Erik+Ri.+-+FDR+-+SP13

Franklin Delano Roosevelt January 30, 1882 (Hyde Park, New York) - April 12, 1945 (Warm Springs, Georgia) Political Party: Democrat Terms: March 4, 1933- April 12, 1945 Vice Presidents: First Term:John Nance Garner 1933-1941, Henry A. Wallace 1941-1945 Fourth Term: Harry S. Truman 1945

Risen to the global stage, Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced the difficult challenge of reconstructing a nation battling the Great Depression. A nation faced with farming overproduction, disgraceful tariffs, and a disastrous overexpansion of credit, America was shaking in the face of peril. Trying to stay isolationist and avoid a costly war during a depression, Congress issued the notorious destroyer deal to Britain. For the price of fifty old model destroyers, Britain gave the United States eight valuable defensive bases across the world. Although Roosevelt seemingly violated the neutrality obligations, Roosevelt sent a message to the world that the United States would support “all aid short of war” to promote peace and justice throughout the world. The United States may have also intimidated foreign powers through their act of military trade by showing that the United States had the industrial power to produce and trade large quantities of arms to support a war effort. However as war began in Europe and along the Pacific, the United States took to its secretive positions, as it had before during the red scare, and became suspicious. Washington forcibly herded thousands of Japanese into concentration camps, even though well over half of them were born in the United States. Showing insecurity and a lack of awareness, the government carried out an unnecessary precaution and lost millions of dollars worth of property and foregone earnings for Japanese-Americans. Although the United States may have overstepped its bounds in maintaining global peace through various acts, the United States devoted itself to a moral cause and decided to fight two wars several thousand miles away to protect global and domestic tranquility.
 * Thematic Context **

Franklin Roosevelt and his administration deserve an A+ for their contributions in office. Challenged with a global depression and a world war, Roosevelt managed to hold off a war effort long enough to let the nation rise to its feet and declare itself ready to shoulder the industrial weight of war in across both oceans. Roosevelt’s accelerated but patient nature allowed him to manage the ongoing financial crisis and ensure future financial stability by using the war effort and global support of tranquility to mend the damaged economy. Serving the country domestically, Roosevelt also found it in his will to serve the greater good of the world, which is why he earns an A+ in terms of globalization.
 * Thesis Statement **

Roosevelt began his inaugural speech speaking of the financial crisis that was plaguing the nation and was delivering its hardest blows in the early 1930’s. Looking to fix the vast unemployment, which had reached about 25%, Roosevelt championed the fact that he believed the government, “treating the task as we would the emergency of war,” could greatly decrease unemployment through project which would stimulate the use of natural resources. Roosevelt believed military and labor jobs was what was going to bring America back to life again and drag the country out of the depression. Roosevelt also touched on the topic of material wealth. "Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits," Roosevelt acknowledged. Although America was in a depression, Roosevelt wanted not a lack of money to be the cause. He touched on the basis that although fear and financial insecurity laid a heavy burden on the heart of American citizens, simple awareness could change Americans for the better and teach them what to pay attention to in order to be happy. Roosevelt ended his inaugural address by praising the simple beauty of the Constitution. Enduring war and bitter internal strife, the Constitution still granted the government simple truths to lead the country through disaster and change as needed to adapt to current situations. He also recognized the extraordinary federal powers the Constitution granted in order to satisfy extraordinary needs. Roosevelt was simply hinting that in a matter of days, Roosevelt was going to change the course of the depression through astounding New Deal programs.
 * Goals **

Attaining perhaps one of the greatest relationships with Congress, Roosevelt went right to working for the so-called Hundred Days, in which he cranked out remedial legislation. Aiming for relief before recovery and reform, Roosevelt worked with Congress to force the gigantic New Deal programs forward. Congress, wary of some “must legislation,” gave the President blank check powers. Roosevelt used the money to fund programs such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid growers to reduce their crop acreage, and the civil works administration, which supplied the jobless with employment through the winter emergency. Congress also granted legislative authority to the President, as he often acted on a whim and planned his next move depending on the outcome of his last. Roosevelt was given the authority to relocate over 3.3 billion dollars of the federal budget, which he used to help fund the National Industrial Recovery Act, without the help of Congress. Morally bound to manage the economy and prevent hunger, Roosevelt worked with Congress to balance what he called the human budget. All the while, Roosevelt even worked with Congress to save the American system of free enterprise. Congress found Roosevelt plan necessary and listen to his youthful and inspiring message to build from the ground up and work to avoid grotesque trickle-down economics. Roosevelt had an outstanding relationship with Congress throughout his entire Presidency and deserves an A+ for his expedient system and quality of work.
 * Relationship with Congress **

Although Roosevelt spent a great portion of his Presidency creating New Deal programs in order to improve the country domestically, Roosevelt’s greatest achievement came in the from the brilliant Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Agree with President Roosevelt that trade was a “two-way street,” Cordell Hull worked with Roosevelt to mold the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. Avoiding the difficult task of reshaping wholesale tariffs, the acts empowered Roosevelt to lower tariff rates by over 50% in order to develop kind trading policies with foreign nations. The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act reversed the belief that a high protective tariff would ensure domestic stability. Uncommonly recognized by most at the time was that fact that high protective tariffs created an era of isolationism which created the perfect economic conditions for Nazism to develop. By fixing the devastating effects of the Hawley-Smoot law which created massive peacetime tariffs, Roosevelt created a route for free-trade international economic system led by Americans. Following World War II, Americans would reap the benefits of robust growth following the wise economic advice of Cordell Hull and Franklin Roosevelt.
 * Positive Event **

President Roosevelt’s greatest fault came near the middle of his Presidency in dealing with the actions of foreign dictators Fearing to revoke neutrality legislation, Roosevelt declined to recognize various actions as acts of war. As Japanese militarists staged an explosion near Beijing which led to the invasion of China, Roosevelt merely issued a “Quarantine Speech,” in which he denounced aggressors and hoped to possibly quarantine them through economic embargos. But foreign powers continued to ignore Roosevelt’s words, as Japan sunk an American gunboat and humiliated American citizens taking residence in Japan. Furthermore, Hitler denounced the Treaty of Versailles and marched into the demilitarized zone of the German Rhineland, all the while holding a passion to exterminate the Jewish population. In his failure to recognize the potential wrongdoing of appeasement, Roosevelt had created a domino effect which eventually allowed Hitler to take Sudetenland and the rest of Czechoslovakia. If Roosevelt were to have dealt a fierce hand following the unjust treatment of American diplomacy, Japan and Germany may have taken a lighter stance and feared a the strong, democratic United States. Roosevelt had unknowingly allowed Hitler a brilliant opportunity to attempt to overtake Europe and exterminate the Jews. Although it seemed difficult and far-fetched during the domestic struggle of the Great Depression, Roosevelt should have realized the dangers of appeasement and recognized the need for foreign discipline to enforce democracy worldwide.
 * Negative Event **

Found to be “one of the most complicated and far-reaching laws ever to pass Congress,” Roosevelt’s most influential decision came in the form of an act of Congress, known as the Social Security Act of 1935. Looking to bring necessary relief through federal-state unemployment insurance, the Social Security Act of 1935 provided security for retired workers, physically handicapped, and the blind. The fund to provide social security payments, which usually ranged between $10 and $85 a month, was paid into through a payroll tax placed on employers and employees. Republicans argued the bill was socialist in nature and merely inspired undermotivated people to feed off of the prosperity of others, all the while enjoying a leisurely lifestyle. Although many Republicans believed the bill was a step backwards for American political life, Democrats proved the program would be effective. Highly industrialized countries in Europe benefited from the social security system, but it was still up to Americans to mold the program to fit a more balanced economy teetering between industry and agriculture. One feature Americans added to the bill was that to receive benefits you would have had to have had previous employment, unlike in Europe where benefits were universal. In the years of the Great Depression, Social Security became a blessing. But in recent years as the economy has been struggling, debate has arisen over the long term burden of Social Security. Congress has sparked debate over whether or not Social Security should be reduced in order to reduce the national debt, or whether it should simply be reformed in another way. Essentially handing out money, there was bound to be great debate over Social Security as an effective long term strategy. That debate has begun and is bound to be a topic of discussion in the future as politics constantly mold to the individuals who represent the ideals of the country.
 * Influential Decision **

The country was most certainly in a better place following Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidency. Roosevelt had managed to lead the country through a devastating depression and forged a victory over the Nazi war machine. Roosevelt had managed to counterbalance the negative effects of war by fixing the economy by developing a war machine. Perhaps the greatest accomplishments for the “politician in a wheelchair” developed after his Presidency. Roosevelt reminded the country to fight for the moral cause during war and he managed to reinvigorate foreign trade with peaceful diplomatic and legislative methods. Roosevelt once stated, “The country needs and ... demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” It was curiosity which drove Roosevelt to experiment with new ideas and create conditions never before experienced in America. Roosevelt possessed the qualities of a person years ahead of his time. Had he not been President during some of the toughest years in American history, the Great Depression may have gotten the better of American and foreign affairs may have sank America.
 * Conclusion **


 * Works Cited **

Bailey, Thomas Andrew, David M. Kennedy, and Lizabeth Cohen. The American Pageant. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.

Board, The Editorial. "EDITORIAL; Social Security, Present and Future." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 31 Mar. 2013. Web. 22 May 2013.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Inaugural Address," March 4, 1933. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [|__http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14473__].

"Franklin D. Roosevelt." The White House. WhiteHouse.gov, n.d. Web. 22 May 2013.

"Teaching With Documents:FDR's First Inaugural Address." FDR's First Inaugural Address Declaring 'War' on the Great Depression. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 22 May 2013.

Wikipedia contributors. "Alphabet agencies." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 May. 2013.