WHY WE FIGH A series of seven information films
WAR COMES TO AMERICA
Information Film #7
Produced by the:
WAR DEPARTMENT ARMY PICTORIAL SERVICE
For: INFORMATION AND EDUCATION DIVISION
Music by: The Army Air Force Orchestra
I pledge alliance to the flag, of
The United States of America,
...and to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God...
...indivisible with justice
and liberty for all...
...in the jungles of New Guinea,
...on the barren shores
of the Aleutians...
...in the tropic heat of
the Pacific Islands,
...in the sub-zero cold over
the skies of Germany,
...in Burma and Iceland,
...the Philippines and Iran,
...France,
...in China and Italy,
Americans, fighting.
Fighting over an area extending
seven-eights of the way around the world.
Men from the green hills of New England,
...the sun-baked plains of the Middle West,
the cotton fields of the South,
...the close-packed street of Manattan,
Chicago...
...the teaming factories of Detroit,
Los Angeles...
...the endless stretching
distances of the Southwest...
...men from the hills and from the plains,
men from the villages and the cities...
...Bookkeepers, soda jerks, mechanics,
...college student, rich man, poor man,
...beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer,
merchant, chief, now veteran fighting men.
Yet two years ago, many had never fired a gun,
Seen the ocean, or been of the ground.
Americans. Fighting for their country
while half a world away from it.
Fighting for their country and
more than their country.
Fighting for an idea.
An idea bigger than the country.
Without the idea, the country might
only have remained a willingness.
Without the country, the idea might
have remained only a dream.
Over this ocean,
1607, Jamestown...
1620, Plymouth Rock...
Here was America.
The sea, the sky, the virgin continent.
We came in search of freedom, facing
Unknown dangers rather than bend...
...the knew of bow to tyranny.
Out of the native oak and pine, we built
a house, a church, a watchtower.
We cleared a field and there grew up
a colony of free citizens.
We carved new states out of
the green wilderness.
Virginia, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Carolina.
Then came the first test in
the defense of that liberty.
1775, Lexington
Our leader spoke our deepest needs.
Colonists are by the law of nature free-born,
as indeed all men are!"- James Otis
It is the right of the people to alter or abolish and to
institute new government."- Thomas Jefferson
These are the times that try mers souls."
- Thomas Paine
...but as for me, give me liberty or
give me death."- Patrick Henry
In the midst of battle it happened.
The idea grew. The idea took form.
Something new was expressed by men.
A new and revolutionary doctrine.
The greatest created force in human relations.
All men are created equal."
All men are entitled to the blessings life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
That's the goal we had set for ourselves.
If it meant hanging, victory meant
a world in which Americans rule themselves.
1777, Valley Forge
We fought and froze, suffered and died.
For what? For the future freedom
of all Americans.
A few of us doubted and despaired,
most of us prayed and endured it all.
1781, Yorktown
Now we were a free-independent nation...
...the new idea had won its first test.
Now to pass it on to future Americans.
The Constitution. The sacred charter of
"We the people..."
The blood and sweat of "We the people..."
The life, liberty, and happiness of
"We the people..."
The people were to rule. Not some of the people,
Not the best people or the worst,
...not the rich people or the poor,
but "We the people..."
All the people.
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land,
unto all the inabitants thereof"
In this brotherhood America was born.
One nation, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
It began as 13 states along
the Atlantic seaboard.
We pushed along the Allegiances,
the Ohio River,
...the Mississippi, the last far
range of the distant Rockies.
We carried freedom with us.
No aristocratic classes here.
No King, no Nobel, or Prince.
No State Church, no courts,
no parasites.
No divine right of man to rule man.
Here humanity was making a clean
fresh start from scratch.
Behind we left new states. Chips of
the old block, woven together by freedom.
Until finally we were one nation.
A land of hope and opportunity that
had risen out of a skeptical world.
A light was shining.
Freedom's light.
From every country and every climb, men saw that
light and tuned their faces towards it."
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free...
...the wretched refuge of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-toots to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door"
As stranger to one another we came,
and built a country.
And the country built us into Americans.
The sweat of man from all nations,
was poured out to build a new.
The sweat of our first Shepard,
the English, the Scots,
...the Dutch, building the workshop
of New England.
And the Italian in the sulfur mines
of Louisiana.
Of the Frenchmen and the Swiss in
the vineyards of California and New York state.
Of the Dane, the Norwegian, the Swede.
Seeding the good earth to make
the mid-west bloom with grain.
Of the Pole and the Welsh.
Of the Negro harvesting cotton
in the hot southern sun.
Of the Spaniard, the first to roam
the great southwest...
...of the Mexican in the oil fields of Texas.
And on the ranches of New Mexico.
Of the Greek and the Portuguese
harvesting the crop the ocean yielded.
Of the German with his technical skills.
Of the Hungarian and the Russian.
Of the Irish, the Slav and the Chinese
working side by side.
The sweat of Americans,
and a great nation was built.
Yes, the sweat of all nations built
America and the blood.
For the blood of Americans
has been freely shed.
Five times in our history, have we withstood
The challenge to the idea that made our nation.
The idea for all men of life,
liberty and the pursuit happiness.
The idea that made us, the people we are.
Let's take a look at ourselves,
before we went into this war.
Well, first of all, we're a working people,
on the land, at a workbench, at a desk.
And we're an inventive people.
The lightening rod,
...the cotton gin, the telegraph,
...the blessed anaesthesia of ether,
...the rotary printing press,
the telephone,
...electric welding,
the incandescent lamp,
...submarine, steam turbine,
the motor driven airplane,
the x-ray tube,
the gyroscope compass,
the sewing machine,
...and television. All these, and countless
more bear witness to our invent ness.
And this intentness and enterprise,
plus our hard-won democratic ideals for
the greatest good for the greatest number,
...created for the average man the highest
standard of living in the world.
32 and a half million registered automobiles,
Two-thirds of all the automobiles
there are in the world.
We demand the highest standards
in sanitation,
...purity of food, medical care.
Our hospitals are marvels
for the world to copy.
We want the best for the average
man, woman and child.
Particularly child. We have
reduced the hazard of being born,
From then on we protect, foster and generally
spoil the majority of our children.
But it doesn't seem to hurt them much.
They go to school,
...all kinds of schools.
To kindergarten,
...public schools, private schools,
trade schools,
...high schools, to 25,000 high schools,
...and to college.
In the last war, 20% of all the men in
the armed forces had been to high school or college.
In this war, 63%.
We're a great two-weeks vacation people.
We hunt and we fish, up north
and down south,
...back east, out west. When the season
opens, we hunt and fish.
We're a sports-loving people.
And we're probably the travel
ingest nation in all history...
...we love to go places.
We have the cars, we have the roads,
we have the scenery.
We don't need passports,
but sometimes we need alibis.
We sleep by the road, we eat by the road.
The foreigner is enchanted and amazed
at what we like to put on our stomach's.
And we're a great joining people,
we join clubs.
Fraternities, unions, federations.
Shove a blank at us, we'll sign up.
Radios, we have on in the living room,
...the dining room,
...the bedroom,
...the bathroom, in our cars,
...in our hands and up our sleeves.
Music. We couldn't be without it.
The Press? Yes, it's the biggest.
But most important,
it's the freest on earth.
Over 12,000 newspapers,
with all shades of opinions.
Books on ever-conceivable subject.
And more than 6000 different magazines.
Not counting the comics.
Churches?
We have every denomination on earth.
60 million of us, regularly attend.
And no one dares tell us,
which one to go to.
We elect our own neighbors to govern us.
We believe in individual enterprise
and opportunities, for men and women alike.
We make mistakes, we see the results.
We correct the mistakes.
We skyrocket into false prosperities,
...and then plummet down into false
needless depressions.
But in spite of everything, we never
lose our faith in the future.
We believe in the future,
we build for the future.
Yes, we build for the future and
the future always catches up with us.
Before we're done building, we've developed
something new, and have to start rebuilding.
That's roughly the kind of people we are.
Boasting, easy-going, sentimental,
but underneath,
...passionately dedicated to the ideals
our forefathers passed on to us.
The liberty and dignity of man.
We've made great material progress, but
Spiritually we're still in the frontier days.
Yet deep down in us, there is a yearning
for peace and good-will toward men.
Somehow we feel, that if men thru their
minds towards the fields of peace,
...as they have towards the fields
of transportation,
...communication or aviation,
...wars would soon be old-fashioned
as the horse and buggy days.
We hate war. We know that in war,
it is the common man who does the paying.
The suffering, the dying. We bend over
backwards to avoid it.
But let our freedoms be endanger, and we'll
pay and suffer and fight to the last man.
That is the American. That is the way
of living, For which we fight today.
Why?
Is that fight necessary?
Did we want war?
In 1917, before most of you
fighting men were born,
our fathers fought the first World War to make the
world safe for democracies, for the common man.
They fought a good fight and won it.
There was to be no more war in their time,
and their childrers time.
Faithful to our treaty obligations, we
destroyed much of our naval tonnage.
Our army went on a reducing diet,
until it became little more than a skeleton.
For us, war was to be outlawed.
For us, Europe was far away.
And as for Asia, well that was really
out of this world.
Where everything looked like it was torn
from the National Geographic.
Where everything looked like it was torn
from the National Geographic.
Yet in this remote spot in Asia, in 1931,
...while most of you were playing ball
in the sand lots,
...this war started.
Without warning, Japan invaded Manchuria.
Once again, men who where peaceful, became
slaves of the men who where violent.
In Washington D.C. Our Secretary of State,
made a most vigorous protest.
The American Government, does not
intend to recognize any situation
...treaty or agreement, which may be
brought about by means of aggression.
But we the people, hadrt much time
to think about Manchuria,
...we were wrestling with the worst
depression in our history.
Some of us were out of jobs.
Some of us stood in bread lines.
Some of us suffered homemade aggression.
Some of us were choked with dust.
Some of us had no place to go.
Two years later, in 1933, while most of you
Were graduating from High School,
...we read that a funny little man called Hitler,
had come into power in Germany.
We heard that a thing called the Nazi Party
had taken over.
Today we rule Germany, tomorrow, the world!"
Today we rule Germany, tomorrow, the world!"
What kind of talk was that?
It must only be hot air.
In 1935, about the time you had
your first date,
We read that strutting Mussolini had
attacked far of Ethiopia.
The disease seemed to be spreading, so Congress
assembled, to insulate us against the growing
friction of war.
"We want no war. We'll have no war, say in
defense of our own people for our own honor."
Toward this end, our chosen representatives
Passed the Neutrality Act.
No nation at war, could buy manufactured
arms or munitions from the United States.
In 1936, when you were running
around in jalopies,
...we were disturbed by news from Spain.
In our news reels we saw German and
Italian air forces and armies...
...fighting in Spain and wondered
what they were doing there.
For the first time we saw great
cities squashed flat.
Civilians bombed and killed.
In November of 1936, the American
Institute of Public Opinion,
...known as the gallop poll,
...asked a representative of a
cross-section of the American people,
If another war develops in Europe,
...should America take part again?"
NO! 95%
We the people had spoken. Nineteen out
of twenty had said, "Include us out!"
...to further insulate ourselves, we added a cash
and carry amendment to the Neutrality Act.
Not only wouldn't we sell munitions,
we wouldn't sell anything at all.
Not even a spool of thread, unless warring powers
sent their own ships and paid cash on the line.
In 1937 the Press services
received a flash from Asia...
...launch all out China war... intensive.
Yes, the Japs were turning Asia
into a slaughterhouse.
But for us, Asia was still far away.
In September of 1937, the gallop poll asked us,
In the present fight between Japs
and China, are your...
...sympathies with either side?"
With China 43%, with Japan 2%
Undecided 55%.
We hadrt made up our minds about China.
Our Neutrality Act, barred sales of
armaments only to nations at war.
The Japanese had not declared war, so we went right
on selling scrap iron and gasoline to Japan.
In March of 1938, Hitler had not declared war either.
But his goose-stepping army suddenly smashed in
and occupied all the soil of Austria.
Six months later, Hitler and his stooge
met the anxious democracy at Munich.
Hitler promised peace in our time, if Britain
And France would give him that part of
Czechoslovakia know as the Sudetenland.
Britain and France gave him that part of
Czechoslovakia hoping...
...to avert war.
Now we had his word. Peace in our time.
At home we began to hear strange headlines.
Extra! Extra! F.B.I. Captures Nazi spy ring!
We sat in our theatres unbelieving, as motion
pictures exposed Nazi espionage in America.
Dear Gentlemen, we know that
if America is to be free,
...we must destroy the chain
that ties the whole misery...
...of American politics together. And
that is the United States Constitution.
Could these things really be?
Yes these subversive acts, were happening
in real life, everyday.
German-American bands organized for
the purpose of destroying us,
...marched under our very noses.
I pledge undivided allegiance to the flag
of The United States of America.
As a republic for which it stand, under one nation
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
In our Press we read the news from abroad, that
Nazis were spending millions...
...arming Germany to the teeth.
We read that the Tokyo diet was
Appropriating tremendous sums,
...converting Japan into one
vast munitions plant.
We watched these supposedly poor, have-not
nations, spend huge sums for armament,
...and we wondered why.
Arrogantly, they told us why.
They had declared war on us long
before the shooting had started.
We have actually been at war since the day
when we lifted the flag of our revolution
against the democratic world!"
...- Mussolini
The Germans are a noble and unique race to whom
the earth was given by the Grace of God." Hitler
The world must come to look up to our emperor as
the great ruler of all nations." Lord Hotta
When the people of these three nations, elected
To follow their leaders, death incorporated...
They organized to smash personal freedom,
...equality of man,
...freedom of speech,
...freedom of religion.
Organized to smash the very principals
that made us the people we are.
So in December 1938, when
the gallop poll asked us,
Should the United Sates increase the
strength of its Army, Navy and Air Force?"
We answered YES 85%
It was time to look to our defense.
Gentlemen this is the Military Affairs
Committee House of Representatives,
...meeting for the purpose of considering
...national defense.
The Navy is asking for an increase of 25%,
...in authorized Naval tonnage, in view
of the grave international situation.
Congress, reflecting the voice of the people,
...appropriated the largest sum for military use,
ever voted during peace in American history.
We didn't dream that a few years later
it would look like peanuts.
On March 14, 1939, Adolf Hitler broke
the pledge he made at Munich.
He took over all the rest of Czechoslovakia.
There would be no more peace in our time.
April 7, 1939. As we here in America
observe Good Friday.
Extra paper, extra paper!
Italy attacks Albania!"
The picture was becoming clear.
The conquering forces of violence were...
...being set loose in the world.
In a last desperate effort
to avert a World War,
President Roosevelt sent messages
to Hitler and Mussolini
...asking their promise to respect
the independence of 33 countries.
To Adolf Hitler, this message was a
huge joke, as he repeated the names.
This was the only answer
that the President received.
On September 1, 1939, the Nazi army
smashed into Poland.
Warsaw
England and France had a treaty with Poland.
Would they act now?
At home, we listened:
Adolf Hitler's all out attack on Poland,
...makes the long-dreaded European war
a certainty."
Prime Minister Chamberlain of Great Britain
gave the Nazi leader...
...a zero hour for withdrawing
his troops from Poland."
That zero hour ends now. At this time
we transfer you to London...
...for an important announcement
by the British Prime Minister."
Up to the very last, it would have been
quite possible to have arranged a...
...peaceable and honorable settlement,
between Germany and Poland."
But Hitler would not have it."
In a situation, in which
no word given by...
...Germany's ruler could be trusted,
...and no people or its country could feel
itself safe, had become intolerable."
Now may God bless you all,
...and may he defend the right. For it is evil
things we should be fighting against,
and against them I am certain,
that the right will prevail."
Six hours after Great Britain
declared war on Nazi Germany,
...the Republic of France followed. All
France is in a mail-storm of activity.
The Maginot Line has already
opened fire on the Germans.
World War Two has begun.
At home we were asked:
What country do you consider
responsible for causing this war?
Germany 82%
We Americans had no doubt who started it,
Also we began to fear that this warm...
...was going concern us.
President Roosevelt, called a special
session of Congress
to reconsider the embargo against
selling munitions.
"I have asked the Congress to
reassemble in extraordinary session,
...in order that it may consider
and act on,
...changes in our Neutrality Law."
The men of Congress wrestled with
their beliefs and our future.
They debated and they argued.
"The arms embargo is far
too great a security,
...to American peace, to permit
its surrender...
...without a last-ditch fight."
The embargo act, as it now stands,
is one-sided and works entirely
to the advantage of one side.
Therefore the embargo act
should be modified."
Therefore the embargo act
should be modified."
We the people also argued and debated,
whether we should sell arms and munitions.
When the question was put to us,
we had an answer.
Should we change the neutrality act so we
can sell war supplies?
YES 57%
Shortly after, our Representatives
changed the Neutrality Act.
ARMS EMBARGO REPEALED
Arms for sale, but come and get them
We lifted the embargo on arms and munitions.
Now we would sell, if purchasers would pay
and take the stuff away in their own ships.
American ships were still barred
from combat zones.
Meanwhile on the other side of the globe.
Japan was busy trying to bomb, shoot and
Terrorize the Chinese into submission.
We began to realize that if Japan
conquered 400 million Chinese,
...she might become so strong as
to run us right out of the Pacific.
You will remember that two years earlier
in September 1937,
...when we were asked: In the present fight
between Japan and China,
...are your sympathies with either side?
Only 43% were with China,
most of us were undecided.
In June 1939, when we were asked
the same question:
74% said we were with China.
Now our minds were made up.
When we loaded our scrap-iron on
Japanese ships, our citizens protested.
Let Mr. Acheson, Assistant Secretary of State,
tell us the inside of the story.
So until the middle of 1940,
the restriction of exports to Japan,
...took the form of moral embargos
of air-planes and direct munitions."
Then Congress passed the Export Control Act."
And increasing cut offs of scrap iron, aviation
Gasoline and other strategic items followed."
Exports were curtailed to the limit, which those
responsible for our defense were willing to risk."
It was a fearful responsibility."
On one side was the possibility,
in fact the probability...
...that one day these materials
might be used against us."
On the other side was the possibility,
in fact the probability,
...to cut them off, would provoke an attack
which we were not then prepared to resist."
Finally in the summer of 1941,
...as it was becoming clear, that Japan was
turning its back on every possibility
of reconciliation and adjustment, and
was determined on her great gamble of conquest.
...all exports ceased.
April 9, 1940, the leaders of Nazi Germany
Shifted their war machine into high gear.
They overran into Denmark,
they smashed into Norway.
On May 10, 1940, they blitzed
into Holland and Belgium.
The Nazis are marching ahead at the fastest speed
a conquering army has moved in all history.
All roads in France are choked with
slow-moving masses of refugees.
Nazi dive-bombers are bombing countless of
thousands of defenseless woman and children.
Good-evening everybody. Tonight
it seems clearly apparent that...
...the first great phase of the war
in the west has been won by Germany.
The army of French and British has made
a valiant battle in its effort to...
...retreat to Dunkerque where there is
some slight chance that...
...some part of it can be evacuated."
Adolf Hitler's mechanized forces are
racing towards Paris...
...as French resistance collapses."
On this tenth day of June, of
nineteen hundred and forty
...the hand that held the dagger, has struck it
into the back of its neighbor."
This is William L. Shivers, speaking
from the forest of Campaign,
...where Adolf Hitler today is handing
his Armistice terms to France.
It is 3: 15 p. M. Adolf Hitler strides
slowly to the little clearing.
I can see his face. It is grave, solemn,
yet brimming with revenge.
Off to one side, is a large
statue of Marshall Foch.
Hitler does not appear to see it.
Now we see the French walking down the avenue,
Lead by General Huntziger.
Hitler and the other German leaders rise,
as the French enter.
General Keitel reads the preamble
to the German Armistice's Terms.
This whole ceremony is over
in a quarter of an hour.
Conquering armies now stood
on the shores of the Atlantic.
Fire!"
The danger was suddenly close.
Countries conquered by...
...the Nazis had possession outside of Europe.
Some of these possessions were in America.
Would the Nazi demand the French
Naval units at Martinique?
Would the Nazis move into the
Dutch oil fields of Curacao?
Would the Nazis seize the French Naval base
At Dakar for invasion of South America?
Already in Brazil, there were over
1 million Germans who lived exactly...
...as they did in Germany.
Twelve hundred German schools,
with Nazi textbooks and Nazi teachers.
Nazi newspapers. Gliding clubs
had been established.
Also in Brazil, there were 260 thousand
Japanese taking orders from Japan.
In Ecuador, within easy bombing range
of the Panama Canal,
German airlines had been established. German
pilots were reserve officers of the Luftwaffe.
The German transport planes, had
bomb racks already built in.
In Argentina, German athletic clubs,
similar to the Hitler Youth Movement,
...had been organized exclusively for Germans.
Here was a Fifth Column ready to take over.
Havana Conference for the defense
of The Americas. July 22, 1940.
Havana, we met with 20 other
American Republics.
There must not be a shadow of
a doubt anywhere,
...as to the determination of
the American nations,
...not to permit the invasion of their
hemisphere of the armed forces...
...of any power or any possible
combination of powers."
Twenty American nations stood firm.
The Americans would not let any European
colony in this hemisphere...
...to be transferred to
a non-American power.
We said KEEP OUT. We meant it.
We must increase production
facilities for everything needed...
...for the Army and Navy
for National Defense.
I believe that this nation
should plan at this time,
...that will provide us with
50 thousand military and naval planes.
To protect our shores, we authorized
construction of a two-ocean Navy.
The greatest the world has ever known.
At least it would be the greatest Navy,
...when completed in 1944.
But then, in 1940 it was only a paper Navy.
Our fighting forces at that time,
consisted of an army of 187 thousand men,
...a navy of 120 thousand, and this dot
was the air corps 22,387 strong.
All told, 330,000 men.
We had makeshift equipment.
Stove pipes for canons.
Bags of flour for bombs.
Trucks were labeled Tanks.
Our infantry had exactly 488 machine guns.
We possessed 235 pieces of field artillery.
Ten light and eighteen medium tanks.
That was the army of The United States
in May in 1940,
...the month in which
the Nazis overran France.
...so we called on the minute-men.
The National Guard of the 48th State.
And placed them into Federal Service.
And most important, Congress
passed the Selective Service Act.
For the first time in our history, we began
Mobilizing an army while still at peace.
"The first number is serial number 158."
"The second number which has just
been drawn is 192."
It wasrt too soon. Time was running out.
The Nazis had begun their shattering
blitz on Britain.
"Hello America. This is Edward Morella
speaking from London."
There were more German planes over the coast of
Britain today, then at anytime since the war began."
Anti air-craft guns were in action
along the south-east coast today,
...back on Main Street U. S.A."
Daily we followed Britairs life-struggle.
For if Britain died,
...we would be in grave peril.
Our first line of defense in
the Atlantic, the British Fleet,
...might go to Nazi Germany.
We would be unprotected. Our shores,
our people, our homes, in danger.
Britain must not fall!
In our harbors idle and rotting
lay ancient destroyers.
They had been built for WW I,
but this was WW II.
And this gave us an idea. Fifty tired,
over-aged destroyers were re-vitalized,
...transferred to Great Britain.
In return, we acquired further
protection of our shores,
...we received a chain of bases stretching
from Newfoundland to British Guiana.
...these bases threw a steel wall
around the Caribbean.
These bases gave new safety
to the Panama Canal.
It was now clear to the aggressors
that we were conscience...
...of the threat they represented
to our country.
Mr. Berle, Assistant Secretary of State, will tell
us how they got together and tried to scare us of.
From 1936 on, it became increasingly
clear to the world,
...that Germany, Italy and Japan,
were pursuing a common...
...pattern of aggression, both
in Europe and in the Far East."
On September 27, 1940,
...these three powers signed the
so-called Pact of Berlin."
Or Tripartite Pact."
A treaty of far-reaching alliance.
By that treaty, it was provided that the three
countries would assist one another with,
...all political, economic
and military means...
...when one of the powers were attacked, note
particularly the use of the word "attacked"...
...by a power not then involved in the European
war, or in the Chinese/Japanese conflict."
The last of these provisions were aimed
directly at the United States."
Tokyo celebrates.
Rome cheered.
Berlin heiled itself hoarse.
It was clear now that the 3 axis's
countries stood against us.
More anxious than ever, we watched the
life and death struggle for the possession...
...of the skies over Britain.
Despite the propaganda and
confusion in the recent months,
...it is now obvious that England
is losing the war.
England will not only survive,
England will win!
So, when we were asked:
Should we keep out of war or
aid Britain even at the risk of war?
Aid Britain even at the risk of war 68%
Thus the march of conquest at the
self-termed Master Racists
...changed our national attitude from 1936
...when only one out of twenty Americans
thought we would be involved in war.
To 1941, when 14 out of 20 Americans were
will to risk war, if war was necessary...
...to insure axis defeat.
I ask this Congress for authority and funds,
...sufficient to manufacture additional
munitions and war supplied of many kinds,
...to be turned over to those nations
who are now in actual war,
...with aggressor nations."
Our useful and immediate role is
to act as an arsenal...
...for them as well as for ourselves."
We shall send in ever-increasing
Numbers of ships,
...planes, tanks, guns. That is
our purpose, and our pledge."
By an overwhelming majority,
Congress passed Lend-lease.
Bill number 1776. Another
Declaration of independence,
...independence from tyranny, 1941 style.
On April 6, 1941, the Nazi juggernaut
overran into Yugoslavia and Greece.
On June 22, 1941 the success-crazed Nazis took
their longest step toward world conquest.
Without any declaration of war,
they blitzed into Russia.
We were determined not to let down
any nations defending themselves...
...against unprovoked attack.
So we extend land-lease
to these new victims.
Now the land-lease products of
our factories were being unloaded...
...in the bombed ports of Great Britain,
...at the Red Sea Ports for the British in Africa.
Lend-lease was being hauled over
the Burma road to China.
Lend-lease was piling up in Murmansk
and Iran for Russia.
Why did we supply war materials to the countries
defending themselves from against axis aggression?
Was it for our natural sympathies for
people unwilling to lose their freedoms?
Was it our ancient antagonism to conquerors
imposing their rule on others by force?
Yes partly. But principally it was
because the American people,
...had become certain, that they were on
the list of free nations to be conquered.
"Two worlds are in conflict - two philosophies
of life. One of these two worlds must break asunder"
And we were the leading example of that free world
that Hitler was committed to breaking asunder.
What would have been our defensive position
if the aggressors had succeeded in...
...conquering Britain, Russia, and China?
German conquests of Europe and Africa,
...would bring all their raw-materials,
plus their entire industrial development...
...under one control.
Of the 2 Billion people in the world,
the Nazis would rule roughly one-quarter
The 500 million people of Europe and Africa,
forced into slavery to labor for Germany.
German conquest of Russia, would
add the vast raw materials...
...and the production facilities of
another of the worlds industrial areas.
And of the world's people, another 2 hundred million
would be added to the Nazi labor pile.
Japanese conquest of the Orient.
Would pour into their factories the almost
unlimited resources of that area.
And of the people's of the earth,
a thousand million...
...would come under their rule.
Slaves for their industrial machines.
We in North and South America would be left with the
raw material of three-tenths of the earth's surface.
Against the axis with the resources of seven-tenths.
We would have one industrial region,
against their three industrial regions.
We would have one-eighth of the world's
Population against their seven-eighths.
If we, together with the nations of
North and South America,
...could mobilize 30 millions
fully equipped men,
...the axis could mobilize 200 million.
Thus an Axis victory in Europe and Asia
would leave us alone and virtually surrounded.
Facing enemies ten times stronger than ourselves.
These are the reasons that lead us,
the American people
to change the Neutrality Act.
To send aid to Britain, to Russia, to China,
...to make ourselves the arsenal of democracy.
These are the reasons why now,
the first American troops...
...set forth into the Atlantic.
To occupy new bases in Greenland and Iceland.
With the consent of their local governments.
In our hands, bases of defense,
in Nazis hands, bases of death.
The Germans opened unrestricted submarine
warfare.
If today, the Navy should make
secure the seas,
...for the delivery of our
munitions to Great Britain,
...it will render as great
a service to our country,
...and to the preservation
of American freedom,
...as it has ever rendered in all
its glorious history."
"We want those cargoes protected."
An aroused Congress repealed the entire
Neutrality Act.
We armed our merchants. And for the first time
they steamed into combat zones to deliver land-lease.
While this was going on in the Atlantic,
the Japs, by so-called agreement...
...with the proper government of
defeated France, moved into Indo China.
There were now only two threats to their
plan for their conquest of greater East Asia.
First was their northern neighbor, Russia.
The only military power within striking
distance of Japan.
The Nazis were taking care of Russia.
The second threat to Japanese conquest was us.
Japanese southward expansion was too dangerous to
attempt with our bases still standing in the
Philippines and our supply lines
open to Wake, to Midway and Hawaii.
We were in their way, we had to be
removed, but the Japanese way.
Off to Washington went
Special Ambassador Kuruso.
And on what the Japs said was
a mission of peace.
But carefully synchronized with his departure,
was a departure of a Jap task force.
Under sealed orders, not on a mission of peace.
On November 14th, Mr. Kuruso arrived
in San Francisco, smiling his...
...toothy smile as he sang the old song
of Japanese friendship.
The Japanese were peace-loving people.
Their whole policy was devoted to...
...the establishment of permanent peace in Asia.
Our aid to China, was delaying the
establishment of that peace.
Our refusal to sell them oil and scrap was
interfering with the establishment of that peace.
Our objections to them taking over
the East Indies, greater East Asia was...
...an interruption in the establishment
of that peace. All they wanted was peace.
On November 17, Mr. Kuruso
and Japanese...
...Ambassador Namura were received
by the President, in the presence of...
...The Secretary of State Cordell Hull.
It very quickly became clear, that the
Japanese had brought no new proposals...
...and that the Japanese intended to
continue their campaign to conquer China...
...and all East Asia.
On November 26th, our Secretary of State presented
the Japanese with the bases of peaceful agreement...
...between the two nations.
The proposal was forwarded to Tokyo.
The Japs had to stall for time.
But only a short time. A task force
was nearing its goal.
Sunday, December 7, 1941
One p. M., eastern standard time,
...the Japanese Ambassadors are expected
at the State Department
to keep a one o'clock appointment that
they had requested in order to present their...
...answers to our proposals.
One O five p. M. The Japanese planes are
approaching Hawaii.
One ten p. M. The Japanese emissaries telephone
to postpone their appointment until 1:45.
1:20 p. M.
2:00 p. M. The Japanese envoys smiling and correct,
arrive at the State Department.
2:20 p. M.
Japanese planes had been sowing death and
destruction for an hour on...
...American outposts in the Pacific, when
the Japanese envoy presented a memorandum to Mr.
Hull.
"Here is the memorandum presented to me."
As you can see, it is quite
a lengthy document."
I read it horridly, discovering
it contained a recycled...
...macho accusations against
the United States."
Charging it among other things with quote:
Scheming for the extension of the war."
Preparing to attack Germany and Italy."
Trying to establish a new order in Europe."
And ignoring Japars sacrifices
in the China Affair."
Menacing the Empire's existence itself."
And disparaging its honor and prestige."
After reading the note, I said
to the Japan Ambassadors...
...I have never seen a document so crowded
with infamous falsehoods and distortion...
...on a scale so huge, that I never
would have imagined...
...that any government on this planet
was capable of uttering them."
I ask that Congress declare,
that since the unprovoked...
...and dastardly attack by Japan...
...on Sunday, December 7, 1941...
...a state of war has existed between
the Untied States and the Japanese Empire."
Victory of the democracies can only
be complete with the utter defeat of...
...the war machines of Germany and Japan."
C. G. Marshall.