Franklin D. Roosevelt Legacy
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Franklin d. Roosevelt legacy
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to office and served as the 32nd president of the United States of America from March 1933 to April 1945 (Roosevelt, 1941). This made him the longest ever serving President in the USA’s history, serving the people for 12 years. Hailing from the state of New York, the Democrat Party Roosevelt is considered among the United States’ best Presidents. His election to the office was due to most American voters believing in him to counter the Great Depression that the country was facing. During this period of his election, the country’s economy was at its knees, following the great depression that had started in October 1929. This was caused by the crashing of the stock market, where the investors lost millions leading to crises worldwide.
Due to his optimistic individuality, he was able to face most of his challenges successfully. He found about 15 million citizens who had been laid off and unemployed due to the economic crisis. He knew he had to do something to restore the Americans’ glory and confidence, which was highly affected. His first dealing was the reopening of the banks closed for a month depriving many families of their livelihoods. He convinced Congress to pass the Emergency Bank Act of March 1933, leading to federal deposit insurance (Folsom, 2009). This led to winning back the public’s trust, which returned most of the money to the banks, leading to the first stock trading’s huge success.
The creation of employment was another big hurdle which President Roosevelt faced. To counter this challenge, which resulted from the banks’ near-collapse and low industrial production, he proposed the ‘New deal.’ The ‘New Deal’ contained several economic reforms to bring relief to millions of its citizens. This program led to the famous Civilian Conservation Corps, which employed millions of people through public works and employment creation. Unemployment reduced from 25% to 14% in his first elective term, capping the president’s great legacy.
The creation of The Social Security Act remains the most popular of the programs created by the Roosevelt administration. The older people were guaranteed income together with the retired workers. Another milestone reached during the Great Depression was creating the government agency, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This program ensured the housing problems were solved by offering housing and mortgage programs by 2014 in the entire country.
Another legacy left behind by President Roosevelt was his collaboration with the rival party Republican elected Senator, George Norris, to acquire and lay the ground for the government to own large business enterprises. Among them is The Tennessee Valley Authority, whose functions include modern farming, control floods, and acquiring electric power for the Appalachian Mountains. Another program, The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), was rolled out by the Roosevelt administration in May 1933. Its main purposes were to ensure that the farmers were assisted in raising their products’ pricing, hence controlling the crop produce.
Having his legs permanently paralyzed due to polio in 1921, He rock cemented his legacy after another milestone in the founding of the March of Dimes. This program was founded in 1938 to combat the epidemic polio’s challenge after the success story of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, which eliminated the killer disease in most parts of the world (Maney, 1998).
In 1940 elections for a record fourth and last term, the Americans put their faith in the president again to sail them through the deteriorating international relations. Though the United States claimed to be neutral, President Roosevelt indirectly rooted for the British and its Allies. After remaining neutral for most of World War II, the United States was called into action after the Pearl Harbor attack of Hawaii on December 7th, 1941, by Imperial Japan (Franklin, 1941). The loss of 3000 both military personnel and innocent civilians led to the forging of an alliance with Britain’s Winston Churchill and Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin to crush the Hitler-led Nazi Germans and defeat Imperial Japan. The victory led to the establishment of the United States as a superpower. Many still believe Roosevelt is responsible for today’s global peace as the alliance with the 22 countries’ allies led to the formation of the present-day United Nations (UN).
References
Folsom, B. W. (2009). New Deal or raw deal?: how FDR’s economic legacy has damaged America. Simon and Schuster.
Franklin, D. (1941). Roosevelt. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 4.
Maney, P. J. (1998). The Roosevelt Presence: The Life and Legacy of FDR. Univ of California Press.
Roosevelt, F. D. (1941). The four freedoms. Outlined in a speech on January 6.