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[OnanearlyspringdayApril121945PresidentFranklinDRoosevelt(FDR)hadjustfinishedbreakfastatthe”LittleWhiteHouse”atopPineMountaininWarmSpringsGeorgia[1945年4月12日の早春のある日、フランクリンDルーズベルト大統領(FDR)は、ジョージア州ウォームスプリングスのパインマウンテンの頂上にある「リトルホワイトハウス」で朝食を終えたところでした。
One month had passed since his 12th year in office as president.
The president had recently returned from the Triple Conference in Yalta, Crimea, where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Russian leader Joseph Stalin and others to discuss the future of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union’s role in the Pacific war with Japan and the new postwar organization, the United Nations.
KJP: The president is “calm and continuing his campaign.”
While the president was resting after a grueling schedule, his mind, as commander in chief, was on the American soldiers, Marines and Sailors fighting in two theaters as America’s World War II operations entered their fourth year.
In this November 1937 photograph, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers a fireside chat to the nation at the White House.
His schedule for the day in Warm Springs, Georgia, included time to draw the sketches that would become the presidential portrait.
Just before 1 p.m., as work began on the painting, the president said he had a terrible headache, and he was 64 years old and facing his final moments.
The president was pronounced dead at 3:35 p.m. from a cerebral hemorrhage.
News of President Franklin Roosevelt’s death was quietly conveyed to the White House in Washington, and efforts were set in motion to locate Roosevelt’s new Vice President, Harry S. Truman.
When Truman was selected as his running mate in 1944, President Roosevelt encouraged and supported the decision of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to nominate Truman as his running mate, citing his experience as chairman of the Senate Arms Committee during the war and his experience as a no-nonsense leader who had loyally supported President Roosevelt since being elected to the Senate in 1940.
The delegates to the Chicago Convention had no Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to fall back on.
Delegates had relied on the boss system of politics to craft a deal to unseat sitting Vice President Henry A. Wallace and support a “common denominator” candidate, a “Missouri Compromise” that would not undermine President Franklin Roosevelt’s historic election to a fourth term in 1944.
Convention officials conspired with President Franklin Roosevelt to promote Truman’s acceptability, and through a series of voting tactics, meetings in a smoke-filled top-floor Chicago hotel room, and a well-timed delegate meeting on the convention grounds, the result was that Harry S. Truman reluctantly won the nomination on July 21, 1944.
President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to American General Lucius Clay (1897–1978) for his actions during the Berlin Airlift. (Photo: MPI/Getty Images)
After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states.
The amendment establishes important procedures for replacing the President or Vice President if they die, are removed, resign, or are otherwise unable to perform their duties.
The amendment has only been used once before, in the mid-1970s, when Gerald R. Ford replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president, and again when Ford replaced Richard Nixon as president, and later when Nelson Rockefeller filled the vice presidential vacancy created by Ford’s presidency.
In light of a world similar to that of 1945 – Axis powers, war, and an unknown future – it is instructive to recall the 1944 convention and campaign that President Franklin Roosevelt held with his new running mate, and the good fortune for the country and its allies that President Truman was in office when President Franklin Roosevelt died tragically at Warm Springs.
He was there not because of the law but because of decisions taken at the convention based on the interests of the party and the country.
With the recent confirmation that President Biden and former President Trump have won their respective parties’ nominations, delegates now have the opportunity to consider factors of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution when nominating and voting for their vice president for the 2024 presidential election.
What is the 25th Amendment?
The 25th Amendment has four clauses, each of which is important to consider when selecting a president or vice president amid heightened political crisis in 2024 following Biden’s astonishing performance in the presidential debates.
Article 1 applies when the death or resignation of the President justifies his removal from office. In that case, the Vice President becomes President.
Richard Nixon gives thumbs up after resigning as the 37th President of the United States. (Gene Forte/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)
Article 2 is used when a vacancy occurs in the vice presidency and the president can nominate a new vice president who can take office by a majority vote of both houses.
Article III has been used to allow the Vice President to exercise the powers and duties of the President as Acting President during presidential surgery. The term “Acting President” first appeared under this provision when President Ronald Reagan sent a letter to Congress announcing that Vice President George H.W. Bush would serve as “Acting President” while undergoing surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital in July 1985.
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The final section, Section 4, is a sentencing section that requires the Vice President and a majority of the principal officers of the executive department to transmit a written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives that the President is unable to perform his duties.
Once this is accomplished, the Vice President will assume the powers and duties of the office as “Acting President.”
In light of a world similar to that of 1945 – Axis powers, war, and an unknown future – it is instructive to recall the 1944 convention and campaign that President Franklin Roosevelt held with his new running mate, and the good fortune for the country and its allies that President Truman was in office when President Franklin Roosevelt died tragically at Warm Springs.
Are we going to be talking about 25 of those 25 years?
While the 25th Amendment will likely be on our minds in 2025, now is a good time to reflect on its elements ahead of the 2024 national conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Given the domestic and international economic and security challenges facing the country, the candidates themselves and their policy makers should seriously listen to the concerns of an American public that remains risk-averse about shocks within the U.S. government related to President Joe Biden’s health, another grey swan event like COVID-19, a strengthening axis of resistance to the world order by Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, or a terrorist incident on U.S. soil.
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Keep in mind the historic achievements of President Harry S. Truman and use the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to carefully select the right Vice President.
Let’s think seriously about presidential succession and do it before the President is unable to do his job or before a major grey swan event occurs on his doorstep.
Click here to read more articles by Robert S. Wells
