What did FDR do as Chief Executive?

[Eddie Correa]

[DTKB]

He was elected to 4 terms of office and served 3 full terms in office (12 years). He

Major Events While He Was In Office
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- Twenty-First Amendment - Repeal of Prohibition (1933)
- New Deal policies including the creation of the CCC, NRA, and TVA (1933-1935)
- Social Security Act (1935)
- Court Packing Plan (1937)
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Pearl Harbor attacked; US enters World War II (1941)
- Yalta Conference (1945)

Considered his Greatest Accomplishments
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FDR piloted the country successfully through two major events - the Great Depression and World War II. In his message to Congress in June 1934, FDR stated that among his administration's objectives, he placed "the security of the men, women and children of the Nation first." The "security of the home, the security of livelihood, and the security of social insurance," he stated, "constitute a right that belongs to every individual." The achievement of these goals, in part through creation of the Social Security system, was among his greatest accomplishments.

TO EXPOUND:

Domestic accomplishments of President Roosevelt:
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Pushed a record number of bills through Congress during his "First 100 Days" program to grant immediate relief to tens of millions of unemployed during the depths of the Great Depression

Continued Hoover's Federal Emergency Relief Administration and created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Tennessee Valley Authority, which hired hundreds of thousands of unemployed men to work on rural local projects

Protected the livelihoods of laborers and farmers through the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and Agricultural Adjusment Administration (AAA)

Established Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), all of which last to this day

Drastically decreased unemployment from 25% to 2% over his tenure

Attempted to "pack" the Supreme Court in his second term by proposing a law to add six new justices to the bench. This move ran into significant political opposition from within the Democratic Party and was seen as a presidential power grab of the judicial branch


Foreign policy accomplishments of President Roosevelt:
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Developed the Good Neighbor Policy withdrawing American forces from Latin American countries and respecting their sovereignty more

Supported the case for intervention in WWII through the Destroyers for Bases Agreement and Lend-Lease Act supplying ships and armament to the Allied forces

Led the US into WWII after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and formulated strategy as part of the "Big Three" with Churchill and Stalin to defeat the Axis powers

Relocated 100,000 Japanese American civilians into internment camps in 1942

Endorsed the creation of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods system of monetary management among states

One Thing In Particular That Won the Hearts of the American Public The Fireside Chats:
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The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Although the World War I Committee on Public Information had seen presidential policy propagated to the public en masse, "fireside chats" were the first media development that facilitated intimate and direct communication between the president and the citizens of the United States. Roosevelt's cheery voice and demeanor played him into the favor of citizens and he soon became one of the most popular presidents ever, often affectionately compared to Abraham Lincoln. On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his reasons for social change slowly and comprehensibly. Radio was especially convenient for Roosevelt because it enabled him to hide his polio symptoms from the public eye.

Sometimes beginning his talks with "Good evening, friends." Roosevelt urged listeners to have faith in the banks and to support his New Deal measures. The "fireside chats" were considered enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio." Roosevelt continued his broadcasts into the 1940s, as Americans turned their attention to World War II. Roosevelt's first fireside chat was March 12, 1933, which marked the beginning of a series of 30 radio broadcasts to the American people reassuring them the nation was going to recover and shared his hopes and plans for the country. The chats ranged from fifteen to forty-five minutes and eighty percent of the words used were in the one thousand most commonly used words in the English dictionary.

No longer was the message of the administration to be tinkered with by the interpretations of the press, Roosevelt was simply going to tell the people what he was doing and why. This level of intimacy with politics made people feel as if they too were part of the administrations decision-making process and many soon felt that they knew Roosevelt personally and most importantly, they grew to trust him. He was thus able to implement the most radical social overhaul in U.S history without much internal dissent.

FDR was a wonderful president who led the country through one of the most difficult times in modern history. His wife and First Lady, Eleanor, traveled extensively around the nation, visiting relief projects, surveying working and living conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President. She was called "the President's eyes, ears and legs" and provided objective information to her husband. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered WWII, Mrs. Roosevelt made certain that the President did not abandon the goals he had put forth in the New Deal.

She also exercised her own political and social influence; she became an advocate of the rights and needs of the poor, of minorities, and of the disadvantaged. The public was drawn in by the First Lady's exploits and adventures which she recounted in her daily syndicated column, "My Day". She began writing the column in 1935 and continued until her death in 1962.

During the war, she served as Assistant Director of Civilian Defense from 1941 to 1942 and she visited England and the South Pacific to foster good will among the Allies and to boost the morale of U.S. servicemen overseas.

The First Lady was very progressive in her thinking and her ways. In 1933, Mrs. Roosevelt became the first, First Lady to hold her own press conference. In an attempt to afford equal time to women--who were traditionally barred from presidential press conferences--she allowed only female reporters to attend. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Marion Anderson, an African American singer, to perform in their auditorium. In protest, Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR.

Both President Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt worked tirelessly for the American People. Research FDR's death and the transfer of his body from Warm Springs, Georgia back to Washington, D.C.and the people that lined the train tracks. Americans felt they had not only lost a leader, but a dear friend. Similarly, a research on the death of Eleanor Roosevelt reflects much of the same endearment for the former First Lady. In my opinion, I feel it is fair to say that FDR was one of the greatest American presidents to ever serve our nation.

I have read extensively on both FDR and Eleanor and have in my possession trains orders distributed to Union Pacific Railroad Train Conductors nation wide with respect to proper procedure and protocol during this transfer of the President back to Washington, D.C.and on to his final burial plot as my Grandfather was a Train Conductor for UPRR and coincidentally, at one time also worked in FDR's WPA program.

[xpatinasia]

He accomplished many things that, since you're a conservative, you hate.