Part 5

Instituting the Imperial Presidency: Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon

IN THIS PART …

Check out Franklin Delano Roosevelt: He pulled the country out of the Great Depression, started long-lasting programs such as Social Security, and preserved democracy in Europe by entering World War II.

Discover how Harry Truman saved Western Europe from the expanding Soviet empire, with programs such as the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and later, NATO. Back home, Truman desegregated the U.S. military.

Meet war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Often overlooked, he was a great president who contained the Soviet Union without sacrificing one American life. Eisenhower also ended the war in Korea, desegregated U.S. public schools, and initiated the present interstate highway system.

Who doesn’t know about John F. Kennedy and his attempts to establish better relations with the Soviet Union and to bring civil rights to the forefront? Kennedy didn’t live to see his efforts completed, but his successor Lyndon Johnson finished the job. His legacy includes the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson would have been a great one, but there was Vietnam, which undermined his presidency.

You may be amazed at how such a successful foreign policy president, Richard Nixon, was brought down by the worst presidential scandal in U.S. history, Watergate.