Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a lifelong love for the United States Navy. Inspired as a youth by the U.S. Fleet's dramatic impact on the global stage, and its use overseas by his illustrious cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin quite naturally focused his eyes on the sea. FDR and the U.S. Navy presents the work of prominent biographers and historians who analyzed Franklin D. Roosevelt's long, close, and eventful association with the United States Navy, in war and peace, from the turn of the century to the end of World War II. The contributors show how as President during the 1930s, FDR endeavored with naval leaders, not always successfully, to build a combat-capable fleet and to deter the aggressor nations of Europe and Asia. The essays argue that one of Franklin Roosevelt's greatest achievements was his direction as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Navy and the other American armed forces during World War II, when the very survival of the nation was at stake. This book is the product of a day-long conference, entitled "Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Navy," that was held on October 22, 1996 at the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation's Heritage Center on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. It is both a powerful tribute and an important historical work on FDR.