Happy Birthday FDR
On January 30, 1882 (141 years ago today) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, was born at Hyde Park, New York, the son of James and Sarah Roosevelt. Describing the life of the man known by his initials FDR in a few paragraphs is no easy task. FDR is unique for spending the longest amount of time with his bottom in the president's chair. He served for 12 years and was elected to four consecutive terms. (His death prevented him from completing his last one.) He is the only president ever to serve more than eight years in office. He was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States through a time of worldwide economic depression and a world war. His New Deal domestic policies defined American liberalism for the rest of the 20th century.
Born into a wealthy New York family, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was enamored by his energetic and illustrious 5th cousin Theodore Roosevelt, and he followed in TR's footsteps, serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and later as the Governor of New York. (The two supported different parties however. TR was a Republican and FDR was a Democrat). In 1920 FDR ran unsuccessfully for Vice-President on a ticket led by James Cox of Ohio. They two lost to the team of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In 1921 he contracted polio, robbing him of the ability to walk. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never to be seen in it in public. He was never portrayed by the press in a way which disclosed his disability. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons. FDR used a car with specially designed hand controls.
In 1932, FDR was chosen as the Democratic Party Candidate for President. He used the upbeat popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme and he defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in the midst of the Great Depression. In his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt spearheaded major legislation and issued a number of executive orders that implemented what he called "the New Deal". These programs were designed to provide government jobs for the unemployed, stimulate economic growth, and reform and regulate institutions such as Wall Street, banks and transportation companies. The economy did improve rapidly from 1933 to 1937, but then relapsed into a recession. A bipartisan "conservative coalition" was formed in 1937 to prevent Roosevelt from increasing the size of the Supreme Court (in order to fill it with like-minded reformers).
A World War appeared a distinct possibility in 1938, when Japan invaded China and Nazi Germany also took expansionist action. FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Great Britain, while remaining officially neutral. He planned to make America the supplier of munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany. With strong national support, he declared war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". He planned for the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the Allied war effort. As an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented an overall war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first atom bomb. In 1942 Roosevelt ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians.
During the war, unemployment dropped to 2%, relief programs largely ended, and the industrial economy grew rapidly as millions of people found jobs in war centers, and 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service. All economic sectors grew during the war and manufacturing output doubled.
FDR's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnic communities, African Americans, and rural white Southerners. He was re-elected in 1936, 1940 and again in 1944. But he did not live to see the end of the war or the implementation of his plans for a post-war economy. The challenges of his presidency took a toll on his health, and he looked much older than his 63 years. He attended the Yalta Conference in February of 1945, and then flew to Egypt for a meeting with King Farouk I of Egypt, and Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia. Later he met with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia. After a final meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he traveled to Algiers to meet with the American ambassadors to Britain, France and Italy. At Yalta, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commented on Roosevelt's ill health, saying that FDR "was a dying man." When Roosevelt returned to the United States, he addressed Congress on March 1 about the Yalta Conference, and many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, something unusual for him.
On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to his "Little White House" at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. The photo shown above is the last one ever taken of him. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." That was as much of a Farewell Address as he was allowed to give. He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke). At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died. At the time he collapsed, Roosevelt had been sitting for a portrait painting by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, known as the famous Unfinished Portrait of FDR.
Roosevelt is consistently rated by historians as one of the top three U.S. Presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
Born into a wealthy New York family, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was enamored by his energetic and illustrious 5th cousin Theodore Roosevelt, and he followed in TR's footsteps, serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and later as the Governor of New York. (The two supported different parties however. TR was a Republican and FDR was a Democrat). In 1920 FDR ran unsuccessfully for Vice-President on a ticket led by James Cox of Ohio. They two lost to the team of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. In 1921 he contracted polio, robbing him of the ability to walk. In private, he used a wheelchair, but he was careful never to be seen in it in public. He was never portrayed by the press in a way which disclosed his disability. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons. FDR used a car with specially designed hand controls.
In 1932, FDR was chosen as the Democratic Party Candidate for President. He used the upbeat popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme and he defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in the midst of the Great Depression. In his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt spearheaded major legislation and issued a number of executive orders that implemented what he called "the New Deal". These programs were designed to provide government jobs for the unemployed, stimulate economic growth, and reform and regulate institutions such as Wall Street, banks and transportation companies. The economy did improve rapidly from 1933 to 1937, but then relapsed into a recession. A bipartisan "conservative coalition" was formed in 1937 to prevent Roosevelt from increasing the size of the Supreme Court (in order to fill it with like-minded reformers).
A World War appeared a distinct possibility in 1938, when Japan invaded China and Nazi Germany also took expansionist action. FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Great Britain, while remaining officially neutral. He planned to make America the supplier of munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany. With strong national support, he declared war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a "date which will live in infamy". He planned for the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the Allied war effort. As an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented an overall war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first atom bomb. In 1942 Roosevelt ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians.
During the war, unemployment dropped to 2%, relief programs largely ended, and the industrial economy grew rapidly as millions of people found jobs in war centers, and 16 million men and 300,000 women were drafted or volunteered for military service. All economic sectors grew during the war and manufacturing output doubled.
FDR's New Deal Coalition united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnic communities, African Americans, and rural white Southerners. He was re-elected in 1936, 1940 and again in 1944. But he did not live to see the end of the war or the implementation of his plans for a post-war economy. The challenges of his presidency took a toll on his health, and he looked much older than his 63 years. He attended the Yalta Conference in February of 1945, and then flew to Egypt for a meeting with King Farouk I of Egypt, and Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia. Later he met with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia. After a final meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he traveled to Algiers to meet with the American ambassadors to Britain, France and Italy. At Yalta, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commented on Roosevelt's ill health, saying that FDR "was a dying man." When Roosevelt returned to the United States, he addressed Congress on March 1 about the Yalta Conference, and many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, something unusual for him.
On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to his "Little White House" at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. The photo shown above is the last one ever taken of him. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." That was as much of a Farewell Address as he was allowed to give. He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke). At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died. At the time he collapsed, Roosevelt had been sitting for a portrait painting by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, known as the famous Unfinished Portrait of FDR.
Roosevelt is consistently rated by historians as one of the top three U.S. Presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.