Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected thirty-second President of the United States in 1932 and was reelected in 1936 and 1940.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Days of Infamy
Franklin D. Roosevelt received a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan after Japanese forces attacked and conquered the American territory of Hawaii. He also received a war declaration against Germany. Although Roosevelt saw Germany as a far greater threat, Japan was a more immediate one, and so Roosevelt was forced to abandon the "Germany first" policy he wanted, instead directing the military to retake Hawaii.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Worldwar
In December of 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1944) asked for and received declarations of war against Germany and Japan following the latter's attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Thus, he led his nation into World War II. But that war was disrupted just a few months later when the Race's Conquest Fleet invaded Earth. Roosevelt escaped the destruction of Washington, DC by one of the Race's atomic bombs and provided his country with strong and inspiring leadership as it desperately battled the Race.

However, the grueling conditions he endured while the wartime United States and the stress of leading his country at such a desperate time took a great toll on his health, and he died in 1944. As his Vice President, Henry Wallace, had been killed when the Race destroyed Seattle, he was succeeded as President by Cordell Hull.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Southern Victory
Franklin D. Roosevelt was a life-long Socialist politician, despite being a relative of staunch Democrat President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. He lost use of his legs when he contracted poliomyelitis. If not for this, some speculated, Roosevelt might have become president himself. Nonetheless, he served as Secretary of War from 1933-1937, and as Assistant Secretary of War from 1937-1945. He oversaw the project to build an atomic bomb as well as intelligence on other countries' own atomic projects during the Second Great War.

Roosevelt first rose to prominence, ironically, as Secretary of War in Democrat president Herbert Hoover's cabinet. His Socialist views were out of step with Hoover's lassiez-faire approach to government. For example, Roosevelt was receptive to Colonel Abner Dowling's idea of make-work projects in Utah. Hoover, on the other hand, emphatically shot it down.

Upon the election of Al Smith in 1936, Roosevelt was, to all appearences, demoted to Assistant Secretary of War. However, as Jake Featherston of the Confederate States began saber-rattling, and war seemed imminent, Roosevelt was given the responsiblity of overseeing the United States atomic bomb project in Hanford, Washington. He was also the Administration's point man for dealing with Congresswoman Flora Hamburger, a critic of Smith, despite being a Socialist herself. It was Roosevelt who decided to tell Hamburger about the classified atomic project.

Roosevelt maintained that position throughout the Second Great War, even after Smith was killed, and Charles La Follette became president.

See: Inconsistencies in Turtledove's Work.