Carlton E. Spitzer
Even as war continued to rage in Europe and the Pacific in 1944, our 32nd president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, set forth an Economic Bill of Rights to guide post-war reconstruction at home and throughout a shattered world.
His State of the Union message focused on rebuilding cities and the peaceful interdependence of nations. We cannot be content, he said, if even one-tenth of mankind is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. He hoped for an enduring peace monitored by the United Nations.
FDR did not live to see the end of the war in Europe, although he knew it was near and had met with Britain’s Winston Churchill and Russia’s Joseph Stalin early in 1945 at Yalta to negotiate post-war arrangements, albeit not to his satisfaction. Use of the atomic bomb, which would end the war with Japan the following August, was authorized by his successor, Harry Truman, who had not known of its existence before he entered the Oval Office after FDR’s death at Warm Springs that April.
As assistant secretary of the navy in World War I, FDR admired Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations and was deeply disappointed the United States failed to support it. He saw development of the United Nations following World War II as a means of implementing his second Bill of Rights throughout the world.
Today America is winding down two wars fought concurrently for dubious justifications and constantly changing objectives. As America reduces its military spending, our leaders should review FDR’s message and concentrate on helping people who’ve been dominated by dictators the U.S. supported to maintain the flow of oil. Those people now risk their lives seeking freedom.
Although it’s doubtful that the present Congress, at war with itself, can unify behind a common set of principles, voters must insist that their representatives put nation before politics and principles before campaign rhetoric. That is the standard the electorate has a right to expect.
Elected 80 years ago in the midst of a devastating depression, FDR stabilized banking and gave hope to a desperate nation by telling citizens they had nothing to fear but fear itself. He had learned that lesson personally, having lost use of his legs to polio at age 39.
The world has changed, in great measure because of misguided military adventures. But it is not too late for today’s leaders to put nation first, seek enduring peace, cut unnecessary spending with no sacred cows, and look forward as FDR did, reaffirming principles that made our nation great and inspired the world.
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