President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Speech

Convincing an audience of 133.4 million is a daunting task, especially when they must be convinced to join a war less than thirty years after World War I. On January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the State of the Union Address that began his third term as president. This speech, broadcast across the United States on the radio, sparked the idea to join World War II even before Pearl Harbor was attacked. In this speech, he fully supports the English against the attack of the dictators trying to extinguish democracy across the world. He proposes the four freedoms that America is invested in protecting around the world: freedom of speech and expression, freedom to worship God in any way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In his speech, “The Four Freedoms,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt inspires nationalism and creates fear in his audience to convince them to join the war ravaging through Europe through many forms of metaphor and repetition.

The foreign policies that President Roosevelt employed were ultra aggressive. The foreign policies were heavily enforced using his newly built naval force, the arm of offensive power, as a way to conquer the world, an idea brought to Roosevelt’s attention due to Alfred T. Mahan’s The Interest of America in Sea Power.

On June 6, 1941, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made a speech that has since been known as “The Four Freedoms Speech.” In this speech, he outlines four freedoms he hopes every person in the world will obtain in the future. He identifies the four freedoms as the following: “...Freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world... freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world… 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… 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.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in November 1940 in the middle of the Great Depression. The stock market was in chaos, the world around us was in turmoil: Adolph Hitler was controlling Germany, France falling into the powers of Germany, Axis power almost had complete control of Europe. Many strongly opposed about not going to war but Roosevelt was trying to encourage the joining of the United States into World War 2. His speech “Four Freedoms” was giving 2 years after World War 2 had started, his significance in this announcement was

In “The Four Freedoms” speech President Roosevelt was speaking to the American people, the ones who had fear of the war that was being fought across the ocean. The

All of these freedoms emphasizes everyone's human rights. Giving the people what they want without threatening the country’s safety and status. Yet he goes on the mention that, “We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests” (Roosevelt 21). The purpose and meaning of freedom in this speech was that it provides people the opportunity given to exercise one's rights, powers, and

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the GI Bill specifically covers a trade school education, which is referred to as vocational and technical training programs. Below explores the details and benefits of the Post-9/11 Bill for students who want vocational training.

Theodore Roosevelt was renowned for his foreign policy that stated: speak softly and carry a big stick. This meant that Roosevelt handled foreign affairs with a tranquil state of mind, but also threatened with the military if things did not go as planned. Roosevelt utilized this ideology to navigate America in the right direction. The Great White Fleet abided by this policy, specifically. From 1907 to 1909, the fleet sailed the seas and made history. Not only did this publicity stunt grant America the respect Roosevelt had hoped for, but it also altered world affairs significantly.

As World War II was winding down, it became evident, that the approximately 16 million soldiers returning home from war would require some type of benefits package to avoid a possible post-war depression on the home front. While this may not have been an immediate concern of the returning soldiers, congress took it upon themselves to create the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, what many refer to as the GI Bill of Rights. On the 22nd of June 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law, which included 10 significant parts. The American Legion (2013) displays them as followed:

The first legislation in 1862 provided benefits to people who incurred disabilities due to military duty. If you were married to a now deceased soldier or if you were an orphan you received pensions. The pensions that the widows and orphans received would be equal to the amount that the soldier would have received if the soldier was disabled. By 1910 civil war veterans were grateful for a program of disability.

In Franklin Roosevelt’s message to the Congress, he brought up many ideas to fix the issues going on in the world. He founded the four human freedoms. The first is “of speech and expression for everywhere in the world. Second is freedom of every person to worship god in his own way. Next is Freedom from want. It will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for

The U.S Department Veteran’s Affairs (VA) provides a wide range of benefits for our service members, veterans and their families. Some of these benefits include but are not limited to include compensation, disability, education, and home loans. Throughout this paper I will discuss these benefits and the eligibility required to receive them. Eligibility for most VA benefits is based on type of discharge received through the military which is normally all discharges under other than dishonorable conditions.

In his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention on June 27, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt mentioned many challenges and concerns facing the United States during that time period. In his speech the President used short-hand phrases, brief references, and pejorative naming to make his larger, political and ideological points. FDR used terms like ‘economic royalists’, along with phrases like ‘new despotism wrapped in the robes of legal sanctions’, to identify the large corporations, investors and employers, who according to him are trying to influence policies and control the government for their own personal benefits. The President also uses phrases like ‘Necessitous men are not free men’, to reiterate his concerns and to point out how the working people of America are being deprived from their rights by these very same privileged employers. FDR compares 1936 to 1776, referring to the American Revolution and its significance in putting the power back in the hands of the average Americans, and how it is necessary to check the power of the corporations in order to protect the interests of the American people and restore the power back in the hands of the people.

The GI Bill also provides assistance with career advancement. Entrepreneurship training helps veterans start their own businesses, flight training allows veterans to become airline pilots, and funding for license and certification testing helps servicemen and women become certified mechanics, therapists, web developers, and attorneys (“Education Benefits”, 2017).