ABSTRACT
By forceful leadership, persuasive rhetoric, crafty diplomacy, and stealthy military actions, Franklin D. Roosevelt turned a withdrawn, isolationist United States into an arsenal for democracy and a fi ghter against fascism. In a later age, with a less sympathetic press and a less deferential Congress, he might well have been impeached for his conduct, which in several instances was of questionable legality and Constitutionality. Instead, he succeeded in rearming a reluctant nation and sending its soldiers and sailors, step by step, into combat. The verdict of history is in his favor, but the trials he endured were diffi cult, and the outcome never certain.
