In , in the midst of war, Roosevelt made it known to fellow Democrats that he was willing to run for a fourth term. Democrats, even conservative southerners who had long been suspicious of FDR's liberalism, backed Roosevelt as their party's best chance for victory.
The real intrigue came with the Democratic nomination for vice president. FDR decided against running with his current vice president, the extremely liberal Henry Wallace, fearing that Wallace's politics would open a rift in the party between liberals concentrated in the northeast and conservatives largely hailing from the south. Instead, Senator Harry Truman of Missouri, who had the backing of the south, the big-city bosses in the party, and at least the tacit approval of FDR, took the vice-presidential nomination.
Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey, the popular governor of New York State, chosen with only one Republican delegate voting against him. Dewey ran as a moderate Republican, promising not to undo the social and economic reforms of the New Deal, but instead to make them more efficient and effective.
Dewey, like Willkie four years earlier, was an internationalist in foreign affairs, voicing support for a postwar United Nations. One of Dewey's most effective gambits was to raise discreetly the age issue. He assailed the President as a "tired old man" with "tired old men" in his cabinet, pointedly suggesting that the President's lack of vigor had produced a less than vigorous economic recovery. FDR, as most observers could see from his weight loss and haggard appearance, was a tired man in But upon entering the campaign in earnest in late September, , Roosevelt displayed enough passion and fight to allay most concerns and to deflect Republican attacks.
With the war still raging, he urged voters not to "change horses in mid-stream. Recalling the charges from a Minnesota congressman who accused FDR of sending a battleship to Alaska to retrieve his dog Fala, FDR nearly chortled "These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or my sons. No, not content with that they now include my little dog Fala. Wll, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family don't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them.
But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog. He garnered almost 54 percent of the popular vote—to Dewey's 46 percent—and won the Electoral College by a count of to Even though the Republicans had improved their totals in both the popular and electoral votes, they could not unseat FDR. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A.
Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Landon of Kansas. He faced opposition from the Supreme Court over his New Deal programs, and proposed an expansion of the court that would allow him to appoint one new justice for every sitting justice 70 or older.
Republicans gained ground in the midterm congressional elections, however, and soon formed an alliance with conservative Democrats that would block further reform legislation. By the end of , as support for the New Deal was waning, Roosevelt faced a new looming challenge, this time on the international stage. As early as , FDR warned the American public about the dangers posed by hard-line regimes in Germany, Italy and Japan, though he stopped short of suggesting America should abandon its isolationist policy.
Germany captured France by the end of June , and Roosevelt persuaded Congress to provide more support for Britain, now left to combat the Nazi menace on its own. Despite the two-term tradition for presidents in place since the time of George Washington , Roosevelt decided to run for reelection again in ; he defeated Wendell L. Wilkie by nearly 5 million votes. On December 8, , the day after Japan bombed the U. The first president to leave the country during wartime, Roosevelt spearheaded the alliance between countries combating the Axis, meeting frequently with Churchill and seeking to establish friendly relations with the Soviet Union and its leader, Joseph Stalin.
Meanwhile, he spoke constantly on the radio, reporting war events and rallying the American people in support of the war effort as he had for the New Deal. In , as the tide of war turned toward the Allies, a weary and ailing Roosevelt managed to win election to a fourth term in the White House. The Soviet leader kept that promise, but failed to honor his pledge to establish democratic governments in the eastern European nations then under Soviet control.
After Roosevelt returned from Yalta, he was so weak that he was forced to sit down while addressing Congress for the first time in his presidency. In early April , he left Washington and traveled to his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia , where he had long before established a nonprofit foundation to aid polio patients. Roosevelt suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died on April 12, He was succeeded in office by his vice president, Harry S.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Commander Jones, remembered as one of the most daring and successful naval commanders of the American Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. President Roosevelt was born January 30, , in Hyde Park, New York , and went on to serve as a New York state senator from to , assistant secretary of the Navy from to and governor of New York from to Art, Literature, and Film History.
World War II. Sign Up. Westward Expansion. Ancient Rome. Civil War. Frank Murphy, Robert H. Jackson, Francis Biddle, Postmaster General James A. Farley, Frank C. Walker, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Forrestal, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, Claude R.
Wickard, Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper, Harry L. Hopkins, Jesse H. Jones, Henry A. Wallace, What were fireside chats and how many did FDR make during his presidency? When FDR became president in , he believed that the best way to comfort and inform the public about his administration and its policies was to address them on the radio. He considered it most effective to talk to the people as if he had joined them in their living rooms or kitchens for a relaxed, informal conversation about one or two specific topics.
The term was quickly adopted throughout the media and by FDR. There was no solid definition as to what constituted a Fireside Chat. Did women play a significant part in FDR's administrations? During FDR's presidency, women were appointed to positions that were unprecedented in terms of both number of appointments as well as rank in the United States government.
The following is a list of some of the "firsts" achieved by women during the administrations of Franklin D.
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