Four Freedoms of FDR

We must take note when looking at any speech from any period of history of the political and international events surrounding it. When President Roosevelt made his famous speech in 1941 (Almost a year before he would deliver yet another speech to Congress regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor), America was still Isolationist. She was still helping the Allies by sending supplies and the like via the Lend/Lease program, but was not actively supporting any side by sending soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean to what was viewed as a "European War" and a "European Problem". This situation spawned FDR's speech on the Four Freedoms to try and rally the American populace to the Allies' Cause.

He talks in this speech about freedom of Speech, of Religion, from want, and from Fear. He is appealing to everyone's basic instincts and feelings. We all want to be able to worship whomever/whatever we wish, say whatever we wish, never need anything, and never be afraid. In his speech, FDR claims that the Axis powers will make sure we are afraid, that we cannot speak against them, that we cannot worship Xenu, and we shall all be skin and bones should they control the world.

Overall, I think the speech did it's job. It made it easier for people to accept the idea of going to war, even though they weren't ready to attack anyone just yet. The populace was in a nice, happy middle ground between wanting war and not wanting to help.