Franklin D. Roosevelt: Four Freedoms Message to Congress

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Roosevelt establishes his tone of urgency from the very beginning. He describes the current threat to American security as “unprecedented,” setting the stage for his call for a change in the United States' position in the European conflict.

In the following eight paragraphs, Roosevelt analyzes past conflicts faced by the United States, both national and international, and builds a case for why the threat posed by the Axis powers is indeed unprecedented. In the second paragraph, he notes that most Americans have forgotten the importance of north and south, compass points that meant so much during the Civil War. The “two wars with European nations” to which Roosevelt refers in paragraph 3 are the War of 1812 and the Spanish-American War; he indicates in paragraph 6 that these struggles were over trade disputes, not world domination. Similarly, conflicts in the West Indies (including those during George Washington's second term and the Napoleonic Wars), the Mediterranean (including battles against piracy during the presidency of John Adams), and the Pacific (particularly the occupation of the Philippines) were stimulated by economic concerns.

Although Europe had experienced a wave of revolutions during the mid-nineteenth century, they did not pose a threat to the Americas, as Roosevelt notes in paragraph 7. The “Maximilian interlude in Mexico,” to which he refers in paragraph 8, was an episode involving the Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian. Seeking an empire of his own apart from the Austro-Hungarian Empire headed by his brother, the emperor Francis Joseph, Maximilian had a brief and disastrous reign as emperor of Mexico from 1864 to 1867.

Roosevelt's tone changes in paragraph 9, as he turns to the aftermath of World War I. Here he links the threat in Europe directly to the United States: If democracy is undermined there, it might have an impact on us here. This is a crucial moment in the address; Roosevelt faced a Congress (and American public) hesitant to become involved in the European conflict. By showing that the “downfall of democratic nations” anywhere served as a potential threat to the United States, he makes a case that involvement would be in the nation's best interest. Many isolationists in America argued that since the nation was sheltered by the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it was immune from attack. Roosevelt directly addresses this position, elevating the war to a battle between democratic interests and their enemies. Tying the conflict to democracy also defused the concern of many Americans that the interests of Great Britain, a monarchy, were vastly different from those of the United States.

Paragraph 10 addresses the Treaty of Versailles (the “Peace of 1919”), which ended World War I and was the subject of much controversy. The Germans felt that the terms of the treaty were much too harsh and subjected their nation to undue economic and social hardships as well as loss of territory. Even before Hitler's dictatorship, there was growing concern regarding the reparations and other requirements of the Versailles Treaty. Some European leaders called for modifications to the treaty's terms as a means of appeasing the Germans and preventing another war. Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of Great Britain before Winston Churchill, repeatedly acquiesced to Hitler's violations of the Versailles Treaty in a vain attempt to fend off another European conflict. Roosevelt warns against “pacification” of the Germans, which he states began “even before Munich.” This is a reference to the Munich Conference, during which Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demand for a portion of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland. Hoping to avoid war, Chamberlain was firmly committed to a policy of appeasement (which had been going on long before the Munich conference, as Roosevelt notes) and was convinced that he had negotiated a lasting peace at Munich. When Hitler laid claim to all of the newly divided Czech territory, his duplicity was clear.

In paragraphs 11 and 12, Roosevelt describes the nature of the threat of the Axis powers, reinforcing the point that this threat is unprecedented. As he began in paragraph 9, he characterizes this conflict as a threat to democracy itself; he uses the phrases “democratic life” and “democratic way of life” in these two paragraphs. In paragraph 13, Roosevelt summarizes the introduction of his speech: The safety of America and democracy is intertwined with the conflict overseas.

In the next section of his speech, Roosevelt discusses the concerns of isolationists in America. Point by point, he addresses the objections raised by the public and senators to U.S. involvement in the growing conflict, while also responding to those who supported an immediate entry into the war. In answer to the latter, Roosevelt notes America's lack of military preparedness (paragraph 15) and, to the former, points out that peace in this conflict comes at a very dear price (paragraphs 16 and 17). He is particularly biting in his criticism of the pacifists, using a famous quotation attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” In paragraphs 19 and 20, Roosevelt again warns of the danger of appeasement and directly addresses the question of war profiteering, a subject that received much public scrutiny following Senator Gerald Nye’s congressional hearings into the munitions industry's practices during World War I. Finally, Roosevelt makes clear that America is not immune because of its geography. He notes that the use of espionage and surprise attacks are very real threats to both the United States and Latin America (paragraphs 21 through 25).

Having described the imminent danger to the nation, Roosevelt then outlines his planned response, presenting his Lend-Lease bill. He first calls for increased military production and associated spending, making it clear that these armaments are for defending America and supporting “those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor nations” (paragraph 45). Roosevelt spells out the terms of this aid. He clearly distinguishes between “the democracies” and “the dictators,” returning to the idea that Britain and the United States are joined by their mutual ideals.

The nation was still suffering from the Great Depression, and Roosevelt acknowledges the “social and economic problems” facing America. He makes clear reference to the New Deal programs of his first two terms, including Social Security, unemployment insurance, and government jobs programs, as fundamental elements of democracy (paragraphs 62 through 67). Roosevelt recognized that one of the protests against increased defense spending, especially during a period of economic turmoil, would be an increase in taxes.

The final paragraphs delineate the Four Freedoms for which this speech is best known. In these closing statements, Roosevelt paints his defense buildup and Lend-Lease plan as means to secure a world of freedom, making it clear that America's sacrifice is not just for one nation. The Four Freedoms selected by Roosevelt are important. The first two, freedom of speech and expression and freedom of worship, echo the First Amendment of the Constitution. The third, freedom from want, would resonate with a nation in the midst of the Great Depression, and reflects Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The final freedom, freedom from fear, brings the speech full circle as Roosevelt portrays a world devoid of unprecedented threats—but only if America takes action. Roosevelt punctuates each freedom with the phrase “everywhere in the world” to emphasize the universality of these ideals. These are not simply American goals, but “human freedoms.” The addition of the Four Freedoms to this speech elevates it from simply a request for congressional action (appropriations for military spending and approval of the Lend-Lease bill) to a case for American aid to Britain as a matter of moral imperative to humanity.

Additional commentary by Mark R. Shulman, Pace University School of Law

President Roosevelt pointedly opened his annual message to Congress of January 6, 1941, by noting that he was speaking at an unprecedented moment in history. For the first time in over a century, and, as he believed, to a greater extent than ever before, a foreign war threatened the fundamental security of the United States. The collapse of France in the summer of 1940 had evinced an expanding geopolitical crisis that could no longer be ignored. The Axis powers had conquered or otherwise come to dominate significant portions of Europe and Asia, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Low Countries, Greece, Norway, Yugoslavia, Korea, and much of China and Southeast Asia. By late 1940 America's entry into the war seemed inevitable to many, including possibly Roosevelt. By January 1941 the Axis war machine clearly endangered freedom everywhere. The oceans could no longer sustain Americans' long-standing sense of invulnerability.

In the face of these grim facts, Roosevelt had been reelected in November 1940 for an unprecedented third term, campaigning on a promise that “your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” Roosevelt may not have believed his own campaign promise, but tendering it appears to have been necessary for his reelection; in retrospect, his apparent deceit seems both obvious and excusable. Facing isolationist sentiment at home and a fast-spreading war that threatened to engulf the United States, he had no easy choices. Speaking for the only major Western European power holding out against the Axis, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had convinced Roosevelt of the need to support England in its hour of need. The prolonged Battle of Britain was taking a terrible toll, and Churchill warned America's president that without cash and supplies, the United Kingdom would also succumb.

In his annual message to Congress and the nation of January 1941, Roosevelt forthrightly informs the American people that they could not expect any generosity from the Axis dictators and that Americans' freedoms were in jeopardy. He also warns of saboteurs who would corrode the United States from within in order to lay the groundwork for an inevitable invasion. He thus argues that the vulnerability of the nation and its political system dictated increased defense measures and the assuming of a greater role in events outside America's borders. Accordingly, he calls for a more aggressive buildup of the nation's arms and armaments. He had already established ambitious production goals, and now he sought to meet and even exceed them. The United States would become the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt also calls for greater public and political resolve to defend the nation and its democratic cause, asking for bipartisan support for all measures intended to ensure peace. Alluding to the British failure to secure peace through the 1938 Munich agreement, Roosevelt adds that such a peace would not endure if it were “bought at the cost of other people's freedom.”

To avoid a greater calamity in Europe, as indicated in this address, Roosevelt offers to lend or lease war equipment and supplies to the British. To minimize the impression that he was taking the country to war through indirect means, Roosevelt frames the program in a soothing metaphor. In his typically elliptical fashion, Roosevelt likens the deal to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire. Suppressing the fire would end the threat of its spread, and then the neighbor would return the hose. During the winter of 1940–1941, Roosevelt's new appeal to the American people took shape in two tacks, addressing the material and the moral. Lending the British a proverbial fire hose through the Lend-Lease Act, Roosevelt claimed, would reduce the likelihood that the United States would have to join the war. Meanwhile, he articulated to the public America's shared destiny with Britain and her free allies.

At the close of his 1941 annual message, Roosevelt lays out a vision statement of a world in which the United States could find common cause with states such as Great Britain and also with individuals around the world regardless of nationality. Roosevelt's vision for a secure postwar world rested upon four freedoms. He declares, “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.” Clearly, Roosevelt adopted these first two freedoms from the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. For the third freedom, he drew on his own New Deal economic programs and signaled the need for international cooperation in order to achieve their objectives globally: “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.” Finally, and most famously, Roosevelt addresses what he viewed as the circumstances necessitating his new policy and how to avoid war in the future. “The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction in 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.”

With his four freedoms, Roosevelt clearly articulated a common vision for those opposing Axis aggression and seeking to establish a more secure future. For ten months Roosevelt pursued that vision by lending and leasing much-needed equipment and supplies to those directly engaged in the fighting. Then, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor finally resolved the issues of if, how, and when the United States would join the war. The isolationist movement quickly folded, and Americans generally rallied to Roosevelt's vision for a fair and secure postwar world. Over the next few years, the four freedoms were incorporated part and parcel into the foundational documents of modern international law. The 1945 Charter of the United Nations included them as basic principles; the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights incorporated them as inherent to human dignity and inalienable; and numerous international conventions have sought to promote them ever since.