Although Roosevelt is remembered as one of the best presidents of the United States, many of his policies were harshly criticized. He was accused of being a communist by imposing a 75% tax on millionaires and confiscating the gold stocks of the US people.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (often referred to as FDR, his initials in American historiography), was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, United States.
Both his father and mother belong to well-established and wealthy families that immigrated to America from the Netherlands and England in the 17th century. His father, James Roosevelt (1828-1900), was a lawyer, merchant, and railroad operator, and his mother, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), was the daughter of a family engaged in the opium trade with China.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American politician and statesman who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was a member of the Democratic Party and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms in office. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is related to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the USA, on his father's side, and is the cousin of the 30th President of the USA, Calvin Coolidge, from his mother's side. Apart from these, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is related to many US Presidents, both by blood and marriage.
Roosevelt, who received his primary school education from private teachers who came to his home, was sent to Europe when he was 9 years old and learned German and French. At the age of 14, he was enrolled in the Groton School in Massachusetts, one of the most prestigious private schools in America. After graduating from Groton School, he wanted to study at the American Naval Academy. When his family opposed this, he started studying economics at Harvard University in 1900, but when his cousin Theodore Roosevelt became the US President in 1901, he turned to the field of law and history.
Roosevelt, who spent his free time giving private lessons to poor children in Boston, graduated from Harvard University's History Department in 1903, entered Columbia University Law School in the same year, and graduated from there in 1907.
In his first year at Law School, he proposed to his fifth cousin from his father's side, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), but due to his mother's objection, he had to wait two years and marry his cousin in 1905. The two remained married until Franklin's death, and Roosevelt had six children from this marriage.
After graduating from law school, Roosevelt passed the bar exams and registered with the New York Bar Association, then started working as a lawyer in a private firm. He worked as a lawyer for three years and entered politics. Roosevelt wanted to be a candidate from the Democratic Party in the New York State Assembly elections in 1910, but he could not win the candidacy elections. Thereupon, with the support of his cousin, he became a candidate in the New York State Senate elections. He won the elections by combining his family's financial means and political power with his oratory skills and intelligence. During his time in the New York State Senate, he drew attention to the political corruption in New York and fought for women to be given the right to vote and be elected. In this way, he became known throughout the country as a reformist young politician.
Roosevelt, who gained a place in the New York State Senate, had a falling out with his family because he supported Democratic Party member Woodrow Wilson instead of his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, who was running for the third time, contrary to the practices, in the 1912 Presidential Elections. Franklin Roosevelt, with the support of Woodrow Wilson, won the New York State Senate elections for the second time. When President Wilson took office, he offered Roosevelt the position of Undersecretary of the US Navy in return for his political support. Roosevelt, who wanted to follow in the footsteps of his cousin Theodore Roosevelt, who became Undersecretary of the Department of the Navy in 1898, accepted this position on March 17, 1913. Another reason why Roosevelt accepted the position was that he had been interested in maritime since childhood.
During his time as Undersecretary of the Navy, Roosevelt introduced a merit-based rank system in the American Navy and made efforts to increase the number and tonnage of ships in the Navy. In 1914, he was a candidate from New York in the American Senate Elections, but he lost the candidacy election as a result of the opposition of both President Wilson and the New York State organizations of the Democratic Party. After this incident, Roosevelt made peace with the New York state government of the Democratic Party, with which he was in conflict, and continued his duty as undersecretary.
When the First World War began, Roosevelt tried to ensure that the American Navy was ready against the Central Powers, especially Germany and argued that the USA should declare war on the Central Powers, claiming that a strong Germany would pose a danger to world peace. To this end, Roosevelt did not even hesitate to cooperate with the Republican Party opposition against President Wilson and Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels.
When the USA entered the First World War in 1917, it advocated that it should act jointly with the British and French navies and prepared a plan to mine all the waters between England and Norway. Although the plan he prepared was not initially implemented by England as it was deemed too complex, it was put into effect in 1918. By the end of the war, Roosevelt ensured that the personnel of the US Navy was quadrupled, and after the war, he oversaw the downsizing of the US Navy. During this period, he argued that aviation would be more important a generation later and enabled the creation of air units affiliated with the US Navy. After the war, he adopted a harsh attitude, arguing that the Central Powers, especially Germany, should be punished.
As Woodrow Wilson's term as president ended, Roosevelt began political activities to become a candidate for President or Vice President. He first tried to have Herbert Hoover become the Presidential candidate and himself the Vice-Presidential candidate, but this plan was foiled as a result of Hoover switching to the Republican Party. Secondly, he attended the Democratic Party's congress and convinced James Cox, who was elected Presidential Candidate there, to choose him as the Vice Presidential candidate. After being selected as the Vice Presidential candidate, he resigned as Undersecretary of the Department of Navy, but when he resigned, he ensured that Theodore Roosevelt's eldest son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., was appointed in his place. Roosevelt's plan was realized a year later, and until 1936, the Undersecretariat of the Department of Navy was assigned to members of the Roosevelt family.
Roosevelt, who was defeated in the 1920 Presidential Elections in which he entered as a Vice Presidential Candidate, returned to his profession as a lawyer and began to prepare for the 1922 House of Representatives Elections. All his plans changed when he contracted polio in August 1921 and became paralyzed below the waist. Roosevelt, who received treatment and therapy for a long time, rejected his family's offers to go to a nursing home and returned to politics. He managed the election campaign of the Democratic Party in New York in the 1924 Presidential Elections. In these elections, Democratic Party candidate Al Smith lost the election, and Roosevelt's maternal cousin Calvin Coolidge won the election. Roosevelt, who ran the Democratic Party's election campaign in the 1928 Presidential Elections, was offered to participate in the New York State Governorship Elections. He initially rejected the offer but was forced to accept when he was officially nominated by the New York State Chapter of the Democratic Party. After an intense campaign, Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York State. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party lost again in the Presidential Elections.
A few months after Roosevelt, who was elected Governor of New York State, took office, the New York Stock Exchange crashed and the economic crisis known as the "Great Depression" emerged. To combat the crisis, the unemployed were given temporary jobs in government offices and unemployment benefits. He also ensured the protection of New York forests and pioneered the provision of electricity to many settlements in the state. Roosevelt, who received the support of the public with these efforts, was elected once again by breaking the voting record in the 1930 Governorship Elections.
Roosevelt, who was elected Governor of New York State for the second time, became known to the US public as an administrator who did not hesitate to take responsibility and became increasingly popular. Since the economic policies of the then US President Herbert Hoover was not sufficient to overcome the Great Depression, he lost the support of the voters, and Roosevelt, realizing this, became a candidate from the Democratic Party in the 1932 Presidential Elections. He was elected presidential candidate after a controversial session at the Democratic Party Congress in June 1932 but had to make some concessions to the party leadership.
Roosevelt, who quickly entered the election campaign, traveled all over the USA and promised the American public an exit from the economic crisis and a new order (the New Deal also meant a new agreement). Roosevelt, who won the elections with fifty-seven percent of the votes, took office in 1933 and became the thirty-third president of the United States.
Roosevelt, who promised to start getting results within a hundred days after his election and was supported by the US Congress, started working to realize the economic and social program he called the New Deal from the moment he took office.
After taking office, Roosevelt ensured that the alcohol ban imposed in 1919 was lifted and taxed alcoholic beverages. To increase the prices of agricultural products, farmers bought their animals and products and gave state support to large farmers in exchange for not using some of their lands. Roosevelt, who started by temporarily closing all banks in the USA to prevent the withdrawal of money from banks, created an insurance system to provide state support to banks. He established the National Relief Administration (NRA) to manage the economy. To increase wages and reduce prices, he started a campaign for large companies to sign a contract called the "Fair Competition Agreement" and to improve the rights of employees, and he signed a presidential order for companies that signed the contract to be considered a priority in government tenders.
Public Works Administration/PWA and Works Projects Administration/WPA were established to reduce unemployment. He established the Tennessee Valley Project and Tennessee Valley Authority for the Tennessee Valley, the region worst affected by the crisis in the USA. It gave workers the right to collective bargaining and increased wages. Literary writers, historians, and archaeologists who could not find a job after graduating from university were recruited into state service and were allowed to work in their fields. In this way, the disciplines of literature, archeology, and history have developed in the USA and many works have been published. However, job placement programs generally gave priority to white unemployed people, which led to increased unemployment among black American citizens.
Roosevelt defined his economic policy as "a little left of center" since 1935. Roosevelt's most important policy against the Great Depression was to implement social state policies in the USA with the Social Security Act.
Roosevelt's economic policy brought him victory in the 1936 Presidential and Congressional Elections. In 1937, Roosevelt criticized the US Supreme Court, which rejected many of its laws because they were contrary to the American Constitution, and declared that he would appoint like-minded judges to the court. Since Roosevelt's reaction caused a constitutional crisis in the United States, the US Supreme Court declared that all laws enacted by Roosevelt would be retroactively unconstitutional. In response, Roosevelt ordered the preparation of a bill to increase the number of members of the US Supreme Court. The crisis was resolved only when Congress stated that new judges would not be appointed and some judges within the Supreme Court changed sides and declared that the laws enacted by Roosevelt were not unconstitutional.
As a result of the impact of the economic crisis not decreasing as quickly as the public expected, many of Roosevelt's bills began to be rejected in the US Congress starting from 1938. From this date until 1963, the Congress was governed by an informal union called the "Conservative Coalition", consisting of both ruling and opposition MPs who opposed Roosevelt.
Roosevelt won the 1940 Presidential Election by promising the US public that they would not go to war, but the US was forced to enter the war in 1941. While supporting the Allied Powers to prevent the war from spreading to the USA, it also kept diplomatic channels with the Axis Powers as open as possible. However, some American historians claim that he was looking for an excuse to enter the war and therefore ordered the American navy to provoke German and Italian ships to open fire. According to this view, called the Revisionist Approach, Roosevelt banned oil and iron exports to pressure and provoke Japan.
Following the Pearl Harbor Raid on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt made a speech to Congress on December 8 called the "Day of Infamy Speech" and demanded the declaration of war. On the same day, Congress declared war on Japan, and after Germany and Italy declared war on the USA, Roosevelt ensured that war was declared on these countries. Roosevelt generally left the management of the war to the army commanders and transferred the economy to the War Production Board. He sided with conservatives in Congress on controversial domestic issues such as gun rights and racial equality. He took diplomacy under his control.
In foreign policy, Roosevelt followed different paths. In the American continent, Roosevelt implemented a policy he called the "good neighbor policy", and in South America, he stopped interfering in the internal affairs of states that were not pro-American, but not openly anti-American. It also withdrew American soldiers stationed in Cuba and Haiti.
In the Old World, Roosevelt advocated being more effective and enterprising. In a speech known as the "Quarantine Speech" on October 5, 1937, he described Germany, Italy, and Japan as three states spreading disease to the world and claimed that these three states should be quarantined for the good of humanity. Starting in 1940, he started to lend and lease weapons and equipment to England and the Soviet Union, arguing that America should be the "arsenal of democracy". Roosevelt claimed that four fundamental freedoms were necessary to establish a world based on human rights and tried to implement this view in foreign policy. In a speech he called "The Four Freedoms Speech" in 1941, he claimed that freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion and belief, freedom from poverty, and freedom from fear were the basis of human rights, and argued that a new world order should be by these principles.
While the war was continuing, he won the 1944 Presidential Elections without difficulty and became president for the fourth time. Despite being ill, he attended the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and served as a mediator between Stalin and Churchill. However, it could not prevent the hegemony of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt fell ill on the afternoon of April 12, 1945, and died of a brain hemorrhage at 15:35 the same day. A state ceremony was held at the White House on April 14, 1945, and on April 15, he was buried in the family home in Hyde Park, where he was born, under his will. His death was met with surprise because his illness was hidden from the American public.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the face of the United States in general. During the Roosevelt period, the US federal government began to intervene in education and health more than ever before, and the state's influence on ordinary citizens increased. Millions of people have regained employment and wages in the United States have increased compared to previous periods. It developed the USA's war industry and enabled it to win the Second World War. Roosevelt's policies were well-received by the majority of the American public. He is considered one of the three best presidents in American history, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Today, this view continues to influence both the public and American historians.
Although Roosevelt is remembered as one of the best presidents of the United States, many of his policies were harshly criticized. He was accused of being a communist by imposing a 75% tax on millionaires and confiscating the gold stocks of the US people.
It has been said that the policies he called the New Deal actually failed and did not reduce unemployment as much as expected. It was stated that he favored his relatives because he appointed them to many positions. He was accused of disregarding US laws and traditions because he became a presidential candidate for the third time in 1940, contrary to convention. When he stated that he would not comply with some of the decisions of the US Supreme Court and would change the structure of the court, it was stated by the opposition that he acted like a dictator. The fact that he is the president who issued the most executive orders in American history has strengthened this claim.
It has been claimed that he had fascist tendencies, as he strengthened state control over radio and the press and praised Mussolini in several of his speeches. He was criticized for being anti-Semitic and racist for not allowing the mass immigration of Jews to the USA, for appointing racist civil servants to some judicial and administrative offices, and for sending US citizens of Japanese origin to mass camps during the Second World War. He was also accused of paving the way for Stalin because he could not prevent the Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe at the Yalta Conference.