The Great Arsenal of Democracy: Then and Now
The Great Arsenal of Democracy: Then and Now
Today, the idea of isolationism is laughable. Our iPhones are made in China. Our tea comes from India. Our shirt comes from Bangladesh. Our shoes come from Germany. Our socks come from Oregon (thanks, Grandma!).
If you take a second to check the tags on what you're wearing, you'll realize that you're wearing globalism. Our world is fast enough that it's usually cheaper to a mango from Brazil than it is to get an apple from a local farm.
But back in the day, when the world was smaller and slower, Americans loved their isolation. Even the distance from New York to London was crazy-far, and, partially because of that, lots of people in the early stages of World War II were hanging on tight to the idea that letting the Europeans fight their own battles wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
The U.S. was in the midst of economic recovery, and the character of Bugs Bunny appeared for the first time. We had a lot of our own stuff going on.
But FDR—who was a smart dude—was prepared for American involvement in the war. In fact, even as he spoke over the radio and talked about the U.S. role as "the great arsenal of democracy," he figured there'd soon come a time when he'd deliver a completely different address, one that mobilized the U.S. military to deploy overseas.
The mindset of the average American changed drastically from this speech in 1940 to the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The war wasn't going away—in fact, the Axis were gaining more ground, both in Europe and the Pacific. By the time an official declaration of war came on December 8th, 1941, the American people were ready to fight.
And with that declaration of war came the end of American isolationism as it had existed for more than one hundred years.
Ever since World War II ended in 1945, American military has been involved in plenty of international conflicts: the Korean War in the 1950s, the Vietnam War in the 1960s and the 1970s, Desert Storm in the '90s, and the Iraq War and the War on Terror in the 2000s and 2010s.
And those are just the ones in which we've deployed large numbers of American troops.
No matter your opinion on who was/is in charge, you can't deny that isolation doesn't really exist in American policy vocab these days—and it really hasn't since FDR gave this speech.