FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT. - President of the United States of America, b. 30 Jan 1882 at Hyde Park (New York), d. 12 Apr 1945 at Warm Springs (Georgia). He began his political career in 1910 as the Democratic candidate for the New York State Senate, a contest then considered political suicide, since the Republicans had held the seat for 32 years. Thanks to his promise to support legislation protecting farmers against wholesale dealers, he was elected on 8 Nov 1910 with 15,708 votes against the Republican Schlosser’s 14,568.
In 1912 he backed the nomination of W. Wilson as Democratic presidential candidate, and once Wilson became president he appointed Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a post he held until 1920. That year the Democratic Party acclaimed him as its candidate for the vice-presidency, but the Republicans’ resounding victory removed him from all political activity. In Aug 1921 Roosevelt was stricken with poliomyelitis and never fully recovered. In 1928 he was elected Governor of New York State and in 1932 President, taking office in March 1933 with a sweeping victory in 42 of the 48 States.
After the collapse of the American economic system during Hoover’s administration, Roosevelt proposed a new policy, the New Deal, with lofty social aims. He opposed individualism with the principle of cooperation and, during the twelve years he held power (he was re-elected in 1936, 1940 and 1944), strove to achieve an economic balance that would guarantee all U.S. citizens a decent standard of living and the means to enjoy the fundamental rights assured by the Constitution. The New Deal marked a decisive stand against those who exploited human labour, monopolists and all who in any way profited from others’ toil; it helped reduce unemployment substantially, raised workers’ living standards, secured advanced social legislation, and promoted the orderly development of natural resources. Financial markets were regulated, vast public works were launched (notably the reclamation and irrigation of the Tennessee Valley with the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority), agriculture was protected against various forms of speculation, the tax system was reformed with particular attention to direct taxation, and protectionist policies were abandoned to foster a more intense flow of trade with the rest of the world.
Roosevelt’s foreign policy of “good neighbourliness” and the strengthening of friendly relations with all States willing to respect other members of the international community and honour their obligations took on, after Hitler’s aggressions, a line of conduct firmly opposed to totalitarian regimes and favourable to the democratic powers. Until the United States entered the war (Dec 1941), these powers benefited from American aid (Lend-Lease Act, March 1941) and, thereafter, from the direct contribution of U.S. economic and military potential. Opposed in principle to war (as early as 1920, during his vice-presidential campaign, he had urged Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations), which he saw as an obstacle to the steady improvement of his New Deal, on 23 Dec 1939 Roosevelt addressed the heads of the various religious confessions proposing that political and religious forces work for the triumph of peace and for sustained spiritual and material comfort for the victims of war. This initiative opened a correspondence between Roosevelt and Pius XII that continued until the President’s death, and led to the dispatch of his personal representative to the Holy See to coordinate and develop joint initiatives for peace and relief. The myth of universal peace that lived in Roosevelt’s mind prevented him from seeing beyond ideological constructions to the reality of events, as evidenced by the Atlantic Charter and the decisions of the Yalta Conference.