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Franklin Delano Roosevelt Born: January 30, 1882 Died: April 12, 1945 32nd President with 4 terms: 1933-1945 (Died in Office) Democrat Vice Presidents-John N. Garner (1933-1941) Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945) Harold Truman (1945)

When it comes to our 32nd president Franklin Roosevelt, we mostly think of him leading the country through World War II. The presidency, however, was defined by much more than just the War. Overall for his presidency, Roosevelt deserves an A for what he did to help pull the country out of the depression and, of course, how he led us through World War II. When FDR was elected in 1933, he inherited from Hoover the worst depression in United States history. His main goal when he entered the presidency was to fix the depression that the Republicans had started. During the first 100 days of his presidency, he met with his democratic congress and passed an amazing amount of legislation to help fix the country. These pieces of legislation were known as the New Deals which sought to relieve the country, recover the country, and reform the country (the Three R’s). For example, the Emergency Banking Relief Act was passed 1933 which allowed the president to have more power to regulate the banks. Also in 1933, FDR repealed the gold standard in order to save the country’s dwindling gold reserves. Another goal originally of FDR was to get jobs for the jobless. At the time, the unemployment rate was at about 25%, and he combated this with the Civilian Conservatory Corps which gave jobs in the army to about 3 million men. By the end of his first term in 1937 the depression had eased greatly. In his second term, FDR’s main goal was to continue his New Deal policies. When World War II came about his main goals were all about winning the war in the European Theater and the Pacific Theater. Of course these goals were succeeded when the Allies won the war (even though Truman finished the job). Roosevelt was very successful when it came to his goals as President. Roosevelt had a great relationship with his Congress of mostly democrats. (The American people voted in the Democrats because they felt Hoover’s Republican part was to blame for the depression.) Congress met as soon as Roosevelt was elected in order to begin to work on fixing the country. In less than 8 hours they had come up with The Emergency Banking Relief Act. Also with Roosevelt’s New Deals they passed over 25 pieces of legislation as well as easily declaring war on Japan post Pearl Harbor and passing legislation to get the country through the war. Roosevelt had one major failure as a president: Executive Order 9066 which began the Japanese Internment Camps post-Pearl Harbor. Even though this was passed to safeguard the American people, it pulled 120,000 legal Japanese citizens out of their jobs and threw them into camps surrounded by barbed wire. Many persons died due to the lack of medical care and the emotional distress they were put under from being torn from their jobs, homes, and families to be thrown into a prison. This is the only real scar on Roosevelt’s presidency. The action of FDR’s presidency with the most positive outcome was his legislature passed in the first 100 days of office. The New deals were the first steps to healing the country in the Depression. His deals led to banking reforms, the unemployment rate dropping to just 8 million Americans out of work. These deals led to the formation of Social Security which aids millions of elderly Americans today. His deals with labor initiated labor laws and minimum wage. Without FDR’s New deals early in his presidency, America would be a very different place. Roosevelt’s presidency sparked constitutional amendment! Washington set the two-term tradition when he served and presidents, up until Roosevelt (and arguably Cleveland), honored this tradition with no set constitutional restrictions. In 1951 the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was added limiting a President to two terms of office and no more. This made Roosevelt’s four-term presidency a one –time thing and set the likelihood for a president to abuse his power and constantly run to nonexistent. Also, he set precedents for handling war-time politics during World War II. In the end, it is fairly obvious that Franklin Delano Roosevelt deserves an A for his presidency. The only real flaw in his presidency was him interning the innocent Japanese citizens on the West Coast. Thanks to Roosevelt, the country made it through the worst economic depression in history and a world war and it was in much better shape than it was before him. All in all, Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency is arguably one of the best in American history. Bibliography Kennedy, David M. // The American Pageant //. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print. "American President: Franklin Delano Roosevelt." // Miller Center // // Of Public Affairs //. University of Virginia, 2010. Web. 8 Dec 2010. [] "Timeline of the Great Depression." // Huppi.com //. , n.d. Web. 8 Dec 2010. . "Children of The Camps." // pbs.org //. PBS, 1999. Web. 8 Dec 2010. [] "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." // National Park Service //. Eleanor Roosevelt National Historical Site, 2003. Web. 8 Dec 2010. .