Editing Four Freedoms (section)

==Declarations==
{{listen
|title=State of the Union (Four Freedoms) (January 6, 1941)
|filename=FDR's 1941 State of the Union (Four Freedoms speech) Edit 1.ogg
|description =[[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s January 6, 1941 [[State of the Union address]] introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02)
|image=[[File:FDR in 1933.jpg|alt=Franklin Delano Roosevelt headshot|60px]]
}}

The Four Freedoms Speech was given on January 6, 1941. Roosevelt's hope was to provide a rationale for why the United States should abandon the isolationist policies that emerged from World War I.  In the address, Roosevelt critiqued Isolationism, saying: "No realistic American can expect from a dictator's peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion–or even good business. Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. 'Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'"<ref name="speech">{{cite web|url=https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/fdr-the-four-freedoms-speech-text/ |title=FDR, "The Four Freedoms," Speech Text &#124; |publisher=Voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu |date=January 6, 1941 |access-date=August 14, 2014}}</ref>

The speech coincided with the introduction of the Lend-Lease Act, which promoted Roosevelt's plan to become the "arsenal of democracy"<ref>The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt (New York: Random House and Harper and Brothers, 1940) 633–44.</ref>  and support the Allies (mainly the British) with much-needed supplies.<ref>, Kennedy, David M., Freedom From Fear: the American people in depression and war, 1929–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) 469.</ref> Furthermore, the speech established what would become the ideological basis for America's involvement in World War II,  all framed in terms of individual rights and liberties that are the hallmark of American politics.<ref name="Bodnar, John 2010"/>

The speech delivered by President Roosevelt incorporated the following text, known as the "Four Freedoms":<ref name="speech"/>

{{Blockquote|
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 world 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.
|Franklin D. Roosevelt, excerpted from the State of the Union Address to the Congress, January 6, 1941<ref>See [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-message-congress-the-state-the-union online copy from the University of California at Santa Barbara]</ref>
}}
[[File:Four Freedoms Flag or United Nations Honour Flag ca 1943-1948.svg|thumb|220px|The four freedoms flag or "[[United Nations Honor Flag]]" {{circa}} 1943–1948]]
Later in the same speech the president went on to specify six basic goals:<ref>Engel, p. 7.</ref>
* Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
* Jobs for those who can work.
* Security for those who need it.
* The ending of special privilege for the few.
* The preservation of civil liberties for all.
* The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.