Freedom from Fear - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US Pres. - The 4 Freedoms Speech, Jan. 6, 1941

Last edited Wed Jun 5, 2024, 10:46 PM - Edit history (1)

- Andre Dutra, 2024
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- FDR and The Four Freedoms Speech, State of the Union Address, January 6, 1941. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library and Presidential Museum.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected president for an unprecedented third term in 1940 because at the time the world faced unprecedented danger, instability, and uncertainty.

Much of Europe had fallen to the advancing German Army and Great Britain was barely holding its own. A great number of Americans remained committed to isolationism and the belief that the United States should continue to stay out of the war, but President Roosevelt understood Britain's need for American support and attempted to convince the American people of the gravity of the situation.

In his Annual Message to Congress (State of the Union Address) on January 6, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt presented his reasons for American involvement, making the case for continued aid to Great Britain and greater production of war industries at home. In helping Britain, President Roosevelt stated, the United States was fighting for the universal freedoms that all people possessed.

As America entered the war these "four freedoms" - the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear - symbolized America's war aims and gave hope in the following years to a war-wearied people because they knew they were fighting for freedom. Roosevelt’s preparation of the Four Freedoms Speech was typical of the process that he went through on major policy addresses.

The ideas enunciated in the Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms were the foundational principles that evolved into the Atlantic Charter declared by Winston Churchill and FDR in August 1941; the United Nations Declaration of January 1, 1942; President Roosevelt’s vision for an international organization that became the United Nations after his death; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948 through the work of Eleanor Roosevelt...
https://www.fdrlibrary.org/four-freedoms


- Four Freedoms Speech, Annual Message to Congress (State of the Union), Jan. 6, 1941. 2 min clip.