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, 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."
http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/fdr-the-four-freedoms-speech-text/
Saturday, July 27, 2013
As expressed in this speech, what is Roosevelt's opinion of each concept these words represent?
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