President Franklin D. Roosevelt had two main short-term effects on the United States.  Those effects were 1) that he helped get the country out of the Great Depression and 2) that he led the United States through the bulk of its involvement in WWII.  In the long term, FDR’s main impact has been to vastly increase the role of the federal government in Americans’ everyday lives.

When FDR took office, the US was mired in the Great Depression.  The economy was in terrible shape.  People were afraid and desperate.  Roosevelt came into office and proposed a series of programs that we now call the New Deal.  These programs gave people hope that there was a way out of the Depression.  Even though the New Deal did not actually end the Depression (WWII did that), most historians would say that it helped to improve the US economy so that things were not as bad between 1933 and 1940 as they had been between 1929 and 1933.  Thus, FDR’s first short term effect was that he helped improve the US economy during the Great Depression and eventually helped the country’s economy return to health.

FDR was then faced with the greatest foreign war in American history.  His second important short-term effect was to lead the US through this war.  He pushed the country to prepare for war even when most people wanted to continue the policy of isolationism.  He formed a good working relationship with Winston Churchill, thus helping to keep the Allies unified.  This unity helped them win the war.  He made good strategic decisions about what the US should and should not try to do at various points throughout the war.  In these ways, he was largely responsible for leading the US to victory in WWII.

In the long term, FDR’s major impact has been on the relationship between government and our society.  Before FDR, the government had little involvement in the lives of ordinary people.  With the New Deal, Roosevelt changed that.  Since the New Deal, the government has gotten to be more and more involved in everything.  It tries to provide more things (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps) than it used to.  It regulates practically every aspect of the economy.  The reach of the government has extended far beyond what most people would have imagined when FDR entered office.  While FDR did not do all of this himself, his New Deal set us on this road.  This is his major long-term effect on the US.