Conservative at Birth: The Creation and Paradoxes of United States Human Rights Policy During World War II

Previous scholarship on United States human rights policymaking has omitted or vaguely summarized the State Department’s role during World War II. However, this scholarship ignores real policy roots that began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms address. As FDR and officials at Foggy Bottom articulated a sweeping postwar vision, bureaucrats drafted bills of rights that encapsulated the conservative assumptions that guided policymakers after the war. These civil servants rejected international enforcement, accepted only rights contained in the United States Constitution, and safeguarded domestic racial discrimination. These ironic assumptions soon caused friction with European allies, Latin American neighbors, and Cold War enemies.