What is Roosevelt's opinion of each concept in "The Four Freedoms" speech?
Roosevelt articulated the "Four Freedoms" in a speech of January 1941, almost a full year before the United States entered World War II. At that time, Nazi Germany had occupied much of Europe, with Great Britain remaining as the last holdout against German military power. Roosevelt's speech consisted of a summation of this bleak scenario, as well as a call for increased US involvement (short of military action) to support Great Britain against the Nazis. He also argued for increased military preparedness and called for more funds to build up American armaments. This view was not held by many Americans, who wished to stay out of events overseas. Against this backdrop, Roosevelt listed "four freedoms" that the United States and other democracies should uphold:
- Freedom of speech and expression
- Freedom of every person to worship God in his own way
- The third is freedom from want––which, translated into world terms,...
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- means economic understandings that will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants
- Freedom from fear––which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor
Roosevelt ended each of these declarations with the phrase "anywhere in the world," indicating that he believed the United States should play a role not simply in protecting its own freedoms, but in promoting freedom around the world for all peoples. He said that a world in which these freedoms were upheld was attainable, and, here is the most important point, juxtaposed this vision with the "new order" sought, and to some extent established, by dictators in Germany, Italy, Japan, and elsewhere. So each of these concepts, held to be fundamental to the American character, was explained as "the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."
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What are the central ideas in Roosevelt's "The Four Freedoms" speech?
Roosevelt delivered this State of the Union address to an American populace which sat looking at yet another world war. In this speech, Roosevelt seeks to sway the public sentiment into supporting the cause of the war in an effort to uphold American ideals all over the globe. Near the end of the speech, he makes a case for the signs of a strong democracy. These include equality of opportunity, jobs, security, the ending of special privileges for the few, and preservation of civil liberties for all.
Then Roosevelt moves onto the essential Four Freedoms, which he argues everyone should be guaranteed to live under:
- Freedom of speech everywhere in the world.
- Freedom to worship God as one sees fit everywhere in the world.
- Freedom from want everywhere in the world.
- Freedom from fear anywhere in the world.
The last two freedoms aren't represented in the American Constitution, so Roosevelt is breaking new ground in outlining how Americans can shape the world in ways that are meaningful, especially in a time when Hitler was crushing sections of Europe and Japan was aggressively seeking to expand its empire.
Roosevelt concludes by pledging American support to any people in the world who struggle to gain or keep these four essential freedoms. He asserts that America can face threats of world domination and foreign revolutions without fear, always reminding listeners of the strength of the country in order to rally them to take action wherever and whenever it is needed.