If the twenty-second amendment had been in place during franklin d. roosevelt’s first term in office, the nation likely would not have become involved in the cold war. fdr could only have been elected to one more full term. president truman would not have faced a republican-controlled congress. there would have been no need for any of the fair deal programs.

The correct answer is: FDR could only have been elected to one more full term.

Indeed, the founding fathers did not establish a clear, legal clause in the Constitution defining the exact amount of terms an American president could serve. However, after George Washington declined to seek re-election for a third term , it became an established political tradition to only serve two terms if re-elected after the first one.

The only president to ever seek third term was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The reasons for his actions can be explained by both the local and international context. Nationally, the US was barely getting out of the Great Depression and Republicans were still eager to revert and rescind all New Deal policies. Roosevelt knew this and he was determined to avoid it for two reasons, it would endanger the incipient economic recovery and it would greatly weaken the nation in a time of grave international danger, with Nazi Germany and Japan rising and conquering most of Europe and large parts of Asia.