It was a bitterly cold day in March of 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office as President of the United States.
FDR had a very ebullient spirit that had him waving his hat to the crowd on his way to the inauguration. Then current president Herbert Hoover did not like him, and did not share in his friendliness with the crowd that day.
The emotional need of the crowd, indeed of the country, was for a cheery charming personality who brought hope to the people. Banks were closing, jobs were not to be found, and the economy was about to fold. Roosevelt had the attitude that the country would survive this. He came up with one idea after another, one program after another to get the government involved in putting the country back to work. It worked to some avail, but the problem was so deep, the spirit so down, that it would take time and effort on a continuing basis to bring the country back to a productive, fulfilling climate that kept everybody busy.
Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men go surely to ruin, it is written. But the plans of God for his creation, His people never come to ruin. He sees His purposes through in the people He uses. It may take a long time to bring prosperity to fruition. The National Restoration Act, the WPA, were Roosevelt-era programs that progrressively put more people in jobs, but it was a European madman named Hitler who really kickstarted the final push that ended the Great Depression. Add to this the Japanese, with their Tanaka Plan for world takeover, and America had a double squeeze put on it.
On the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese general who oversaw their military campaign said "we have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve". Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the US. So, an American president who saw Hitler rise to power and take over Europe, also saw an Asian threat, and had to mobilize a country to re-tool its factories and make tanks instead of cars, airplanes and warships instead of other human conveniences. Disaster makes an excellent incentive to human industriousness, and losing the entire naval fleet made an equally forceful kickstart to replacing America's defensive ability. The sleeping giant had to get its military act together and in a hurry. Never before in history did a country have a war on two fronts at the same time. Roosevelt made it his number 1 priority to win this war, and it cost him with his wife, because her agenda was slightly different. She wanted the war effort to make a better life for less advantaged Americans, minorities and such. She supported the war effort because she saw the need, but she never forgot the black soldiers, the alien Americans who were standing side by side with the rest of young America. The plight of minorities never left her heart.
So, battling the war on two fronts, and at home with his family, Roosevelt was slowly in declining health, losing weight, but keeping a strong face, and a charming spirit that kept him and his country in a victorious mindset, even though NO one was sure they could win a war like this. He had polio, and wore leg braces, which he kept hidden under long trousers, but almost always stood and walked to meetings with his countrymen, Congress, and world leaders, such as England's Winston Churchill, and Russia's Josef Stalin.
One aspect that made it difficult for Roosevelt to get the American public involved was their isolationism, the attitude that America needed to keep out of Europe's war. Once he got the country into the war, he had to sell the war to the soldiers. He had a Hollywood director named Frank Capra to put together a multi-part series called "Why We Fight". The series covered the two threats against America, and did it with live action, animation, actual battle footage and everything that could be brought to bear to get the soldier's mind and heart into protecting his country.
During the war, some scientists of the day were very concerned with a new threat that they saw brewing in Hitler's war strategy- nuclear arms. Albert Einstein and some other learned folk who had a firsthand knowledge of his plans and progress in this convinced FDR to start research and development into an American defensive response to this unprecedented method of fighting. It is interesting that although the atomic bomb was developed as an answer to a new strategy in Europe, it was never used there. It was, instead, used to end a threat posed by the Japanese of a long, drawn out war of attrition. The first bomb only stirred Japanese spirit to continue to fight. The second bomb convinced their leader that this scale of warfare was something Japan did not have the firepower to surmount, and that Japan would have to give up their fight.
So, whether in peace, dealing with an economy on life support, or in war, with a monster that needed snuffing out, Roosevelt was God's leader for the country that needed what he brought to the presidency. God saw his creation, and his people through with what they needed in leadership. God blessed America with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Its always His way to provide for the need, on whatever scale, at whatever time, in whatever way:
Philippians 4:19.
