Student Question
What does Roosevelt say about US isolation in "The Four Freedoms"?
Quick answer:
In his famous speech on "The Four Freedoms," President Franklin D. Roosevelt says that attempts to isolate America from the rest of the world are selfish and dangerous. He argues that America has to break out of its isolationism, recognize the worldwide threat, step up armament production, prepare the military, and protect the freedoms on which the United States was founded.
On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address to Congress that became known as "The Four Freedoms." At the time, World War II had already begun in Europe and in the Far East. Hitler's German Army was overwhelming mainland Europe, but the United States was maintaining a strict policy of isolationism and neutrality. Roosevelt argued that America had to realize the danger, change course, and help to meet the worldwide threat.
Roosevelt begins his speech by recognizing the danger, stating that
at no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today.
He calls upon Americans to remember their children, and because of them "oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas." He cites past wars against foreign enemies that America undertook to secure peace and free commerce, and he emphasizes that in none of these...
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other past circumstances was America as threatened as it was at present. As at no other time "the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world."
The president makes the point that if the rest of the world fell, America could be easily overwhelmed. It could expect no security or liberty from a worldwide dictatorship. He speaks of rich people who are profiting from the war and preventing America from becoming involved:
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests.
In other words, these men would make money by keeping America isolated. Instead, he says,
The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily—almost exclusively—to meeting this foreign peril.
He states the need for a buildup in armament production and more progress in readying the Army and Navy. He emphasizes that the entire nation has to become involved, and he asks Congress for authority and funds to see these things through. Friendly nations at war should continue to receive war materials from the United States, and compensation will be received "within a reasonable time following the close of hostilities."
Roosevelt closes by stating that American involvement in the war would help secure the four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from poverty, and freedom from fear.
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