On January 20, 1949, Harry S. Truman delivered his Inaugural Address, having been elected president in a close race in 1948. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office on April 12, 1945, in the final days of World War II, Vice President Truman assumed the presidency, facing challenges both foreign and domestic in the ensuing three years. In his Inaugural Address, he summarized the foreign policy efforts that would be the focus of his administration in his second term in office.