Franklin D. Roosevelt's narrative of national insecurity

ABSTRACT

Before the USA entered World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed a new narrative about America's role in the world. His practical goal was to gain public support for US aid to Britain. Unintentionally, he developed what turned out to be a new foundation for US foreign policy both during and far beyond the war. FDR's narrative depicted the USA as the vital defender of freedom and civilization throughout the world. He called on Americans to be on their guard against an endless series of unpredictable threats that might emerge anywhere. Thus he shifted the fundamental understanding of America's role from innovating and improving the world to protecting the structures that already existed. The new name for this role was ‘national security'. But it implied that the nation would in fact always be threatened and thus insecure. It created a myth of national insecurity that has served as the legitimating narrative for US policy during the cold war and the ‘war on terror'. This article analyzes FDR's rhetoric in 1940, the crucial year in which the new narrative took shape.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural identity
• identity construction
• language use

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has published three books on the foreign policy discourse of Dwight D. Eisenhower and is currently working on a book on Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also blogs at MythicAmerica.us and is author of the online ‘MythicAmerica: Essays'.