The Four
Freedoms
THE Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT Four Freedoms MONUMENT IN
OUD-VOSSEMEER,NEDERLAND
( Het Vier Vrijheden Monument )January 6, 1941 the U.S.A. president Franklin Delano
Roosevelt held a famous
speech to the world offering it
THE FOUR
FREEDOMS :
Freedom of speech
Freedom of religion
Freedom from
want
Freedom from fear
.
There are also FOUR FREEDOMS
AWARDS.
These awards are given by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
Institute in New York
to persons who have been working to preserve one or
more of the four freedoms anywhere
in the world.
In even-numbered years to
international figures in Middelburg, the
Netherlands, and in odd-numbered
years to Americans in Hyde Park, New York.
Since 1982, hundred years after
the birth of F.D. Roosevelt, the awards are given
in New York, U.S.A. or in
Middelburg, Nederland.
Middelburg is the capital of the province Zeeland to
which the birthplace of the
ancestors of the Roosevelt's, Oud-Vossemeer,
belongs.
Zeeland's
sign
1950: On 20 juni 1950 the widow of
the American president F.D. Roosevelt, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, visited our village.
On 19 juni 1950 Anna Eleanor visited the Royal family, Queen
Juliana, prins Bernard and children, with she had a close friendship and visits,
see also photo from 1948.
Visit to Royal Family Januaary 2, 1948.
june 22 she went to Brussel.
According to American research,
Roosevelt decent from near Oud-Vossemeer.
Anna Elenaor Roosevelt at
RoosevelthuisMore pics:
THE FOUR
FREEDOMS
delivered by Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
on January 6, 1941
President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
Mr.
Speaker, members of the 77th Congress :I address you, the members of this new
Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the union. I use the word
"unprecedented" because at no previous time has American security been as
seriously threatened from without as it is today.
Since the permanent
formation of our government under the Constitution in 1789, most of the periods
of crisis in our history have related to our domestic affairs. And, fortunately,
only one of these the four year war between the States ever threatened our
national unity. Today, thank God, 130,000,000 Americans in forty-eight States
have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.
It is true that
prior to 1914 the United States often has been disturbed by events in other
continents. We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a
number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the
Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the Principles of
peaceful commerce. But in no case has a serious threat been raised against our
national safety or our continued independence.
What I seek to convey is the
historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained
opposition clear, definite opposition to any attempt to lock us in behind an
ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past. Today,
thinking of our children and of their children, we oppose enforced isolation for
ourselves or for any other part of the Americas.
That determination of ours,
extending over all these years, was proved, for example, in the early days
during the quarter century of wars following the French Revolution. While the
Napoleonic struggle did threaten interests of the United States because of the
French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the
War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear
that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at
domination of the whole world.
And in like fashion, from 1815 to 1914,
ninety-nine years, no single war in Europe or in Asia constituted a real threat
against our future or against the future of any other American nation.
Except
in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish
itself in this hemisphere. And the strength of the British fleet in the Atlantic
has been a friendly strength; it is still a friendly strength. Even when the
World War broke out in 1941 it seemed to contain only small threat of danger to
our own American future. But as time went on, as we remember, the American
people began to visualize what the downfall of democratic nations might mean to
our own democracy.
We need not overemphasize imperfections in the peace of
Versailles. We need not harp on failure of the democracies to deal with problems
of world reconstruction. We should remember that the peace of 1919 was far less
unjust than the kind of pacification which began even before Munich, and which
is being carried on under the new order of tyranny that seeks to spread over
every continent today. The American people have unalterably set their faces
against that tyranny.
I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic
way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world
assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisionous propaganda by those
who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at
peace.
During sixteen long months this assault has blotted out the whole
pattern of democratic life in an appalling number of independent nations, great
and small. And the assailants are still on the march, threatening other nations,
great and small.
Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional
duty to "give to the Congress information of the state of the union," I find it
unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and
of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our
borders.
Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in
four continents. If that defense fails, all the population and all the resources
of Europe and Asia, Africa and Australia will be dominated by conquerors. And
let us remember that the total of those populations in those four continents,
the total of those populations and their resources greatly exceeds the sum total
of the population and the resources of the whole of the Western Hemisphere yes,
many times over.
In times like these it is immature and, incidentally, untrue
for anybody to brag that an unprepared America, single-handed and with one hand
tied behind its back, can hold off the whole world.
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.
As a nation we may
take pride in the fact that we are soft-hearted; but we cannot afford to be
soft-headed. We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a
tinkling cymbal preach the ism of appeasement. 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. I have recently pointed out how quickly the
tempo of modern warfare could bring into our very midst the physical attack
which we must eventually expect if the dictator nation win this war.
There is
much loose talk of our immunity from immediate and direct invasion from across
the seas. Obviously, as long as the British Navy retains its power, no such
danger exists. Even if there were no British Navy, it is not probable that any
enemy would be stupid enough to attack us by landing troops in the United States
from across thousands of miles of ocean, until it had acquired strategic bases
from which to operate.
But we learn much from the lessons of the past years in
Europe particularly the lesson of Norway, whose essential seaports were captured
by treachery and surprise built up over a series of years.
The first phase of
the invasion of this hemisphere would not be the landing of regular troops. The
necessary strategic points would be occupied by secret agents and by their dupes
and great numbers of them are already here and in Latin America.
As long as
the aggressor nations maintain the offensive they, not we, will choose the time
and the place and the method of their attack.
And that is why the future of
all the American Republics is today in serious danger. That is why this annual
message to the Congress is unique in our history. That is why every member of
the executive branch of the government and every member of the Congress face
great responsibility great accountability.
The need of the moment is that our
actions and our policy should be devoted primarily almost exclusively to meeting
this foreign peril. For all our domestic problems are now a part of the great
emergency. Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a
decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all of our fellow men within
our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent
respect for the rights and the dignity of all nations, large and small. And the
justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Our national policy is this
:
First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without
regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to
partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute people
everywhere who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from
our hemisphere. By this support we express our determination that the democratic
cause shall prevail, and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own
nation.
Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and
without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that
principle of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit
us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We
know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's
freedom.
In the recent national election there was no substantial difference
between the two great parties in respect to that national policy. No issue was
fought out on the line before the American electorate. And today it is
abundantly evident that American citizens everywhere are demanding and
supporting speedy and complete action in recognition of obvious
danger.Therefore, the immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our
armament production. Leaders of industry and labor have responded to our
summons. Goals of speed have been set. In some cases these goals are being
reached ahead of time. In some cases we are on schedule, in other cases there
are slight but not serious delays. And in some cases and, I am sorry to say,
very important cases we are all concerned by the slowness of the accomplishment
of our plans.
The Army and Navy, however, have made substantial progress
during the past year. Actual experience is improving and speeding up our methods
of production with every passing day. And today's best is not good enough for
tomorrow.
I am not satisfied with the progress thus far made. The men in
charge of the program represent the best in training, in ability and in
patriotism. They are not satisfied with the progress thus far made. None of us
will be satisfied until the job is done.
No matter whether the original goal
was set too high or too low, our objective is quicker and better results. To
give you two illustrations : We are behind schedule in turning out finished
airplanes. We are working day and night to solve the innumerable problems and to
catch up.
We are ahead of schedule in building warships, but we are working to
get even further ahead of that schedule. To change a whole nation from a basis
of peacetime production of implements of peace to a basis of wartime production
of implements of war is no small task. The greatest difficulty comes at the
beginning of the program, when new tools, new plant facilities, new assembly
lines, new shipways must first be constructed before the actual material begins
to flow steadily and speedily from them.
The Congress of course, must rightly
keep itself informed at all times of the progress of the program. However, there
is certain information, as the Congress itself will readily recognize, which, in
the interests of our own security and those of the nations that we are
supporting, must of needs be kept in confidence. New circumstances are
constantly begetting new needs for our safety. I shall ask this Congress for
greatly increased new appropriations and authorizations to carry on what we have
begun.
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. Our
most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them as well as for
ourselves. They do not need manpower, but they do need billions of dollars worth
of the weapons of defense.
The time is near when they will not be able to pay
for them all in ready cash. We cannot, and we will not, tell them that they must
surrender merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we
know they must have.
I do not recommend that we make them a loan of dollars
with which to pay for these weapons a loan to be repaid in dollars. I recommend
that we make it possible for those nations to continue to obtain war materials
in the United States, fitting their orders into our own program. And nearly all
of their material would, if the time ever came, be useful in our own
defense.
Taking counsel of expert military and naval authorities, considering
what is best for our own security, we are free to decide how much should be kept
here and how much should be sent abroad to our friends who, by their determined
and heroic resistance, are giving us time in which to make ready our own
defense.
For what we send abroad we shall be repaid, repaid within a
reasonable time following the close of hostilities, repaid in similar materials,
or at our option in other goods of many kinds which they can produce and which
we need. Let us say to the democracies : "We Americans are vitally concerned in
your defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources and
our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a free
world. We shall send you in ever increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns.
That is our purpose and our pledge."
In fulfillment of this purpose we will
not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach
of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare
to resist their aggression. Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator
should unilaterally proclaim it so to be.
And when the dictators if the
dictators are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on
our part.
They did not wait for Norway or Belgium or the Netherlands to commit
an act of war. Their only interest is in a new one-way international law which
lacks mutuality in its observance and therefore becomes an instrument of
oppression. The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend on
how effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt. No one can tell the
exact character of the emergency situations that we may be called upon to meet.
The nation's hands must not be tied when the nation's life is in danger.
Yes,
and we must prepare, all of us prepare, to make the sacrifices that the
emergency almost as serious as war itself demands. Whatever stands in the way of
speed and efficiency in defense, in defense preparations at any time, must give
way to the national need.
A free nation has the right to expect full
cooperation from all groups. A free nation has the right to look to the leaders
of business, of labor and of agriculture to take the lead in stimulating effort,
not among other groups but within their own groups.
The best way of dealing
with the few slackers or trouble-makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by
patriotic example, and if that fails, to use the sovereignty of government to
save government.
As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by
armaments alone. Those who man our defenses and those behind them who build our
defenses must have the stamina and the courage which come from unashakeable
belief in the manner of life which they are defending. The mighty action that we
are calling for cannot be based on a disregard of all the things worth fighting
for.
The nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things
which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in
the preservation of democratic life in America. Those things have toughened the
fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to
the institutions we make ready to protect. Certainly this is no time for any of
us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root
cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world. For
there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong
democracy.
The basic things expected by our people of their political and
economic systems are simple. They are :
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.These
are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil
and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding straight
of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they
fulfill these expectations. Many subjects connected with our social economy call
for immediate improvement. As examples :
We should bring more citizens
under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.We
should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.We should plan a
better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may
obtain it.I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the
willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the
sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will
recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from
taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to
get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance
with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our
legislation.
If the congress maintains these principles the voters, putting
patriotism ahead pocketbooks, will give you their applause.
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.
Read and Listen to the
Four freedoms !(english)
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.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception the moral
order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign
revolutions alike without fear. Since the beginning of our American history we
have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution
which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without
the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we
seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly,
civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands, heads and
hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the
guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our
support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our
strength is our unity of purpose.
To that high concept there can be no end
save victory.
A BIG MISTAKE in UN, not found in FOUR FREEDOMS , UN "security" Council has 5 permanent members with VETORIGHTS !
VETORIGHTS SHOULD BE REMOVED FOR ALL!
USA,Russia, China, UK and France don't bring the world to PEACE but to PIECES
All debates in UNSC are just hypocrism,
everyone knows either USA or Russia(invasion in Ukraine- migration weapon of Syrian refugees for Europe) or China will block any actions!
USA, Russia and China also don't recognize the International Crimininal Court.
The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes
So remove the vetorights of USA,Russia,China, UK, France, and wars, refugees, poverty will be gone,
all members UN should rule the world, not just those 5 warmongers for $profit or gains.
In fact since 1900, Sykes-Picot, and treaty of Sevres.
Paintings
Click the above picture to go to the Four Freedoms section of the Norman Rockwell Museum.
President Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech inspired a set of four 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.
The Office of War Information 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.
