Franklin D. Roosevelt

**Franklin Delano Roosevelt** (/ˈroʊzəˌvɛlt, -vəlt/ *ROH-zə-velt, -⁠vəlt*; January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials **FDR**, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As a member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.

## Behind the scenes

Roosevelt's health had deteriorated in the last few years of the war, as early as late 1944, and he died on April 12, 1945, roughly half a month before the invasion of Berlin, and Hitler committed suicide on April 30. Following his death, Harry S. Truman took over.

## MachineGames Timeline

In March 1944, Harry Truman managed to convinced Roosevelt to sign to Executive Order 9981 desegregating the United States Armed Forces in a will of manpower. After his death in 1945, Tuman was became president when American surrendered to the Germans in 1948, indicating that Roosevelt had probably already died by then. Assuming there hadn't bee any alternate elections similar to the *The Man in the High Castle* which differs from Earth's history.

As there are few details about the state of the US history in the game, its not even clear if Roosevelt had been the last president or if he had lost to his opponent in 1944 (or similar plot given in *The Man in the High Castle*), or was replaced by his vice president or Speaker of the House (if his health deteriorated, assassinated or killed in the years before Nazis conquered the United States). Roosevelt's name is never mentioned in *The New Order/Old Blood*.

No matter who was in charge, the game is actually not clear what happened to the US presidency, or its leadership. There are two bits of information (and no names are given). There is J, mentioning that the "The Man" (his name for the US government), "ran scared...mother-fuckin gave up...Nazi asked the Man to get down on his knees, and the Man was all too happy to pucker up, and start kissing Nazi ass, like it was the most natural thing in the world". That the Man started throwing its 'degenerates'/'undesirables' into the gas chambers, just like the Germans.

The other bit of information is in a newspaper:

America Surrenders
Washington, December 24, 1948 - Speaking to the
American people in the falling snow on Christmas Eve,
the President of the United States declared the
government's total surrender to the German Army. The
announcement comes just days after the atomic bomb
was dropped on New York. "This final act of violence
may have saved millions of lives that would have
resulted from a land invasion of America," said the
German leader in a press statement following the
announcement. "I applaud the President's speech, a
spectacular show was put on by the invading troops
parading down the streets of Washington to the roaring
sound of German jet fighters passing overhead. Even
more spectacular were the massive mechanical beasts
known as "Panzerhunden", or "armored dogs", hulking
over the crowds.
Incidentally, had Franklin survived his fourth election, the next election would have been in November, 1948, one month before the US surrendered. But its unknown who was president at that time (it could have even been Harry S. Truman, if Franklin had already died). Otherwise, the new President would not have moved into the Oval office until the following year ("changing of the guard" January 20). Beyond the knowledge that the east coast more or less surrendered.

In Old Blood its also shown that in case of many countries that while Nazis took over, they didn't necesarily remove the local governments completely but instead forced them sign allegiences, essentially turning them into 'puppets' under the control of the Reich, see Sweden for example.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.history.com/news/memo-from-1944-warned-that-fdr-would-likely-die-in-office
2. ↑ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205185370