BEIJING, May 8 -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 ?April 12, 1945), often referred to as FDR, was the 32nd (1933?945) President of the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms, and died in office ?he remains the only U.S. president elected more than twice. His decision to break George Washington's precedent of only serving two terms led to the passing of the Twenty-Second Amendment, which sets the limit at two terms.     

    His main impact was the institution of major economic and social assistance programs in response to the Great Depression (known as the New Deal), leading the country through a successful involvement in World War II, and helping in the formation of the United Nations.     

    Roosevelt's four presidential election victories led to the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, which bars anyone from being elected to the office of President more than twice (or once, if that person served more than two years of another president's term).     

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a semi-distant cousin to the earlier President Theodore Roosevelt. As such, the two Roosevelts are the only confirmed pair of cousins to have both served as President of the United States.     

    FDR was also a member of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, better known as the Freemasons. He was raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason at Holland Lodge No. 8, F. & A.M., New York, New York, the same Lodge in which George Washington, the Nation's first President, held honorary membership.     

    Biography     

    Roosevelt was born on Monday, January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York. He died on Thursday, April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia, of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63, leaving the famous Unfinished Portrait.     

    Assassination and Coup d'Etat attempt     

    On February 15, 1933, after his victory in the 1932 election, President-elect Roosevelt was nearly assassinated in Miami, Florida. Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak was killed. The assassin, Giuseppe Zangara of Chicago, was convicted of murder and executed in the electric chair on March 20, 1933.     

    In 1933 Major General Smedley Darlington Butler came forward to Congress to reveal a coup d'état plot against President Roosevelt sponsored by big-money interests.     

    Presidency: 1933--1941     

    Roosevelt's Presidential campaign in 1932 saw the New York governor committing himself to battling the Great Depression. He coined the term "New Deal" when he stated: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people."     

¡¡¡¡Great Depression ¡¡¡¡

    In reference to the Great Depression, Roosevelt proclaimed "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his inauguration speech on (Saturday, March 4, 1933). Roosevelt's first weeks in office were called The Hundred Days, as during the first part of his administration he authored and approved a flurry of Congressional acts to institute immediate change and keep the nation's economy from destabilizing. He instituted a four-day "banking holiday" two days after he took office: a four-day period in which all banks in the country closed, allowing the institutions a brief period to recover and reorganize. During this time of crisis Roosevelt addressed the nation for the first time as President on Sunday, March 12, 1933 in the first of many "Fireside Chats."    

    In order to end the 1930s general bank crisis, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 and, with the Emergency Bank Relief Act (March 1933) and the Gold Reserve Act (January 1934), outlawed the circulation and private possession of United States gold coins for general circulation, with an exemption for collector coins. This act declared that gold coins were no longer legal tender in the United States, and people had to turn in their gold coins for other forms of currency. This act took the United States off the gold standard, and it also effected the removal of the statement that United States paper currency could be exchanged for gold at any of the nation's banks.     

    A number of economists today have argued that FDR's policies prolonged the Depression. They argue that the tariff barriers hindered free trade and thus made goods more expensive (while hardly any other nation encouraged free trade and deflation was the very problem); wage raises made it more expensive for employers to hire people, so more people were out of work (while starvation wages had led to falling purchasing power and unemployment); tax increases and constant rule changes greatly hindered businesses which in turn reduced jobs (while businesses actually welcomed FDR's coordination); subsidising farmers led to destruction of food while people were hungry, etc.     

    Government reforms     

    Statue of FDR in his wheelchair at the FDR Memorial in Washington D.C     

    Of the various reform programs initiated by the Roosevelt administration, the most far-reaching and influential was the institution of the Social Security system, a form of welfare that was meant to provide support for low-income and elderly citizens.     

    In 1935-1936, the Supreme Court, which was dominated by conservatives with a traditional view of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, the basis of much New Deal legislation, struck down eight of FDR's New Deal programs.     

    In response, Roosevelt submitted a plan for "judicial reform" to Congress in February 1937: As the constitution does not mandate how many justices must comprise the Supreme Court, Roosevelt would add one justice for each member over the age of 70 who refused to retire, up to a maximum of 15 justices in total. His proposal spawned both vehement support for his bold leadership, and simulatenously, a firestorm of controversy over a concentration of power in the executive branch which many viewed as unconstitutional. This came to be known as his attempt to "pack" the Court and caused such controversy and popular backlash that the president had to withdraw his program shortly afterwards. To rally support (and consequently, to put more pressure on Congress to approve his proposal), Roosevelt delivered a historic speech to the American public in defense of his action. Although Roosevelt was in his second term, up to this point in his presidency, no vacancy on the Supreme Court had arisen—an exceptionally unusual occurrence that presumably added to his frustrations. Though the plan failed in Congress, as a threat to the Court it may have had its desired effect. In a move cynically referred to as "the switch in time that saved nine", one of the conservative justices, Owen Roberts, inexplicably shifted his vote in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, changing the ideological balance of the Court. This episode is often referred to as the "Constitutional Revolution of 1937" and it ushered in a period wherein the Supreme Court largely abdicated its role in limiting the scope of federal power, in particular as regards economic intervention and regulation. It was not until the Rehnquist Court that the Supreme Court began to once again assert its power to over the scope of federal power. It was not long before time allowed Roosevelt to further have his way on the bench, as vacancies allowed Roosevelt to eventually fill all nine seats with his appointments–the most of any presidency except George Washington's.     

¡¡¡¡Second term     

    Easily winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated after the adoption of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prior to this, presidents had been sworn into office on March 4th, but he was inaugurated on January 20th in 1937.     

    Also in 1937, Roosevelt delivered "The Quarantine Speech" in Chicago. In it he compared the outbreak of international violence to that of a communicable disease needing to be quarantined. This speech began debates over just how much the United States should be concerned with international diplomacy. Although this was a further erosion of the Isolationist attitudes of the turn of the century, News media responded critically that the speech had represented "an attitude and not a program".     

    Frustrated with the opposition to his proposals in his own party's conservative wing, in 1938, especially Vice President John Nance Garner, Roosevelt openly campaigned against five southern Democratic senators, including Georgia's Sen. Walter F. George, hoping to purge the Democratic party of its conservative wing. Roosevelt's efforts were unsuccessful, however, as all five of the targeted senators won re-election.     

    During his second term Roosevelt also made his first Supreme Court appointment, Justice Hugo Black. The nomination of Black was very controversial at the time and remains so to this day because Black was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan.    

    Presidency: 1941-1945 ¡¡¡¡

    Election to third term     

    In an unprecedented move, Roosevelt sought a third consecutive term in 1940. Unlike the 1936 election where he won the Democratic nomination uncontested, in 1940 he was opposed by several candidates, the most noteworthy of which was his own Vice President, John Nance Garner.     

    Roosevelt went on to defeat Garner for his party's nomination, then defeated Republican nominee Wendell L. Willkie in a landslide to win the election. Joining him as Vice President to replace Garner was Henry Agard Wallace.     

    World War II     

Chiang Kai-shek of China, Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill of Britain at the Cairo Conference in 1943

    

    Roosevelt proclaimed that he would not send American boys to fight in foreign wars. However, in 1941 the conflicting interests of Japan and the United States in Asia and the Pacific, especially in China, resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic relations to the point where war seemed inevitable.     

    On the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 Japanese planes launched a surprise attack on the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, sinking several ships and leading to significant casualties. The following day, December 8th, Roosevelt addressed a shocked nation over the radio. Before Pearl Harbor, most Americans strongly opposed a US involvement in the war, mindful still of the losses of The Great War. Roosevelt's charismatic appeal changed millions of minds, plunging the US openly into World War II with the historic phrase: "December Seventh, 1941—a date which will live in infamy."    

    There is some disagreement among historians as to why the Pearl Harbor attack came as a surprise to Pacific commanders. Analysts generally concur that the US had evidence of an imminent Japanese attack on the Pacific fleet in advance of the incident. Opinions diverge over the question of why military leaders in Pearl Harbor weren't notified on the morning of December 7th.     

    Some historians assert that Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the attack, but allowed it to happen in order to consolidate public support to join the Allies. Proponents of this theory claim that Japanese codes had been broken before the attack, so Japanese strategies should have been known in advance. Additionally, they point out that the British government had intercepted Japanese transmissions suggesting that an attack was imminent and notified the White House. Roosevelt's challenger in the 1944 presidential election, Thomas Dewey, even considered using this evidence as part of his platform, but backed down for reasons of national security. (Publicising that the US had broken Japanese codes would have informed the Japanese that their codes were no longer useful, hurting the war effort.)     

    While the evidence used to support the "prior knowledge" view is valid, critics point out several weaknesses as well. While the US had indeed broken Japanese codes prior to the attack, the codes were diplomatic, not naval; as such, it's unlikely the US would've had any precise military information in advance of Pearl Harbor. In addition, records show that Pacific commanders were notified by Washington to be ready for a Japanese attack prior to December 7th, though no details were given.     

    These historians point out that while it's probable that the US either knew, or should have known that an attack was imminent, there is no evidence Washington knew where or when the attack was to occur. Furthermore, records indicate that equipment malfunctions and other communication delays could easily have prevented the messages from getting to Pearl Harbor until four hours after the attack, even if the departure of the Japanese planes had been noticed in Washington. The Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor had been observing radio silence that morning, and some of the ships involved were believed by the U.S. Navy to still be at port in Japan.     

    Some have suggested an alternate theory, that Roosevelt was pursuing a systematic policy in the pacific rim that would make Japan feel as though it had to attack the United States first, or else face a pre-emptive attack.     

    On Monday, May 18, 1942, Roosevelt wrote a private letter to William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, in which he requested that the USA and Canada make an unofficial pact to pursue the dispersal of French-Canadians to expedite their assimilation.     

    On Thursday, January 14, 1943 Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office, when he flew from Miami, Florida to Morocco for a meeting with Winston Churchill. The meeting, which had been called to discuss the war, was concluded on Sunday, January 24.     

    Shortly after the meeting, Roosevelt made one of the most controversial decisions of his presidency when he issued Executive Order 9066. The order called for the internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese descent to camps on the West Coast. In a fashion characteristic of many of his policies, the order polarized national opinion, drawing critics even within the Roosevelt administration. While advocates of national security were jubilant, the policy also drew virulent criticism from civil libertarians, and also from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Even first lady Eleanor Roosevelt fervently and publicly opposed the internment. When the constitutionality of the order was challenged, it was upheld by the Supreme Court. Roosevelt has also come under attack by modern critics, who have asserted that Roosevelt knew about the Nazi Holocaust, and failed to do anything to prevent it.     

    Roosevelt also made use of a massive propaganda campaign in the US to boost Joseph Stalin's appeal. The idea was to legitimize, in the public mind, the addition of Soviet Russia to the Allies. Several years prior, Time Magazine made Stalin "Man of the Year," portraying him as an evil, murderous dictator. This soon changed. During the pro-Soviet campaign, Stalin was again made Man of the Year, this time portrayed as a loving leader with a fondness for children and a gentle demeanor. Numerous propaganda films were produced by studios such as Warner Brothers and MGM. Some of these films, such as Mission to Moscow, a film based on a book by former US Ambassador to Russia Joseph Davies, were made at the behest of Roosevelt. A review by the Office of War Information demonstrated their delight with the effectiveness of the film to "dispel the fears which many honest persons felt with regard to our alliance with Russia. American philosopher John Dewey called it "the first instance in our country of totalitarian propaganda for mass consumption -- a propaganda which falsifies history through distortion, omission or pure invention of facts" (Ibid, p.31). A similar campaign was initiated in the United Kingdom by Churchill at the same time. Journalism was closely watched and controlled by both governments; any news exposing Stalin's oppressive tactics, such as the publically supressed Katyn Massacre, was kept secret in attempts to appease Stalin. Demands made by the Polish government-in-exile to expose these and other acts of genocide committed by the Soviets were ignored.     

The "Big Three" Allied leaders at Yalta: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

    From correspondences with other leaders, primarily Churchill and Stalin, it is clear that Roosevelt had absolutely no interest in the fate of smaller countries. His vision of a post-war world divided the world into large empires, governed primarily by the US, the UK, China and the Soviet Union. This is contrary to the altruistic image that Roosevelt is often given. Zdzis³aw Krasnodêbski, a Polish RAF pilot, once described allies such as the US and the UK as being able to talk about lofty values such as freedom and honor, but then able to turn around and do the exact opposite.     

    Contrary to common misconception, the fate of Poland was largely sealed at the Tehran Conference and not at Yalta. Roosevelt was particularly enthusiastic about meeting Stalin and discussing possible agreements with the United States. He was known for telling Stalin jokes at Churchill's expense. He made very clear from that start that he had no interest in Poland's future and guaranteed that Stalin would have free reign and influence over the country after the war. Stalin, knowing that the Molotov-Ribbentrop line connected him too well to his expansionist intentions and to his previous alliance with Nazi Germany, demanded that the Curzon Line mark off the eastern half of Poland for annexation into the Soviet Union. The Curzon Line was nearly identical to the Molotov-Ribbentrop line, the only essential difference being that the former was named after Lord Curzon, an Englishman. Despite the vast amount of leverage the Allies had to oppose this demand (namely, the large shipments of supplies to the Soviets which were crucial in the Nazi defeat on Soviet soil), no attempts by Churchill or Roosevelt were made. On the contrary, Churchill, Roosevelt and Anthony Eden officially agreed to the new border, without ever discussing the issue with the Polish government-in-exile. Poland was instead used as a bargaining tool, and as a "guarantee" that Stalin shouldn't rekindle an old alliance with Germany.     

    Roosevelt was the first President to regularly address the American public through the medium of radio. He instituted a tradition of weekly radio speeches, which he called "fireside chats." Through the chats, Roosevelt was given an opportunity to take his opinions to the American people more directly than had been previously possible. The speeches regularly bolstered his popularity and rallied supporters behind his proposals for change. During World War II, the fireside chats were seen as important morale boosters for Americans at home.     

    Election to fourth term     

    Though seen by many in the Democratic Party to already be physically ailing to a point where it was unclear if he could serve another four year term, there was little question that, in time of war, "FDR" would be the party's candidate for a fourth term in the 1944 elections.     

    Vice President Henry Wallace had alienated much of the Democratic leadership during his four years in office, and was seen as far too agrarian (and by some, even communist) in his political philosophy. With this in mind and mindful of Roosevelt's health, they persuaded Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman to join Roosevelt on the Democratic ticket in 1944.     

    The Roosevelt/Truman ticket won the election, held on November 7, 1944, defeating popular Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.     

¡¡¡¡Death     

    Ailing from the stresses of three and a half long years of war and worn down by polio, excessive cigarette smoking, congestive heart disease, and other illnesses, Roosevelt died about three hours after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage while sitting for a portrait on retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia on April 12, 1945. He was only 63 years old. Harry S. Truman, who had served just 82 days as Vice President was sworn in later that day to succeed him. Roosevelt did not receive a state funeral as he thought it would be inappropriate while soldiers were dying in the War. He was buried in the rose garden at his Hyde Park home.     

    Less than a month later, on May 8, came the moment FDR fought for and died knowing it was going to happen: V-E Day. President Truman, who celebrated his 61st birthday that day, and many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, dedicated the victory and its celebrations to the memory of Roosevelt, as a tribute to his commitment towards ending the war in Europe.     

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)