"Leader of The Free World"
The "Leader of the Free World" is a colloquialism, first used during the Cold War, to describe either the United States or the President of the United States. The term, when used in this context, suggests that the United States is the principal democratic superpower, and the U.S. President is, by extension, the leader of the world's democratic states, i.e. the "Free World". The phrase had its origin in the late 1940s, and has become more widely used since the early 1950s. It was heavily referenced in American foreign policy up until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, and has since fallen out of use, in part due to its usage in anti-American rhetoric.
Read more about this topic: Free World (World War II)
Famous quotes containing the words leader of, leader, free and/or world:
“To be a leader of men one must turn one’s back on men.”
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)
“If you would be a leader of men you must lead your own generation, not the next. Your playing must be good now, while the play is on the boards and the audience in the seats.... It will not get you the repute of a good actor to have excellencies discovered in you afterwards.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“Stevenson had noble ideas—as did the young Franklin for that matter. But Stevenson felt that the way to implement them was to present himself as a thoughtful idealist and wait for the world to flock to him. He considered it below him, or wrong, to scramble out among the people and ask them what they wanted. Roosevelt grappled voters to him. Stevenson shied off from them. Some thought him too pure to desire power, though he showed ambition when it mattered.”
—Garry Wills, U.S. historian. Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, ch. 9, Simon & Schuster (1994)