Franklin D. Roosevelt countries. Roosevelt also normalized relations with the Soviet Union, which the United States had refused to recognize since the 1920s. Roosevelt hoped to renegotiate the Russian debt from World War I and open trade relations, but no progress was made on either issue, and "both nations were soon disillusioned by the accord." The rejection of the Treaty of Versailles during the Wilson administration marked the dominance of isolationism in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist sentiment. The isolationist movement was bolstered in the early
Franklin D. Roosevelt influence in Franklin's early years. She once declared, "My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all." James, who was 54 when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at the time. Frequent trips to Europe—he made his first excursion at the age of two and went with his parents every year from the ages of seven to fifteen—helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French. At age nine he attended public school in Germany. He learned to ride,