern Soviet Union. On Feb. 11, 1945, the three leaders issued the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which repeated the principles of the Atlantic Charter and the Casablanca conferences.
Loading the player...Franklin Roosevelt's fourth inaugural address
The leaders mapped the final assault against the Germans and set out a plan for the postwar occupation of Germany. They also planned a meeting in San Francisco to lay the foundations for the United Nations (UN). In a secret agreement, the Soviet Union promised to enter the war against Japan within three months after the surrender of Germany. In return, the Soviet Union was to receive the Kuril Islands and other areas. Critics later charged that Roosevelt had been cheated by Stalin. See Yalta Conference.
On March 1, while reporting to Congress on the Yalta meeting, Roosevelt made one of his rare public references to his disability. “I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down,” he said, but “it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about 10 pounds of steel around at the bottom of my legs.”
Death.
By the spring of 1945, the war in Europe was nearing an end, and the war in the Pacific was going well. In March, Roosevelt visited “the Little White House,” his long-time retreat in Warm Springs. Eleanor, who maintained a demanding schedule, did not accompany him on the trip. Joining him instead were several staff members and cousins Laura Delano and Margaret (also known as Daisy) Suckley. Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the woman whom he had loved years earlier, arrived on April 9. The two had seen each other from time to time during the 1940’s, especially since the death of her husband the year before.
By Thursday, April 12, Roosevelt seemed to have regained some of his strength. He spent the morning reading and chatting with his cousins and Lucy Rutherfurd. At noon, Elizabeth Shoumatoff, a portrait artist, arrived to work on a water-color painting of the president. Shortly after 1 p.m., he passed his hand over his forehead several times. “I have a terrific headache,” he said softly. He then slumped forward in his chair. By the time his doctor arrived, he was unconscious and breathing heavily. Soon thereafter, his breathing stopped.
At 3:35 p.m., the doctor pronounced Roosevelt dead of a cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding from a broken blood vessel in the brain). As news of his death spread, a crowd, silent with grief, gathered in front of the White House. Millions of people in all parts of the world mourned the dead president.
Roosevelt was buried at Hyde Park. His home and library there have been set aside as the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site. In 1997, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
