• FDR Memorial bread line statues

    Franklin Delano Roosevelt

    Memorial District of Columbia

The Second World War

America Enters the War

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a Joint Session of Congress, requesting a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan, following the December 7th attack against part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii. The President had chosen his words with care, even editing the final text as he delivered the speech. Click here for the final text version as recorded in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Did You Know?

Fireside Chat Statue

The land upon which the FDR Memorial rests is reclaimed land, and at one time used to be the Potomac River.  In the late nineteenth century, the river channel was deepened and narrowed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the dredged river sediments became West and East Potomac Parks.