Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or
FDR, was the very decision
oriented 32nd president of the United States.
Image Above
Detail from the photograph of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt shaking hands with Wiley
Post; circa 1932-1934.
USGS
FDR was the only
president in the history of the United States who served a third and
even a fourth term.
Roosevelt, a Democrat, was in office from 1933 to
1945.
FDR's hobbies were fishing, swimming, ship models, and his stamp
collection. He was a good communicator. Everyone, no matter how highly
educated, understood what he meant.
FDR mistakenly believed
Stalin's
promises in spite of the warnings from his intelligence office.
However, he managed to lead the nation through the
Great Depression
and
World War II.
Even though he got very sick with
poliomyelitis he still stayed active in the duties of his office.
FDR's Family
FDR's parents were
James and
Sara Delano Roosevelt.
In 1928, FDR followed
Al Smith as governor of New York.
As such, on September 23, 1932, Roosevelt
was invited to give a speech at the
Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California, addressing
"Present Public Problems."
At the time, FDR was in the middle of
his presidential campaign and addressing more than 1,700 people of
influence sounded like a good idea. FDR delivered his
Commonwealth Club Address,
in which he gave his view of democracy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt promised during
his campaign to get the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Defeating current President
Herbert Hoover with a massive
win, FDR was elected President in November 1932.
By spring of 1933, when FDR took the
oath of office, unemployment had risen from 8 to 15 million
(roughly 1/3 of the non-farmer workforce) and the gross national
product had decreased from $103.8 billion to $55.7 billion.
Forty percent of the farms in
Mississippi were on the auction block on FDR's inauguration day.
Although the depression was world
wide, no other country except Germany reached so high a
percentage of unemployed.
The poor were hit the hardest. By
1932, Harlem had an unemployment rate of 50 percent and property
owned or managed by blacks fell from 30 percent to 5 percent in
1935.
Farmers in the Midwest were doubly
hit by economic downturns and the Dust Bowl. Schools, with
budgets shrinking, shortened both the school day and the school
year.
The breadth and depth of the crisis made it the Great
Depression.
February 15, 1933, Miami, Florida - The following is an excerpt from
the excellent book Just 2 Seconds (Gavin de Becker et al.)
Giuseppe Zangara read in the
newspaper that President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt would visit
Bayfront Park. He was waiting among a crowd of 10,000 people in
the bleachers when Roosevelt's motorcade pulled up and stopped.
Roosevelt made a short speech from
his open car, and then Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak came
down from the stage to visit with Roosevelt.
Zangara fired five shots from a .32
revolver at a distance of 25 feet. Five people were hit: Three
bystanders collapsed with head wounds, a woman was struck in the
stomach, and Cermak was hit in the right side, striking his
lung.
Though Roosevelt was not injured,
Cermak died from his wounds three weeks after the attack.
The Fireside Chats were FDR's radio broadcasts to the American
Nation, which he delivered in order to calm fears, rally support for reforms, and to
restore confidence.
These radio messages became known as
Fireside Chats, after a journalist reported on Roosevelt's radio
speech from May 7, 1933, pointing out that this was the President's
unofficial, relaxed, and personal communication with the citizens.
Because the expression Fireside Chats
is not an official one, it can be argued which ones of FDR's
speeches qualify to be named as such.
Here is an unofficial list of all
Fireside Chats, published by the
FDR
Library and Museum, 31 messages are listed.
2. Outlining the New Deal Program (May 7, 1933) White House
3. First Hundred Days: The Purposes and Foundations of the
Recovery Program (July 24, 1933) White House
4. The Currency Situation (October 22, 1933) White House
5. Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress
(June 28, 1934) White House
6. Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Security (September 30,
1934) White House
7. Works Progress Administration and Social Security (April 28,
1935) White House
8. Drought Conditions and the Plight of Farmers (September 6,
1936) White House
9. Reorganization of the Judiciary (March 9, 1937) White House
10. New Proposals to Special Session of Congress and on the
Storm Clouds Abroad (October 12, 1937) White House
11. The Unemployment Census (November 14, 1937) White House
12. Economic Conditions (April 14, 1938) White House
13. The Democratic Party Primaries (June 24, 1938) White House
14. The War in Europe (September 3, 1939) White House
15. National Defense and Military Readiness (May 26, 1940) White
House
16.
Arsenal of Democracy: The Lend-Lease Program (December 29,
1940) White House
17. Proclaiming a National Emergency (May 27, 1941) White House
18. Freedom of the Seas (September 11, 1941) White House
19. War with Japan (December 9, 1941) White House
20. Progress of the War (February 23, 1942) White House
21. National Economic Policy During War: The Call for Sacrifice
(April 28, 1942) White House
22. Food Price Stabilization and the Progress of the War
(September 7, 1942) Hyde Park
23. Report on the Home Front (October 12, 1942) White House
24. The Coal Strike Crisis (May 2, 1943) White House
25. The Fall of Mussolini and Plans for Peace (July 28, 1943)
White House
26. Italian Armistice and Launching the Third War Loan Drive
(September 8, 1943) White House
27. Report on the Teheran and Cairo Conferences (December 24,
1943) Hyde Park
28. State of the Union: National Service and Economic Bill of
Rights (January 11, 1944) White House
29. The Capture of Rome (June 5, 1944) White House
30. Launching the Fifth War Loan Drive (June 12, 1944) White
House
31. Fireside Chat (Abridged) Version of Message to Congress on
Return from Yalta Conference: Work-or-Fight and Vision for the
United Nations (January 6, 1945) White House
His efforts resulted in the
Social
Security Act of August 14, 1935.
Franklin D.
Roosevelt's Foreign Policy
On August 14, 1936, FDR delivered his
Good Neighbor Policy speech, in which he outlined the
current U.S. foreign policy.
Franklin D.
Roosevelt's Second Term
On January 20, 1937, Roosevelt delivered his
Second Inaugural Address. He was the first president
inaugurated on January 20, according to the 20th Amendment to the
Constitution, which was passed by Congress March 2, 1932, and
ratified January 23, 1933.
And it reads:
The terms of the President and
the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January,
and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d
day of January, of the years in which such terms would have
ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of
their successors shall then begin.
On October 5, 1937, FDR delivered his
Quarantine the Aggressor speech, in which he suggested just
that. This speech stirred up a lot of sentiment.
FDR and Lend-Lease
In order to assist Britain and her allies in World
War II, FDR came up with
the Lend-Lease concept, which he introduced in a White House news
conference on December 17, 1940.
In 1940, Roosevelt was nominated for a third term of presidency, for
which he and his Democrats got a lot of heat. Why the fuss? Because
since
George Washington it had been the tradition for a president to
take his hat and leave after two terms at the very latest.
Roosevelt outlined the national policy
of his third term in his State of the Union address before Congress
on January 6, 1941, in his
The Four
Freedoms speech.
On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt gave
his Address at a Union Dinner, the Dinner of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of
America, to be exact. Let's call it his
American Labor speech.
Franklin D.
Roosevelt's Fourth Term
Going for the record, FDR was given yet another term. On January 20,
1945, he delivered his
Fourth Inaugural Address on the South Portico of the White
House in Washington D.C.
This time, the inauguration ceremony was
kept simple and without any frills. FDR's vice president was
Harry S. Truman.
Greco-Persian Wars
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 to
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
is more:
