On December 20, 1940, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his sixteenth fireside chat. With Europe reeling from Nazi Germany’s successful conquest of France, the signing of the Tripartite Pact, and the recently concluded Battle of Britain, Roosevelt implored Americans to build “the great arsenal of democracy” that would aid the United Kingdom in its struggle against Germany.1¹ A little more than a year later, after the United States had entered the war, Roosevelt similarly affirmed in his State of the Union address that victory over the Axis “means victory for the institution of democracy.”2² Rather than a contest over resources, territory, or geopolitical stability, Roosevelt and other U.S. leaders insisted that World War II was an epic ideological battle between democratic countries—the “free world”—and totalitarian countries—the “slave world.”3³

中文翻译：

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外国En与美国民主

1940年12月20日，美国总统富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福发表了他的第16次炉边谈话。随着欧洲摆脱纳粹德国对法国的成功征服，三方条约的签署以及最近结束的英国之战，罗斯福恳请美国人建立“伟大的民主军火库”，这将有助于英国抗击德国。 1 ¹一年多以后，在美国参战之后，罗斯福在其国情咨文中同样申明，对轴心国的胜利“意味着对民主制度的胜利。” 2 ²而不是比赛争夺资源，领土或地缘政治稳定，罗斯福等美国领导人坚持认为，第二次世界大战是民主国家-之间的“自由世界” -和极权主义国家-史诗般的思想斗争“从世界。” 3 ³