FDR and U.N.

Fifty nations that had declared war on Germany and Japan were invited to San Francisco for meetings that started on April 25, 1945; on June 26, the United Nations Charter was signed. Johnson placed Franklin Roosevelt at the center of the image, although he died two weeks before the conference began. Johnson understood that the groundwork for an international organization to maintain peace around the world represented years of work on Roosevelt's part. It was on the agenda for his meetings in Cairo with Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek in 1943 (seated at the lower left), and again for the Tehran Conference with Churchill and Joseph Stalin, which immediately followed (the group at the lower right). Roosevelt took it up again when he met with Stalin and Churchill in Yalta in February 1945. With this painting Johnson ensured Roosevelt's legacy. At center right, a vignette shows Roosevelt shaking hands with Ralph Bunche, a diplomat and member of the U.S. delegation to the UN who played a major role in organizing the U.N. and in subsequent peacekeeping operations around the globe.