Colossus Astride The Twentieth Century

In the imposing new memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt that stretches along the Potomac River, there are three vital lessons for individuals who have no personal recollection of the 32d president, his deeds or his ordeal.

Having witnessed the recent controversy over whether FDR’s polio-inflicted disability should be a focal point of the memorial, they should know that whether Roosevelt was standing on his braceen-cased legs or sitting in his wheelchair, he towered over America through its two most perilous crises of the 20th century.

During the Great Depression, which stripped millions of their livelihood, their home and their self-confidence, and during the most treacherous war in history, he was the bold captain on the ship of state.

In the Depression, he may have averted revolution by instilling hope and promise into a people who had lost both as poverty swept the land. In World War II, he led America and its allies in defeating Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy.

For people born in the last half century and for those in future generations, the first lesson is that FDR was a dynamic force whose leadership saved the republic.

Younger generations also should know that with the right leadership, this nation and its resilient citizens can accept any challenge and surmount any disaster. We have, with courage, commitment and vision, demonstrated that time and time again.

A walk through the Roosevelt memorial is a stroll through the sometimes tragic but ultimately triumphant history of America in the 20th century.

The memorial makes the point that history is not just something of the past; it also is something of the present and the future.

In addition, people should understand that living in the White House need not mean that a president and a first lady are remote from the daily lives and ordeals of American families. An innovative, compassionate president and his wife can become members of every family in the republic, just as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt did.

In millions of homes they were loved, in others they were hated. But in almost all of them, the Roosevelts were a powerful presence.

But FDR’s leadership reached far beyond the 12 years of his White House tenure and so did Eleanor’s.

Politicians as diverse as Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich agree that FDR was the greatest president of the century. Hillary Rodham Clinton looks to Eleanor as her model of an activist first lady.

All across this land, people continue to depend on great social programs that were the bounty of the New Deal. In world affairs, America is the proud and powerful nation that Roosevelt believed it was destined to be.

It has taken more than 50 years for our government to catch up with FDR’s legacy to the point where it has constructed a memorial to him near those honoring those other indispensable protectors of democracy - Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.

Last month, Clinton injected himself into the controversy over whether Roosevelt should appear in a wheelchair. Siding with disabled Americans who view FDR as a symbol and an inspiration, he called upon Congress to approve funds to provide a statue depicting Roosevelt as disabled.

Hawaii’s senior Democratic senator, Daniel Inouye, introduced legislation to achieve that goal, and the House passed a similar bill on May 1.

Roosevelt was not a man without fault. He could be devious, petty, arrogant and Machiavellian. He could force unwise decisions on the Democratic Party and the country, as he did in his 1940 designation of Henry A. Wallace to be vice president.

FDR erred badly in 1937 when he tried to pack the Supreme Court with justices who would find his New Deal measures constitutional rather than unconstitutional. The effort failed, but by the time he died in 1945, Roosevelt had appointed eight of the justices and elevated the ninth one, Republican Harlan F. Stone, to chief justice.

He failed also when, in 1938, he tried to purge conservative Democratic members of Congress from office.

He ran for a fourth term, although it was obvious to almost everyone who saw him that his health had deteriorated and that he probably did not have long to live. He also misjudged the treachery of his wartime ally, Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

But he totally changed the relationship between Americans and their government. “The America he built,” said Clinton at the May 2 dedication ceremony, “was a memorial all around us, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Grand Coulee Dam; from Social Security to honest financial markets.”

Much of the credit for the dynamism of the Roosevelt Memorial goes to designer Lawrence Halprin. Much of the credit for America’s continuing greatness goes to Roosevelt himself.