President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Radio Address Announcing the
Proclamation of an Unlimited National Emergency, "We Choose Human Freedom"
May 27, 1941
I am speaking tonight from the White House in the presence of the
Governing
Board of the Pan American Union, the Canadian Minister, and their
families.
The members of this Board are the Ambassadors and Ministers of the
American
Republics in Wa****ngton. It is appropriate that I do this for now, as
never
before, the unity of the American Republics is of supreme im****tance to
each
and every one of us and to the cause of freedom throughout the world. Our
future independence is bound up with the future independence of all of our
sister Republics.
The pressing problems that confront us are military and naval problems. We
cannot afford to approach them from the point of view of wishful thinkers
or
sentimentalists. What we face is cold, hard fact.
The first and fundamental fact is that what started as a European war has
developed, as the Nazis always intended it should develop, into a world
war
for world domination.
Adolf Hitler never considered the domination of Europe as an end in
itself.
European conquest was but a step toward ultimate goals in all the other
continents. It is unmistakably apparent to all of us that, unless the
advance of Hitlerism is forcibly checked now, the Western Hemisphere will
be
within range of the Nazi weapons of destruction.
For our own defense we have accordingly undertaken certain obviously
necessary measures:
First, we have joined in concluding a series of agreements with all the
other American Republics. This further solidified our Hemisphere against
the
common danger.
And then, a year ago, we launched, and are successfully carrying out, the
largest armament production program we have ever undertaken.
We have added substantially to our splendid Navy, and we have mustered our
manpower to build up a new Army which is already worthy of the highest
traditions of our military service.
We instituted a policy of aid for the democracies -- the Nations which
have
fought for the continuation of human liberties.
This policy had its origin in the first month of the war, when I urged
upon
the Congress repeal of the arms embargo provisions in the old Neutrality
Law, and in that message of September 3, 1939, I said, "I should like to
be
able to offer the hope that the shadow over the world might swiftly pass.
I
cannot. The facts compel my stating, with candor, that darker periods may
lie ahead."
In the subsequent months, the shadows deepened and lengthened. And the
night
spread over Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and
France.
In June, 1940, Britain stood alone, faced by the same machine of terror
which had overwhelmed her allies. Our Government rushed arms to meet her
desperate needs.
In September, 1940, an agreement was completed with Great Britain for the
trade of fifty destroyers for eight im****tant off-shore bases.
And in March, 1941, the Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill and an
appropriation of seven billion dollars to implement it. This law
realistically provided for material aid "for the government of any country
whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United
States."
Our whole program of aid for the democracies has been based on hard-headed
concern for our own security and for the kind of safe and civilized world
in
which we wish to live. Every dollar of material that we send helps to keep
the dictators away from our own hemisphere, and every day that they are
held
off gives us time to build more guns and tanks and planes and ****ps.
We have made no pretense about our own self-interest in this aid. Great
Britain understands it -- and so does Nazi Germany.
And now -- after a year -- Britain still fights gallantly, on a "far-flung
battle line." We have doubled and redoubled our vast production,
increasing,
month by month, our material supply of the tools of war for ourselves and
for Britain and for China -- and eventually for all the democracies.
The supply of these tools will not fail -- it will increase.
With greatly augmented strength, the United States and the other American
Republics now chart their course in the situation of today.
Your Government knows what terms Hitler, if victorious, would impose. They
are, indeed, the only terms on which he would accept a so-called
"negotiated" peace.
And, under those terms, Germany would literally parcel out the world --
hoisting the swastika itself over vast territories and populations, and
setting up puppet governments of its own choosing, wholly subject to the
will and the policy of a conqueror.
To the people of the Americas, a triumphant Hitler would say, as he said
after the seizure of Austria, and as he said after Munich, and as he said
after the seizure of Czechoslovakia: "I am now completely satisfied. This
is
the last territorial readjustment I will seek." And he would of course
add:
"All we want is peace, friend****p, and profitable trade relations with you
in the New World."
Were any of us in the Americas so incredibly simple and forgetful as to
accept those honeyed words, what would then happen?
Those in the New World who were seeking profits would be urging that all
that the dictator****ps desired was "peace." They would oppose toil and
taxes
for more American armament. And meanwhile, the dictator****ps would be
forcing the enslaved peoples of their Old World conquests into a system
they
are even now organizing to build a naval and air force intended to gain
and
hold and be master of the Atlantic and the Pacific as well.
They would fasten an economic stranglehold upon our several Nations.
Quislings would be found to subvert the governments in our Republics; and
the Nazis would back their fifth columns with invasion, if necessary.
No, I am not speculating about all this. I merely repeat what is already
in
the Nazi book of world conquest. They plan to treat the Latin American
Nations as they are now treating the Balkans.
They plan then to strangle the United States of America and the Dominion
of
Canada.
The American laborer would have to compete with slave labor in the rest of
the world. Minimum wages, maximum hours? Nonsense! Wages and hours would
be
fixed by Hitler. The dignity and power and standard of living of the
American worker and farmer would be gone. Trade unions would become
historical relics, and collective bargaining a joke.
Farm income? What happens to all farm surpluses without any foreign trade?
The American farmer would get for his products exactly what Hitler wanted
to
give. The farmer would face obvious disaster and complete regimentation.
Tariff walls -- Chinese walls of isolation -- would be futile. Freedom to
trade is essential to our economic life. We do not eat all the food we can
produce; and we do not burn all the oil we can pump; we do not use all the
goods we can manufacture. It would not be an American wall to keep Nazi
goods out; it would be a Nazi wall to keep us in.
The whole fabric of working life as we know it -- business and
manufacturing, mining and agriculture -- all would be mangled and crippled
under such a system. Yet to maintain even that crippled independence would
require permanent conscription of our manpower; it would curtail the funds
we could spend on education, on housing, on public works, on flood
control,
on health and, instead, we should be permanently pouring our resources
into
armaments; and, year in and year out, standing day and night watch against
the destruction of our cities.
Yes, even our right of wor****p would be threatened. The Nazi world does
not
recognize any God except Hitler; for the Nazis are as ruthless as the
Communists in the denial of God. What place has religion which preaches
the
dignity of the human being, the majesty of the human soul, in a world
where
moral standards are measured by treachery and bribery and fifth
columnists?
Will our children, too, wander off, goosestepping in search of new gods?
We do not accept, we will not permit, this Nazi "shape of things to come."
It will never be forced upon us, if we act in this present crisis with the
wisdom and the courage which have distinguished our country in all the
crises of the past.
Today, the Nazis have taken military possession of the greater part of
Europe. In Africa they have occupied Tripoli and Libya, and they are
threatening Egypt, the Suez Canal, and the Near East. But their plans do
not
stop there, for the Indian Ocean is the gateway to the farther East.
They also have the armed power at any moment to occupy Spain and ****tugal;
and that threat extends not only to French North Africa and the western
end
of the Mediterranean but it extends also to the Atlantic fortress of
Dakar,
and to the island outposts of the New World -- the Azores and Cape Verde
Islands.
The Cape Verde Islands are only seven hours' distance from Brazil by
bomber
or troop-carrying planes. They dominate ****pping routes to and from the
South Atlantic.
The war is approaching the brink of the Western Hemisphere itself. It is
coming very close to home.
Control or occupation by Nazi forces of any of the islands of the Atlantic
would jeopardize the immediate safety of ****tions of North and South
America, and of the island possessions of the United States, and,
therefore,
the ultimate safety of the continental United States itself.
Hitler's plan of world domination would be near its accomplishment today,
were it not for two factors: One is the epic resistance of Britain, her
colonies, and the great Dominions, fighting not only to maintain the
existence of the Island of Britain, but also to hold the Near East and
Africa. The other is the magnificent defense of China, which will, I have
reason to believe, increase in strength. All of these, together, are
preventing the Axis from winning control of the seas by ****ps and
aircraft.
The Axis Powers can never achieve their objective of world domination
unless
they first obtain control of the seas. That is their supreme purpose
today;
and to achieve it, they must capture Great Britain.
They could then have the power to dictate to the Western Hemisphere. No
spurious argument, no appeal to sentiment, no false pledges like those
given
by Hitler at Munich, can deceive the American people into believing that
he
and his Axis partners would not, with Britain defeated, close in
relentlessly on this hemisphere of ours.
But if the Axis Powers fail to gain control of the seas, then they are
certainly defeated. Their dreams of world domination will then go by the
board; and the criminal leaders who started this war will suffer
inevitable
disaster.
Both they and their people know this -- and they and their people are
afraid. That is why they are risking everything they have, conducting
desperate attempts to break through to the command of the ocean. Once they
are limited to a continuing land war, their cruel forces of occupation
will
be unable to keep their heel on the necks of the millions of innocent,
oppressed peoples on the continent of Europe; and in the end, their whole
structure will break into little pieces. And let us remember, the wider
the
Nazi land effort, the greater is their ultimate danger.
We do not forget the silenced peoples. The masters of Germany have marked
these silenced peoples and their children's children for slavery -- those,
at least, who have not been assassinated or escaped to free soil. But
those
people -- spiritually unconquered: Austrians, Czechs, Poles, Norwegians,
Dutch, Belgians, Frenchmen, Greeks, Southern Slavs -- yes, even those
Italians and Germans who themselves have been enslaved -- will prove to be
a
powerful force in the final disruption of the Nazi system.
All freedom -- meaning freedom to live, and not freedom to conquer and
subjugate other peoples -- depends on freedom of the seas. All of American
history -- North, Central, and South American history -- has been
inevitably
tied up with those words, "freedom of the seas."
Since 1799, 142 years ago, when our infant Navy made the West Indies and
the
Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico safe for American ****ps; since 1804 and
1805 when we made all peaceful commerce safe from the depredations of the
Barbary pirates; since the War of 1812, which was fought for the
preservation of sailors' rights; since 1867, when our sea power made it
possible for the Mexicans to expel the French Army of Louis Napoleon, we
have striven and fought in defense of freedom of the seas for our own
****pping, for the commerce of our sister Republics, for the right of all
Nations to use the highways of world trade -- and for our own safety.
During the first World War we were able to escort merchant ****ps by the
use
of small cruisers, gunboats, and destroyers; and that type, called a
convoy,
was effective against submarines. In this second World War, however, the
problem is greater. It is different because the attack on the freedom of
the
seas is now fourfold: first -- the improved submarine; second -- the much
greater use of the heavily armed raiding cruiser or the hit-and-run
battle****p; third -- the bombing airplane, which is capable of destroying
merchant ****ps seven or eight hundred miles from its nearest base; and
fourth -- the destruction of merchant ****ps in those ****ts of the world
that
are accessible to bombing attack.
The Battle of the Atlantic now extends from the icy waters of the North
Pole
to the frozen continent of the Antarctic. Throughout this huge area, there
have been sinkings of merchant ****ps in alarming and increasing numbers by
Nazi raiders or submarines. There have been sinkings even of ****ps
carrying
neutral flags. There have been sinkings in the South Atlantic, off West
Africa and the Cape Verde Islands; between the Azores and the islands off
the American coast; and between Greenland and Iceland. Great numbers of
these sinkings have been actually within the waters of the Western
Hemisphere itself.
The blunt truth is this -- and I reveal this with the full knowledge of
the
British Government: the present rate of Nazi sinkings of merchant ****ps is
more than three times as high as the capacity of British ****pyards to
replace them; it is more than twice the combined British and American
output
of merchant ****ps today.
We can answer this peril by two simultaneous measures: first, by speeding
up
and increasing our own great ****pbuilding program; and second, by helping
to
cut down the losses on the high seas.
Attacks on ****pping off the very shores of land which we are determined to
protect, present an actual military danger to the Americas. And that
danger
has recently been heavily underlined by the presence in Western Hemisphere
waters of a Nazi battle****p of great striking power.
You remember that most of the supplies for Britain go by a northerly
route,
which comes close to Greenland and the nearby island of Iceland. Germany's
heaviest attack is on that route. Nazi occupation of Iceland or bases in
Greenland would bring the war close to our own continental shores, because
those places are stepping-stones to Labrador and Newfoundland, to Nova
Scotia, yes, to the northern United States itself, including the great
industrial centers of the North, the East, and the Middle West.
Equally, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, if occupied or controlled
by
Germany, would directly endanger the freedom of the Atlantic and our own
American physical safety. Under German domination those islands would
become
bases for submarines, war****ps, and airplanes raiding the waters that lie
immediately off our own coasts and attacking the ****pping in the South
Atlantic. They would provide a springboard for actual attack against the
integrity and the independence of Brazil and her neighboring Republics.
I have said on many occasions that the United States is mustering its men
and its resources only for purposes of defense -- only to repel attack. I
repeat that statement now. But we must be realistic when we use the word
"attack"; we have to relate it to the lightning speed of modern warfare.
Some people seem to think that we are not attacked until bombs actually
drop
in the streets of New York or San Francisco or New Orleans or Chicago. But
they are simply shutting their eyes to the lesson that we must learn from
the fate of every Nation that the Nazis have conquered.
The attack on Czechoslovakia began with the conquest of Austria. The
attack
on Norway began with the occupation of Denmark. The attack on Greece began
with occupation of Albania and Bulgaria. The attack on the Suez Canal
began
with the invasion of the Balkans and North Africa, and the attack on the
United States can begin with the domination of any base which menaces our
security -- north or south.
Nobody can foretell tonight just when the acts of the dictators will ripen
into attack on this hemisphere and us. But we know enough by now to
realize
that it would be suicide to wait until they are in our front yard.
When your enemy comes at you in a tank or a bombing plane, if you hold
your
fire until you see the whites of his eyes, you will never know what hit
you.
Our Bunker Hill of tomorrow may be several thousand miles from Boston.
Anyone with an atlas, anyone with a reasonable knowledge of the sudden
striking force of modern war, knows that it is stupid to wait until a
probable enemy has gained a foothold from which to attack. Old-fa****oned
common sense calls for the use of a strategy that will prevent such an
enemy
from gaining a foothold in the first place.
We have, accordingly, extended our patrol in North and South Atlantic
waters. We are steadily adding more and more ****ps and planes to that
patrol. It is well known that the strength of the Atlantic Fleet has been
greatly increased during the past year, and that it is constantly being
built up.
These ****ps and planes warn of the presence of attacking raiders, on the
sea, under the sea, and above the sea. The danger from these raiders is,
of
course, greatly lessened if their location is definitely known. We are
thus
being forewarned. We shall be on our guard against efforts to establish
Nazi
bases closer to our hemisphere.
The deadly facts of war compel Nations, for simple self-preservation, to
make stern choices. It does not make sense, for instance, to say, "I
believe
in the defense of all the Western Hemisphere," and in the next breath to
say, "I will not fight for that defense until the enemy has landed on our
shores." If we believe in the independence and the integrity of the
Americas, we must be willing to fight, to fight to defend them just as
much
as we would to fight for the safety of our own homes.
It is time for us to realize that the safety of American homes even in the
center of this our own country has a very definite relation****p to the
continued safety of homes in Nova Scotia or Trinidad or Brazil.
Our national policy today, therefore, is this:
First, we shall actively resist wherever necessary, and with all our
resources, every attempt by Hitler to extend his Nazi domination to the
Western Hemisphere, or to threaten it. We shall actively resist his every
attempt to gain control of the seas. We insist upon the vital im****tance
of
keeping Hitlerism away from any point in the world which could be used or
would be used as a base of attack against the Americas.
Second, from the point of view of strict naval and military necessity, we
shall give every possible assistance to Britain and to all who, with
Britain, are resisting Hitlerism or its equivalent with force of arms. Our
patrols are helping now to insure delivery of the needed supplies to
Britain. All additional measures necessary to deliver the goods will be
taken. Any and all further methods or combination of methods, which can or
should be utilized, are being devised by our military and naval
technicians,
who, with me, will work out and put into effect such new and additional
safeguards as may be needed.
I say that the delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative. I say
that this can be done; it must be done; and it will be done.
To the other American Nations -- twenty Republics and the Dominion of
Canada -- I say this: the United States does not merely propose these
purposes, but is actively engaged today in carrying them out.
I say to them further: you may disregard those few citizens of the United
States who contend that we are disunited and cannot act.
There are some timid ones among us who say that we must preserve peace at
any price -- lest we lose our liberties forever.
To them I say this: never in the history of the world has a Nation lost
its
democracy by a successful struggle to defend its democracy. We must not be
defeated by the fear of the very danger which we are preparing to resist.
Our freedom has shown its ability to survive war, but our freedom would
never survive surrender. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
There is, of course, a small group of sincere, patriotic men and women
whose
real passion for peace has shut their eyes to the ugly realities of
international banditry and to the need to resist it at all costs. I am
sure
they are embarrassed by the sinister sup****t they are receiving from the
enemies of democracy in our midst -- the Bundists, the Fascists, and
Communists, and every group devoted to bigotry and racial and religious
intolerance. It is no mere coincidence that all the arguments put forward
by
these enemies of democracy -- all their attempts to confuse and divide our
people and to destroy public confidence in our Government -- all their
defeatist forebodings that Britain and democracy are already beaten -- all
their selfish promises that we can "do business" with Hitler -- all of
these
are but echoes of the words that have been poured out from the Axis
bureaus
of propaganda. Those same words have been used before in other countries
--
to scare them, to divide them, to soften them up. Invariably, those same
words have formed the advance guard of physical attack.
Your Government has the right to expect of all citizens that they take
part
in the common work of our common defense -- take loyal part from this
moment
forward.
I have recently set up the machinery for civilian defense. It will rapidly
organize, locality by locality. It will depend on the organized effort of
men and women everywhere. All will have op****tunities and responsibilities
to fulfill.
Defense today means more than merely fighting. It means morale, civilian
as
well as military; it means using every available resource; it means
enlarging every useful plant. It means the use of a greater American
common
sense in discarding rumor and distorted statement. It means recognizing,
for
what they are, racketeers and fifth columnists, who are the incendiary
bombs
in this country of the moment.
All of us know that we have made very great social progress in recent
years.
We propose to maintain that progress and strengthen it. When the Nation is
threatened from without, however, as it is today, the actual production
and
trans****tation of the machinery of defense must not be interrupted by
disputes between capital and capital, labor and labor, or capital and
labor.
The future of all free enterprise -- of capital and labor alike -- is at
stake.
This is no time for capital to make, or be allowed to retain, excess
profits. Articles of defense must have undisputed right of way in every
industrial plant in the country.
A Nation-wide machinery for conciliation and mediation of industrial
disputes has been set up. That machinery must be used promptly -- and
without stoppage of work. Collective bargaining will be retained, but the
American people expect that impartial recommendations of our Government
conciliation and mediation services will be followed both by capital and
by
labor.
The overwhelming majority of our citizens expect their Government to see
that the tools of defense are built; and for the very purpose of
preserving
the democratic safeguards of both labor and management, this Government is
determined to use all of its power to express the will of its people, and
to
prevent interference with the production of materials essential to our
Nation's security.
Today the whole world is divided between human slavery and human freedom
--
between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal.
We choose human freedom -- which is the Christian ideal.
No one of us can waver for a moment in his courage or his faith.
We will not accept a Hitler-dominated world. And we will not accept a
world,
like the postwar world of the 1920's, in which the seeds of Hitlerism can
again be planted and allowed to grow.
We will accept only a world consecrated to freedom of speech and
expression -- freedom of every person to wor****p God in his own way --
freedom from want -- and freedom from terror.
Is such a world impossible of attainment?
Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the
United States, the Emancipation Proclamation, and every other milestone in
human progress -- all were ideals which "seemed impossible of attainment
--
and yet they were attained.
As a military force, we were weak when we established our independence,
but
we successfully stood off tyrants, powerful in their day, tyrants who are
now lost in the dust of history.
Odds meant nothing to us then. Shall we now, with all our potential
strength, hesitate to take every single measure necessary to maintain our
American liberties?
Our people and our Government will not hesitate to meet that challenge.
As the President of a united and determined people, I say solemnly:
We reassert the ancient American doctrine of freedom of the seas.
We reassert the solidarity of the twenty-one American Republics and the
Dominion of Canada in the preservation of the independence of the
hemisphere.
We have pledged material sup****t to the other democracies of the world --
and we will fulfill that pledge.
We in the Americas will decide for ourselves whether, and when, and where,
our American interests are attacked or our security is threatened.
We are placing our armed forces in strategic military position. We will
not
hesitate to use our armed forces to repel attack. We reassert our abiding
faith in the vitality of our constitutional Republic as a perpetual home
of
freedom, of tolerance, and of devotion to the word of God.
Therefore, with profound consciousness of my responsibilities to my
countrymen and to my country's cause, I have tonight issued a proclamation
that an unlimited national emergency exists and requires the strengthening
of our defense to the extreme limit of our national power and authority.
The Nation will expect all individuals and all groups to play their full
parts, without stint, and without selfishness, and without doubt that our
democracy will triumphantly survive.
I repeat the words of the signers of the Declaration of Independence --
that
little band of patriots, fighting long ago against overwhelming odds, but
certain, as we are now, of ultimate victory: "With a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
The President Proclaims That an Unlimited National Emergency Confronts the
Country. Proclamation No. 2487. May 27, 1941
WHEREAS on September 8, 1939, because of the outbreak of war in Europe a
proclamation was issued declaring a limited national emergency and
directing
measures "for the purpose of strengthening our national defense within the
limits of peacetime authorizations,"
WHEREAS a succession of events makes plain that the objectives of the Axis
belligerents in such war are not confined to those avowed at its
commencement, but include overthrow throughout the world of existing
democratic order, and a worldwide domination of peoples and economies
through the destruction of all resistance on land and sea and in the air,
AND
WHEREAS indifference on the part of the United States to the increasing
menace would be perilous, and common prudence requires that for the
security
of this Nation and of this hemisphere we should pass from peacetime
authorizations of military strength to such a basis as will enable us to
cope instantly and decisively with any attempt at hostile encirclement of
this hemisphere, or the establishment of any base for aggression against
it,
as well as to repel the threat of predatory incursion by foreign agents
into
our territory and society,
Now, THEREFORE, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States
of
America, do proclaim that an unlimited national emergency confronts this
country, which requires that its military, naval, air, and civilian
defenses
be put on the basis of readiness to repel any and all acts or threats of
aggression directed toward any part of the Western Hemisphere.
I call upon all the loyal citizens engaged in production for defense to
give
precedence to the needs of the Nation to the end that a system of
government
that makes private enterprise possible may survive.
I call upon all our loyal workmen as well as employers to merge their
lesser
differences in the larger effort to insure the survival of the only kind
of
government which recognizes the rights of labor or of capital.
I call upon loyal State and local leaders and officials to cooperate with
the civilian defense agencies of the United States to assure our internal
security against foreign directed subversion and to put every community in
order for maximum productive effort and minimum of waste and unnecessary
frictions.
I call upon all loyal citizens to place the Nation's needs first in mind
and
in action to the end that we may mobilize and have ready for instant
defensive use all of the physical powers, all of the moral strength, and
all
of the material resources of this Nation.
Source: Public Papers of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Volume 10
Return to: President Roosevelt Speeches and Statements
Return to: Index
4/10/02
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