An American History

864 ★ CHAPTER 22 Fighting for the Four Freedoms: World War II

Even Rockwell’s popular paintings

suggested some of the ambiguities

within the idea of freedom. With the

exception of Freedom of Speech, which

depicts civic democracy in action, the

paintings emphasized private situa-

tions. The message seemed to be that

Americans were fighting to preserve

freedoms enjoyed individually or

within the family rather than in the

larger public world. This emphasis on

freedom as an element of private life

would become more and more promi-

nent in postwar America.

FIGHTING WORLD WAR II

Good Neighbors

During the 1930s, with Americans pre-

occupied by the economic crisis, inter-

national relations played only a minor

role in public affairs. From the outset

of his administration, nonetheless, FDR embarked on a number of departures

in foreign policy. In 1933, hoping to stimulate American trade, he exchanged

ambassadors with the Soviet Union, whose government his Republican prede-

cessors had stubbornly refused to recognize.

Roosevelt also formalized a policy initiated by Herbert Hoover by which the

United States repudiated the right to intervene militarily in the internal affairs

of Latin American countries. This Good Neighbor Policy, as it was called, had

mixed results. During the 1930s, the United States withdrew its troops from

Haiti and Nicaragua. FDR accepted Cuba’s repeal of the Platt Amendment (dis-

cussed in Chapter 17), which had authorized American military interventions

on that island. These steps offered a belated recognition of the sovereignty of

America’s neighbors. But while Roosevelt condemned “economic royalists”

(wealthy businessmen) at home, like previous presidents he felt comfort-

able dealing with undemocratic governments friendly to American business

interests abroad. The United States lent its support to dictators like Anastasio

Somoza in Nicaragua, Rafael Trujillo Molina in the Dominican Republic, and

The immensely popular Office of War Information
poster reproducing Norman Rockwell’s paintings
of the Four Freedoms, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s shorthand for American purposes in
World War II.