Free World

Short description: Propaganda term used to refer to the Western Bloc

For other uses, see Free world (disambiguation).

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Template:Anti-communism Template:Anti-fascism sidebar The "Free World" is a propaganda term,[1][2] primarily used during the Second World War[3] and Cold War, to refer to the Allies, Western Bloc and aligned countries.

During the Second World War, the term was primarily used against fascist states.[3] During the Cold War,[3] the term referred more broadly to all liberal democracies collectively,[4] as opposed to communist states.[5] It has traditionally primarily been used to refer to the countries allied and aligned with the United States, the European Union, and NATO. The term "leader of the free world" has been used to imply a symbolic and moral leadership, and was mostly used during the Cold War in reference to the president of the United States.

## Contents

* 1 History of the concept
* 1.1 Origins
* 1.2 21st century usage
* 2 Leadership of the Free World
* 2.1 United States
* 2.2 European Union
* 2.3 Germany
* 3 See also
* 4 References

## History of the concept

### Origins

The term "Free World" emerged in the political discourse of the United States in May 1940, following Germany's attack on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France during World War II.[6] It denoted all democracies that resisted authoritarian and world revolutionary states such as Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Soviet Union.[6] In June 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt explicitly used the term when urging Congress to approve military aid.[6] However, following the United States' entry alongside the Soviet Union in the war, Roosevelt used the term primarily in reference to the United Nations in opposition against Germany, Italy, and Japan.[6]

In the years that followed the war, particularly during the Cold War, the "Free World" came to encompass a bloc of democracies, such as the United States and many Western European nations, along with their anti-communist but authoritarian allies.[6] In 1950, U.S. Representative Daniel J. Flood commented "[The staff of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Edward W. Barrett] used the phrase 'free world' all the time—the free world, the free world, the free world. That impressed me very much vis-à-vis the Communist world, for instance. It is a tremendously good propaganda term. Is it being plugged enough?"[7]

During the Cold War, many neutral countries—either those in what is considered the Third World, or those having no formal alliance with either the United States or the Soviet Union—viewed the claim of "Free World" leadership by the United States as grandiose and illegitimate.[8]

### 21st century usage

While "Free World" had its origins in the Cold War, the phrase is still used after the end of the Cold War and during the Global War on Terrorism.[9] Samuel P. Huntington said the term has been replaced by the concept of the international community, which, he argued, "has become the euphemistic collective noun (replacing "the Free World") to give global legitimacy to actions reflecting the interests of the United States and other Western powers."[10]

## Leadership of the Free World

### United States

George H. W. Bush, the president of the United States during the Fall of Communism

The "Leader of the Free World" was a colloquialism, first used during the Cold War, to describe either the United States or, more commonly, the president of the United States. The term when used in this context suggested that the United States was the principal democratic superpower, and the U.S. president was by extension the leader of the world's democratic states, i.e. the "Free World".

But remember, we have differences with our allies all over the world. They are family differences, and sometimes they are acute, but, by and large, the reason we call it "free world" is because each nation in it wants to remain independent under its own government and not under some dictatorial form of government.

—Dwight D. Eisenhower (to the Associated Press, 1 October), The Los Angeles Times, 2 October 1958

The phrase has its origin in the 1940s during the Second World War, especially through the anti-fascist Free World magazine and the American propaganda film series Why We Fight. At this time, the term was criticized for including the Soviet Union (USSR), which critics saw as a totalitarian dictatorship. However, the term became more widely used against the USSR and its allies during the 1950s in the wake of Truman Doctrine, when the United States depicted a foreign policy based on a struggle between "a democratic alliance and a communist realm set on world domination", according to the American magazine The Atlantic.[11] The term here was criticized again for including right-wing dictatorships such as Francoist Spain, and Nikita Khrushchev said in the 21st Congress of the Soviet Communist Party that "the so-called free world constitutes the kingdom of the dollar".[11][12]

Although in decline after the mid-1970s,[11] the term was heavily referenced in US foreign policy up until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. After the presidency of George H. W. Bush the term has largely fallen out of use, in part for its usage in rhetoric critical of U.S. foreign policy.[13] In the late 2010s and into the 2020s, the term was still being used to describe the United States, its president, and as part of rhetoric critical of the president and U.S. policies.[14][15][16][17]

### European Union

On 6 May 2010, upon an address to the plenary chamber of the European Parliament, the then US Vice President Joe Biden, stated that Brussels had a "legitimate claim" to the title of "capital of the free world", normally a title reserved for Washington. He added that Brussels is a "great city which boasts 1,000 years of history and serves as capital of Belgium, the home of many of the institutions of the European Union and the headquarters of the NATO alliance."[18][19]

### Germany

Angela Merkel served as the Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.

When Time declared the German Chancellor Angela Merkel Time Person of the Year for 2015, they referred to her as "Europe's most powerful leader", and the cover bore the title "Chancellor of the Free World".[20] Following the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency in November 2016, The New York Times called Merkel "the Liberal West's Last Defender",[21] and a number of commentators called her "the next leader of the free world".[22][23] Merkel herself rejected the description.[24] An article by James Rubin in Politico about a White House meeting between Merkel and Trump was ironically[25] titled "The Leader of the Free World Meets Donald Trump".[26]

German commentators agreed with Merkel's assessment,[25] and Friedrich Merz, a CDU politician, said that a German chancellor could never be "leader of the free world".[27] In April 2017, columnist James Kirchick stressed the importance of the German elections (on which "the future of the free world" depended) since America had "abdicated its traditional role as leader of the free world by electing Trump, the United Kingdom was turning inward after the referendum decision to leave the European Union, and France was also traditionally unilateralist and now had an inexperienced president"; he called Merkel "something less than leader of the free world ... but something greater than the leader of just another random country".[28] References to America's abdication of its role as leader of the free world continued or increased after Donald Trump questioned the unconditional defence of NATO partners and the Paris climate accord.[29][30]

Jagoda Marinić, writing for The New York Times, noted that "Barack Obama all but literally passed on the mantle of 'leader of the free world' to Ms. Merkel (and not Mr. Trump), and most Germans feel empowered by that new responsibility" and that Germany "is coming to understand its role in standing up for liberal democracy in a world turning more and more authoritarian."[31]

Other commentators—in the United States and Europe—rejected the appellation "Leader of the Free World":[32][33] some argued that there is no single leader of the 'free world';[34][35] others queried whether Merkel remained the "leader of the free world" and the champion of liberal values.[36] Questioned about Merkel's standing following her performance in the German elections in September 2017, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opined that Merkel was "the most important leader in the free world".[37] However, after Merkel's party suffered losses in the 2017 election and there were delays in forming a government, the claim that Merkel is the true leader of the free world was referred to as a "joke",[38] described as a media phenomenon,[39] and otherwise called into question.[40][41][42]

When Merkel retired as chancellor, Hillary Clinton wrote that "she led Europe through difficult times with steadiness and bravery, and for four long years, she was the leader of the free world."[43][44]

## See also

* Annuit cœptis
* "Axis of evil"
* CRINK
* Berlin Wall speech
* Carthago delenda est
* Death to America
* Death to Arabs
* Death to Israel
* E pluribus unum
* Evil Empire speech
* Freedom in the World
* Free World Military Assistance Forces
* "Global arrogance"
* Gott strafe England
* "Great Satan"
* "I Want YOU for U. S. Army"
* In God We Trust
* Make America Great Again
* Novus ordo seclorum
* "Outposts of tyranny"

## References

1. ↑ Haight, David J. (April 2008). "Propaganda, Information And Psychological Warfare: Cold War And Hot—A List of Holdings: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library". Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. p. 3. http://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/subject-guides/pdf/propaganda-psychological-warfare.pdf. "Wide use of labels such as 'Free World,' is, itself, a form of propaganda intended to influence particular audiences."
2. ↑ Taylor, Philip M. (2011). "Ethics and International Propaganda". in Fortner, Robert S.; Fackler, P. Mark. The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 912–932. ISBN 9781405188128. "A hot war broke out in Korea between 1950 and 1953 and the 1956 Suez Crisis threatened momentarily the Anglo-American alliance but as the bipolar world stuttered through these various crises, it was the ideological framework which set the tone for the international propaganda battle, essentially an extension of the wartime “free world vs. slave world” format."
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lüthi, Lorenz M. (2020). "The United States and the Free World". Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 90. ISBN 9781108418331. "The term Free World emerged in American political discourse in May 1940 in the wake of Germany’s attack on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. It denoted all those democracies that resisted the aggression of authoritar- ian and “world revolutionary” states, such as Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Germany, its Italian fascist brother, its militarist ally Japan, and its most recent collaborator – Iosif V. Stalin’s Soviet Union. In January 1941, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt explicitly called on Congress to grant military aid to the “free world.” But in the wake of the American entry into the war on the side of the Soviet Union eleven months later, Roosevelt used the term primarily to mean the “United Nations” which struggled against Germany, Italy, and Japan. In US public dis- course, it more generally referred to the post-war period of peace. By June 1945, however, Western newspapers again depicted the Free World as a group of liberal democracies, which, this time, were primarily in conflict with Stalin’s USSR."
4. ↑ "THE FREE WORLD | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary". https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/free-world. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
5. ↑ "Free World". Merriam-Webster, Inc.. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free world.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Lüthi, Lorenz M. (2020). "The United States and the Free World". Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–112. ISBN 9781108418331.
7. ↑ United States Department of State (1950). The Supplemental Appropriation Bill for 1951: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Eighty-First Congress, Second Session, on the Supplemental Appropriation Bill for 1951. United States Government Printing Office. p. 68.
8. ↑ Wills, Garry (March–April 1999). "Bully of the Free World". Foreign Affairs 78 (2): 50–59. doi:10.2307/20049208.
9. ↑ "Left Alone by Its Owner, Reddit Soars". The New York Times. 2012-09-02. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/reddit-thrives-after-advance-publications-let-it-sink-or-swim.html. "If the leader of the free world stops by to answer questions from your users, you're probably doing O.K."
10. ↑ Huntington, Samuel P. "The Clash of Civilizations," 72 Foreign Aff. 22 (1992–1993)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Tierney, Dominic (24 January 2017). "What Does It Mean That Trump Is 'Leader of the Free World'?". The Atlantic.
12. ↑ William Safire. Safire's Political Dictionary. Oxford University Press; 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-534334-2. p. 265.
13. ↑ John Fousek (2000). To Lead the Free World. UNC Press Books. p. 130. ISBN 0-8078-2525-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=qGGGt-ui9sgC&pg=PA130.
14. ↑ Flanagan, Ryan (2021-01-19). "Does 'leader of the free world' still accurately describe the U.S. president?" (in en). https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/does-leader-of-the-free-world-still-accurately-describe-the-us-president/.
15. ↑ Gotev, Georgi (2022-02-14). "The Brief – The leader of the free world" (in en-GB). https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/opinion/the-brief-the-leader-of-the-free-world/.
16. ↑ Tierney, Dominic (2017-01-24). "What Does It Mean That Trump Is 'Leader of the Free World'?" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-free-world-leader/514232/.
17. ↑ Kirchick, James (2025-03-21). "Opinion | The 'Free World' Is Gone and There's No Turning Back" (in en). https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/21/the-free-world-is-gone-and-theres-no-turning-back-00240256.
18. ↑ "Biden sweet-talks MEPs on anti-terrorism deal" (in en). https://euobserver.com/justice/30025.
19. ↑ "2010 News from Washington" (in en). https://sarajevo.usembassy.gov/washdc_20100506.html.
20. ↑ Gibbs, Nancy (9 December 2015). "Why Angela Merkel is TIME's Person of the Year". https://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2015-angela-merkel-choice/.
21. ↑ Smale, Alison; Erlanger, Steven (12 November 2016). "As Obama Exits World Stage, Angela Merkel May Be the Liberal West's Last Defender". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/world/europe/germany-merkel-trump-election.html.
22. ↑ "How Angela Merkel, a conservative, became the 'leader of the free world". The Washington Post. 21 November 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/21/how-angela-merkel-a-conservative-became-the-leader-of-the-liberal-free-world/. "Now, she is being hailed as the 'leader of the free world' on social media and by some commentators as the Obama era nears its end, Britain is beset by upheavals over plans to leave the European Union and France faces its own break-the-mold populist surge."
23. ↑ Richter, Konstantin (17 November 2016). "Angela Merkel's new job: global savior". Politico. http://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-angela-merkel-the-last-leader-of-the-free-world/. "The fear of a xenophobic populist in the White House has liberals everywhere looking to Berlin for moral guidance. They tout Angela Merkel as the new torchbearer for human rights. They call her the next leader of the free world."
24. ↑ Shuster, Simon (12 December 2016). "Why Angela Merkel Isn't Ready to Be the 'Leader of the Free World'". Time. https://time.com/4598467/angela-merkel-donald-trump-liberal-democracy/. Retrieved 29 November 2017. "Many commentators even began referring to Merkel as the new leader of the free world, a title that she dismissed as 'grotesque' and 'absurd'.".
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Naß, Matthias (22 March 2017). "Nein, die Führerin der freien Welt ist Merkel nicht". Die Zeit. http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-03/angela-merkel-besuch-donald-trump-usa-europaeische-union. "Als 'absurd und grotesk' hat sie den Gedanken zurückgewiesen, die Führung des Westens könne vom amerikanischen Präsidenten auf den deutschen Regierungschef übergehen. Eigentlich eine pure Selbstverständlichkeit, aber vielleicht wären andere für die Schmeichelei empfänglich gewesen. ['Absurd and grotesque' is how she rejected the idea that leadership of the West could be transferred from the American president to the German head of government. Which goes without saying, really, but others might have been more receptive to such flattery.]"
26. ↑ Rubin, James P.. "The Leader of the Free World Meets Donald Trump". Politico. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/the-leader-of-the-free-world-meets-donald-trump-214924/.
27. ↑ Krauel, Torsten (12 June 2017). "Ein Bundeskanzler kann nie 'Führer der freien Welt' sein". Die Welt (WeltN24). https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article165426400/Ein-Bundeskanzler-kann-nie-Fuehrer-der-freien-Welt-sein.html. "'Ein deutscher Bundeskanzlerkann nie "der Führer der freien Welt" sein' ..."
28. ↑ Kirchick, James (6 April 2017). "Op-Ed: Germans need to recognize that the future of the free world depends on their election". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kirchick-merkel-20170406-story.html.
29. ↑ "Matthew Fisher: Merkel's moment to lead? Trump's exit from Paris accord further riles Europe". National Post. https://nationalpost.com/news/world/is-this-angela-merkels-moment-to-lead-trumps-move-to-pull-out-of-paris-accord-is-further-riling-europe.
30. ↑ Vennochi, Joan (31 May 2017). "Merkel, not Trump, rules on the world stage". The Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/05/31/merkel-not-trump-rules-world-stage/aM9Z3nqpRCAuwlWheb2K4K/story.html.
31. ↑ Marinic, Jagoda (25 June 2018). "Opinion - Trump Is Saving Germany's Liberals". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/opinion/trump-is-saving-germanys-liberals.html.
32. ↑ "The Merkel doctrine: Germany is not the new leader of the free world". The Economist. 8 July 2017. https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21724832-angela-merkel-may-sound-tough-donald-trump-her-country-still-depends-america-germany. "Once Mr Kohl's protégée, the chancellor of his reunified Germany is sometimes dubbed the "leader of the free world" in the Anglo-Saxon media. Yet such epithets get things wrong."
33. ↑ Hoffmann, Christiane; Müller, Peter; Traufetter, Gerald (9 July 2017). "Isolating Trump: Merkel's G-20 Climate Alliance Is Crumbling". Der Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/angela-merkel-s-anti-trump-alliance-crumbling-ahead-of-g-20-a-1151439.html. "The German chancellor may have become the hero of liberals and democrats around the globe, but she is unable to fulfill the expectations placed on her as the putative "leader of the free world," at least not when it comes to power politics. Even Merkel's psychological deftness in dealing with the posturing potentates of the world isn't enough to make up for the fact that Germany is not a global power when it comes to foreign and security policy. America, it seems, will remain the world's power broker for the time being."
34. ↑ Slaughter, Anne-Marie (17 July 2017). "Discard old ideas of a leader of the free world: Never mind Trump or Merkel, global problems demand a collective approach". Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/4f4aeb70-6aca-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0. "The idea of one 'leader of the free world" will soon come to seem very quaint indeed.'"
35. ↑ "Who is the leader of the free world?". 10 July 2017. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/10/opinions/no-world-leader-g20-opinion-hockenos/index.html. "The G20 underscored more emphatically than ever before that there is no one leader of the free world anymore."
36. ↑ Shepp, Jonah (25 September 2017). "Angela Merkel Won Reelection, But Is She Still the Leader of the Free World?". http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/is-angela-merkel-still-the-leader-of-the-free-world.html.
37. ↑ Ali, Yashar (24 September 2017). "Clinton Says Angela Merkel Is The Most Important Leader in the Free World". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-angela-merkel_us_59c7c12ce4b0cdc77331ddff.
38. ↑ Porter, Henry (20 November 2017). "Angela's Ashes: Will the Collapse of Merkel's Germany Leave Europe on the Brink?". https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/the-collapse-of-angela-merkel-germany-leave-europe-on-the-brink. "With the election of Donald Trump, the joke has been that Merkel, not the sitting U.S. president, is the leader of the free world ..."
39. ↑ Hucal, Sarah (21 November 2017). "Germany's political coalition crisis stokes fears the far right could rise". ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/International/germanys-political-coalition-crisis-stokes-fears-rise/story?id=51299557. "Months after being hailed by media as the new leader of the free world, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing the greatest political crisis of her 12 years in office."
40. ↑ Nougayrède, Natalie (21 November 2017). "Germany's crisis means uncertainty for Europe. But it won't be fatal". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/21/germany-political-crisis-uncertainty-europe-macron. "If Merkel was supposed to be the leader of the free world in the era of Trump and Brexit then what might the future look like without her?"
41. ↑ Rogan, Tom (5 December 2017). "Is Germany the new leader of the free world? Not a chance.". The Washington Examiner: Opinion. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/is-germany-the-new-leader-of-the-free-world-not-a-chance/article/2642645. "... the idea that Germany is somehow going to rise to displace the U.S. in global leadership is utterly ludicrous. It lacks the means, intent, and credibility to do so."
42. ↑ Bershidsky, Leonid (19 December 2017). "Maybe the Free World Doesn't Need a Leader". Bloomberg. Opinion. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-19/maybe-the-free-world-doesn-t-need-a-leader. "Merkel, however, probably doesn't fit the bill. Weakened by the last election, she has found herself embroiled in the longest coalition talks in Germany's post-World War II history. Even if she's back on top by Easter, global leadership will be pretty far from her mind as she settles into what's likely to be her last term in power. She doesn't even have an obvious successor in her party. Besides, she has always shown much more interest in shaping the European Union to Germany's benefit than in leading the world, free or otherwise."
43. ↑ "Hillary Clinton appears to mock Donald Trump in her tribute to Angela Merkel". https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hillary-clinton-appears-to-mock-donald-trump-in-her-tribute-to-angela-merkel/ar-AARE4xv.
44. ↑ Creitz, Charles (8 December 2021). "Hillary Clinton jabs Donald Trump on Angela Merkel's last day: 'Leader of the free world for 4 years'". https://www.foxnews.com/media/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-twitter-angela-merkel-last-day.

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free World. Read more

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