Four Freedoms Speech

68 years ago this coming Tuesday (Jan. 6), President Franklin Roosevelt gave his State of the Union speech to Congress assembled. That speech has become known as the Four Freedoms speech.

What were the world conditions at the time of this speech?

Much of Western Europe lay under the domination of Nazi Germany. North Africa was threatened; U-boats did their destructive work relative unscathed. Russia was still allied with Germany. Asia was in turmoil: China was continuing its struggle against Japanese invasion, with the resultant loss of thousands of lives, and the Japanese were eyeing the French, Dutch, and English colonial possessions – and the economic benefit they would bring the Japanese Empire. In 1940 Japan marched into Indochina, and the French Vichy had been forced to agree to the Japanese move. The United States had remained neutral, and the isolationist movement was still a strong and influential force in the nation. President Roosevelt had just been elected to an unprecedented third term in office and the nation was still in the lingering throes of the Great Depression. We had completed a bases for destroyers deal with the British, and had passed a Selective Service act, proposed Lend Lease, and had called ourselves an Arsenal for Democracy. American were pilots in the RAF, and the Flying Tigers were active in China.

What were the four freedoms? From the speech:

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. The fourth is 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-- anywhere in the world.

Norman Rockwell, famed illustrator and artist, transferred the concepts of the Four Freedoms into four posters in which each freedom was reflected in a scene from American life. When the government initially rejected Rockwell’s offer to do the Four Freedoms series of paintings, the Saturday Evening Post commissioned and circulated them. They were immensely popular, and were eventually the centerpiece for a war bond drive.

What has been the influence of this concept of four freedoms in the course of the past 68 years?

The Four Freedoms – the statements made at the end of the pivotal State of the Union speech on January 6, 1941, became a huge motivator to the American public. It was a force that, prior to our active entry into the war at the end of 1941, would move the nation in a path that directly and forcibly opposed fascism and totalitarianism. It gave Americans a higher vision and goal as we struggled with the last vestiges of the Great Depression and were on the verge of entering into a violent conflict that our nation would be involved in for almost four years – with all of the personal and economic sacrifice that went into a total war. It became the cornerstone of American foreign policy in a post-war world as we faced the rising specter of Communism, and its precepts were broadcast to a world that really didn’t understand them. It gave us a superior moral purpose in a world gone mad.

Essential question: Do we teach the four freedoms during the continuum of our courses – or do we believe in them today?