Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in 1882 in Hyde Park, New York. Elected president in 1932 at the depths of the Great Depression, he launched the New Deal, restructuring American economics and restoring confidence to millions. Despite being paralyzed by polio in 1921, Roosevelt remained a master politician. While America officially maintained neutrality, he quietly supported the British war effort through Lend-Lease in 1941, before formally bringing the United States into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Roosevelt led the Grand Alliance through conferences with Churchill and Stalin at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945), and was the driving visionary behind the creation of the United Nations. However, his record includes a serious stain: he ordered the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps after Pearl Harbor, a decision documented by history and later formally condemned. Elected to an unprecedented four terms, Roosevelt suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died in April 1945, weeks before Germany's surrender, never witnessing the victory he had dedicated his presidency to achieving.