June 2014

Vice President Henry Wallace gave this speech in 1942, a time when Americans were debating wartime strategy and America’s role in the post-World War II order. Wallace’s speech, also known as “The Price of Free World Victory,” reiterated support for Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” and criticized Henry Luce’s concept of the “American Century.” Wallace declared that the United States had an obligation to contribute to the war and to the post-war settlement. He described a liberal world system in which freedom, fairness, and opportunity would promote global peace. – M.B. Masur, St.

In January 1950, President Harry Truman requested a comprehensive review of U.S. national security policies for later consideration by the National Security Council. Responding to the president’s charge, the State Department Policy Planning Staff, led by Paul Nitze, completed National Security Memorandum 68 (NSC-68) in April 1950. Identifying the Soviet Union as the primary threat to the United States, NSC-68 depicted Soviet leaders as fanatical totalitarians bent on world domination. Concluding that the U.S.