Alternative History
FDR-March-12-1933

FDR giving the first of his famous "fireside chats", part of the cultivation of his image

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (* January 30th, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York) has been serving as the 32nd president of the United States since March 4th 1933, for the Democrats. Friends and enemies alike call him "FDR" for the dozens of "alphabet soup agencies" his government created, to the horror of critics of bureaucracy.

Born into the wealthy Roosevelt family, he attended Columbia Law School, where he passed the bar exam. In 1905, he married his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt. They had six children, of whom five survived into adulthood. He won election to the New York State Senate in 1910, and then served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Roosevelt was James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's 1920 national ticket, but they were defeated. In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness, believed to be polio, and his legs became permanently paralyzed. Although unable to walk unaided (but the press helped him hiding this fact), Roosevelt returned to public office after his election as governor of New York in 1928. He served as governor from 1929 to 1933, promoting programs to combat the economic crisis besetting the United States - a kind of training program for his presidency.

As US President[]

In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover in one of the largest landslide victories in US history. The Roosevelt presidency began in the midst of the Great Depression, and during the first 100 days of the 73rd U.S. Congress, he spearheaded unprecedented federal legislative productivity. Thus, he introduced Social Security and a minimum wage. After winning another landslide in 1936 against Alf Landon, he's thinking about running for an unprecedented third term in 1940.

In his early years, the Supreme court often tried to block his Reforms, but since he was able to appoint five new judges during 1937-40, there's no more danger for him from this side at least. On the other hand, meanwhile former Democratic "fellows" like Al Smith - his predecessor as a Governor -, Wendell Willkie, or even his VP John Nance Garner are against him.

Even his foreign policy was revolutionary, with his Recognition of the Soviet Union in November 1933.

See also: Cabinet Franklin D. Roosevelt

During the World War[]

After the Wehrmacht invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II, he intensified his relations to the government of Great Britain, especially after Winston Churchill became new PM in May 1940. After Nazi Germany invaded Denmark, the Netherlands, and France, they started corresponding more, to find ways to fight Adolf Nazi.

When Italy joined the war too, he denounced the move: "On this 8th day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor."

Meanwhile, the Nazi-influenced Deutsch-Amerikanischer Bund is insulting him as "president Rosenfeld", but stays unscathed. What they say about his Secretary of Finances Henry Morgenthau jr. or Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter, goes into the same direction.

Flag of Germany (1935–1945) How many Sixes does Adolf Nazi have to Roll? Naval Ensign of Japan
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