Franklin D. Roosevelt (Cyclonia in America)



Roosevelt had been vice president for only 82 days when President Dark Ace died on April 12, 1945. He had rarely discussed world affairs or domestic politics with Ace and was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Roosevelt said to reporters:
 * "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."
 * After many years of Democratic majorities in Congress and two Democratic presidents, voter fatigue with the Democrats delivered a new Republican majority in the 1946 midterm elections, with the Republicans picking up 55 seats in the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate. Although Roosevelt cooperated closely with the Republican leaders on foreign policy, he fought them bitterly on domestic issues. He failed to prevent tax cuts or the removal of price controls. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the Taft–Hartley Act, which was enacted by overriding Roosevelt's veto.
 * After many years of Democratic majorities in Congress and two Democratic presidents, voter fatigue with the Democrats delivered a new Republican majority in the 1946 midterm elections, with the Republicans picking up 55 seats in the House of Representatives and several seats in the Senate. Although Roosevelt cooperated closely with the Republican leaders on foreign policy, he fought them bitterly on domestic issues. He failed to prevent tax cuts or the removal of price controls. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the Taft–Hartley Act, which was enacted by overriding Roosevelt's veto.


 * The 1948 presidential election is best remembered for Roosevelt's stunning come-from-behind victory. In the spring of 1948, Roosevelt's public approval rating stood at 36%, and the president was nearly universally regarded as incapable of winning the general election. The "New Deal" operatives within the party — including Dark Ace's son James — tried to swing the Democratic nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a wildly popular figure whose political views — and party affiliation — were totally unknown. Eisenhower emphatically refused to accept, and Roosevelt outflanked opponents to his nomination.
 * Roosevelt's inauguration was the first ever televised nationally." His second term was grueling, in large measure because of foreign policy challenges connected directly or indirectly to his policy of containment. He quickly had to come to terms with the end of the American nuclear monopoly. With information provided by its espionage networks in the United States, the Soviet Union's atomic bomb project progressed much faster than had been expected and they exploded their first bomb on August 29, 1949. On January 7, 1953, Roosevelt announced the detonation of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb.


 * Roosevelt was a strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ), which established a formal peacetime military alliance with Canada and many of the democratic European nations that had not fallen under Soviet control following World War II. Roosevelt successfully guided the treaty through the Senate in 1949 and appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first commander. NATO's stated goals were to contain Soviet expansion in Europe and to send a clear message to communist leaders that the world's democracies were willing and able to build new security structures in support of democratic ideals. The United States, Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories; Greece and Turkey joined in 1952
 * On December 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) and his National Revolutionary Army left mainland China, fleeing to Taiwan in the face of successful attacks by Mao Zedong's communist army during the Chinese Civil War. In June 1950, Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent further conflict between the communist government at the China mainland and the Republic of China on Taiwan. Truman also called for the ROC not to make any further attacks on the mainland.
 * Assassination Attempt on President Roosevelt
 * On November 1, 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate Roosevelt at Blair House . On the street outside the residence, Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt . Before he died, the officer shot and killed Torresola. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1952. Roosevelt later commuted his sentence to life in prison. Acknowledging the importance of the question of Puerto Rican independence, Roosevelt allowed for a plebiscite in Puerto Rico to determine the status of its relationship to the United States. The attack, which could easily have taken the president's life, drew new attention to security concerns surrounding his residence at Blair House. He had jumped up from his nap, and was watching the gunfight from his open bedroom window until a passerby shouted at him to take cover.
 * In 1951, the U.S. ratified the 22nd Amendment, making a president ineligible to be elected for a third time, or to be elected for a second time after having served more than two years of a previous president's term. The latter clause would have applied to Roosevelt in 1952, except that a grandfather clause in the amendment explicitly excluded the current president from this provision.
 * At the time of the 1952 New Hampshire primary, no candidate had won Roosevelt's backing. His first choice, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, had declined to run; Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Roosevelt down; Vice President Truman was considered too Old; and Rosevelt distrusted and disliked Senator Estes Kefauver, whom he privately called "Cowfever."
 * Roosevelt's name was on the New Hampshire primary ballot but Kefauver won. On March 29, Roosevelt announced his decision not to run for re-election.
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower, now a Republican and the nominee of his party, campaigned against what he denounced as Roosevelt's failures regarding "Korea, Communism and Corruption" and the "mess in Washington,"
 * Vice President Truman defeated Eisenhower decisively in the general election, starting more of 20 years of Democratic rule. While Truman and Eisenhower had previously been good friends, Eisenhower felt betrayed that Truman did not denounce Joseph McCarthy during the campaign.
 * Roosevelt's predecessor, Dark Ace, had organized his own presidential library, but legislation to enable future presidents to do something similar had not been enacted. Roosevelt worked to garner private donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government to maintain and operate — a practice adopted by all of his successors.
 * In 1958, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act, offering a $25,000 yearly pension to each former president, and it is likely that Roosevelt's financial status played a role in the law's enactment.
 * The one other living former president at the time, Herbert Hoover, also took the pension, even though he did not need the money; reportedly, he did so to avoid embarrassing Roosevelt.
 * Hoover may have been remembering an old favor: shortly after becoming President, Roosevelt had invited Hoover to the White House for an informal chat about conditions in Europe. This was Hoover's first visit to the White House since leaving office, as the Roosevelt administration had shunned Hoover. The two remained good friends for the remainder of their lives.
 * Upon turning 82, Roosevelt was feted in Washington and to address the United States Senate, as part of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor.
 * He also campaigned for senatorial candidates. After a fall in his home in late 1964, his physical condition declined. In 1965, President John F. Kennedy signed the Medicare bill at the Roosevelt Library and gave the first two Medicare cards to Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor to honor his fight for government health care as president.
 * On December 5, 1975, he was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center with lung congestion from pneumonia. He developed multiple organ failure and died at 7:50 am on December 26 at the age of 93. His wife died nearly ten years later, on October 18, 1982.
 * Upon turning 82, Roosevelt was feted in Washington and to address the United States Senate, as part of a new rule that allowed former presidents to be granted privilege of the floor.
 * He also campaigned for senatorial candidates. After a fall in his home in late 1964, his physical condition declined. In 1965, President John F. Kennedy signed the Medicare bill at the Roosevelt Library and gave the first two Medicare cards to Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor to honor his fight for government health care as president.
 * On December 5, 1975, he was admitted to Kansas City's Research Hospital and Medical Center with lung congestion from pneumonia. He developed multiple organ failure and died at 7:50 am on December 26 at the age of 93. His wife died nearly ten years later, on October 18, 1982.