Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882- April 12, 1945), commonly called FDR, was elected thirty-second President of the United States in 1932. He was re-elected to an unprecedented four terms in 1936, 1940, and 1944. In the dozen years he was in office, Roosevelt steered the country through the Great Depression and World War II, although he died in 1945, before the war was over.

Before his election, Roosevelt served as in the New York state senate (1911-1913), as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920), and Governor of New York (1929-1932). He ran for Vice President in 1920 on the Democratic ticket with James M. Cox, but the ticket was defeated by Republican Party candidate Warren G. Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge in a landslide.

He was a distant cousin of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, who had also served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Governor of New York.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in The Man With the Iron Heart
Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945, before World War II ended in all theaters. However, his charisma and political acumen were fondly remembered by his supporters and opponents alike throughout the German Freedom Front's uprising. Many wondered if Roosevelt would have been much better equipped to maintain public support for the continued occupation of Germany than his successor, Harry Truman.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Cayos in the Stream"
After he sank a German U-boat in 1942, Ernest Hemingway dined with President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor.

The president told Hemingway that the author was crazy to pull the stunt of sinking a U-boat. Hemingway agreed, but reminded Roosevelt that the stunt had worked. Roosevelt laughed and returned to eating.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Worldwar
In December of 1941, President 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. While his location was kept secret, he was able to broadcast speeches via radio and film. He was also able to visit the crucial explosive-metal bomb project located in Denver, where he discussed fighting the Lizards with General Leslie Groves at length.

However, the grueling conditions he endured while the United States fought off the invading Race 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 Vice President Henry Wallace had been killed when the Race destroyed Seattle, he was succeeded as President by Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in "News From the Front"
President Franklin D. Roosevelt found his every policy challenged by the public and the political establishment when the U.S. entered World War II. The American press was relentless in its criticism of Roosevelt's handling of the war, while simultaneously making political and military secrets public.

Throughout the first half of 1942, Roosevelt's popularity declined. Despite his exhortations to the press to refrain from attacks and from revealing secrets that inhibited the country's efforts, the press and the public turned against Roosevelt. An impeachment movement gained momentum, particularly after Vice President Henry Wallace publically denounced Roosevelt's honesty. By June, 1942, Congress had begun discussing impeachment.

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 from December, 1941 through February, 1942. He also received a war declaration against Germany. Although Roosevelt saw Germany as the greater threat, Japan was the 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 The War That Came Early
Although the United States remained neutral when a second World War broke out in October, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to slowly guide the country towards re-armament.

In October, 1939, with Germany retreating on the Western Front and stalled out on the Eastern Front, Roosevelt proposed that there be a general cease-fire, and that all boundaries be returned to the status quo ante bellum. Adolf Hitler rebuffed Roosevelt's suggestion.

The war continued on into 1940. While the U.S. remained neutral, Roosevelt, viewing the war in Europe at least as one against liberty on the part of the Germans, sent arms to Britain and France, including a fleet of obsolete destroyers. He also offered to mediate an end to the war between the Soviet Union and Japan. While the USSR readily accepted the offer, Japan did not, and the peace was bilateral.

In mid-1940, Roosevelt began his campaign for an unprecedented third term. Concurrently, Britain and France reached a peace with Germany, and joined Germany in a war against the USSR. Disgusted, Roosevelt announced at speech in Philadelphia in October, 1940 that the U.S. would no longer ship arms to Britain and France, and would additionally stop shipping scrap metal and oil to Japan until Japan left China.

Despite the break with the two-term tradition, Roosevelt was able to win the presidential election of 1940 handily, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie and isolationist candidate Alf Landon.

While it appeared the United States had a brief reprieve from the war, on January 12, 1941, just over a week before Roosevelt was inaugurated for a a third time, Japanese forces attacked United States possessions, including the Philippines and Hawaii. The next day, Roosevelt asked for, and received, a declaration of war.

On January 20, Roosevelt addressed the country immediately after his third swearing-in. He reminded the country of his pledge that no Americans would die in foreign wars, but that Japan had made that decision for the U.S. He also reminded the country that whoever won in Europe, liberty would be the loser. After that statement drew a cry of "No European war!", Roosevelt reiterated that there would be no American involvement in the war in Europe, but that the U.S. would achieve victory in the Far East and become strong enough to defeat any other enemy.

Eventually, the British and French reversed their allegiance again and resumed fighting against Germany, and Roosevelt resumed sending them supplies. On some occasions German U-boats attacked American ships. Nevertheless, American public opinion and Congress would not accept direct involvement in the European War, feeling that one war - against Japan - was quite enough.

Suddenly, however, Hitler himself took the plunge and declared war on the United States. This was a highly ill-advised move from the German point of view, since - had the US followed through by mobilizing its troops and sending them across the Atlantic, they might have inflicted a crushing defeat on Germany' like in 1917-1918. Roosevelt was inclined to do just that - however, before any American soldier could reach Europe, the German generals under Heinz Guderian overthrew Hitler and managed to wriggle out of the war.

Thus, Roosevelt remained very much an observer from the sidelines of the European situation. Instead, he established an alliance with the Soviet Union, to facilitate a quick end to the war with Japan. For his part, Joseph Stalin - freed from the German invasion of Soviet territory - was eager to get American help in regaining Vladivostok and eastern Siberia, and possibly moving further into Japanese territory.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Joe Steele
In 1932, New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1932) and California Congressman Joe Steele became the front runners for the party's presidential nomination. Roosevelt pledged his New Deal plan. Steele touted his Four Year Plan, which included collectivizing farms, updating the country's power grid, and nationalizing the banks.

Steele secretly attended the convention in Chicago, a fact known only to his close advisers: Vince Scriabin, Lazar Kagan, and Stas Mikoian. AP reporter Charlie Sullivan also knew after running into Steele and Scriabin in a hotel elevator. As Sullivan backed Steele over Roosevelt, he kept his peace. Conversely, Roosevelt remained in Albany as was the custom.

After the first day of balloting, Roosevelt held a press conference in Albany, during which he extolled the virtues of his proposed New Deal. He also implied Steele's Four Year Plan was proof of Steele's authoritarian tendencies, and that as the child of immigrants, Steele didn't truly understand how America worked.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, after two days of votes, neither had the needed two-thirds majority, although Roosevelt had a slight edge. Realizing he might lose after another day of voting, Steele directed Scriabin to have Roosevelt burned alive at Executive Mansion in Albany. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, died with him, along with several others. With his primary opponent gone, Steele became the party's presidential nominee. and won the election.

The Roosevelts were buried in Hyde Park.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in "The House That George Built"
Franklin D. Roosevelt was beginning his third term in February, 1941. H.L. Mencken voted for Roosevelt the first time, a "mistake" he never repeated. Conversely, George Ruth proudly announced that he'd voted for Roosevelt all three times.

Franklin D. Roosevelt in Southern Victory
Note: This section is somewhat speculative, but based on the facts available in the relevant books.

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 a superbomb as well as intelligence on other countries' own superbomb projects during the Second Great War.

Roosevelt first rose to prominence, ironically, as Secretary of War in Democratic President Herbert Hoover's cabinet. His Socialist views on domestic policy 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. However, Roosevelt's views on foreign policy were perfectly aligned with the Democrats, particularly as it applied to the Confederate States.

Upon the election of Al Smith to the Presidency in 1936, Roosevelt was, to all appearances, demoted to Assistant Secretary of War. In fact, however, he willingly embraced relative obscurity as a kind of disguise, hiding from the Confederates the importance of what he was engaged on. As Jake Featherston of the Confederate States began saber-rattling, and war seemed imminent, Roosevelt was given the responsibility of overseeing the United States superbomb project in Hanford, Washington.

He was also the Administration's point man for dealing with Congresswoman Flora Blackford, a critic of Smith, despite being a Socialist herself, who noticed the sizeable appropriations for an unspecified government project and strated to ask awkward questions. It was Roosevelt who decided to tell Blackford about the classified project, and invite her for periodical confidential briefings about its progress - which proved a correct decision, since for the rest of the war she cooperated with the administration on this issue and placed no further obstacles in the project's way.

Roosevelt maintained that position throughout the Second Great War, even after Smith was killed, and Charles W. La Follette became president. Although the C.S. was the first country in North America to use a superbomb, detonating it in the west side of Philadelphia, Roosevelt's program produced two bombs for the U.S., accelerating U.S. victory in 1944.

Literary Note
Roosevelt's ultimate fate in Southern Victory is unknown, although he is said to be in ill health in 1944, and he stops appearing in the story soon after. This does not necessarily mean that he dies before 12 April 1945, as Turtledove usually has historical natural deaths happen on the same day in OTL and TL-191. It could just be that there is less for him to do once the war is over, and his term as ASoW would naturally end on 1 February 1945. Flora Blackford never mentions his death, so it is more likely he simply retired.