Roosevelt graduated from Harvard in 1904. He was elected to the New York state senate in 1910. During the 1912 election, Roosevelt campaigned vigorously for Woodrow Wilson and was rewarded by Wilson by becoming the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position that he continued in throughout the First World War. He was a candidate for Democratic Vice President in 1920, but the Republicans and Harding won the election. The following year he was paralyzed from the waist down by polio. He supported Al Smith in the 1924 and 1928 unsuccessful elections and was elected governor of New York in 1929. During the early Depression years, he instigated a number of programs that enhanced his popularity in the state and brought him the nomination for president in 1932. Roosevelt easily defeated Hoover in the election and became the 32nd President. He alsmost immediately introduced his New Deal with widespread social and labor programs. In 1935 he set up Social Security for public welfare and he was easily re-elected in 1936. With the onset of the Second World War and the fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt ensured a steady stream of aid to Great Britain and was again re-elected for a third term, which broke with tradition and isolated even some of his own party members. In August, 1941, Roosevelt met with Churchill and drafted the Atlantic Charter. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, the US was plunged into war and Roosevelt became even more popular. During the war, he met several times with Allied leaders and planned the invasion of Europe and the defeat of Japan. Roosevelt was re-elected in 1944 for his fourth term of office with Harry Truman as his Vice President. He attended the Yalta conference in February, 1945, but he was already ailing and in April of that year, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. |
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