Four Freedoms

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom from Fear."

The Four Freedoms are goals famously articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the State of the Union Address he delivered to the United States Congress on January 6, 1941. In an address also known as the Four Freedoms speech, FDR proposed four points as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: Freedom of speech and expression, Freedom of religion, Freedom from want, and Freedom from fear.

The ideals were later enshrined by American painter Normal Rockwell in a series of painting published in the Saturday Evening Post, accompanied by essays on the same themes. They also inspired Eleanor Roosevelt's campaign for human rights at the United and were later enshrined in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Roosevelt's emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of religion were readily accepted by the American public since they are specifically mentioned in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, inclusion of the latter two freedoms—freedom from fear and freedom from want—were controversial in that they went beyond the traditional American Constitutional values. Freedom from want appeared to endorse a right to economic security, while freedom from fear was interpreted by some as endorsing an internationalist view of foreign policy. In later decades it became one of the slogans of the disarmament movement.

The Declarations

Before the entry of the United States into World War II, Roosevelt faced strong isolationist sentiment. He slowly began rearming in 1938, and by 1940, the arms buildup was in high gear with bipartisan support, partly to re-equip the US Army and Navy and partly to support Allied forces against Nazi Germany. As Roosevelt took a firmer stance against the Axis Powers, isolationists like Charles Lindbergh criticized him as an alarmist and warmonger. On December 29, 1940, he delivered his "Arsenal of Democracy" fireside chat, in which he made the case for involvement directly to the American people. A week later he delivered his famous "Four Freedoms" speech in January 6, 1941, further laying out the case for an American defense of basic rights throughout the world.

The speech included the following section, in which the Four Freedom were spelled out:

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 universal 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.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

Roosevelt's speech was designed in part to stimulate the conscience of Americans to think of human rights in more global terms. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion, he argued, were not for Americans only, but must be applied "everywhere in the world." While less fundamental, his appeal to freedom from fear and want likewise attempted to extend the natural generosity and compassion of Americans to the global level.

United Nations

The concept of the Four Freedoms became part of the personal mission undertaken by First Lady of the United States regarding her inspiration behind the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly Resolution 217A (1948). Indeed, these Four Freedoms were explicitly incorporated into the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which reads, "Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed the highest aspiration of the common people,...."

The four freedoms and disarmament

FDR called for "a world-wide reduction of armaments" as a goal for "the future days, which we seek to make secure" but one that was "attainable in our own time and generation." More immediately, though, he called for a massive build-up of U.S. arms production: "Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being' directly assailed in every part of the world… The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily—almost exclusively—to meeting this foreign peril. … [T]he immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our armament production. … I also ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be turned over to those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor nations. … Let us say to the democracies: '…We shall send you, in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. …'" - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings

President Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech inspired a set of four Four Freedoms paintings by Norman Rockwell. The four paintings were published in The Saturday Evening Post on February 20, February 27, March 6 and March 13 in 1943. The paintings were accompanied in the magazine by matching essays on the Four Freedoms. (See also, Freedom from Fear (painting)).

The United States Department of the Treasury toured Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings around the country after their publication in 1943. The Four Freedoms Tour raised over $130,000,000 in war bond sales.

Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings were also reproduced as postage stamps by the United States Post Office.

Four Freedoms Monument

FDR commissioned sculptor Walter Russell to design a monument to be dedicated to the first hero of the war. The Four Freedoms Monument was created in 1941, and was dedicated at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1943.

Awards

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Institute [1] honors outstanding individuals who have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to these ideals. The Four Freedoms Award medals are awarded at ceremonies at Hyde Park, New York and Middelburg, Netherlands during alternate years. Among the laureates have been:

Harry S. Truman
John F. Kennedy
Jimmy Carter
Averell Harriman
Coretta Scott King
Elie Wiesel
Tip O'Neill
William Brennan
Mike Mansfield
H.R.H. Princess Juliana of the Netherlands
Václav Havel
Mikhail Gorbachev
The Dalai Lama
H.M. Juan Carlos of Spain
Shimon Peres
Bill Clinton

Use in popular culture

In the game series Splinter Cell there are numerous references to the Four Freedoms, with the commanding officer of protagonist Sam Fisher, stating at one point, "this is four freedoms territory," indicating that the situation (in the game plot) has gotten so grave that one or more of the Four Freedoms are threatened. In the opening sequence of the first game, the Four Freedoms are displayed in text version as a splash screen at the opening of the game, with a fifth freedom added: The freedom to protect the other four—by any means necessary. It is this "fifth freedom" that the game's protagonist operates under.
Marvel Comics superhero team the Fantastic Four is based in the Four Freedoms Plaza building.

External links

Full text and audio of the Four Freedoms speech. An excerpt of the Four Freedoms section is also available.
Full text of the Four Freedoms speech.

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