History UsefulNotes / FranklinDRoosevelt

* A character on ''{{Seinfeld}}'' is referred to as "FDR", which is then explained to stand for "Franklin Delano Romanowski", a disgruntled hotdog vendor who lives in Jerry and Kramer's building.
* In the ''{{All in the Family}}'' episode "Cousin Maude's Visit", Maude (who later got her [[{{Maude}} own show]]) is shown to love Roosevelt, calling him "a saint". Archie's "secret weapon" against her is insulting FDR.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent

* '''Social Security''': By far the most important legacy of the New Deal, Social Security is the welfare program of the United States. Yes, the US was the only major industrial nation which didn't have a welfare program until ''after'' the Great Depression began. We will NeverLiveItDown, we know. It provides money to the unemployed, the handicapped, needy families with children, and the retired elderly. Americans pay money into it through their taxes, and then they get it back either during rough times or when they reach retirement age (it's between either 65 or 67, depending on when you were born). You get a Social Security number when you are born - keep those secret from others, because if someone else knows it they can access a lot of your private information and finances. Later Presidents have expanded Social Security to more and more citizens, the most notable being UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson creating Medicaid and Medicare. Currently, over 50 million people in the United States receive Social Security benefits, and it makes up about one third of the government's spending. It's probably the most acclaimed government agency in the United States, with only UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} and the National Park Service rivaling it. Lately, there has been a lot of debate about what to do with Social Security now that the baby boomer generation is starting to retire, which means that way more people than ever will be receiving retirement benefits while proportionally less people than before are in the work force paying for these benefits. The widening income inequality over the past few decades hasn't helped either.[[note]]Another issue is Social Security disability "abuse": people with questionable disabilities obtaining disability pensions for the handicapped, which is particularly bad because it means that the recipient ''can't'' try to find even the meagerest work without giving up the assistance (unlike people receiving old-age benefits or food stamps). On the other hand, most "abusers" live in areas where it is difficult to find work and have little prospect of being hired anyway--e.g. being over 50 and therefore highly unattractive as a new hire but under 65 and thus ineligible for Social Security old-age benefits--and have been bumped off other forms of social assistance.[[/note]]

* The SuperSoldier Serum taken by ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was, according to some comics, supposed to go to FDR after it had been tested. This would cure the effects of the polio and let him walk on his own again. Cap himself had a bit of hero-worship going on for Roosevelt. Considering that FDR personally presented him with his indestructible round shield, you can understand the good feeling.

FDR played a very major role in planning military operations during World War II. He had previously served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I, so he knew how to organize a war. Roosevelt met with the UK's Prime Minister, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, just months before Pearl Harbor and outlined their plan for a post-war world, including the founding of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations. The two also agreed on a plan to initially keep Japan at bay while they take care of Hitler in Europe, both because he posed the risk of defeating both the UK and the Soviet Union and because they were worried that Stalin would potentially conquer all of continental Europe if they left Germany to him. Thanks largely to FDR's planning and to great generals in the military, the Allied Powers were able to halt the Axis advance and eventually push them back. In Europe, after American and British forces pushed the Axis out of North Africa, they launched an assault on Italy and forced UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini out of power, and later launched a daring but brilliant land invasion of northern France in 1944 that eventually led to the American and British occupation of western Germany. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, an "island-hopping" strategy was formed, where the Navy would send men to conquer strategically-necessary islands but blockade other enemy-held islands until they surrendered. Plans to create atomic weapons were given the OK by FDR at UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein's request - he initially thought they would be prepared in time to use them against Germany, but they were completed after Germany's surrender. Roosevelt traveled around the world a number of times to meet with Churchill, Stalin, China's ChiangKaishek, and other Allied leaders to plan military operations and discuss what to do after the war. At home, major rations were placed on domestic products, unions agreed not to strike (and very few of them did, remarkably), and everyone bought war bonds to help fund the military. Roosevelt also won another landslide in 1944.

Roosevelt was from a very wealthy family based in New York. He was the fifth cousin of a previous President, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, who was ironically from the other party. A corporate lawyer before turning his attention to politics, the Democratic friends of his family convinced FDR to run for the state Senate in 1910. President UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson, a fellow Democrat, appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, where he advocated modernizing and building up the Navy and also helped organize overseas plans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Roosevelt was the Democratic ticket's Vice President in the 1920 elections, but the Republicans won a [[UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding landslide that year]]. Following this defeat, FDR managed to organize a political comeback and become Governor of New York in 1929. The Great Depression broke out that same year, and Roosevelt created several social programs to combat unemployment in his state. Having gained nationwide attention, Roosevelt ran for the presidency in 1932, and won by a huge landslide against unpopular incumbent UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover. At his first inauguration, he famously declared "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."[[note]]A quote originated by Creator/HenryDavidThoreau[[/note]] Along with winning another huge landslide in 1936, the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress by significant margins for all of his presidency (though the Republicans were clearly closing in towards the end), which meant that Roosevelt was practically free to pass anything he wanted. FDR and the Democrats won so many times by creating a coalition of state party bosses, political machines, unions, minorities, farmers, and Southerners that would make the Democrats the majority party in the country for another few decades. Between Roosevelt's first victory in 1932 and UsefulNotes/RichardNixon breaking the coalition in 1968, only one Republican, UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, occupied the White House.

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' (1882-1945) was the longest serving President in American history, serving three full terms and starting his fourth when he died. He served from 1933 to [[UsefulNotes/TheForties 1945]], taking over for UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover and making way for UsefulNotes/HarryTruman after his death, and he was the tenth President from the Democratic Party. No other President had even won a third term. And, thanks to the 22nd Amendment, no President since will be able to challenge his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of the 22nd being repealed). Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States.

He actually spent much of his adult life paralyzed from the waist down due to what was probably polio (some modern researchers believe that it might have been Guillain–Barré syndrome), having contacted the disease in 1921. This includes his Presidency, making him one of America's three handicapped Presidents, betwixt his cousin Theodore (who was asthmatic as a child), and John F. Kennedy (who had type two autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome, which was the source of both his ulcerative colitis, and his Addison's disease). There was less scrutiny of public figures back then, which he combined with trick photography, leg braces that let him stand and walk short distances by swiveling, immense upper-body strength to hold himself up with the podium and [[ThePlan other tactics to ease the public away from questioning why he was never pictured standing up on his own]]. (He was almost always leaning on somebody or something in the photos that show him standing.) When photos were taken without permission, the Secret Service would smash the reporter's camera to make sure the newspapers wouldn't publish it. His battle with polio had a profound affect on him - before he was the privileged son of a wealthy family, but now he experienced real struggle and hardship. His recovery from what was then a potentially deadly disease inspired him, giving him the outlook that no odds were impossible. It is often said that his fight with the disease allowed him to connect with the poor and "the forgotten man," even though he lived all his life in luxury, because his own hardships helped him to understand their own. Roosevelt was also something of a MagnificentBastard, capable of manipulating anyone with his sheer charm and infectious personality.

* The '''Securities Act of 1933''', also called the '''Truth in Securities Act''' (or the '''[='=]33 Act''' if you're a corporate/securities lawyer), and the '''Securities Exchange Act of 1934''' (or the '''[='=]34 Act''' if you're a corporate/securities lawyer), were a one-two punch squarely aimed at preventing stock-market and other financial bubbles. The '33 Act regulated the "primary market" in corporate shares--especially [=IPOs=], but also subsequent new issues of stock--by requiring businesses and stockbrokers to make full disclosures on a stock before they are allowed to sell it to investors, and effectively outlawing insider trading. The '34 Act regulated the "secondary market" in shares and other securities (i.e. what we usually think of as "Wall Street"), placing extensive regulation on the securities exchanges (hence the name), and established the '''Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)''' to enforce both the '33 and '34 Acts; the SEC is one of the remaining New Deal agencies. The SEC's first head, by the way, was UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy's father.

* '''Truth in Securities Act''': Required businesses and stockbrokers to make full disclosures on a stock before they are allowed to sell it to investors. Effectively outlawed insider trading.

* '''Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)''': One of the few New Deal regulations still around, this one regulates the financial markets, especially Wall Street, and goes after corruption. Its first head, by the way, was UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy's father.

* BigGood: Okay, BlackAndGrayMorality aside, he was the beacon of leadership for the Americans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, alongside UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, and is still considered by many to be among the greatest American presidents in history.

** In retrospect, Roosevelt and Churchill's compatibility should have come as a surprise to no-one: they were from similar backgrounds (the Roosevelts were old New York Dutch aristocracy, Churchill's grandfathers were the Duke of Marlborough and a Brooklyn banker), had similar interests (for instance, both had had a hand in running their respective countries' Navies during World War I--FDR as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty), and were both generally fun-loving people, albeit in different ways (FDR was easygoing and a charmer; Churchill was often depressive and a bit of a grump).

Whether the New Deal had any effect, and whether this effect was positive, is still hotly debated. Even some in his own administration disagreed on it being effective -- some felt that it swung too close to socialism, while others felt that Roosevelt didn't go far enough.[[note]]For what it is worth, Socialist Party head Norman Thomas, when asked whether Roosevelt's New Deal was socialist, said that “Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher.”[[/note]] Nevertheless, what ''isn't'' argued is the fact that, during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the rapid military buildup effectively ended the Depression, with most able-bodied men serving in the military and those who weren't (along with many of America's women) working in factories producing the war material. It was on the basis of this industrialization that the prosperity of [[UsefulNotes/TheFifties ensuing]] [[UsefulNotes/TheSixties decades]] was built. Still, a lot of Roosevelt's reforms and surviving programs have been credited by many for preventing another horrible economic catastrophe from happening since and for overseeing a relatively stable economy most of the time. Even [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush the current]] [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama economic recession]] does not even compare to the horror that was the Great Depression, when at least one third of the country went to bed hungry. He also gains some points for being fairly progressive when it came to minorities and women. Along with the very visible role his wife [[UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt Eleanor]] played in government, he also appointed the first woman to the Cabinet, Frances Perkins (she was Secretary of Labor), and a lot of other well-known women of the time were prominent advisers for his administration. Additionally, FDR had a group of African American advisers known as the "Black Cabinet" who helped him shape bills to be more fair towards blacks, a major accomplishment during the Jim Crow era. During WWII, when black leaders threatened to march on Washington in protest of discrimination in federal hiring, he gave an executive order ending any further discrimination. These actions helped plant some seeds of the post-war CivilRightsMovement and moving the black vote into the Democratic Party after it had been in Republican hands since the days of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]. Unfortunately, he backed off on supporting an anti-lynching bill, reasoning (correctly) that it would cost the vote of Southerners in Congress and cost him support for his other major legislation, which were not-incidentally benefiting poor blacks more than any other government policies since Reconstruction. Indeed, while he didn't do as much as later Presidents, FDR gave more help to minorities and women than most President before him and probably did as much as could have been done for them at the time. The Executive Office of the President was created in 1939 in order to expand the number of agencies under executive control and help better organize the executive branch.

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' (1882-1945) was the longest serving President in American history, serving three full terms and starting his fourth when he died. He served from 1933 to [[TheForties 1945]], taking over for HerbertHoover and making way for UsefulNotes/HarryTruman after his death, and he was the tenth President from the Democratic Party. No other President had even won a third term. And, thanks to the 22nd Amendment, no President since will be able to challenge his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of the 22nd being repealed). Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States.

Roosevelt was from a very wealthy family based in New York. He was the fifth cousin of a previous President, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, who was ironically from the other party. A corporate lawyer before turning his attention to politics, the Democratic friends of his family convinced FDR to run for the state Senate in 1910. President WoodrowWilson, a fellow Democrat, appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, where he advocated modernizing and building up the Navy and also helped organize overseas plans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Roosevelt was the Democratic ticket's Vice President in the 1920 elections, but the Republicans won a [[WarrenHarding landslide that year]]. Following this defeat, FDR managed to organize a political comeback and become Governor of New York in 1929. The Great Depression broke out that same year, and Roosevelt created several social programs to combat unemployment in his state. Having gained nationwide attention, Roosevelt ran for the presidency in 1932, and won by a huge landslide against unpopular incumbent HerbertHoover. At his first inauguration, he famously declared "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."[[note]]A quote originated by HenryDavidThoreau[[/note]] Along with winning another huge landslide in 1936, the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress by significant margins for all of his presidency (though the Republicans were clearly closing in towards the end), which meant that Roosevelt was practically free to pass anything he wanted. FDR and the Democrats won so many times by creating a coalition of state party bosses, political machines, unions, minorities, farmers, and Southerners that would make the Democrats the majority party in the country for another few decades. Between Roosevelt's first victory in 1932 and RichardNixon breaking the coalition in 1968, only one Republican, DwightDEisenhower, occupied the White House.

He actually spent much of his adult life paralyzed from the waist down due to what was probably polio (some modern researchers believe that it might have been Guillain–Barré syndrome), having contacted the disease in 1921. This includes his Presidency, making him one of America's three handicapped Presidents, betwixt his cousin Theodore (who was asthmatic as a child), and John F. Kennedy (who had type two autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome, which was the source of both his ulcerative colitis, and his Addison's disease). There was less scrutiny of public figures back then, which he combined with trick photography, leg braces that let him stand and walk short distances by swiveling, immense upper-body strength to hold himself up with the podium and [[ThePlan other tactics to ease the public away from questioning why he was never pictured standing up on his own]]. (He was almost always leaning on somebody or something in the photos that show him standing.) When photos were taken without permission, the Secret Service would smash the reporter's camera to make sure the newspapers wouldn't publish it. His battle with polio had a profound affect on him - before he was the privileged son of a wealthy family, but now he experienced real struggle and hardship. His recovery from what was then a potentially deadly disease inspired him, giving him the outlook that no odds were impossible. It is often said that his fight with the disease allowed him to connect with the poor and "the forgotten man," even though he lived all his life in luxury, because his own hardships helped him to understand their own. Roosevelt was also something of a MagnificentBastard, capable of manipulating anyone with his sheer charm and infectious personality.

* '''Currency reform''': FDR temporarily took the American dollar off the gold standard, arguing that it was a chief cause of the Depression's rapid inflation. After a year, he put the country back on the gold standard, but he also made it so that paper money was the only way to legally pay off debts. At the end of his presidency, Roosevelt created what is known as the Bretton Woods system, which basically tied the world economy to the American economy and its gold supplies for the next few decades. RichardNixon would later take the country off of it in 1971.

* '''National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)''': Created two programs. The '''National Recovery Administration (NRA)''', which made businesses in the same industry work together to set stable prices on their products, and the '''Public Works Administration (PWA)''', a workers program which spent billions of dollars creating public works, which varied from murals to [[UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco the Golden Gate Bridge]]. Businesses which joined the NRA were supposed to place a blue eagle logo in front of their stores. The Supreme Court ruled the NRA to be unconstitutional, but the PWA continuted until World War II.

* '''Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)''': One of the few New Deal regulations still around, this one regulates the financial markets, especially Wall Street, and goes after corruption. Its first head, by the way, was JohnFKennedy's father.

* '''Works Progress Administration (WPA)''': The largest peacetime jobs program up to this point in American history; only DwightDEisenhower's Interstate Highway System has surpassed it. At its peak, '''over 8 percent of the work force''' was employed by the administration. The workers built roads and buildings, helped in offices and factories, and created artworks, books, and music. Several well-known people, such as painter Jackson Pollack and playwright Arthur Miller, were employed by the WPA. Future President LyndonJohnson, a huge admirer of Roosevelt, was head of his local division of one WPA agency, the '''National Youth Administration (NYA)''', which employed thousands of teenagers (Johnson was a schoolteacher in the five seconds[[note]]OK, it was six years.[[/note]] between completing his education and winning a seat in Congress). Thousands of hospitals and schools were built by WPA workers. This was his favorite of all his New Deal programs.

* '''Social Security''': By far the most important legacy of the New Deal, Social Security is the welfare program of the United States. Yes, the US was the only major industrial nation which didn't have a welfare program until ''after'' the Great Depression began. We will NeverLiveItDown, we know. It provides money to the unemployed, the handicapped, needy families with children, and the retired elderly. Americans pay money into it through their taxes, and then they get it back either during rough times or when they reach retirement age (it's between either 65 or 67, depending on when you were born). You get a Social Security number when you are born - keep those secret from others, because if someone else knows it they can access a lot of your private information and finances. Later Presidents have expanded Social Security to more and more citizens, the most notable being LyndonJohnson creating Medicaid and Medicare. Currently, over 50 million people in the United States receive Social Security benefits, and it makes up about one third of the government's spending. It's probably the most acclaimed government agency in the United States, with only UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} and the National Park Service rivaling it. Lately, there has been a lot of debate about what to do with Social Security now that the baby boomer generation is starting to retire, which means that way more people than ever will be receiving retirement benefits while proportionally less people than before are in the work force paying for these benefits. The widening income inequality over the past few decades hasn't helped either.[[note]]Another issue is Social Security disability "abuse": people with questionable disabilities obtaining disability pensions for the handicapped, which is particularly bad because it means that the recipient ''can't'' try to find even the meagerest work without giving up the assistance (unlike people receiving old-age benefits or food stamps). On the other hand, most "abusers" live in areas where it is difficult to find work and have little prospect of being hired anyway--e.g. being over 50 and therefore highly unattractive as a new hire but under 65 and thus ineligible for Social Security old-age benefits--and have been bumped off other forms of social assistance.[[/note]]

* '''Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)''': Better known by its nickname '''Fannie Mae'''. Founded in 1938 as part of the same affordable-housing impetus as HOLC, Fannie Mae provided federal money to banks to provide mortgages, and created a liquid market in mortgage-backed securities (a function in which it was joined by Freddie Mac in 1970). Still exists today; the "mortgage-backed securities" thing that Fannie facilitated came to cause [[TheNewTens the biggest economic contraction since the Depression]], so there is some irony here.

Whether the New Deal had any effect, and whether this effect was positive, is still hotly debated. Even some in his own administration disagreed on it being effective -- some felt that it swung too close to socialism, while others felt that Roosevelt didn't go far enough.[[note]]For what it is worth, Socialist Party head Norman Thomas, when asked whether Roosevelt's New Deal was socialist, said that “Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher.”[[/note]] Nevertheless, what ''isn't'' argued is the fact that, during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the rapid military buildup effectively ended the Depression, with most able-bodied men serving in the military and those who weren't (along with many of America's women) working in factories producing the war material. It was on the basis of this industrialization that the prosperity of [[TheFifties ensuing]] [[TheSixties decades]] was built. Still, a lot of Roosevelt's reforms and surviving programs have been credited by many for preventing another horrible economic catastrophe from happening since and for overseeing a relatively stable economy most of the time. Even [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush the current]] [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama economic recession]] does not even compare to the horror that was the Great Depression, when at least one third of the country went to bed hungry. He also gains some points for being fairly progressive when it came to minorities and women. Along with the very visible role his wife [[UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt Eleanor]] played in government, he also appointed the first woman to the Cabinet, Frances Perkins (she was Secretary of Labor), and a lot of other well-known women of the time were prominent advisers for his administration. Additionally, FDR had a group of African American advisers known as the "Black Cabinet" who helped him shape bills to be more fair towards blacks, a major accomplishment during the Jim Crow era. During WWII, when black leaders threatened to march on Washington in protest of discrimination in federal hiring, he gave an executive order ending any further discrimination. These actions helped plant some seeds of the post-war CivilRightsMovement and moving the black vote into the Democratic Party after it had been in Republican hands since the days of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]. Unfortunately, he backed off on supporting an anti-lynching bill, reasoning (correctly) that it would cost the vote of Southerners in Congress and cost him support for his other major legislation, which were not-incidentally benefiting poor blacks more than any other government policies since Reconstruction. Indeed, while he didn't do as much as later Presidents, FDR gave more help to minorities and women than most President before him and probably did as much as could have been done for them at the time. The Executive Office of the President was created in 1939 in order to expand the number of agencies under executive control and help better organize the executive branch.

Foreign policy prior to American entry in WWII was marked by the "Good Neighbor Policy" towards Latin America. Basically, the United States decided to finally stop interfering in those countries so much and stop sending the military to occupy those countries. In addition to improving relations tremendously (which helped keep them away from joining the Axis during the war), it also created many new jobs and helped end a lot of racism Americans felt towards their southern neighbors. (Notice how Ricky in ''Series/ILoveLucy'' was portrayed in positive light in the stuffy, whitewashed 1950's.) Then the UsefulNotes/ColdWar happened and all of that ended, sadly. Also on the positive side, FDR signed a bill in 1934 granting independence to the Philippines in ten years; this was delayed by another two years because of the Japanese invasion. Diplomatic relations were finally extended to the Soviet Union. As it became clear that another world war was approaching, the United States initially passed a number of bills asserting its neutrality and banning certain types of exchanges with countries in war. Once it actually started, however, Roosevelt realized the danger that Germany and Japan ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Italy]]) presented, and he convinced Congress to start a massive Lend-Lease Program in order to aid the UK and China to prevent them from being conquered, saying that the United States must be "the arsenal of democracy." When AdolfHitler invaded the USSR, he extended the program to JosephStalin as well. While Roosevelt initially did not want to break the two-term tradition, events in Europe convinced him to run again in 1940. While a huge shock to people at the time, the clear majority of voters thought that he would be the best leader to help them through a possible war and he won by another huge margin. There were some clashes between American and German ships/submarines during 1941, and the US was essentially an unofficial Allied Power in the months before Pearl Harbor.

FDR played a very major role in planning military operations during World War II. He had previously served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I, so he knew how to organize a war. Roosevelt met with the UK's Prime Minister, WinstonChurchill, just months before Pearl Harbor and outlined their plan for a post-war world, including the founding of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations. The two also agreed on a plan to initially keep Japan at bay while they take care of Hitler in Europe, both because he posed the risk of defeating both the UK and the Soviet Union and because they were worried that Stalin would potentially conquer all of continental Europe if they left Germany to him. Thanks largely to FDR's planning and to great generals in the military, the Allied Powers were able to halt the Axis advance and eventually push them back. In Europe, after American and British forces pushed the Axis out of North Africa, they launched an assault on Italy and forced BenitoMussolini out of power, and later launched a daring but brilliant land invasion of northern France in 1944 that eventually led to the American and British occupation of western Germany. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, an "island-hopping" strategy was formed, where the Navy would send men to conquer strategically-necessary islands but blockade other enemy-held islands until they surrendered. Plans to create atomic weapons were given the OK by FDR at AlbertEinstein's request - he initially thought they would be prepared in time to use them against Germany, but they were completed after Germany's surrender. Roosevelt traveled around the world a number of times to meet with Churchill, Stalin, China's ChiangKaishek, and other Allied leaders to plan military operations and discuss what to do after the war. At home, major rations were placed on domestic products, unions agreed not to strike (and very few of them did, remarkably), and everyone bought war bonds to help fund the military. Roosevelt also won another landslide in 1944.

His wife UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt (a fifth cousin; Teddy was her father Elliot's elder brother and, since Elliot died young, T.R.--who was President at the time--gave her away at the wedding[[note]]Also, T.R. famously joked at the time that "there's nothing like keeping the name in the family."[[/note]]) was the first First Lady to actually take an open role in government (WoodrowWilson's wife did in secret when he had a stroke). She became hated by many, an experience she would share with several of her successors, including Nancy Reagan, [[HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Clinton]], and Michelle Obama. She was viciously insulted as being ugly. The Roosevelts had a complex relationship. After she first learned Franklin cheated on her with her secretary, Lucy Mercer, Eleanor offered him a divorce, but Franklin declined--both for the sake of his political career and because his mother (who had something of a rivalry with Eleanor) threatened to disinherit him if he did. They never shared a bedroom after that, but their working relationship was respectful, for the time. Some have also suggested that she had a lesbian relationship with a close friend. As Franklin's polio prevented him from traveling, Eleanor became his eyes and ears, and a great political tool. When disgruntled veterans marched on Washington during Hoover's administration, wanting their pensions early because of the Depression, it was noted that Hoover sent the army to drive them away, while FDR sent his wife to give them charitable goods. During the FDR presidency, Eleanor traveled across the country and raised support for the poor, women, and minorities. She famously arranged for black opera singer Marian Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after she was denied by group of all-white women to perform in Constitution Hall. Eleanor continued to play a prominent role in global politics after her husband's death, most notably when she drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the UN in 1948. For her years of service to the world bringing attention to human rights, Truman named her "First Lady of the World."

The Republican-controlled Congress amended the Constitution after he died, so no one else can serve for more than eight years (or up to ten if they take over for less than two years of another president's term). This turned out, ironically, to primarily affect Republicans: only two Democratic presidents (UsefulNotes/BillClinton and UsefulNotes/BarackObama) and three Republicans (UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, and UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush) so far have actually served long enough to be affected by the term limit. (Sitting President UsefulNotes/HarryTruman was grandfathered in by the amendment; LyndonJohnson served less than two years of JohnFKennedy's first and only term and could have run for one more term. Both of them chose not to run again for political and personal reasons. Additionally, RichardNixon was elected to two terms but resigned during his second due to political scandals.)

The official presidential retreat, Camp David, was built during his first term, but it was known as [[Literature/LostHorizon Shangri-La]] at the time. During the patriotism of World War II, the Pledge of Allegiance was adopted by Congress as the country's formal pledge. The [[ThomasJefferson Jefferson Memorial]] was completed during his time, too. He was the first President to appear on television. In 1932, he opened the [[OlympicGames Winter Olympics]] in Lake Placid, making him the first person who was at some point President to open the games but not the first sitting President to do so (that would be UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in 1984); Roosevelt opened them because he was the state governor during the games.

* ChekhovsGunman: His first appearance on the national political stage was as James Cox's running mate in 1920. [[HerbertHoover Twelve]] [[TheGreatDepression years]] [[LandslideElection later]]...

* HeterosexualLifePartners: With UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. They got along famously with each other, and Roosevelt sent Churchill a letter that included "It is fun to be in the same decade with you." To this day, probably the best relationship ever shared between the President and Prime Minister.[[note]]Other notably close relationships--prominently UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and MargaretThatcher and UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and TonyBlair--are never considered nearly as close.[[/note]]

* TheKirk: To UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill's TheMcCoy and JosephStalin's TheSpock.

** Ford Motor Company, General Motors, DuPont, Standard Oil of New Jersey, Davis Oil Co., and the Chase National Bank were all US-based corporations that were licensed to trade with NaziGermany, with Henry Ford in particular supplying tanks to the Nazis (Ford was probably the single most racist industrialist and prominent Hitler supporter in the US at the time). This trade of course stopped when war was declared in 1941, and was far outweighed by the assistance given to Britain. Roosevelt did not stop them, fearing a scandal might lead to another stock market crash or lower U.S. morale. Corporate leaders also threatened to withdraw support to the US if Roosevelt exposed them.

** If not for Roosevelt's untimely death, the United States almost certainly would not have gotten involved in the VietnamWar. He supported the Viet Minh rebels and opposed allowing the French to regain control over Indochina.

* WhatTheHellHero: Even the super-paranoid FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (not to be confused with HerbertHoover) was not happy about Roosevelts' racist policy of Japanese internment.

** And by KennethBranagh in ''WarmSprings''. He also appeared in ''YankeeDoodleDandy''.

* The ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' series imply that he was a son of the Big Three; Hades, Poseidon or Zeus. Its Wiki reveals that he is the son of Zeus.

* DisproportionateRetribution: After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the military to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded," meaning that local commanders could impose "[[ExactWords restrictions]]" on anyone it deemed a threat; primarily US citizens and immigrants of Japanese, Italian and/or German descent. Curfews, loss of property and possessions, mandatory evacuation from their homes and concentration into internment camps were among such restrictions. These were done without trials, hearings or due process, which bypassed the authority of the Attorney General and the courts. The Supreme Court formally approved of the arrangement in ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korematsu_v._United_States Korematsu v. United States]]'' 323 U.S. 214 (1944), a case which embarrasses the Court today even more than ''[[TheAmericanCivilWar Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'' and ''[[JimCrow Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' (since unlike ''Korematsu'', the Court at least had the opportunity to correct the mistake; since no similar cases have appeared before the Court since 1944, ''Korematsu'' technically remains good law). GeorgeTakei and Mister Miyagi were among the prisoners.

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' (1882-1945) was the longest serving President in American history, serving three full terms and starting his fourth when he died. He served from 1933 to [[TheForties 1945]], taking over for HerbertHoover and making way for UsefulNotes/HarryTruman after his death, and he was the tenth President from the Democratic Party. No other President had even won a third term. And, thanks to the 22nd Amendment, no President since will be able to challenge his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of the 22nd being repealed). Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States.

Roosevelt was from a very wealthy family based in New York. He was the fifth cousin of a previous President, TheodoreRoosevelt, who was ironically from the other party. A corporate lawyer before turning his attention to politics, the Democratic friends of his family convinced FDR to run for the state Senate in 1910. President WoodrowWilson, a fellow Democrat, appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, where he advocated modernizing and building up the Navy and also helped organize overseas plans during WorldWarI. Roosevelt was the Democratic ticket's Vice President in the 1920 elections, but the Republicans won a [[WarrenHarding landslide that year]]. Following this defeat, FDR managed to organize a political comeback and become Governor of New York in 1929. The Great Depression broke out that same year, and Roosevelt created several social programs to combat unemployment in his state. Having gained nationwide attention, Roosevelt ran for the presidency in 1932, and won by a huge landslide against unpopular incumbent HerbertHoover. At his first inauguration, he famously declared "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."[[note]]A quote originated by HenryDavidThoreau[[/note]] Along with winning another huge landslide in 1936, the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress by significant margins for all of his presidency (though the Republicans were clearly closing in towards the end), which meant that Roosevelt was practically free to pass anything he wanted. FDR and the Democrats won so many times by creating a coalition of state party bosses, political machines, unions, minorities, farmers, and Southerners that would make the Democrats the majority party in the country for another few decades. Between Roosevelt's first victory in 1932 and RichardNixon breaking the coalition in 1968, only one Republican, DwightDEisenhower, occupied the White House.

* '''Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)''': Employed millions of young men to help with conservation projects during the Depression. The money was sent back to their families, and the young men, who probably would have turned to crime to gain food and money, were fed, clothed, housed, and trained by the organization. They planted trees in the Dust Bowl of the Great Plains, which helped the region become farm-able again. Like the [[TheodoreRoosevelt other Roosevelt]], FDR was in favor of conservation projects.

As you can see, the Supreme Court was not a huge fan of several New Deal agencies. FDR, frustrated that the Court kept defeating his plans (especially since he had yet to place a single man on the Court yet), announced in 1937 a plan to expand the Court by up to six new members. Even many Democrats were shocked at this "Court packing scheme," and it was defeated by Congress in the biggest political failure of FDR's presidency. Still, the Court did start ruling in favor of the New Deal programs after that, and some of the older Justices started to retire. FDR appointed eight of the nine Justices on the Court when he died, including the Chief Justice. Many people on both sides of the political spectrum complain about the unprecedented power that FDR held during his presidency, with the harshest to this day saying that Roosevelt was practically a dictator. Truth be told, except AbrahamLincoln, none of the others come close to matching the authority Roosevelt wielded during his twelve years.

Whether the New Deal had any effect, and whether this effect was positive, is still hotly debated. Even some in his own administration disagreed on it being effective -- some felt that it swung too close to socialism, while others felt that Roosevelt didn't go far enough.[[note]]For what it is worth, Socialist Party head Norman Thomas, when asked whether Roosevelt's New Deal was socialist, said that “Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher.”[[/note]] Nevertheless, what ''isn't'' argued is the fact that, during WorldWarII, the rapid military buildup effectively ended the Depression, with most able-bodied men serving in the military and those who weren't (along with many of America's women) working in factories producing the war material. It was on the basis of this industrialization that the prosperity of [[TheFifties ensuing]] [[TheSixties decades]] was built. Still, a lot of Roosevelt's reforms and surviving programs have been credited by many for preventing another horrible economic catastrophe from happening since and for overseeing a relatively stable economy most of the time. Even [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush the current]] [[BarackObama economic recession]] does not even compare to the horror that was the Great Depression, when at least one third of the country went to bed hungry. He also gains some points for being fairly progressive when it came to minorities and women. Along with the very visible role his wife [[UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt Eleanor]] played in government, he also appointed the first woman to the Cabinet, Frances Perkins (she was Secretary of Labor), and a lot of other well-known women of the time were prominent advisers for his administration. Additionally, FDR had a group of African American advisers known as the "Black Cabinet" who helped him shape bills to be more fair towards blacks, a major accomplishment during the Jim Crow era. During WWII, when black leaders threatened to march on Washington in protest of discrimination in federal hiring, he gave an executive order ending any further discrimination. These actions helped plant some seeds of the post-war CivilRightsMovement and moving the black vote into the Democratic Party after it had been in Republican hands since the days of [[AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]. Unfortunately, he backed off on supporting an anti-lynching bill, reasoning (correctly) that it would cost the vote of Southerners in Congress and cost him support for his other major legislation, which were not-incidentally benefiting poor blacks more than any other government policies since Reconstruction. Indeed, while he didn't do as much as later Presidents, FDR gave more help to minorities and women than most President before him and probably did as much as could have been done for them at the time. The Executive Office of the President was created in 1939 in order to expand the number of agencies under executive control and help better organize the executive branch.

Foreign policy prior to American entry in WWII was marked by the "Good Neighbor Policy" towards Latin America. Basically, the United States decided to finally stop interfering in those countries so much and stop sending the military to occupy those countries. In addition to improving relations tremendously (which helped keep them away from joining the Axis during the war), it also created many new jobs and helped end a lot of racism Americans felt towards their southern neighbors. (Notice how Ricky in ''Series/ILoveLucy'' was portrayed in positive light in the stuffy, whitewashed 1950's.) Then the ColdWar happened and all of that ended, sadly. Also on the positive side, FDR signed a bill in 1934 granting independence to the Philippines in ten years; this was delayed by another two years because of the Japanese invasion. Diplomatic relations were finally extended to the Soviet Union. As it became clear that another world war was approaching, the United States initially passed a number of bills asserting its neutrality and banning certain types of exchanges with countries in war. Once it actually started, however, Roosevelt realized the danger that Germany and Japan ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Italy]]) presented, and he convinced Congress to start a massive Lend-Lease Program in order to aid the UK and China to prevent them from being conquered, saying that the United States must be "the arsenal of democracy." When AdolfHitler invaded the USSR, he extended the program to JosephStalin as well. While Roosevelt initially did not want to break the two-term tradition, events in Europe convinced him to run again in 1940. While a huge shock to people at the time, the clear majority of voters thought that he would be the best leader to help them through a possible war and he won by another huge margin. There were some clashes between American and German ships/submarines during 1941, and the US was essentially an unofficial Allied Power in the months before Pearl Harbor.

Roosevelt gave a very famous speech the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks when he went to Congress to ask for war, stating that it will be "a date which will live in infamy." Within hours, Congress voted almost unanimously for war.[[note]]People who remember WorldWarI history very well may remember that the only woman in Congress in 1917 voted no for the war, saying that she could not, as the only woman representing 50% of the country, in good faith say that the majority of American women want to send their husbands, brothers, and sons to fight overseas. Coincidentally, she ended up getting voted back into the House many years later for a single term which just so happened to be the one where FDR asked for a declaration of war. She also voted no, and was the only one, as she was a committed pacifist. Needless to say, this was [[ForegoneConclusion not a popular vote]] and the police had to escort her to her home that night.[[/note]] Roosevelt was facing more problems considering he and Churchill had agreed on a Europe First approach to this war, and Roosevelt faced an uphill battle convincing Congress to agree to it with the war on the Japanese now in progress. As it turned out, Roosevelt got lucky; Hitler made one of his greatest foreign policy blunders and declared war on the United States both in hopes of Japan attacking the USSR in support and allow his U-Boats to openly attack the US Navy escorts supporting British convoys in their portion of the Atlantic. This wiped out any domestic politic opposition to participating in the European Theatre of World War II and Roosevelt was able to join that fight with full fury.

He's consistently ranked by scholars and the public as one of the greatest Presidents in American history, next to GeorgeWashington and AbrahamLincoln.

* BigGood: Okay, BlackAndGrayMorality aside, he was the beacon of leadership for the Americans during WorldWarII, alongside UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, and is still considered by many to be among the greatest American presidents in history.

* HandicappedBadass: If you just skimmed this page, let us remind you, he ran the country during TheGreatDepression and WorldWarII ''while diagnosed with freaking polio''. And he '''faked''' not having polio despite the tremendous strain it had on his body--he even had a car modified with hand controls [[DrivingStick before automatic transmissions existed]]. Must be running off Teddy's stash of badassery.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Roosevelt did not object to Stalin invading Berlin, in spite of Churchill's vehement protests. He and Churchill also made a number of promises to Stalin in return for further Soviet aid, such as letting him occupy Eastern Europe (in return for promising to allow free elections in those nations, [[BlatantLies a promise Stalin did not keep]] and parts of northern China (which also became a communist nation within a few years). This was the start of Soviet military expansion and the precursor to the ColdWar. To be fair, Roosevelt and Churchill were actually trying to limit just how much territory the unpredictable Stalin could lay his hands on, and they both knew that trying to fight Stalin just after they defeated Hitler would not have ended well.

** He is also a choice for leader of America in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 4'', along with George Washington and AbrahamLincoln. Roosevelt is Industrious and Organized, which gives a boon to production and efficiency.

* Even ''FamilyGuy'' thinks it's TooSoon to make a ''lamer than FDR's legs'' joke.

** In ''{{Worldwar}}'' he dies early, in 1944, due to the extra stress of having to manage a war against alien invaders and constantly being moved around the country. Henry Wallace was still his Vice President, but he had already been killed in an attack on Seattle and so Secretary of State Cordell Hull succeeded FDR as President.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' gives him a little bit of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade, playing off the real life controversies like the Japanese Internment and his court-packing scheme, and implies that he used a Piece of Eden to navigate the country through the Great Depression. He was also apparently one of four KnightsTemplar in charge of the world's major superpowers, and helped to orchestrate WorldWarII as a way of creating a NewWorldOrder. The other three? [[spoiler: Churchill, Stalin, and ''Hitler''.]]

* In Creator/PhilipRoth's AlternateHistory ''ThePlotAgainstAmerica'', he was defeated by Charles Lindberg in the 1940 election, who keeps the US out of WorldWarII

Probably the worst thing he did in office was authorize the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast during WWII. 120,000 people, of whom more than three-fifths were American citizens, were rounded up and put in prison camps solely for being of Japanese descent. [[WhatTheHellHero Ouch]]. Even J. Edgar Hoover, not known for being the most racially sensitive man in the world, [[EvenEvilHasStandards questioned this decision.]] Another thing that could compete was when he continued the Mexican Repatriation (a movement that began in the Hoover presidency) that saw over 500,000 Mexicans forcefully deported back to Mexico (sadly most of whom were legal U.S citizens).

->''"He lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation from its knees."''\\
--Historian '''Jean Edward Smith'''

->''"You'll have to speak up. The old man in a wheelchair who [[AmericaWinsTheWar defeated the Third Reich]] can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is."''\\
--Overheard on the [[HeartsOfIron Paradox]] Forums

* In "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Disney's ''Disney{{/Dumbo}}'', one of the puns is "I heard a fireside chat", a then-contemporary reference to Roosevelt's fireside chats.

Roosevelt gave a very famous speech the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks when he went to Congress to ask for war, stating that it will be "a date which will live in infamy." Within hours, Congress voted almost unanimously for war.[[note]]People who remember WorldWarI history very well may remember that the only woman in Congress in 1917 voted no for the war, saying that she could not, as the only woman representing 50% of the country, in good faith say that the majority of American women want to send their husbands, brothers, and sons to fight overseas. Coincidentally, she ended up getting voted back into the House many years later for a single term which just so happened to be the one where FDR asked for a declaration of war. She also voted no, and was the only one, saying that, if half of the country was not allowed to fight, then she's not voting for this war. Needless to say, this was [[ForegoneConclusion not a popular vote]] and the police had to escort her to her home that night.[[/note]] Roosevelt was facing more problems considering he and Churchill had agreed on a Europe First approach to this war, and Roosevelt faced an uphill battle convincing Congress to agree to it with the war on the Japanese now in progress. As it turned out, Roosevelt got lucky; Hitler made one of his greatest foreign policy blunders and declared war on the United States both in hopes of Japan attacking the USSR in support and allow his U-Boats to openly attack the US Navy escorts supporting British convoys in their portion of the Atlantic. This wiped out any domestic politic opposition to participating in the European Theatre of World War II and Roosevelt was able to join that fight with full fury.

He actually spent much of his adult life paralyzed from the waist down due to what was probably polio (some modern researchers believe that it might have been Guillain–Barré syndrome), having contacted the disease in 1921. This includes his Presidency, making him America's one and only handicapped President, unless one also counts Kennedy who had Addison's Disease. There was less scrutiny of public figures back then, which he combined with trick photography, leg braces that let him stand and walk short distances by swiveling, immense upper-body strength to hold himself up with the podium and [[ThePlan other tactics to ease the public away from questioning why he was never pictured standing up on his own]]. (He was almost always leaning on somebody or something in the photos that show him standing.) When photos were taken without permission, the Secret Service would smash the reporter's camera to make sure the newspapers wouldn't publish it. His battle with polio had a profound affect on him - before he was the privileged son of a wealthy family, but now he experienced real struggle and hardship. His recovery from what was then a potentially deadly disease inspired him, giving him the outlook that no odds were impossible. It is often said that his fight with the disease allowed him to connect with the poor and "the forgotten man," even though he lived all his life in luxury, because his own hardships helped him to understand their own. Roosevelt was also something of a MagnificentBastard, capable of manipulating anyone with his sheer charm and infectious personality.

'''Franklin Delano Roosevelt''' (1882-1945) was the longest serving President in American history, serving three full terms and starting his fourth when he died. He served from 1933 to [[TheForties 1945]], taking over for HerbertHoover and making way for HarryTruman after his death, and he was the tenth President from the Democratic Party. No other President had even won a third term. And, thanks to the 22nd Amendment, no President since will be able to challenge his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of the 22nd being repealed). Roosevelt led the country through TheGreatDepression and WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever changed the United States.

* '''Banking reform''': Two days after entering office, he declared a "banking holiday" and closed all banks for a week. Congress then passed the '''Emergency Banking Relief Act''' and the '''Glass-Steagall Banking Reform Act''', which helped the federal government regulate the banks and insure deposits. Within a month, a billion dollars were added back into America's banks. One of the major lasting New Deal programs, the '''Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)''', was created as part of his banking programs. Also, let's say something about Glass-Steagall. The law said that banks can not use government-provided loans to make risky investments - since the purpose of loans is to provide stability to the banks, it is wrong for them to be used in banking practices that could potentially cause ''in''stability. This part of the act was repealed BillClinton (and not RonaldReagan, as some people remember) and the banks were allowed to use these loans. In hindsight, this was a cause of the Great Recession.

Whether the New Deal had any effect, and whether this effect was positive, is still hotly debated. Even some in his own administration disagreed on it being effective -- some felt that it swung too close to socialism, while others felt that Roosevelt didn't go far enough.[[note]]For what it is worth, Socialist Party head Norman Thomas, when asked whether Roosevelt's New Deal was socialist, said that “Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher.”[[/note]] Nevertheless, what ''isn't'' argued is the fact that, during WorldWarII, the rapid military buildup effectively ended the Depression, with most able-bodied men serving in the military and those who weren't (along with many of America's women) working in factories producing the war material. It was on the basis of this industrialization that the prosperity of [[TheFifties ensuing]] [[TheSixties decades]] was built. Still, a lot of Roosevelt's reforms and surviving programs have been credited by many for preventing another horrible economic catastrophe from happening since and for overseeing a relatively stable economy most of the time. Even [[GeorgeWBush the current]] [[BarackObama economic recession]] does not even compare to the horror that was the Great Depression, when at least one third of the country went to bed hungry. He also gains some points for being fairly progressive when it came to minorities and women. Along with the very visible role his wife [[UsefulNotes/EleanorRoosevelt Eleanor]] played in government, he also appointed the first woman to the Cabinet, Frances Perkins (she was Secretary of Labor), and a lot of other well-known women of the time were prominent advisers for his administration. Additionally, FDR had a group of African American advisers known as the "Black Cabinet" who helped him shape bills to be more fair towards blacks, a major accomplishment during the Jim Crow era. During WWII, when black leaders threatened to march on Washington in protest of discrimination in federal hiring, he gave an executive order ending any further discrimination. These actions helped plant some seeds of the post-war CivilRightsMovement and moving the black vote into the Democratic Party after it had been in Republican hands since the days of [[AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]. Unfortunately, he backed off on supporting an anti-lynching bill, reasoning (correctly) that it would cost the vote of Southerners in Congress and cost him support for his other major legislation, which were not-incidentally benefiting poor blacks more than any other government policies since Reconstruction. Indeed, while he didn't do as much as later Presidents, FDR gave more help to minorities and women than most President before him and probably did as much as could have been done for them at the time. The Executive Office of the President was created in 1939 in order to expand the number of agencies under executive control and help better organize the executive branch.

Roosevelt died in 1945, after twelve years of aggressively combating both the Great Depression at home and the Axis Powers abroad. He was only 63, but [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mQEcEXM_PTs/TglVeZZTBlI/AAAAAAAAApc/cvQebP4iA0c/s320/fdr1945lg.jpg photos]] of him just before his death make him look like he was at least 80. The man literally worked himself to death. A shocked nation mourned the loss of their leader, and Vice President HarryTruman suddenly found himself in charge of the country.

The Republican-controlled Congress amended the Constitution after he died, so no one else can serve for more than eight years (or up to ten if they take over for less than two years of another president's term). This turned out, ironically, to primarily affect Republicans: only two Democratic presidents (BillClinton and BarackObama) and three Republicans (DwightDEisenhower, RonaldReagan, and GeorgeWBush) so far have actually served long enough to be affected by the term limit. (Sitting President HarrySTruman was grandfathered in by the amendment; LyndonJohnson served less than two years of JohnFKennedy's first and only term and could have run for one more term. Both of them chose not to run again for political and personal reasons. Additionally, RichardNixon was elected to two terms but resigned during his second due to political scandals.)

Not long after FDR was elected, a number of major business leaders formed a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot conspiracy to initiate a coup and put in place a business-friendly dictatorship]]. This included leaders of such companies as US Steel, J.P. Morgan, Remington Arms, Standard Oil, and the [[GeorgeHWBush Bush]] [[GeorgeWBush family]]. It was revealed by Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who was approached by these men to be the face of the operation. The Congressional committee formed to investigate this confirmed what he was saying, but they covered up the full details of the plot and prosecuted no one involved. It wasn't until the 1960's that the full extent of the Business Plot was revealed when the original committee report was rediscovered. This is one ConspiracyTheory which actually happened.

The official presidential retreat, Camp David, was built during his first term, but it was known as [[Literature/LostHorizon Shangri-La]] at the time. During the patriotism of World War II, the Pledge of Allegiance was adopted by Congress as the country's formal pledge. The [[ThomasJefferson Jefferson Memorial]] was completed during his time, too. He was the first President to appear on television. In 1932, he opened the [[OlympicGames Winter Olympics]] in Lake Placid, making him the first person who was at some point President to open the games but not the first sitting President to do so (that would be RonaldReagan in 1984); Roosevelt opened them because he was the state governor during the games.

* BatmanGambit: How he got HarrySTruman to be his running mate. In 1944, the Democratic Party leadership decided that Henry Wallace was too liberal to be Vice President for Roosevelt's fourth term; the leadership knew that FDR's health was not what it once was, and that his Vice President would be very likely to become President. They eventually settled on Truman as an acceptable next President, but there was just one problem: Truman didn't want to be VP. As a result, the leaders brought Truman to a hotel room, where Roosevelt was waiting to speak to him over the phone from Washington. Roosevelt excoriated Truman for threatening Democratic party unity during wartime, and (seemingly) hung up in a huff. Little did Truman know that this whole thing had been carefully rehearsed in ''exactly'' the way required to get at one of Truman's weak points: he was nothing if not a Democratic loyalist, and accusing him of breaking party unity was tantamount to calling him a traitor. Truman accepted, and the rest is history.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: With UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. They got along famously with each other, and Roosevelt sent Churchill a letter that included "It is fun to be in the same decade with you." To this day, probably the best relationship ever shared between the President and Prime Minister.[[note]]Other notably close relationships--prominently RonaldReagan and MargaretThatcher and GeorgeWBush and TonyBlair--are never considered nearly as close.[[/note]]

* It turns out that a still-living FDR is an employee at [[BizarroEpisode McAwesome's Parasailing and Chocolate Bakery]] in the world of ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', just as "[[RonaldReagan Ronnie]]" works for the nearby toy store.