19. Dying only one month before the surrender of Nazi Germany, President Franklin D. Roosevelt deserved the chance to witness the world he helped to create
The thirty-second President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt – commonly known by his initials FDR – is widely acknowledged as one of the three greatest leaders of the American nation, along with Washington and Lincoln, and the foremost of the twentieth century. Entering the White House in 1933 during the Great Depression, Roosevelt’s domestic agenda, the New Deal, was responsible for both the reconstitution and revitalization of the American economy under dire circumstances via the National Recovery Administration, as well as the construction of the foundations of today’s social security network and the end of Prohibition.
Winning a record four elections, Roosevelt ultimately led the United States into the Second World War following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Presiding over a period of great struggle and sacrifice, Roosevelt, in spite of his increasingly failing health, held the nation together to defeat the threat posed by fascism. Succumbing just a month before the surrender of Germany, dying from a cerebral hemorrhage after decades of polio on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt was deprived of the opportunity to witness his nation’s triumph or enjoy the world he helped to liberate. Given the troubles of the modern age, a leader such as Roosevelt to guide the West into a brighter future once more would not be remiss or ungratefully received.