Roosevelt’s four freedoms and Trump's actions

The speech’s influence did not end with the war. Its principles were echoed in the Atlantic Charter, the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Roh Jeong-tae

The author is a writer and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

On Jan. 6, 1941, in Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt stood at the rostrum of the U.S. Capitol to deliver the annual State of the Union address. In that speech, delivered as the world edged closer to total war, Roosevelt laid out what he called four essential freedoms that should underpin a secure future.

Original color transparency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt taken at 1944 Official Campaign Portrait session by Leon A. Perskie, Hyde Park, New York, August 22, 1944. Gift of Beatrice Perskie Foxman and Dr. Stanley B. Foxman. [WIKIPEDIA]

He framed them with unusual breadth. First was freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. Second was freedom of every person to worship God in their own way everywhere in the world. Third was freedom from want, defined not simply as charity but as economic arrangements that would ensure a healthy and peaceful life for all citizens everywhere. Fourth was freedom from fear, which he described as a global reduction of armaments so thorough that no nation would be in a position to commit physical aggression against a neighbor.

Roosevelt’s formulation went beyond the traditional understanding of liberty as a limit on state power. He argued that governments had an affirmative duty not only to refrain from violating freedom of expression and religion but also to protect people from poverty and fear. By extending freedom from a negative concept to a positive one, Roosevelt insisted that these goals should not be deferred to some distant future. They were, he said, objectives that had to be achieved in his own time by confronting violent dictatorships head on.

Less than a year later, on Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The United States declared war the following day. What Roosevelt later called a “sleeping giant” entered the conflict with the stated aim of securing those four freedoms on a global scale. The speech’s influence did not end with the war. Its principles were echoed in the Atlantic Charter, the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, turning a wartime address into a lasting reference point for the international order.

That legacy invites reflection today. With U.S. President Donald Trump once again in office and reports circulating of a sudden U.S. military operation that resulted in the detention of Nicolás Maduro, Roosevelt’s four freedoms take on renewed relevance.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.