On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: FDR's Four Freedoms

    On the Adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: FDR's Four Freedoms

      When FDR gave his State of the Union address on January 6th, 1941, everyone expected him to stand behind isolationist policies to keep the country out of World War II.

      But he actually did the opposite.

      FDR believed U.S. involvement in the war was inevitable, and he used this speech to try and prepare the American people. He said the United States had a responsibility as the largest and most powerful democracy in the world to protect other democratic nations when they're threatened by tyranny. He outlined the Lend-Lease Act, which would help the Allies currently fighting in Europe while stockpiling weapons for America's defense. It would keep the United States out of active fighting and boost manufacturing.

      But the speech gets its name from its second half, when FDR proposed four fundamental freedoms all people deserve to have...and freedoms the United States has an obligation to defend: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

      All four can be found to some degree in the U.S. Constitution, and they popped up again in 1948, when the U.N. approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.