When FDR gave his State of the Union address in 1941, American allies were busy fighting Hitler and the spread of Nazism in Europe. The United States didn't have troops on the ground yet—and they wouldn't until after the attacks on Pearl Harbor 10 months after this speech—but FDR made it clear that the United States wasn't going to remain isolated from the war for long.

The speech is called "The Four Freedoms" because it focused on the basic rights all people everywhere deserve to have, simply because they're human beings. The Constitution includes freedom of speech and freedom of worship, but FDR believed people also deserved to live free of want and free of fear—and that last one is something Elie Wiesel believed, as well.

Of course, FDR knew that the United States would eventually have to be involved in World War II, so this speech was a gentle reminder that since Americans enjoyed all four of these freedoms, they had a responsibility to fight for others who didn't—and that message is pretty similar to what Wiesel offers in "The Perils of Indifference."