The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution limits the presidency to two four-year terms, preventing a monarchy-like structure. Franklin Delano Roosevelt served a third and fourth term due to wartime conditions, but died early in his fourth term. Vice President Harry Truman succeeded him and was the only exception to the amendment. Critics argue that the amendment negatively affects foreign policy.
The 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution was enacted in March 1951. It states that no one can be elected President of the United States for more than two terms, which equals two four-year terms for a total of eight terms. years. The 22nd Amendment also limits election to more than one term for someone entering the office of president, such as as a vice president who assumes the presidency due to the incumbent president’s death and impeachment.
The premise behind the 22nd amendment is traced back to the very first president of the United States, George Washington, who refused to accept a third term. It is generally seen as a time limit that prevents the establishment of a monarchy-like structure of government in principle, if not in fact. After Washington refused to accept a third term, it was almost 150 years before a president had the opportunity to face the same dilemma.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt became US president in 1932 and served a third term. One of the main reasons Roosevelt was elected to a third term in 1940 was that the United States had just emerged from the Great Depression and Hitler was threatening Europe. A change of leadership during this pivotal period in the nation’s history was seen as imprudent. In 1944, however, with the world engulfed in war, the same conditions persisted and Roosevelt ran and was elected to a fourth term.
Roosevelt lived less than 100 days into his fourth term, finally succumbing to what was thought to be polio at the time, but now thought to be Guillain-Barre syndrome that had kept him in a wheelchair since the age of 39 years. Vice President Harry Truman then succeeded him as president. Hindsight from the United States Congress after the end of the war led to a push to make term limits the official law of the land. Truman was the only exception to the 22nd Amendment, as it allowed the incumbent president at the time of his demise to run for a third term. Although Truman could run for a third term in 1952, he chose not to.
Some critics of the 22nd amendment argue that it negatively affects foreign policy. Dictators like Saddam Hussein who have no term limits can often wait for the US Presidency to change hands before taking actions they know would be harshly reacted by the current incumbent president. Another example of this effect was when US hostages held by Iran were released just as Ronald Reagan was sworn in in 1981, apparently in an attempt to snub President Carter who had tried to rescue them, and to woo the favor of President Reagan going forward.
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