Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
The world order which we seek is the co-operation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. "Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union." 6 Jan. 1941. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, vol. 9, Macmillan, 1941, p. 672.
When he made this statement, the United States was the only nation that had the atomic bomb, but he and other leading nuclear scientists realized that it would not be long before the Russians would also have nuclear weapons, and other countries would so follow suit. He and some others saw a world government as the best way to cope with the nuclear proliferation problems. However, there was too much diversity of values and political ideology in the world to be accommodated in a single government, and the United Nations was the only thing that was practical and that was far from a government and had virtually no sovereignty. However, during the Cold War, Russia and the United States agreed on a Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and most nations of the world, agreed, so that for the issue of nuclear proliferation, the world had a type or world government—an international treaty. However, India and Pakistan did not adhere to it and developed nuclear weapons and North Korea was never a signatory. Other countries like Iran began to evade the treaty and since there was no real world government it was difficult to enforce the treaty throughout the world.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
