Theodore Roosevelt (R): Sept. 10, 1901- Oct. 30, 1919
Roosevelt was inaugurated following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901. His Square Deal created a regulatory framework which prevented excessive concentration of power in large trust corporations. Along with his pioneering of the National Parks system, Roosevelt inaugurated a massive defense buildup, and his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. The construction of the Panama Canal and his reaffirmation of the Anglo-American alliance were among his major accomplishments, easily defeating Champ Clark in 1912 and 1916. Upon American entry into WWI, the Germans surrendered in late 1917, three years, three months, and three days after the Archduke's assassination. After failing to persuade Lloyd George and Clemenceau to lessen German reparations, his health declined over 1919, and died later that year.
Charles E. Hughes (R): Oct. 30, 1919-Jan. 20, 1929
Hughes presided over the "Roaring Twenties", but extended his predecessor's fiscal reforms to the stock market, and successfully vetoed the Volstead Bill in June 1920. As a result of his reforms, the Great Recession of 1929-36 remained a prolonged downturn, while not meeting the criteria for a depression. In foreign policy, he promoted reciprocal tariffs agreements with Canada and Japan in the in his second term. He handed over to Treasury Secretary Hoover in 1928 and died in 1946.
Herbert C. Hoover (R): Jan. 20, 1929-Jan. 20, 1933
Hoover promoted freer trade, vetoing the Smoot-Harley Bill of 1930, and promoted limited intervention in the economy, as had his predecessors. His failure to end the recession led to his defeat by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D): Jan. 20, 1933- Nov. 4, 1945
Roosevelt's New Deal substantially aided recovery, with 2% growth by late 1936, enabling him to win re-election over the badly divided Republican Party. He inititated a partial rebuilding of the American military, but due to increasing isolationism, was not able to enter the war until 1941. His WWII leadership has been praised by nearly all contemporary historians, with the European war ending on Feb. 8, 1945. His visit to Britain later that year saw some of the largest crowds in British history, estimated at over 300,000. After the Japanese surrender, Roosevelt resigned in late 1945, handing over to Vice President Truman. He did not live to see the next Democratic President, dying on Dec. 3, 1959 at age 77.
Harry Truman (D): Nov. 4, 1945- Jan. 20, 1953
Truman, upon entering office, wisely chose not to undergo the full demobilization as urged by many of his advisers. His leadership of the transition from wartime to peacetime has won praise from both the public and the historical community. Though most of his "Fair Deal" legislation never saw light, the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine were his greatest historical legacies. Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Truman was ready, and the armistice was signed in February 1952. He decided to forgo his exemption from the 22nd Amendment, and retired in 1953. His passing in 1973 was marked by a state funeral presided over by President Kennedy.
Robert Taft (R): Jan. 20, 1953- Sept. 16, 1954
As the first Republican President in two decades, Taft looked backwards, not forwards, by his vehement isolationism and suspicion of NATO. Only Dulles' pleading saved the foreign policy engineered by his predecessor. His aversion to free trade caused the 1954-5 recession, but before he could begin the abrogation of the JUSFTA or CAFTA, he died of cancer in 1954, to be succeeded by Vice President Nixon.
Richard M. Nixon (R): Sept. 16, 1954- Jan. 20, 1961
Nixon, a militant free-trader, ordered the reviews of both agreements halted, and presided over what came to be seen as an idyllic era by later generations. His aid to the French in Indochina helped ensure a united, non-Communist Vietnam under President Ngo Dinh Diem after Ho Chi Minh's assassination by the French in 1948. As the recovery began in early 1956, Nixon gained enough momentum to narrowly win re-election in November of that year. His second term was marked by an improvement in US-European relations and constant tension in the Far East. As the youngest-ever President, he ran for the Senate from California in 1962, where he would remain until his death in 1995.
Hubert H. Humphrey (D): Jan. 20, 1961- Oct. 30, 1962
Humphrey easily defeated Lyndon Johnson for the 1960 Democratic nomination, having been the front-runner since the death of Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1957. A committed civil-rights activist, he and Vice President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1962. His tenure was marked with improved US-Soviet relations, culminating with a summit with Nikita Khrushchev in June 1962. While campaigning in the 1962 congressional campaign, he was assassinated by a lone gunman in Mobile, Alabama.
Lyndon B. Johnson (D): Oct. 30, 1962- Jan. 20, 1969
Lyndon Johnson is best known for his Voting Rights Act of 1963 and the Immigration Act of 1964, as well as Medicare, Medicaid, and many other "Great Society" programs. Though not isolationist, his domestic focus and frozen relations with President de Gaulle marked a major downturn in US-European relations. Massive government spending led to increasing inflation and devastating setbacks in the 1966 midterm elections. His foreign relations were constantly denounced in the media and by Sens. Nixon, Kennedy and Fulbright. Johnson often sought Nixon's advice as a former President, and deliberately ignored Fulbright, whom he had disliked as Majority Leader and called "Halfbright". With Senator Robert Kennedy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committee and senior NY Senator, he had a mutually loathing relationship, which hampered his attempts to bypass Eastland and Fulbright. Johnson's last two years in office were uneventful, and he died in 1971 at 62.
Robert F. Kennedy (D): Jan. 20, 1969-Jan. 20, 1977
Kennedy, upon entering office, declared his priorities to be "our consciousness, whether of the forgotten America or the world in which we live." His focus on improving the lives of the poor, with the revised Indian Act of 1970, Federal Urban Development Act of 1972, and the Apollo landing in June 1970 all being major accomplishments of his Presidency. Among others, he ratified the EEC-US Free Trade Agreement of 1974, which led to a substantial improvement in the international monetary situation, and completed the civil rights saga begun under President Nixon in 1957. His greatest foreign policy achievements were the opening to China in 1971 and detente with India in 1975, as well as the successful ceasefire negotiations in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. Kennedy introduced the tradition of a biweekly press conference in different cities across the United States. He once said "the White House is a base, not a fortress, and that is something in which I fervently believe." Towards the end of his Presidency, there were multiple attempts to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which were tacitly encouraged by Kennedy, who loathed Ronald Reagan, Henry Jackson, and Jerry Brown, all regarded as his potential successors. After retirement, he returned to the Senate in 1979, chairing many committees, and along with former President Nixon, co-sponsoring many important bills, culminating in the Kennedy-Nixon Campaign Finance Act of 1987. He retired in 2003 at the age of 77, and is the author of four books. Considered one of the top five American Presidents by most historians.