President Franklin Roosevelt and the Second World War

President Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to be elected to a third term of office

When President Franklin Roosevelt accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1940, at the age of 58, President Franklin Roosevelt broke the national tradition set by George Washington at the very beginning of the Republic. Washington refused to run for a third term, for fear it would make him appear a dictator. President Franklin Roosevelt, unbothered by that fear, felt that the crisis brewing in Europe, required him to extend his service to the state. The American people too, seemed to want him as their Commander-in-Chief. They made him the first president ever to be elected to a third term of office.

President Franklin Roosevelt preparing for the Second World War

President Franklin Roosevelt  went right to work, preparing for the worst. President Franklin Roosevelt began a military conscription - the first president to do so in peacetime. President Franklin Roosevelt set up naval bases for defense. And he made sure that industry began turning out more guns, tanks, and other equipment to make what he called "an arsenal of Democracy." President Franklin Roosevelt ordered seizure of all German and Italian vessels in American ports, and at a secret meeting with Winston Churchill drew up an Atlantic Charter designed to destroy Nazism and set up a post-war world where freedom reigned supreme.

In spite of all this, the United States continued to remain neutral on the war until, on December 7, 1941, neutrality became impossible. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt called it "a date which will live in infamy," and then, like Churchill in England, he began to rally the American people towards victory.

The next years were years of immense work and pressure. President Franklin Roosevelt made plans for a British and American invasion of North Africa and worked closely with Churchill to set up one of the most successful military alliances in all of history. He also helped set up the United Nations, and then met with both Churchill and Stalin to plan the most important step of the war: the allied invasion of the west coast of Europe.