Show text Test of Roosevelt's s Address to U. U S. S o on Stand in European War Crisis I WASHINGTON Dec 30 D 11 1 o lowing is the text of lent Roosevelt's fireside chat Sunday day night This is not a fireside chat on onIt cu M It is a talk on national because the nub of b whole purpose of your resident is to keep you now o your children later and our grandchildren much later ot at of f a last-ditch last war for the reservation of American in- in and all of the things l 13 tl- tl American independence and to me ears to and cans s to you ITS Tonight night in the presence of a back orld crisis my mind goes to a night in ine ago gh ears crisis e midst dst of a domestic was a time when the wheels merican I-merican American industry were inding to a full stop when the h hole banking system of oury our y had ceased to function il I well ll remember that while sa my study in the White ouse juse preparing to talk folic with 1 people of the United States had before my eyes the pic- pic Ire of all those Americans jib whom I was talking I IF Iw w F the workmen in the mills e ines the factories the ther r the counter the sail shopkeeper the farmer his spring plowing the theand 1 ovis and the old men wonting won won- ri ting i about their lifes life's savings inking Crisis Crisi I led ed to convey to the great assof f American people what e embanking banking crisis meant to toem em their daily lives Tonight I want to do the same D with the same people in new crisis which faces W finet l' l pet met the issue of 1933 with urage and realism We Ve face sl ew crisis this crisis this new threat the security of our nation nation- same courage and N Never lever Ver before since Jamestown nd Plymouth Rock has our civilization been in inid l id ieh danger danger as now r For r on September 27 1940 an Jail agreement signed in Berl Ber- Ber l powerful nations two Europe and one in Asia ned themselves together in that if the United ates interfered with or the expansion program these three nations nations a a pro pro- gram aimed at world control control- they would unite in ultimate action against the United States The nazi masters of Germany have made it clear that they intend not only to to to domi dominate ate all life and thought thought- in m their own country but also to enslave the whole of Europe and then to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world Two Worlds Opposed Three weeks ago their leader stated There are two worlds that stand opposed to each other Then in defiant reply to his opponents he said this Others are correct when they say With this world we cannot cannot cannot can can- not ever reconcile ourselves I can beat any other power in inthe inthe inthe the world So said the leader of the nazis In other words the axis not merely admits but that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy of government and our philosophy philosophy philosophy phy of government In view dew of or the thc nature of or this undeniable threat it can he be asserted properly and categorically call cally that the United States Slates has no right or reason to encourage talk of or peace until the day shall conic come w h hen e n there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon abandon abandon aban aban- don all thought of dominating or conquering the thc world At this moment the forces of the states that are leagued against all peoples who live in freedom are arc being held away from our shores The Germans and Italians are being blocked on the other side of the Atlantic by the British and by the Greeks and by thousands of soldiers and sailors who were able to escape from subjugated countries The Japanese are being engaged in Asia by the Chinese in another great de de- de Fleet in Pacific In the Pacific is our fleet Some of our people like to believe that wars in Europe and in Asia are of no concern to us But it is a matter of most vital concern to us that European and Asiatic war- war makers should not gain control of the oceans which lead to this hemisphere One hundred and seventeen years ago the Monroe doctrine was conceived by our government government government govern govern- ment as a measure of defense in inthe inthe inthe the face of a threat against this hemisphere by an alliance in continental Europe Thereafter we stood on guard in the Atlantic Atlantic Atlan Atlan- tic with the Bri British ish as neigh neigh- bors born There was wa no treaty There was vas no unwritten agreement Yet there was the feeling proven correct by history that we ve as neighbors could settle any disputes in peaceful fasl fashion i Th The fact is that during the whole of this time the western hemisphere has remained free from aggression aggression aggression sion from Europe or from Asia Does an anyone one seriously believe that We ve need to fear attack while a free Britain remains our most powerful naval neighbor in inthe inthe inthe the Atlantic Does anyone seriously seriously seriously seri seri- believe on the other hand that we could rest easy if the axis powers were our neighbors there Living at Gun Point J If Great Britain goes down n the axis powers will ill control the continents of Europe A Asia AMa la Africa ca 8 Australia and the high seas spa aud ami and they will be he In a po position to bring firing enormous military and and naval resources against this hemisphere It is no exaggeration exaggeration exaggeration tion to say that all of or us is in the Americas would be living Jiing at the point of or a gun a gun loaded with explosive bullets economic as well as militar military We should enter upon a new and terrible era in which the whole world our hemisphere included included included in in- would be run by threats of brute force To survive in such a world we would have to convert ourselves permanently into a militaristic power on the basis of war economy Some of us like to believe that even if Great Britain falls we weare weare weare are still safe because of the broad expanse of the Atlantic and of the Pacific But the width of these oceans is not what it was in the days of clipper ships At one point between Africa and Brazil the distance is less than from Washington Washington Washington Wash Wash- ington to Denver five Denver five hours for forthe forthe forthe the latest type of bomber And at the north of the Pacific ocean America and Asia almost touch each other Even today we have planes which could fly from the British British- Isles to New England and back without refueling And the range of the modern bomber is ever being increased People Ask Arle Facts During the past week many people in all parts of the nation have told me what they wanted me to say tonight Almost all of them expressed a courageous desire to hear the plain truth about the gravity of the situa situa- tion One telegram however expressed expressed expressed ex ex- ex- ex pressed the attitude of the small minority who want to see no evil and hear no evil even though they know in their hearts that evil exists That telegram begged me not to tell again of the ease with which our American cities could be bombed by any hostile power which had gained bases in inthis inthis inthis this western hemisphere The gist of that telegram was Please Mr President dont don't frighten us by telling us the facts Frankly and definitely there i is danger ahead danger against w which we must prepare But we well know that we e cannot es escape escape escape es- es cape danger or the fear of it by crawling into bed and pulling the covers over our heads Some nations of Europe were bound by solemn nonintervention pacts with Germany Other nations nations nations na na- na- na were assured by Germany that they need never fear inva inva- sion Nonintervention pact or not the fact remains that they were attacked overrun and thrown into the modern form of slavery at an hours hour's notice or even without any notice at all As an exiled leader of one of these nations said to me the theother theother theother other day the day the notice was a minus quality It was given to tomy tomy tomy my government two hours after German troops had poured into my country in a hundred places The fate of these nations tells us what it means to live at the point of a nazi gun t i Justified by Frauds The nazis have justified such actions by various pious frauds One of these frauds is the claim that they are occupying a nation for the purpose of restoring or or- der Another is that they are occupying or controlling a nation on the excuse that they are protecting protecting protecting pro it against the aggression of somebody else For example Germany has said that she was occupying Belgium Belgium Belgium Bel Bel- gium to save the Belgians from the British Would she hesitate to say to any South American country we are occupying you to protect you from aggression by the United States Belgium today is being used as an invasion base against Britain Britain Britain Brit Brit- ain now fighting for its life Any South American country in nazi hands would always constitute a jumping off place for German attack on any anyone one of the other republics of this hemisphere Analyze for yourselves the future future future fu fu- ture of two other places even nearer to Germany if the nazis won Could Ireland hold out Would Irish freedom be permitted permitted permitted per per- as an an amazing exception in an world Or the islands of the Azores which still fly the flag of Portugal after five centuries We think of Hawaii as as' as an outpost of defense in the Pacific Yet the Azores are closer to our shores shares in the Atlantic than Hawaii is on the theother theother theother other side There are those who say that the axis powers would never have any desire to attack the western hemisphere This is the same dangerous form of wishful thinking which has destroyed the powers of resistance of so many conquered peoples The plain facts are that the nazis have proclaimed time and again that i all other races are their inferiors and therefore subject to their orders And most important of all the vast resources and wealth of this hemisphere constitute the most tempting loot in all the world Evil il Forces Within Let us no longer blind ourselves our our- selves to the undeniable fact that the evil forces which h have a v ve e crushed and undermined and corrupted so many others are already within our own gates Your government knows much about them and amI every day is ferreting ferreting fer fr them out Their secret emissaries are active in our own and neighboring neighbor neIghbor- in ing countries They seek to stir up suspicion and dissension to cause internal str strife e. e They try to turn capital against labor and vice versa They try to re reawaken reawaken reawaken re- re awaken long slumbering racial and religious enmities which should have no place in this country They are active in every group roup that promotes intolerance They exploit for their own ends our national abhorrence of war These trouble breeders have but butone butone butone one purpose It is to divide our people into hostile groups and to destroy our unity and shatter our will to defend ourselves There are also American citizens citi citi- citizens zens many of them in high places who unwittingly in most cases are aiding and abetting the work of these agents I da dO not charge these American citizens with being foreign agents But I do charge them with doing exactly the kind of work that the dictators want done in the United States These people not only believe that we can save our own skins by shutting pur our eyes to the fate of other nations Some of them go much further than that They say that we can and should become the friends and even the partners of the axis powers Some of them even suggest that we should imitate the methods of oft t the r a dictatorships Americans never can and never will do that No Appeasement Possible The experience of the past two years ears has proven be beyond ond doubt that no nation can appease the nazis No man can tame a tiger in into to a kitten by stroking it There can cair be no appeasement with ruthlessness There can be beno beno beno no reasoning with an incendiary bomb We e know now that a nation nation nation na na- na- na tion can ean have hae peace with the nazis only at the price of total surrender Even the people of Italy have been forced to become accomplices accomplices accomplices of the nazis but at this moment they do not know how soon they will be embraced to death by their allies The American ignore the warning to I ibe be found in the fate of Austria Slovakia Slovakia Czecho-Slovakia Poland Norway Belgium the Netherlands D Den Denmark e n m a r I k and France They tell you that the axis powers are going to win anyway that all this bloodshed in the world could be saved and that the United States might just justas as well throw its influence into the scale of a dictated peace and get the best out of it that we can They call can It it a negotiated peace Nonsense Is it a negotiated negotiated negotiated ne ne- ne- ne peace if a gang of outlaws outlaws outlaws out out- laws surrounds your community and on threat of extermination makes you pay tribute to save your own skins Such a dictated d peace would be no peace at all It would be only another armistice leading to the most gigantic armament race and the most devastating trade wars in history And in these contests the Americas would offer the only real resistance resistance resistance resist resist- ance to the axis powers With all their vaunted efficiency efficiency efficiency ef ef- ef- ef and parade of pious purpose in this war there are still in their background the concentration concentration concentration con con- camp camp and the servants of God m in chains Alters of Dictatorship The history of recent years proves that shootings and chains and concentration camps are not simply the transient tools but the very altars of modern dic dic- They may talk of a anew anew anew new order in the world but what they have in mind is but a revival of the oldest and the worst tyranny In that there is no liberty no religion no hope The proposed new order is the very opposite of a United States of Europe or a United States of Asia It is not a government government government gov gov- based upon the consent of the governed It is not a union of ordinary self-respecting self men and women to protect themselves and their freedom and their dignity dignity dignity dig dig- from oppression It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and enslave the human race The British people are conducting conducting con- con ducting an active war against I this unholy alliance Our own future security is greatly dependent depend depend- ent on the outcome of that fight Our ability to keep out keep out of or war is going to be affected by that outcome Thinking In terms of today and tomorrow I make the direct statement to the American people people people peo peo- that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war if we do all we can now to support the nations defending defending defending defend defend- ing themselves against attack by the axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat submit tamely tamely- to an axis victory and wait walt our turn to be the object of attack in another another another an an- other war later on Must Iut Admit RIsk KIsk If we are to be completely honest with ourselves we must admit there is risk in any course we may take But I deeply be believe believe believe be- be lieve that the great majority of our people agree that the course that I advocate involves the least risk now and the greatest hope for world peace in the future The he people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting They ask us for the implements of war the planes the tanks the guns the freighters which will enable them to fight for their liberty and our security Emphatically Emphatically |