THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES

Since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) was elected President four times. He was the only American President ever to do so. Today there is a term limit on the number times a president can be elected to office. He served the American people from March, 1933 until his death on April 12, 1945. The American public and the media knew him by his nickname “FDR”. He was President when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The next day, he went to Congress and asked them for a declaration of war against the Japanese government. That began American involvement in World War II.

Harry S Truman (D) became President when FDR died in April 1945. Previously, he was President Roosevelt’s choice for vice-president, but was only selected for the 1944 election. FDR had other men serve as the vice-presidents in his previous terms. President Truman was elected President in his own right in the election of 1948. The newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, erroneously ran a headline before the election was over that his opponent Thomas Dewey had won the election. President Truman helped create the world governing body, the United Nations, now located in New York City. Harry Truman was President when the Korean conflict began.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) was elected President in 1952. He was re-elected President in 1956. Both times, he defeated the Democratic challenger, Adlai E. Stevenson. President Eisenhower was in office when the Korean War ended in 1953. His vice-president during his two terms in office was Richard M. Nixon. President Eisenhower enjoyed a Congress in which the Republicans had a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

John F. Kennedy (D) was elected President in 1960, defeating Vice-President Richard M. Nixon. He was the first Catholic elected President of the United States. He is the only president in U.S. history who was not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP. He selected Lyndon B. Johnson as his Vice-President. During President Kennedy’s administration, major events like the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the beginning of the Vietnam War took place. He introduced Civil Rights legislation to Congress. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson became President.

Lyndon B. Johnson (D) took the oath of office as President of the United States on November 22, 1963. He was elected President in his on right, defeating Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona in the election of 1964. Under President Johnson’s administration, American combat troops were deployed in Vietnam. Throughout many American cities, there were many protests over American involvement in Vietnam. On

March 31, 1968, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection for President of the United States in the 1968 election.

Richard M. Nixon (R) defeated Lyndon Johnson’s vice-president, Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota in the 1968 election. During his administration, American troops began to withdrawal from Vietnam. American involvement in Vietnam ended with the signing of a peace accord in Paris after talks in 1973. President Nixon was re-elected in 1972, defeating Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. But he resigned the Presidency on August 9, 1974 after the Watergate scandal. Vice-President Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President on the same day.