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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Influence
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, at his family's estate on the
Hudson River near Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of James and Sara Delano
Roosevelt. On March 4, 1933 he was elected as President and was reelected two times after that.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was an influential person. He helped carve through Europe during WWII,
he signed an agreement to go against Hitler, and he tried his best to fix Poland’s communist
government.
Roosevelt played a big role in invading Europe. For example, he and two others went into
Europe and started what became the Cold War, “Joseph Stalin, Churchill and Franklin D.
Roosevelt carved up Europe and set the stage for the Cold War, which dominated global politics
for nearly half a century.”(Anonymous). Roosevelt helped invade Europe and this helped spark
the Cold War, which dominated politics for almost 50 years. In addition, Roosevelt cared deeply
about not only his own country but others as well, “Many of the letters-the final one was
approved by Roosevelt only minutes before his death in 1945-are filled with understanding and
praise for the sufferings that the U.S.S.R. is going through.”(Anonymous) This shows
Roosevelt’s compassion for the tragedies that the U.S.S.R. went through during Hitler’s reign.
Furthermore, Roosevelt refused to challenge the Soviet domination, “Critics attacked his refusal
to challenge Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, but supporters pointed out that it was merely
an acceptance of political reality--Soviet troops already occupied the region.”(Founding
Leaders). Critics were upset that Roosevelt didn’t do anything about the Soviet Union taking
over Eastern Europe, but he only refused to challenge this because the Soviet Union already had
troops already in the region. As a result, Roosevelt worked very hard on trying to do his part
during WWII.
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Roosevelt signed an agreement with Churchil and Stalin to increase the chances of
defeating Hitler. For example, Roosevelt’ main goal was to win the War with as little of his men
dead as possible, “His goal was to win the war with as few American casualties as possible. To
do this, he needed to keep the wartime alliance of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United
States together until after Germany and Japan were defeated, and he did. At the same time, warinduced prosperity in combination with a widespread belief among Americans that they were
fighting "the Good War" sustained national unity and enough of Roosevelt's popularity to gain
him reelection to a fourth term in 1944.”(ABC-CLIO). The US joined with the Soviet Union and
Great Britain. They eventually signed an agreement to team up against Hitler. The popularity got
him a reelection. In addition, , in 1945, they all got together and signed the Yalta Agreement,
“President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II.”(The Associated Press).
Roosevelt, Churchil, and Stalin sign an agreement watch each other’s back against Hitler
throughout WWII. Furthermore, Stalin was up to something all along, Roosevelt just didn’t kno
what, “in failing health and wearied by more than 10 years in the presidency and three years of
world war, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Yalta to lay the cornerstone for
future peace.” (Gruver). Roosevelt signed the agreement thinking he was going to make peace
but Stalin, behind Roosevelt’s back, turned on him after he passed away. As a result, the
agreement was Stalin’s way of getting the advantage of being on Roosevelt’s good side. Then
when he died he felt that it was time to go against the agreement and take over Eastern Europe.
Roosevelt wanted the best for Poland in not wanting Stalin to influence its government.
For example, Stalin was interested in Poland for the wrong reasons, “Demonstrating good will,
Roosevelt assured Stalin that "the United States will never lend support in any way to any
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provisional government in Poland that would be inimical to your interests"” (Uhler). Roosevelt
assured Stalin that the US would have no political influence on Poland but Stalin had his eyes on
Poland the whole time. In addition, Stalin was a bigger threat than FDR and his advisors thought,
“FDR and his advisers underestimated Stalin and the threat he posed, although it is also true that
the Red Army's already deep advance into Central Europe limited their leverage over him”
(Kaminski). Roosevelt did not think much of Stalin and what he could do but Stalin the
advantage of having Soviet troops deep into Central Europe. Furthermore, Roosevelt was able to
fight World War II during the Depression and still be able to keep up with problems at home,
“Because of the Depression, Roosevelt spent much of his first term dealing with problems at
home. Nevertheless, he still was deeply involved in foreign affairs. He launched the Good
Neighbor Policy to improve relations between the United States and Latin America.” (Britannica
Elementary Encyclopedia). The depression affected Roosevelt and spent most of his time dealing
with problems at home. He was still able to launch the Good Neighbor Policy to make things
better between US and Latin America.
Roosevelt was successful in carving the stage for WWII, signing an agreement that would
help his country’s safety, and not letting the US have any influence on Poland. FDR had a long
tough fight while he invaded Europe. Stalin was a bad person from the start and Roosevelt knew
that, there was just nothing he could do to stop him. While Stalin dominated Poland, there was
also nothing Roosevelt could have done because Stalin already had troops in Poland. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was a major influence, not only during WWII, but during all his year as
President.