Answer:
Never got the US out of the Depression
Father of the Welfare State
Allowed the March 1933 bank run by remaining quiet before becoming President.
Out lawed people from owning gold, their only hedge against inflation.
Devalued the dollar.
Created massive federal bureaucracy
Tried to Pack the Supreme Court.
Instituted price controls.
Excise taxes were greatly increased.
The National Industrial Recovery Act mandatory wages higher than employers could pay, causing substantial job loses and higher unemployment.
WAR YEARS
Selling out Eastern Europe.
Appeasement of Stalin
Appointment of Communists in high position.
Overrode Naval advise and placed Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Kept Hawaiian commanders out of Japanese’s war plans.
Failure to build Aircraft Carriers instead of Battleships prior to 12-7-1941.
Insisted upon unconditional surrender.
Cut off vital Japanese aid forcing Japan to attack the US.
Convening Roberts Commission to clear himself of any blame, instead Hawaiian Commanders Short and Kimmel used as scape goats.
Japanese American interment camps.
Social Security act of 1935 which planted the seed for the welfare state.
Illegal imprisonment (also called "internment") of 110,000 ethnical Japanese people living in the US, most of whom were American citizens, during WW2.
Illegal confiscation of US citizens' gold savings to increase the power and revenue of the central and private banks. This made the impact of the next point much worse.
Devaluation of the US dollar which destroyed the savings of many Americans preventing them from living decently on their retirement savings.
New Deal which included wage and price control which lead to unemployment and shortage of goods.
Explanation:
The London Economic Conference of 1933. The worlds greatest economies (US, Britain, and France) got together looking for a common coordinated solutions to the great depression. Roosevelt rejected a joint approach and rather set the US off to find its own domestic solution.
Taking the United States off the gold standard and allowing the dollar to devalue against international currencies. This made US trade more competitive. Roosevelt addressed this in 1936 with a treaty
Trying to balance the budget in 1936.
Harry Truman: Harry Truman was vice president for a little less than 3 months (January 20, 1945 – April 12, 1945). During this time FDR gave him almost no information about the workings of the Presidency. When FDR went to Yalta, Truman found out about it after he returned; he had no input or visibility into FDR’s dealings with Stalin or Churchill or FDR’s post war plans. Truman didn’t even know about the Atomic Bomb until after he became President. Keeping Truman in the dark was a big mistake.
Sudo Mistakes
Yalta Conference. Feb 4–11, 1945; FDR agreed to allow Stalin to organize the post war government of Poland, he also allowed Stalin to oversee and conduct the agreed upon democratic elections which would construct the post war Polish government. FDR would be dead within 7 weeks of the end of the conference and Eastern Europe would spend the next five decades under soviet rule.
Admiral William D. Leahy, the president's chief of staff, complained to Roosevelt, upon departing from Yalta, that the agreement's language on Poland was “so elastic that the Russians can stretch it all the way from Yalta to Washington without ever technically breaking it.” “I know, Bill,” Roosevelt responded. “I know it. But it is the best I can do for Poland at this time.”
Soviet Union 20–27 Million dead
United States, 449,000 dead
Britain, 451,000 dead
FDR tried to get the best deal he could from Stalin, and ultimately the deal he was able to get, wasn’t a very good one for Poland nor Eastern Europe.
Supreme Court Packing
Trying to Pack the Supreme Court when it threatened to strike down all of his new deal policies was certainly one which might have seemed to backfired on him. One might conclude he won the war, but lost that battle. Reality is he won the battle but it weakened him for the rest of his pre WWII administration.
When FDR took office in 1933, he knew four older justices Pierce Butler, James McReynolds, George Sutherland and Willis Van Devanter would move to strike down all of his new deal proposals. These five justices struck down more congressional laws than any other court in the nations history before or since, including foundational new deal programs, National Recovery Administration (NRA) and Agricultural Adjustment Act(AAA).
FDR noted that the Supreme court in 1936 was the oldest court in the history of the country and asked congress to allow him to appoint a new judge for every judge age of 70 and over. Six Current judges were over the age of 70 in 1936 including all four of the horsemen. Pierce Butler(70), James McReynolds(74), George Sutherland(74) and Willis Van Devanter (77)
This set off an intensive debate which lasted for six months.
