President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points
The fourteen points of President Woodrow Wilson were a part of his speech outlining his program for peace in the world given in January of 1918. The first point forbade secret covenants; all the agreements were to be achieved openly and transparently. The second point included the free navigation of the world’s seas.
The next points outlines the reduction of weapon kept by the countries and the elimination of economic limitations between the countries, independence of Belgium and Poland, removal of the German troops from Russia, liberation of France, self determination of Balkan countries and Austro-Hungary, the agreement about the state borders and territories of Italy, the organization of Turkish government for the Turkish people, and the establishment of the League of Nations that would be responsible for the protection of freedom and independence of all the world’s states. The fourteen points were accepted by the leaders of Germany and its allies in November of 1918.
Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech (1941 address to Congress)
Roosevelt’s speech outlining the four freedoms he deemed the most important mentioned the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. The speech was given in 1941, less than a year before the United States joined the war with Japan. The President’s speech mainly contained the overview of the unstable situation in the world and the threat the other democratic states of the world had to face due to the starting World War.
Roosevelt also mentioned that the state security of the United States was likely to be endangered. The President listed the advantages of democracy and promoted various aspects of it. Roosevelt elaborated about the four freedoms and noted that the first two – the freedoms of speech and of religion are under the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Cuban Missile Crisis: Special National Intelligence Estimate
According to the information discovered by the special national intelligence department, during the Cuban missile crisis the Soviet Union had one main objective. They intended to demonstrate the shift of the armed power on the world’s arena and to show that the United States was unable to prevent the strengthening positions of the USSR. This objective was achieved though the support of the military buildup on the territory of Cuba and the protection of Castro’s regime.
The installation of the Soviet missiles in Cuba was deemed to provided the basis for bargaining between the US and USSR. The agreement for the missiles to be present in Cuba would strengthen the positions of Communists and the withdrawal of them would cause distrust between Castro and the USSR leaders. None of the countries wished the nuclear war to start, so they used their nuclear forces for psychological pressure to establish influence. The military intelligence did not believe that the USSR would, in fact, use their missiles or the missiles in Cuba to attack the US.