As president, Roosevelt appointed powerful men to top positions, but made all of his administration's major decisions himself, regardless of any delays, inefficiencies, or resentments this may have caused. Analyzing the president's administrative style, Burns concludes:
First and second terms (1933–1941) When Roosevelt was
inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the US was at the nadir of the Great Depression. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and farmers were in deep trouble as prices had fallen by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states—as well as the District of Columbia—had closed their banks. Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery, and reform": relief for the unemployed, recovery in boosting the economy back to normal, and reform of the financial and banking systems. Roosevelt presented his proposals directly to the American public in 30 radio addresses known as "
fireside chats". Inspired by his own victory over paralytic illness, his persistent optimism and activism served to renew the national spirit.
First New Deal (1933–1934) On his second day in office, Roosevelt declared a four-day national "bank holiday", to end the runs by depositors seeking to withdraw funds. He called for a special session of Congress on March 9, when Congress passed, almost sight unseen, the
Emergency Banking Act. When the banks reopened on March 15, stock prices rose by 15 percent and in the following weeks over $1 billion was returned to bank vaults, ending the bank panic.
Second New Deal (1935–1936) Although the president's party had lost seats in most previous
midterm elections, the Democrats gained seats in the
1934 Congressional elections. Empowered by the public's vote of confidence, Roosevelt made it a priority to create a
social insurance program. The
Social Security Act promised economic security for the elderly, the poor, and the sick. Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund, saying, "We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program." Compared with the social security systems in Western Europe, the Social Security Act of 1935 was conservative. Against Roosevelt's original intention for universal coverage, the act excluded farmers, domestic workers, and other groups, which made up about forty percent of the labor force. Nevertheless, for the first time in American history, the federal government took responsibility for the economic security of the aged, the temporarily unemployed, dependent children, and disabled people. After winning Congressional authorization for further funding of relief efforts, Roosevelt established the
Works Progress Administration (WPA). Under the leadership of Harry Hopkins, the WPA employed over three million people in its first year. It undertook numerous massive construction projects in cooperation with local governments. It also set up the
National Youth Administration and arts organizations. The
National Labor Relations Act guaranteed workers the right to
collective bargaining through unions of their own choice. The act also established the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to facilitate wage agreements and suppress repeated labor disturbances. The act did not compel employers to reach an agreement with their employees, but it opened possibilities for American labor. The result was a tremendous growth of union membership, especially in the mass-production sector. When the
Flint sit-down strike threatened the production of
General Motors, Roosevelt broke with the precedents of many former presidents and refused to intervene; the strike ultimately led to the unionization of both General Motors and its rivals in the American automobile industry. While the First New Deal of 1933 had broad support from most sectors, the Second New Deal challenged the business community. Conservative Democrats, led by
Al Smith, fought back with the
American Liberty League, savagely attacking Roosevelt and equating him with socialism. However, Smith's boisterous rhetoric let Roosevelt isolate his opponents and identify them with the wealthy vested interests that opposed the New Deal, strengthening Roosevelt for the 1936 landslide. Conversely, labor unions, energized by labor legislation, signed up millions of new members and became a major backer of Roosevelt's re-elections in 1936, 1940, and 1944. Burns suggests that Roosevelt's policy decisions were guided more by pragmatism than ideology. Roosevelt argued that "The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation".
Election of 1936 Eight million workers remained unemployed in 1936, and though economic conditions had improved since 1932, they remained sluggish. Roosevelt had lost the backing he once held in the business community because of his support for the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Social Security Act.
Supreme Court fight and second term legislation The
Supreme Court became Roosevelt's primary domestic focus during his second term after the court overturned many of his programs. The more conservative justices upheld the principles of the
Lochner era, which saw numerous economic regulations struck down on the basis of
freedom of contract. Roosevelt proposed the
Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which would have allowed him to appoint an additional Justice for each incumbent Justice over the age of 70; in 1937, there were six. The
size of the Court had been set at nine since the
Judiciary Act of 1869. Roosevelt's "court packing" plan ran into intense political opposition from his own party, since it upset the separation of powers. A bipartisan coalition opposed the bill, and Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes broke with precedent by publicly advocating its defeat. Any chance of passing the bill ended with the death of Senate Majority Leader
Joseph Taylor Robinson in July 1937. Starting with the 1937 case of
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, the court began to take a more favorable view of economic regulations, which historians have described as "the switch in time that saved nine". After
Parrish, the Court shifted its focus from
judicial review of economic regulations to the protection of
civil liberties. Four of Roosevelt's Supreme Court appointees,
Felix Frankfurter,
Robert H. Jackson,
Hugo Black, and
William O. Douglas, were particularly influential in reshaping the jurisprudence of the Court. With Roosevelt's influence on the wane following the failure of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, conservative Democrats joined with Republicans to block the implementation of further New Deal programs. Roosevelt did manage to pass some legislation, including the
Housing Act of 1937, a second Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938. The FLSA outlawed
child labor, established a federal
minimum wage, and required
overtime pay for certain employees. He also passed the
Reorganization Act of 1939 and subsequently created the
Executive Office of the President, making it "the nerve center of the federal administrative system". When the economy
began to deteriorate again in mid-1937, Roosevelt launched a rhetorical campaign against big business and
monopoly power, alleging that the recession was the result of a
capital strike and even ordering the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to look for a criminal conspiracy (they found none). He then asked Congress for $5 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) in relief and public works funding. This created as many as 3.3 million WPA jobs by 1938. Beyond this, however, Roosevelt recommended to a special congressional session only a permanent national farm act, administrative reorganization, and regional planning measures, all of which were leftovers from a regular session. According to Burns, this attempt illustrated Roosevelt's inability to settle on a basic economic program. Determined to overcome the opposition of conservative Democrats in Congress, Roosevelt actively campaigned in the 1938 Democratic primaries for challengers who were more supportive of New Deal reform; he failed badly, managing to defeat only one of the ten targeted. When Roosevelt was governor of New York, the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was essentially a state-level predecessor of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps, with 10,000 or more men building
fire trails, combating
soil erosion and planting trees. As President, Roosevelt was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the
National Park and
National Forest systems. Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade to 15.5 million in 1939. The
Civilian Conservation Corps enrolled 3.4 million young men and built of trails, planted two billion trees, and upgraded of dirt roads. Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national systems.
GNP and unemployment rates Government spending increased from 8.0% of the gross national product (GNP)
under Hoover in 1932 to 10.2% in 1936. The
national debt as a percentage of the GNP had more than doubled under Hoover from 16% to 40% of the GNP in early 1933. It held steady at close to 40% as late as fall 1941, then grew rapidly during the war. The GNP was 34% higher in 1936 than in 1932 and 58% higher in 1940 on the eve of war. The economy grew 58% from 1932 to 1940, and then grew 56% from 1940 to 1945 in five years of wartime.
Foreign policy (1933–1941) and other dignitaries in Brazil, 1936 The main foreign policy initiative of Roosevelt's first term was the
Good Neighbor Policy, a re-evaluation of US policy toward
Latin America. The US frequently intervened in Latin America following the promulgation of the
Monroe Doctrine in 1823. After Roosevelt took office, he
withdrew US forces from
Haiti and reached new treaties with
Cuba and
Panama, ending their status as US
protectorates. In December 1933, Roosevelt signed the
Montevideo Convention, renouncing the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American countries. Roosevelt also normalized relations with the Soviet Union, which the US had refused to recognize since the 1920s. He hoped to renegotiate the Russian debt from World War I and open trade relations, but no progress was made and "both nations were soon disillusioned by the accord." The rejection of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920 marked the dominance of
non-interventionism in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist sentiment. The isolationist movement was bolstered by the
Neutrality Acts in the early to mid-1930s, stopping the "merchants of death" in the US from selling arms abroad. The president was refused a provision he requested giving him the discretion to allow the sale of arms to victims of aggression. Roosevelt largely acquiesced to Congress's non-interventionist policies in the early-to-mid 1930s. In the interim,
Fascist Italy under
Benito Mussolini joined Nazi Germany under
Adolf Hitler in supporting General
Francisco Franco and the
Nationalists in the
Spanish Civil War. As that conflict drew to a close in early 1939, Roosevelt expressed regret in not aiding the
Spanish Republicans. When
Japan invaded China in 1937, isolationism limited Roosevelt's ability to aid China. and
Queen Elizabeth, sailing from Washington, D.C., to
Mount Vernon, Virginia, on the
USS Potomac during the first US visit of a reigning British monarch (June 9, 1939)
Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and soon turned its attention to its eastern neighbors. After completion of the
Munich Agreement and the execution of
Kristallnacht, American public opinion turned against Germany, and Roosevelt began preparing for a possible war. Relying on an interventionist political coalition of Southern Democrats and business-oriented Republicans, Roosevelt oversaw the expansion of US airpower and war production capacity. When
World War II began in September 1939 with Germany's invasion of Poland and Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany, Roosevelt sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily. Isolationist leaders like
Charles Lindbergh and Senator
William Borah successfully mobilized opposition to Roosevelt's proposed repeal of the
Neutrality Act, but Roosevelt won Congressional approval of the sale of arms on a
cash-and-carry basis. He also began a regular secret correspondence with Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty,
Winston Churchill, in September 1939—the first of 1,700 letters and telegrams between them. Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 1940. The
Fall of France in June 1940 shocked the American public, and isolationist sentiment declined. In July 1940, Roosevelt appointed two interventionist Republican leaders,
Henry L. Stimson and
Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy, respectively. Both parties gave support to his plans for a rapid build-up of the American military, but the isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the nation into an unnecessary war with Germany. In September 1940, the
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 authorized the nation's first peacetime draft. The size of the army increased from 189,000 men at the end of 1939 to 1.4 million in mid-1941. In September 1940, Roosevelt openly defied the Neutrality Acts by reaching the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which, in exchange for military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, gave 50 American
destroyers to Britain.
Election of 1940 Leading up to the July
1940 Democratic National Convention, there was much speculation as to whether Roosevelt would run for an unprecedented third term. The two-term tradition, although not yet enshrined in the
Constitution, had been established by
George Washington. Roosevelt refused to give a definitive statement, and he even indicated to some ambitious Democrats, such as James Farley, that they could seek the Democratic nomination. Farley and Vice President John Garner were not pleased with Roosevelt when he ultimately ran. As Germany swept through
Western Europe in mid-1940, Roosevelt decided that only he could see the nation safely through the Nazi threat. He was aided by the party's political bosses, who feared that no Democrat but Roosevelt could defeat
Wendell Willkie, the popular Republican nominee. At the
July 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Roosevelt easily swept aside challenges from Farley and Garner, who had turned against Roosevelt in his second term because of his liberal economic and social policies. An August poll by
Gallup found the race to be essentially tied, but Roosevelt's popularity surged in September following the announcement of the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Willkie supported much of the New Deal as well as rearmament and aid to Britain but warned that Roosevelt would drag the country into another European war. Responding to Willkie's attacks, Roosevelt promised to keep the country out of the war. Over its last month, the campaign degenerated into a series of outrageous accusations and mud-slinging by the parties.
Lead-up to the war '' from painter
Norman Rockwell, By late 1940, re-armament was in high gear, partly to expand and re-equip the Army and Navy and partly to become the "
Arsenal of Democracy". With his
Four Freedoms speech in January 1941, which proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy (
freedom of speech and expression,
freedom of worship,
freedom from want and
freedom from fear), Roosevelt laid out the case for an Allied battle for basic rights worldwide. Assisted by Willkie, Roosevelt won Congressional approval of the
Lend-Lease program, which directed massive military and economic aid to Britain and China. In sharp contrast to the loans of World War I, there would be no repayment. As Roosevelt took a firmer stance against Japan, Germany, and Italy, American isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and the
America First Committee attacked him as an irresponsible warmonger. When Germany
invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Thus, Roosevelt had committed the US to the
Allied side with a policy of "all aid short of war". By July 1941, Roosevelt authorized the creation of the
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to counter perceived propaganda efforts in Latin America by Germany and Italy. In August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill conducted a secret bilateral meeting in which they drafted the
Atlantic Charter, conceptually outlining global wartime and postwar goals. Though Churchill pressed for an American declaration of war against Germany, Roosevelt believed that Congress would reject any attempt. In September, a German submarine fired on the US destroyer
Greer, and Roosevelt declared that the US Navy would assume an escort role for Allied convoys in the Atlantic as far east as Britain and would fire upon German ships or
U-boats of the
Kriegsmarine if they entered the US Navy zone. This "shoot on sight" policy brought the US Navy into direct conflict with German submarines and was favored by Americans by a margin of 2-to-1.
Pearl Harbor and declarations of war After the German invasion of Poland, the primary concern of both Roosevelt and his top military staff was the war in Europe, but Japan also presented foreign policy challenges. Relations with Japan had continually deteriorated since its
invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and worsened further with Roosevelt's support of China. After Roosevelt announced a $100 million loan (equivalent to $ billion in ) to China in reaction to Japan's occupation of northern French Indochina, Japan signed the
Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy; Germany, Japan, and Italy became known as the
Axis powers. In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder of French Indochina, Roosevelt cut off the sale of oil to Japan, depriving Japan of more than 95 percent of its oil supply. He also placed the
Philippine military under American command and reinstated General
Douglas MacArthur to command US forces in the Philippines. The Japanese were incensed by the embargo and determined to attack the US unless it was lifted. The Roosevelt administration was unwilling to reverse the policy, and Secretary of State Hull blocked a potential summit between Roosevelt and Prime Minister
Fumimaro Konoe. The Japanese believed that the destruction of the
US Asiatic Fleet (stationed in the Philippines) and the
US Pacific Fleet (stationed at
Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii) was vital to the conquest of Southeast Asia. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese
launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, knocking out the main American
battleship fleet and killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians. At the same time, separate Japanese task forces
attacked Thailand, British
Hong Kong, the Philippines, and other targets. Roosevelt called for war in his "
Infamy Speech" to Congress, in which he said: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." In a nearly unanimous vote, Congress
declared war on Japan. After Pearl Harbor, antiwar sentiment in the US largely evaporated overnight. On December 11, 1941, Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the US, which
responded in kind. A majority of scholars have rejected the
conspiracy theories that Roosevelt, or other high government officials, knew in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Senior American officials were aware that war was imminent, but they did not expect an attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt assumed that the Japanese would attack either the Dutch East Indies or Thailand. File:Franklin Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Japan.jpg|Roosevelt signing the
declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941 File:Franklin Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Germany.jpg|Roosevelt signing the
declaration of war against Germany on December 11, 1941 File:Prince of Wales-5.jpg|Roosevelt and
Winston Churchill aboard HMS
Prince of Wales for 1941 Atlantic Charter meeting
War plans In late December 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met at the
Arcadia Conference and agreed on a
Europe first strategy that prioritized the defeat of Germany before Japan. The US and Britain established the
Combined Chiefs of Staff to coordinate military policy and the
Combined Munitions Assignments Board to coordinate the allocation of supplies. They also agreed to establish a centralized command in the Pacific theater called
ABDA (American, British,
Dutch, and
Australian). On January 1, 1942, the US and the other
Allied Powers issued the
Declaration by United Nations, pledging to defeat the Axis powers. In 1942, Roosevelt formed the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy. Admiral
Ernest J. King as
Chief of Naval Operations commanded the Navy and Marines, while General
George C. Marshall led the Army and was in nominal control of the Air Force, which in practice was commanded by General
Hap Arnold. The Joint Chiefs were chaired by Admiral
William D. Leahy, the most senior officer in the military. Roosevelt avoided micromanaging the war and let his top military officers make most decisions. Roosevelt's civilian appointees handled the draft and procurement of men and equipment, but no civilians—not even the secretaries of War or Navy—had a voice in strategy. Roosevelt avoided the State Department and conducted high-level diplomacy through his aides, especially Harry Hopkins, whose influence was bolstered by his control of the Lend-Lease funds.
Wartime conferences Roosevelt coined the term "
Four Policemen" to refer to the "Big Four" Allied powers of World War II: the US, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The "
Big Three" of Roosevelt,
Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin, together with Chinese Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek, cooperated informally on a plan in which American and British troops concentrated in the West; Soviet troops fought on the
Eastern front; and Chinese, British and American troops fought in Asia and the Pacific. Beginning in May 1942, the Soviets urged an Anglo-American invasion of German-occupied France to divert troops from the Eastern front. Churchill and Roosevelt decided to delay such an invasion until at least 1943 and instead focus on a landing in North Africa, known as
Operation Torch. In November 1943, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to discuss strategy and post-war plans at the
Tehran Conference, where Roosevelt met Stalin for the first time. Britain and the US committed to opening a second front against Germany in 1944, while Stalin committed to entering the war against Japan at an unspecified date. Subsequent conferences at
Bretton Woods and
Dumbarton Oaks established the framework for the post-war
international monetary system and the
United Nations, an intergovernmental organization similar to the failed League of Nations. Roosevelt pushed the establishment of the United Nations as his highest postwar priority; he expected it would be controlled by Washington, Moscow, London and Beijing, and would resolve all major world problems. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met for a second time at the February 1945
Yalta Conference in Crimea. With the end of the war in Europe approaching, Roosevelt's primary focus was convincing Stalin to enter the war against Japan; the Joint Chiefs had estimated that an
American invasion of Japan would cause as many as one million American casualties. In return, the Soviet Union was promised control of Asian territories such as
Sakhalin Island. The three leaders agreed to hold a conference in 1945 to establish the United Nations, and they also agreed on the structure of the
United Nations Security Council. Roosevelt did not push for the immediate evacuation of Soviet soldiers from Poland, but he won the issuance of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which promised free elections in countries that had been occupied by Germany. Germany itself would be jointly occupied by the US, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Against Soviet pressure, Roosevelt and Churchill refused to impose huge reparations and deindustrialization on Germany after the war. In March 1945, Roosevelt sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments. Roosevelt's role in the
Yalta Conference has been controversial; critics charge that he naively trusted the Soviet Union to allow free elections in Eastern Europe, while supporters argue that there was little more that Roosevelt could have done for the Eastern European countries given the Soviet occupation and the need for cooperation with the Soviet Union.
Course of the war The Allies invaded
French North Africa in November 1942 with
Operation Torch, securing the surrender of
Vichy French forces within days of landing. At the January 1943
Casablanca Conference, the Allies agreed to defeat Axis forces in North Africa and then launch an invasion of Sicily, with an attack on France to take place in 1944. In February 1943, the Soviet Union won a major victory at the
Battle of Stalingrad, and in May 1943, the Allies secured the surrender of German and Italian forces in North Africa, ending the
North African Campaign. The Allies launched an
invasion of Sicily in July 1943, capturing the island the following month. The
Allied invasion of mainland Italy commenced in September 1943, but the
Italian Campaign continued until 1945. To command the invasion of France, Roosevelt chose General
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had successfully commanded a multinational coalition in North Africa and Sicily. Eisenhower launched
Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944. Supported by 12,000 aircraft and the largest naval force ever assembled, the Allies successfully established a beachhead in
Normandy and advanced into France. Though reluctant to back an unelected government, Roosevelt recognized
Charles de Gaulle's
Provisional Government of the French Republic in July 1944. Over the following months, the Allies liberated more territory and
began the invasion of Germany. By April 1945, Nazi resistance was crumbling. The Japanese advance reached its maximum extent by June 1942, when the US Navy scored a decisive victory at the
Battle of Midway. American and Australian forces then began a slow and costly strategy of
leapfrogging through the Pacific Islands, with the objective of gaining bases from which strategic airpower could be brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be invaded. Roosevelt took no direct part in the tactical naval operations, though he approved strategic decisions. Roosevelt gave way in part to insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan, but he always insisted on Germany first. The strength of the
Imperial Japanese Navy was decimated in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf, and by April 1945 the Allies had re-captured much of their lost territory in the Pacific.
Home front The home front was subject to dynamic social changes throughout the war, though domestic issues were no longer Roosevelt's most urgent policy concern. The military buildup spurred economic growth. Unemployment fell from 7.7 million in spring 1940 to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and to 1.5 million in fall 1942, out of a labor force of 54 million. There was a growing labor shortage, accelerating the second wave of the
Great Migration of African Americans and rural populations to manufacturing centers. To pay for increased government spending, the
Revenue Act of 1942 instituted top tax rates as high as 94% (after accounting for the
excess profits tax), greatly increased the tax base, and instituted the first federal
withholding tax. In 1944, Roosevelt requested that Congress enact legislation to tax all "unreasonable" profits, both corporate and individual. Congress overrode Roosevelt's veto to pass a
smaller revenue bill raising $2 billion. In 1942, war production increased dramatically but fell short of Roosevelt's goals, due in part to manpower shortages. The effort was also hindered by strikes, especially in the coal mining and railroad industries, which lasted well into 1944. Nonetheless, between 1941 and 1945, the US produced 2.4 million trucks, 300,000 military aircraft, 88,400 tanks, and 40 billion rounds of ammunition. The production capacity of the US dwarfed that of other countries; for example, in 1944, the US produced more military aircraft than the combined production of Germany, Japan, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The White House became the ultimate site for labor mediation, conciliation or arbitration. One particular conflict occurred between Vice President Wallace, who headed the
Board of Economic Warfare, and
Jesse H. Jones, in charge of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation; both agencies assumed responsibility for the acquisition of rubber supplies and came to loggerheads over funding. Roosevelt resolved the dispute by dissolving both agencies. In 1943, Roosevelt established the
Office of War Mobilization to oversee the home front; the agency was led by
James F. Byrnes, who came to be known as the "assistant president" due to his influence. in the
State of the Union address broadcast on January 11, 1944 (excerpt). Roosevelt's 1944
State of the Union Address advocated a
Second Bill of Rights, guaranteeing "adequate medical care", "a good education", "a decent home", and a "useful and remunerative job". Within months of Roosevelt's death, atomic bombs were dropped on
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and soon after Japan capitulated, ending the war with
unconditional surrender. ==Severe health decline and death==