massed, angered forces of common humanity are on the march. They
are going forward--on the Russian front, in the vast Pacific area,
and into Europe--converging upon their ultimate objectives: Berlin
and Tokyo.
I think the first crack in the Axis has come. The criminal, corrupt
Fascist regime in Italy is going to pieces.
The pirate philosophy of the Fascists and the Nazis cannot stand
adversity. The military superiority of the United Nations--on sea
and land, and in the air--has been applied in the right place and
at the right time.
Hitler refused to send sufficient help to save Mussolini. In fact,
Hitler's troops in Sicily stole the Italians' motor equipment,
leaving Italian soldiers so stranded that they had no choice but to
surrender. Once again the Germans betrayed their Italian allies, as
they had done time and time again on the Russian front and in the
long retreat from Egypt, through Libya and Tripoli, to the final
surrender in Tunisia.
And so Mussolini came to the reluctant conclusion that the "jig was
up"; he could see the shadow of the long arm of justice.
But he and his Fascist gang will be brought to book, and punished
for their crimes against humanity. No criminal will be allowed to
escape by the expedient of "resignation."
So our terms to Italy are still the same as our terms to Germany
and Japan--"unconditional surrender."
We will have no truck with Fascism in any way, in any shape or
manner. We will permit no vestige of Fascism to remain.
Eventually Italy will reconstitute herself. It will be the people
of Italy who will do that, choosing their own government in
accordance with the basic democratic principles of liberty and
equality. In the meantime, the United Nations will not follow the
pattern set by Mussolini and Hitler and the Japanese for the
treatment of occupied countries--the pattern of pillage and
starvation.
We are already helping the Italian people in Sicily. With their
cordial cooperation, we are establishing and maintaining security
and order--we are dissolving the organizations which have kept them
under Fascist tyranny--we are providing them with the necessities
of life until the time comes when they can fully provide for
themselves.
Indeed, the people in Sicily today are rejoicing in the fact that
for the first time in years they are permitted to enjoy the fruits
of their own labors--they can eat what they themselves grow,
instead of having it stolen from them by the Fascists and the
Nazis.
In every country conquered by the Nazis and the Fascists, or the
Japanese militarists, the people have been reduced to the status of
slaves or chattels.
It is our determination to restore these conquered peoples to the
dignity of human beings, masters of their own fate, entitled to
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and
freedom from fear.
We have started to make good on that promise.
I am sorry if I step on the toes of those Americans who, playing
party politics at home, call that kind of foreign policy "crazy
altruism "and "starry-eyed dreaming."
Meanwhile, the war in Sicily and Italy goes on. It must go on, and
will go on, until the Italian people realize the futility of
continuing to fight in a lost cause--a cause to which the people of
Italy never gave their wholehearted approval and support.
It is a little over a year since we planned the North African
campaign. It is six months since we planned the Sicilian campaign.
I confess that I am of an impatient disposition, but I think that I
understand and that most people understand the amount of time
necessary to prepare for any major military or naval operation. We
cannot just pick up the telephone and order a new campaign to start
the next week.
For example, behind the invasion forces in North Africa, the
invasion forces that went out of North Africa, were thousands of
ships and planes guarding the long, perilous sea lanes, carrying
the men, carrying the equipment and the supplies to the point of
attack. And behind all these were the railroad lines and the
highways here back home that carried the men and the munitions to
the ports of embarkation--there were the factories and the mines
and the farms here back home that turned out the materials--there
were the training camps here back home where the men learned how to
perform the strange and difficult and dangerous tasks which were to
meet them on the beaches and in the deserts and in the mountains.
All this had to be repeated, first in North Africa and then in the
attack on Sicily. Here the factor--in Sicily--the factor of air
attack was added--for we could use North Africa as the base for
softening up the landing places and lines of defense in Sicily, and
the lines of supply in Italy.
It is interesting for us to realize that every flying fortress that
bombed harbor installations at, for example, Naples, from its base
in North Africa required 1,110 gallons of gasoline for each single
mission, and that this is the equal of about 375 "A" ration
tickets--enough gas to drive your car five times across this
continent. You will better understand your part in the war--and
what gasoline rationing means--if you multiply this by the gasoline
needs of thousands of planes and hundreds of thousands of jeeps,
and trucks and tanks that are now serving overseas.
I think that the personal convenience of the individual, or the
individual family back home here in the United States will appear
somewhat less important when I tell you that the initial assault
force on Sicily involved 3,000 ships which carried 160,000 men--
Americans, British, Canadians and French--together with 14,000
vehicles, 600 tanks, and 1,800 guns. And this initial force was
followed every day and every night by thousands of reinforcements.
The meticulous care with which the operation in Sicily was planned
has paid dividends. Our casualties in men, in ships and material
have been low--in fact, far below our estimate.
And all of us are proud of the superb skill and courage of the
officers and men who have conducted and are conducting those
operations. The toughest resistance developed on the front of the
British Eighth Army, which included the Canadians. But that is no
new experience for that magnificent fighting force which has made
the Germans pay a heavy price for each hour of delay in the final
victory. The American Seventh Army, after a stormy landing on the
exposed beaches of southern Sicily, swept with record speed across
the island into the capital at Palermo. For many of our troops this
was their first battle experience, but they have carried themselves
like veterans.
And we must give credit for the coordination of the diverse forces
in the field, and for the planning of the whole campaign, to the
wise and skillful leadership of General Eisenhower. Admiral
Cunningham, General Alexander and Sir Marshal Tedder have been
towers of strength in handling the complex details of naval and
ground and air activities.
You have heard some people say that the British and the Americans
can never get along well together--you have heard some people say
that the Army and the Navy and the Air Forces can never get along
well together--that real cooperation between them is impossible.
Tunisia and Sicily have given the lie, once and for all, to these
narrow-minded prejudices.
The dauntless fighting spirit of the British people in this war has
been expressed in the historic words and deeds of Winston
Churchill--and the world knows how the American people feel about
him.
Ahead of us are much bigger fights. We and our Allies will go into
them as we went into Sicily--together. And we shall carry on
together.
Today our production of ships is almost unbelievable. This year we
are producing over nineteen million tons of merchant shipping and
next year our production will be over twenty-one million tons. And
in addition to our shipments across the Atlantic, we must realize
that in this war we are operating in the Aleutians, in the distant
parts of the Southwest Pacific, in India, and off the shores of
South America.
For several months we have been losing fewer ships by sinkings, and
we have been destroying more and more U-boats. We hope this will
continue. But we cannot be sure. We must not lower our guard for
one single instant.
One tangible result of our great increase in merchant shipping--
which I think will be good news to civilians at home--is that
tonight we are able to terminate the rationing of coffee. We also
expect that within a short time we shall get greatly increased
allowances of sugar.
Those few Americans who grouse and complain about the
inconveniences of life here in the United States should learn some
lessons from the civilian populations of our Allies--Britain, and
China, and Russia--and of all the lands occupied by our common
enemy.
The heaviest and most decisive fighting today is going on in
Russia. I am glad that the British and we have been able to
contribute somewhat to the great striking power of the Russian
armies.
In 1941-1942 the Russians were able to retire without breaking, to
move many of their war plants from western Russia far into the
interior, to stand together with complete unanimity in the defense
of their homeland.
The success of the Russian armies has shown that it is dangerous to
make prophecies about them--a fact which has been forcibly brought
home to that mystic master of strategic intuition, Herr Hitler.
The short-lived German offensive, launched early this month, was a
desperate attempt to bolster the morale of the German people. The
Russians were not fooled by this. They went ahead with their own
plans for attack--plans which coordinate with the whole United
Nations' offensive strategy.
The world has never seen greater devotion, determination and self-
sacrifice than have been displayed by the Russian people and their
armies, under the leadership of Marshal Joseph Stalin.
With a nation which in saving itself is thereby helping to save all
the world from the Nazi menace, this country of ours should always
be glad to be a good neighbor and a sincere friend in the world of
the future.
In the Pacific, we are pushing the Japs around from the Aleutians
to New Guinea. There too we have taken the initiative--and we are
not going to let go of it.
It becomes clearer and clearer that the attrition, the whittling
down process against the Japanese is working. The Japs have lost
more planes and more ships than they have been able to replace.
The continuous and energetic prosecution of the war of attrition
will drive the Japs back from their over-extended line running from
Burma and Siam and the Straits Settlement through the Netherlands
Indies to eastern New Guinea and the Solomons. And we have good
reason to believe that their shipping and their air power cannot
support such outposts.
Our naval and land and air strength in the Pacific is constantly
growing. And if the Japanese are basing their future plans for the
Pacific on a long period in which they will be permitted to
consolidate and exploit their conquered resources, they had better
start revising their plans now. I give that to them merely as a
helpful suggestion.
We are delivering planes and vital war supplies for the heroic
armies of Generalissimo Chiang Sai-shek, and we must do more at all
costs.
Our air supply line from India to China across enemy territory
continues despite attempted Japanese interference. We have seized
the initiative from the Japanese in the air over Burma and now we
enjoy superiority. We are bombing Japanese communications, supply
dumps, and bases in China, in Indo-China, in Burma.
But we are still far from our main objectives in the war against
Japan. Let us remember, however, how far we were a year ago from
any of our objectives in the European theatre. We are pushing
forward to occupation of positions which in time will enable us to
attack the Japanese Islands themselves from the North, from the
South, from the East, and from the West.
You have heard it said that while we are succeeding greatly on the
fighting front, we are failing miserably on the home front. I think
this is another of those immaturities--a false slogan easy to state
but untrue in the essential facts.
For the longer this war goes on the clearer it becomes that no one
can draw a blue pencil down the middle of a page and call one side
"the fighting front" and the other side "the home front." For the
two of them are inexorably tied together.
Every combat division, every naval task force, every squadron of
fighting planes is dependent for its equipment and ammunition and
fuel and food, as indeed it is for its manpower, dependent on the
American people in civilian clothes in the offices and in the
factories and on the farms at home.
The same kind of careful planning that gained victory in North
Africa and Sicily is required, if we are to make victory an
enduring reality and do our share in building the kind of peaceful
world that will justify the sacrifices made in this war.
The United Nations are substantially agreed on the general
objectives for the post-war world. They are also agreed that this
is not the time to engage in an international discussion of _all_
the terms of peace and _all_ the details of the future. Let us win
the war first. We must not relax our pressure on the enemy by
taking time out to define every boundary and settle every political
controversy in every part of the world. The important thing--the
all-important thing now is to get on with the war--and to win it.
While concentrating on military victory, we are not neglecting the
planning of the things to come, the freedoms which we know will
make for more decency and greater justice throughout the world.
Among many other things we are, today, laying plans for the return
to civilian life of our gallant men and women in the armed
services. They must not be demobilized into an environment of
inflation and unemployment, to a place on a bread line, or on a
corner selling apples. We must, this time, have plans ready--
instead of waiting to do a hasty, inefficient, and ill-considered
job at the last moment.
I have assured our men in the armed forces that the American people
would not let them down when the war is won.
I hope that the Congress will help in carrying out this assurance,
for obviously the executive branch of the government cannot do it
alone. May the Congress do its duty in this regard. The American
people will insist on fulfilling this American obligation to the
men and women in the armed forces who are winning this war for us.
Of course, the returning soldier and sailor and marine are a part
of the problem of demobilizing the rest of the millions of
Americans who have been working and living in a war economy since
1941. That larger objective of reconverting wartime America to a
peacetime basis is one for which your government is laying plans to
be submitted to the Congress for action.
But the members of the armed forces have been compelled to make
greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than
the rest of us, and they are entitled to definite action to help
take care of their special problems.
The least to which they are entitled, it seems to me, is something
like this:
First, mustering-out pay to every member of the armed forces and
merchant marine when he or she is honorably discharged; mustering-
out pay large enough in each case to cover a reasonable period of
time between his discharge and the finding of a new job.
Second, in case no job is found after diligent search, then
unemployment insurance if the individual registers with the United
States Employment Service.
Third, an opportunity for members of the armed services to get
further education or trade training at the cost of the government.
Fourth, allowance of credit to all members of the armed forces,
under unemployment compensation and federal old-age and survivors'
insurance, for their period of service. For these purposes they
ought to be treated as if they had continued their employment in
private industry.
Fifth, improved and liberalized provisions for hospitalization, for
rehabilitation, for medical care of disabled members of the armed
forces and the merchant marine.
And finally, sufficient pensions for disabled members of the armed
forces.
Your government is drawing up other serious, constructive plans for
certain immediate forward moves. They concern food, manpower, and
other domestic problems that tie in with our armed forces.
Within a few weeks I shall speak with you again in regard to
definite actions to be taken by the executive branch of the
government, and specific recommendations for new legislation by the
Congress.
All our calculations for the future, however, must be based on
clear understanding of the problems involved. And that can be
gained only by straight thinking--not guesswork, not political
manipulation.
I confess that I myself am sometimes bewildered by conflicting
statements that I see in the press. One day I read an
"authoritative" statement that we shall win the war this year,
1943--and the next day comes another statement equally
"authoritative," that the war will still be going on in 1949.
Of course, both extremes--of optimism and pessimism--are wrong.
The length of the war will depend upon the uninterrupted
continuance of all-out effort on the fighting fronts and here at
home, and that effort is all one.
The American soldier does not like the necessity of waging war. And
yet--if he lays off for one single instant he may lose his own life
and sacrifice the lives of his comrades.
By the same token--a worker here at home may not like the driving,
wartime conditions under which he has to work and live. And yet--if
he gets complacent or indifferent and slacks on his job, he too may
sacrifice the lives of American soldiers and contribute to the loss
of an important battle.
The next time anyone says to you that this war is "in the bag," or
says "it's all over but the shouting," you should ask him these
questions:
"Are you working full time on your job?"
"Are you growing all the food you can?"
"Are you buying your limit of war bonds?"
"Are you loyally and cheerfully cooperating with your government in
preventing inflation and profiteering, and in making rationing work
with fairness to all?"
"Because--if your answer is 'No'--then the war is going to last a
lot longer than you think.˛
The plans we made for the knocking out of Mussolini and his gang
have largely succeeded. But we still have to knock out Hitler and
his gang, and Tojo and his gang. No one of us pretends that this
will be an easy matter.
We still have to defeat Hitler and Tojo on their own home grounds.
But this will require a far greater concentration of our national
energy and our ingenuity and our skill.
It is not too much to say that we must pour into this war the
entire strength and intelligence and will power of the United
States. We are a great nation--a rich nation--but we are not so
great or so rich that we can afford to waste our substance or the
lives or our men by relaxing along the way.
We shall not settle for less than total victory. That is the
determination of every American on the fighting fronts. That must
be, and will be, the determination of every American here at home.
September 8, 1943.
My Fellow Americans:
Once upon a time, a few years ago, there was a city in our Middle
West which was threatened by a destructive flood in the great
river. The waters had risen to the top of the banks. Every man,
woman and child in that city was called upon to fill sand bags in
order to defend their homes against the rising waters. For many
days and nights, destruction and death stared them in the face.
As a result of the grim, determined community effort, that city
still stands. Those people kept the levees above the peak of the
flood. All of them joined together in the desperate job that had to
be done--business men, workers, farmers, and doctors, and
preachers--people of all races.
To me, that town is a living symbol of what community cooperation
can accomplish.
Today, in the same kind of community effort, only very much larger,
the United Nations and their peoples have kept the levees of
civilization high enough to prevent the floods of aggression and
barbarism and wholesale murder from engulfing us all. The flood has
been raging for four years. At last we are beginning to gain on it;
but the waters have not yet receded enough for us to relax our
sweating work with the sand bags. In this war bond campaign we are
filling bags and placing them against the flood--bags which are
essential if we are to stand off the ugly torrent which is trying
to sweep us all away.
Today, it is announced that an armistice with Italy has been
concluded.
This was a great victory for the United Nations--but it was also a
great victory for the Italian people. After years of war and
suffering and degradation, the Italian people are at last coming to
the day of liberation from their real enemies, the Nazis.
But let us not delude ourselves that this armistice means the end
of the war in the Mediterranean. We still have to drive the Germans
out of Italy as we have driven them out of Tunisia and Sicily; we
must drive them out of France and all other captive countries; and
we must strike them on their own soil from all directions.
Our ultimate objectives in this war continue to be Berlin and
Tokyo.
I ask you to bear these objectives constantly in mind--and do not
forget that we still have a long way to go before we attain them.
The great news that you have heard today from General Eisenhower
does not give you license to settle back in your rocking chairs and
say, "Well, that does it. We've got 'em on the run. Now we can
start the celebration."
The time for celebration is not yet. And I have a suspicion that
when this war does end, we shall not be in a very celebrating mood,
a very celebrating frame of mind. I think that our main emotion
will be one of grim determination that this shall not happen again.
During the past weeks, Mr. Churchill and I have been in constant
conference with the leaders of our combined fighting forces. We
have been in constant communication with our fighting Allies,
Russian and Chinese, who are prosecuting the war with relentless
determination and with conspicuous success on far distant fronts.
And Mr. Churchill and I are here together in Washington at this
crucial moment.
We have seen the satisfactory fulfillment of plans that were made
in Casablanca last January and here in Washington last May. And
lately we have made new, extensive plans for the future. But
throughout these conferences we have never lost sight of the fact
that this war will become bigger and tougher, rather than easier,
during the long months that are to come.
This war does not and must not stop for one single instant. Your
fighting men know that. Those of them who are moving forward
through jungles against lurking Japs--those who are landing at this
moment, in barges moving through the dawn up to strange enemy
coasts--those who are diving their bombers down on the targets at
roof-top level at this moment--every one of these men knows that
this war is a full-time job and that it will continue to be that
until total victory is won.
And, by the same token, every responsible leader in all the United
Nations knows that the fighting goes on twenty-four hours a day,
seven days a week, and that any day lost may have to be paid for in
terms of months added to the duration of the war.
Every campaign, every single operation in all the campaigns that we
plan and carry through must be figured in terms of staggering
material costs. We cannot afford to be niggardly with any of our
resources, for we shall need all of them to do the job that we have
put our shoulder to.
Your fellow Americans have given a magnificent account of
themselves--on the battlefields and on the oceans and in the skies
all over the world.
Now it is up to you to prove to them that you are contributing your
share and more than your share. It is not sufficient to simply to
put into War Bonds money which we would normally save. We must put
into War Bonds money which we would not normally save. Only then
have we done everything that good conscience demands. So it is up
to you--up to you, the Americans in the American homes--the very
homes which our sons and daughters are working and fighting and
dying to preserve.
I know I speak for every man and woman throughout the Americas when
I say that we Americans will not be satisfied to send our troops
into the fire of the enemy with equipment inferior in any way. Nor
will we be satisfied to send our troops with equipment only equal
to that of the enemy. We are determined to provide our troops with
overpowering superiority--superiority of quantity and quality in
any and every category of arms and armaments that they may
conceivably need.
And where does this our dominating power come from? Why, it can
come only from you. The money you lend and the money you give in
taxes buys that death-dealing, and at the same time life-saving
power that we need for victory. This is an expensive war--expensive
in money; you can help it--you can help to keep it at a minimum
cost in lives.
The American people will never stop to reckon the cost of redeeming
civilization. They know there can never be any economic
justification for failing to save freedom.
We can be sure that our enemies will watch this drive with the
keenest interest. They know that success in this undertaking will
shorten the war. They know that the more money the American people
lend to their government, the more powerful and relentless will be
the American forces in the field. They know that only a united and
determined America could possibly produce on a voluntary basis so
huge a sum of money as fifteen billion dollars.
The overwhelming success of the Second War Loan Drive last April
showed that the people of this Democracy stood firm behind their
troops.
This Third War Loan, which we are starting tonight, will also
succeed--because the American people will not permit it to fail.
I cannot tell you how much to invest in War Bonds during this Third
War Loan Drive. No one can tell you. It is for you to decide under
the guidance of your own conscience.
I will say this, however. Because the nation's needs are greater
than ever before, our sacrifices too must be greater than they have
ever been before.
Nobody knows when total victory will come--but we do know that the
harder we fight now, the more might and power we direct at the
enemy now, the shorter the war will be and the smaller the sum
total of sacrifice.
Success of the Third War Loan will be the symbol that America does
not propose to rest on its arms--that we know the tough, bitter job
ahead and will not stop until we have finished it.
Now it is your turn!
Every dollar that you invest in the Third War Loan is your personal
message of defiance to our common enemies--to the ruthless savages
of Germany and Japan--and it is your personal message of faith and
good cheer to our Allies and to all the men at the front. God bless
them!
December 24, 1943.
My Friends:
I have recently returned from extensive journeying in the region of
the Mediterranean and as far as the borders of Russia. I have
conferred with the leaders of Britain and Russia and China on
military matters of the present--especially on plans for stepping-
up our successful attack on our enemies as quickly as possible and
from many different points of the compass.
On this Christmas Eve there are over 10,000,000 men in the armed
forces of the United States alone. One year ago 1,700,000 were
serving overseas. Today, this figure has been more than doubled to
3,800,000 on duty overseas. By next July first that number overseas
will rise to over 5,000,000 men and women.
That this is truly a World War was demonstrated to me when
arrangements were being made with our overseas broadcasting
agencies for the time to speak today to our soldiers, and sailors,
and marines and merchant seamen in every part of the world. In
fixing the time for this broadcast, we took into consideration that
at this moment here in the United States, and in the Caribbean and
on the Northeast Coast of South America, it is afternoon. In Alaska
and in Hawaii and the mid-Pacific, it is still morning. In Iceland,
in Great Britain, in North Africa, in Italy and the Middle East, it
is now evening.
In the Southwest Pacific, in Australia, in China and Burma and
India, it is already Christmas Day. So we can correctly say that at
this moment, in those far eastern parts where Americans are
fighting, today is tomorrow.
But everywhere throughout the world--throughout this war that
covers the world--there is a special spirit that has warmed our
hearts since our earliest childhood--a spirit that brings us close
to our homes, our families, our friends and neighbors--the
Christmas spirit of "peace on earth, good will toward men." It is
an unquenchable spirit.
During the past years of international gangsterism and brutal
aggression in Europe and in Asia, our Christmas celebrations have
been darkened with apprehension for the future. We have said,
"Merry Christmas--a Happy New Year," but we have known in our
hearts that the clouds which have hung over our world have
prevented us from saying it with full sincerity and conviction.
And even this year, we still have much to face in the way of
further suffering, and sacrifice, and personal tragedy. Our men,
who have been through the fierce battles in the Solomons, and the
Gilberts, and Tunisia and Italy know, from their own experience and
knowledge of modern war, that many bigger and costlier battles are
still to be fought.
But--on Christmas Eve this year--I can say to you that at last we
may look forward into the future with real, substantial confidence
that, however great the cost, "peace on earth, good will toward
men" can be and will be realized and ensured. This year I _can_ say
that. Last year I could _not_ do more than express a hope. Today I
express a certainty--though the cost may be high and the time may
be long.
Within the past year--within the past few weeks--history has been
made, and it is far better history for the whole human race than
any that we have known, or even dared to hope for, in these tragic
times through which we pass.
A great beginning was made in the Moscow conference last October by
Mr. Molotov, Mr. Eden and our own Mr. Hull. There and then the way
was paved for the later meetings.
At Cairo and Teheran we devoted ourselves not only to military
matters; we devoted ourselves also to consideration of the future--
to plans for the kind of world which alone can justify all the
sacrifices of this war.
Of course, as you all know, Mr. Churchill and I have happily met
many times before, and we know and understand each other very well.
Indeed, Mr. Churchill has become known and beloved by many millions
of Americans, and the heartfelt prayers of all of us have been with
this great citizen of the world in his recent serious illness.
The Cairo and Teheran conferences, however, gave me my first
opportunity to meet the Generalissimo, Chiang Kai-shek, and Marshal
Stalin--and to sit down at the table with these unconquerable men
and talk with them face to face. We had planned to talk to each
other across the table at Cairo and Teheran; but we soon found that
we were all on the same side of the table. We came to the
conferences with faith in each other. But we needed the personal
contact. And now we have supplemented faith with definite
knowledge.
It was well worth traveling thousands of miles over land and sea to
bring about this personal meeting, and to gain the heartening
assurance that we are absolutely agreed with one another on all the
major objectives--and on the military means of obtaining them.
At Cairo, Prime Minister Churchill and I spent four days with the
Generalissimo, Chiang Kai-shek. It was the first time that we had
an opportunity to go over the complex situation in the Far East
with him personally. We were able not only to settle upon definite
military strategy, but also to discuss certain long-range
principles which we believe can assure peace in the Far East for
many generations to come.
Those principles are as simple as they are fundamental. They
involve the restoration of stolen property to its rightful owners,
and the recognition of the rights of millions of people in the Far
East to build up their own forms of self-government without
molestation. Essential to all peace and security in the Pacific and
in the rest of the world is the permanent elimination of the Empire
of Japan as a potential force of aggression. Never again must our
soldiers and sailors and marines--and other soldiers, sailors and
marines--be compelled to fight from island to island as they are
fighting so gallantly and so successfully today.
Increasingly powerful forces are now hammering at the Japanese at
many points over an enormous arc which curves down through the
Pacific from the Aleutians to the Jungles of Burma. Our own Army
and Navy, our Air Forces, the Australians and New Zealanders, the
Dutch, and the British land, air and sea forces are all forming a
band of steel which is slowly but surely closing in on Japan.
On the mainland of Asia, under the Generalissimo's leadership, the
Chinese ground and air forces augmented by American air forces are
playing a vital part in starting the drive which will push the
invaders into the sea.
Following out the military decisions at Cairo, General Marshall has
just flown around the world and has had conferences with General
MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz--conferences which will spell plenty
of bad news for the Japs in the not too far distant future.
I met in the Generalissimo a man of great vision, great courage,
and a remarkably keen understanding of the problems of today and
tomorrow. We discussed all the manifold military plans for striking
at Japan with decisive force from many directions, and I believe I
can say that he returned to Chungking with the positive assurance
of total victory over our common enemy. Today we and the Republic
of China are closer together than ever before in deep friendship
and in unity of purpose.
After the Cairo conference, Mr. Churchill and I went by airplane to
Teheran. There we met with Marshal Stalin. We talked with complete
frankness on every conceivable subject connected with the winning
of the war and the establishment of a durable peace after the war.
Within three days of intense and consistently amicable discussions,
we agreed on every point concerned with the launching of a gigantic
attack upon Germany.
The Russian army will continue its stern offensives on Germany's
Eastern front, the allied armies in Italy and Africa will bring
relentless pressure on Germany from the south, and now the
encirclement will be complete as great American and British forces
attack from other points of the compass.
The Commander selected to lead the combined attack from these other
points is General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His performances in Africa,
in Sicily and in Italy have been brilliant. He knows by practical
and successful experience the way to coordinate air, sea and land
power. All of these will be under his control. Lieutenant General
Carl D. Spaatz will command the entire American strategic bombing
force operating against Germany.
General Eisenhower gives up his command in the Mediterranean to a
British officer whose name is being announced by Mr. Churchill. We
now pledge that new Commander that our powerful ground, sea and air
forces in the vital Mediterranean area will stand by his side until
every objective in that bitter theatre is attained.
Both of these new Commanders will have American and British
subordinate Commanders whose names will be announced to the world
in a few days.
During the last two days at Teheran, Marshal Stalin, Mr. Churchill
and I looked ahead--ahead to the days and months and years that
will follow Germany's defeat. We were united in determination that
Germany must be stripped of her military might and be given no
opportunity within the foreseeable future to regain that might.
The United Nations have no intention to enslave the German people.
We wish them to have a normal chance to develop, in peace, as
useful and respectable members of the European family. But we most
certainly emphasize that word "respectable"--for we intend to rid
them once and for all of Nazism and Prussian militarism and the
fantastic and disastrous notion that they constitute the "Master
Race."
We did discuss international relationships from the point of view
of big, broad objectives, rather than details. But on the basis of
what we did discuss, I can say even today that I do not think any
insoluble differences will arise among Russia, Great Britain and
the United States.
In these conferences we were concerned with basic principles--
principles which involve the security and the welfare and the
standard of living or human beings in countries large and small.
To use an American and somewhat ungrammatical colloquialism, I may
say that I "got along fine" with Marshal Stalin. He is a man who
combines a tremendous, relentless determination with a stalwart
good humor. I believe he is truly representative of the heart and
soul of Russia; and I believe that we are going to get along very
well with him and the Russian people--very well indeed.
Britain, Russia, China and the United States and their Allies
represent more than three-quarters of the total population of the
earth. As long as these four nations with great military power
stick together in determination to keep the peace there will be no
possibility of an aggressor nation arising to start another world
war.
But those four powers must be united with and cooperate with all
the freedom-loving peoples of Europe, and Asia, and Africa and the
Americas. The rights of every nation, large or small, must be
respected and guarded as jealously as are the rights of every
individual within our own republic.
The doctrine that the strong shall dominate the weak is the
doctrine of our enemies--and we reject it.
But, at the same time, we are agreed that if force is necessary to
keep international peace, international force will be applied--for
as long as it may be necessary.
It has been our steady policy--and it is certainly a common sense
policy--that the right of each nation to freedom must be measured
by the willingness of that nation to fight for freedom. And today
we salute our unseen Allies in occupied countries--the underground
resistance groups and the armies of liberation. They will provide
potent forces against our enemies, when the day of the counter-
invasion comes.
Through the development of science the world has become so much
smaller that we have had to discard the geographical yardsticks of
the past. For instance, through our early history the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans were believed to be walls of safety for the United
States. Time and distance made it physically possible, for example,
for us and for the other American Republics to obtain and maintain
our independence against infinitely stronger powers. Until recently
very few people, even military experts, thought that the day would
ever come when we might have to defend our Pacific Coast against
Japanese threats of invasion.
At the outbreak of the first World War relatively few people
thought that our ships and shipping would be menaced by German
submarines on the high seas or that the German militarists would
ever attempt to dominate any nation outside of central Europe.
After the Armistice in 1918, we thought and hoped that the
militaristic philosophy of Germany had been crushed; and being full
of the milk of human kindness we spent the next twenty years
disarming, while the Germans whined so pathetically that the other
nations permitted them--and even helped them--to rearm.
For too many years we lived on pious hopes that aggressor and
warlike nations would learn and understand and carry out the
doctrine of purely voluntary peace.
The well-intentioned but ill-fated experiments of former years did
not work. It is my hope that we will not try them again. No--that
is putting it too weakly--it is my intention to do all that I
humanly can as President and Commander-in-Chief to see to it that
these tragic mistakes shall not be made again.
There have always been cheerful idiots in this country who believed
that there would be no more war for us, if everybody in America
would only return into their homes and lock their front doors
behind them. Assuming that their motives were of the highest,
events have shown how unwilling they were to face the facts.
The overwhelming majority of all the people in the world want
peace. Most of them are fighting for the attainment of peace--not
just a truce, not just an armistice--but peace that is as strongly
enforced and as durable as mortal man can make it. If we are
willing to fight for peace now, is it not good logic that we should
use force if necessary, in the future, to keep the peace?
I believe, and I think I can say, that the other three great
nations who are fighting so magnificently to gain peace are in
complete agreement that we must be prepared to keep the peace by
force. If the people of Germany and Japan are made to realize
thoroughly that the world is not going to let them break out again,
it is possible, and, I hope, probable, that they will abandon the
philosophy of aggression--the belief that they can gain the whole
world even at the risk of losing their own souls.
I shall have more to say about the Cairo and Teheran conferences
when I make my report to the Congress in about two weeks' time.
And, on that occasion, I shall also have a great deal to say about
certain conditions here at home.
But today I wish to say that in all my travels, at home and abroad,
it is the sight of our soldiers and sailors and their magnificent
achievements which have given me the greatest inspiration and the
greatest encouragement for the future.
To the members of our armed forces, to their wives, mothers and
fathers, I want to affirm the great faith and confidence that we
have in General Marshall and in Admiral King who direct all of our
armed might throughout the world. Upon them falls the great
responsibility of planning the strategy of determining where and
when we shall fight. Both of these men have already gained high
places in American history, places which will record in that
history many evidences of their military genius that cannot be
published today.
Some of our men overseas are now spending their third Christmas far
from home. To them and to all others overseas or soon to go
overseas, I can give assurance that it is the purpose of their
government to win this war and to bring them home at the earliest
possible time.
We here in the United States had better be sure that when our
soldiers and sailors do come home they will find an America in
which they are given full opportunities for education, and
rehabilitation, social security, and employment and business
enterprise under the free American system--and that they will find
a government which, by their votes as American citizens, they have
had a full share in electing.
The American people have had every reason to know that this is a
tough and destructive war. On my trip abroad, I talked with many
military men who had faced our enemies in the field. These hard-
headed realists testify to the strength and skill and
resourcefulness of the enemy generals and men whom we must beat
before final victory is won. The war is now reaching the stage
where we shall all have to look forward to large casualty lists--
dead, wounded and missing.
War entails just that. There is no easy road to victory. And the
end is not yet in sight.
I have been back only for a week. It is fair that I should tell you
my impression. I think I see a tendency in some of our people here
to assume a quick ending of the war--that we have already gained
the victory. And, perhaps as a result of this false reasoning, I
think I discern an effort to resume or even encourage an outbreak
of partisan thinking and talking. I hope I am wrong. For, surely,
our first and most foremost tasks are all concerned with winning
the war and winning a just peace that will last for generations.
The massive offensives which are in the making both in Europe and
the Far East--will require every ounce of energy and fortitude that
we and our Allies can summon on the fighting fronts and in all the
workshops at home. As I have said before, you cannot order up a
great attack on a Monday and demand that it be delivered on
Saturday.
Less than a month ago I flew in a big Army transport plane over the
little town of Bethlehem, in Palestine.
Tonight, on Christmas Eve, all men and women everywhere who love
Christmas are thinking of that ancient town and of the star of
faith that shone there more than nineteen centuries ago.
American boys are fighting today in snow-covered mountains, in
malarial jungles, on blazing deserts; they are fighting on the far
stretches of the sea and above the clouds, and fighting for the
thing for which they struggle. I think it is best symbolized by the
message that came out of Bethlehem.
On behalf of the American people--your own people--I send this
Christmas message to you, to you who are in our armed forces:
In our hearts are prayers for you and for all your comrades in arms
who fight to rid the world of evil.
We ask God's blessing upon you--upon your fathers, mothers, wives
and children--all your loved ones at home.
We ask that the comfort of God's grace shall be granted to those
who are sick and wounded, and to those who are prisoners of war in
the hands of the enemy, waiting for the day when they will again be
free.
And we ask that God receive and cherish those who have given their
lives, and that He keep them in honor and in the grateful memory of
their countrymen forever.
God bless all of you who fight our battles on this Christmas Eve.
God bless us all. Keep us strong in our faith that we fight for a
better day for humankind--here and everywhere.
June 5, 1944.
My Friends:
Yesterday, on June fourth, 1944, Rome fell to American and Allied
troops. The first of the Axis capitals is now in our hands. One up
and two to go!
It is perhaps significant that the first of these capitals to fall
should have the longest history of all of them. The story of Rome
goes back to the time of the foundations of our civilization. We
can still see there monuments of the time when Rome and the Romans
controlled the whole of the then known world. That, too, is
significant, for the United Nations are determined that in the
future no one city and no one race will be able to control the
whole of the world.
In addition to the monuments of the older times, we also see in
Rome the great symbol of Christianity, which has reached into
almost every part of the world. There are other shrines and other
churches in many places, but the churches and shrines of Rome are
visible symbols of the faith and determination of the early saints
and martyrs that Christianity should live and become universal. And
tonight it will be a source of deep satisfaction that the freedom
of the Pope and the Vatican City is assured by the armies of the
United Nations.
It is also significant that Rome has been liberated by the armed
forces of many nations. The American and British armies--who bore
the chief burdens of battle--found at their sides our own North
American neighbors, the gallant Canadians. The fighting New
Zealanders from the far South Pacific, the courageous French and
the French Moroccans, the South Africans, the Poles and the East
Indians--all of them fought with us on the bloody approaches to the
city of Rome.
The Italians, too, forswearing a partnership in the Axis which they
never desired, have sent their troops to join us in our battles
against the German trespassers on their soil.
The prospect of the liberation of Rome meant enough to Hitler and
his generals to induce them to fight desperately at great cost of
men and materials and with great sacrifice to their crumbling
Eastern line and to their Western front. No thanks are due to them
if Rome was spared the devastation which the Germans wreaked on
Naples and other Italian cities. The Allied general maneuvered so
skillfully that the Nazis could only have stayed long enough to
damage Rome at the risk of losing their armies.
But Rome is of course more than a military objective.
Ever since before the days of the Caesars, Rome has stood as a
symbol of authority. Rome was the Republic. Rome was the Empire.
Rome was and is in a sense the Catholic Church, and Rome was the
capital of a United Italy. Later, unfortunately, a quarter of a
century ago, Rome became the seat of Fascism--one of the three
capitals of the Axis.
For this quarter century the Italian people were enslaved. They
were degraded by the rule of Mussolini from Rome. They will mark
its liberation with deep emotion. In the north of Italy, the people
are still dominated and threatened by the Nazi overlords and their
Fascist puppets.
Our victory comes at an excellent time, while our Allied forces are
poised for another strike at western Europe--and while the armies
of other Nazi soldiers nervously await our assault. And in the
meantime our gallant Russian Allies continue to make their power
felt more and more.
From a strictly military standpoint, we had long ago accomplished
certain of the main objectives of our Italian campaign--the control
of the islands--the major islands--the control of the sea lanes of
the Mediterranean to shorten our combat and supply lines, and the
capture of the airports, such as the great airports of Foggia,
south of Rome, from which we have struck telling blows on the
continent--the whole of the continent all the way up to the Russian
front.
It would be unwise to inflate in our own minds the military
importance of the capture of Rome. We shall have to push through a
long period of greater effort and fiercer fighting before we get
into Germany itself. The Germans have retreated thousands of miles,
all the way from the gates of Cairo, through Libya and Tunisia and
Sicily and Southern Italy. They have suffered heavy losses, but not
great enough yet to cause collapse.
Germany has not yet been driven to surrender. Germany has not yet
been driven to the point where she will be unable to recommence
world conquest a generation hence.
Therefore, the victory still lies some distance ahead. That
distance will be covered in due time--have no fear of that. But it
will be tough and it will be costly, as I have told you many, many
times.
In Italy the people had lived so long under the corrupt rule of
Mussolini that, in spite of the tinsel at the top--you have seen
the pictures of him--their economic condition had grown steadily
worse. Our troops have found starvation, malnutrition, disease, a
deteriorating education and lowered public health--all by-products
of the Fascist misrule.
The task of the Allies in occupation has been stupendous. We have
had to start at the very bottom, assisting local governments to
reform on democratic lines. We have had to give them bread to
replace that which was stolen out of their mouths by the Germans.
We have had to make it possible for the Italians to raise and use
their own local crops. We have to help them cleanse their schools
of Fascist trappings.
I think the American people as a whole approve the salvage of these
human beings, who are only now learning to walk in a new atmosphere
of freedom.
Some of us may let our thoughts run to the financial cost of it.
Essentially it is what we can call a form of relief. And at the
same time, we hope that this relief will be an investment for the
future--an investment that will pay dividends by eliminating
Fascism, by ending any Italian desires to start another war of
aggression in the future. And that means that they are dividends
which justify such an investment, because they are additional
supports for world peace.
The Italian people are capable of self-government. We do not lose
sight of their virtues as a peace-loving nation.
We remember the many centuries in which the Italians were leaders
in the arts and sciences, enriching the lives of all mankind.
We remember the great sons of the Italian people--Galileo and
Marconi, Michelangelo and Dante--and incidentally that fearless
discoverer who typifies the courage of Italy--Christopher Columbus.
Italy cannot grow in stature by seeking to build up a great
militaristic empire. Italians have been overcrowded within their
own territories, but they do not need to try to conquer the lands
of other peoples in order to find the breath of life. Other peoples
may not want to be conquered.
In the past, Italians have come by the millions into the United
States. They have been welcomed, they have prospered, they have
become good citizens, community and governmental leaders. They are
not Italian-Americans. They are Americans--Americans of Italian
descent.
The Italians have gone in great numbers to the other Americas--
Brazil and the Argentine, for example--hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of them. They have gone to many other nations in every
continent of the world, giving of their industry and their talents,
and achieving success and the comfort of good living, and good
citizenship.
Italy should go on as a great mother nation, contributing to the
culture and the progress and the good will of all mankind--
developing her special talents in the arts and crafts and sciences,
and preserving her historic and cultural heritage for the benefit
of all peoples.
We want and expect the help of the future Italy toward lasting
peace. All the other nations opposed to Fascism and Nazism ought to
help to give Italy a chance.
The Germans, after years of domination in Rome, left the people in
the Eternal City on the verge of starvation. We and the British
will do and are doing everything we can to bring them relief.
Anticipating the fall of Rome, we made preparations to ship food
supplies to the city, but, of course, it should be borne in mind
that the needs are so great, the transportation requirements of our
armies so heavy, that improvement must be gradual. But we have
already begun to save the lives of the men, women and children of
Rome.
This, I think, is an example of the efficiency of your machinery of
war. The magnificent ability and energy of the American people in
growing the crops, building the merchant ships, in making and
collecting the cargoes, in getting the supplies over thousands of
miles of water, and thinking ahead to meet emergencies--all this
spells, I think, an amazing efficiency on the part of our armed
forces, all the various agencies working with them, and American
industry and labor as a whole.
No great effort like this can be a hundred percent perfect, but the
batting average is very, very high.
And so I extend the congratulations and thanks tonight of the
American people to General Alexander, who has been in command of
the whole Italian operation; to our General Clark and General Leese
of the Fifth and the Eighth Armies; to General Wilson, the Supreme
Allied commander of the Mediterranean theater, to General Devers,
his American Deputy; to General Eaker; to Admirals Cunningham and
Hewitt; and to all their brave officers and men.
May God bless them and watch over them and over all of our gallant,
fighting men.
June 23, 1944.
All our fighting men overseas today have their appointed stations
on the far-flung battlefronts of the world. We at home have ours
too. We need, we are proud of, our fighting men--most decidedly.
But, during the anxious times ahead, let us not forget that they
need us too.
It goes almost without saying that we must continue to forge the
weapons of victory--the hundreds of thousands of items, large and
small, essential to the waging of war. This has been the major task
from the very start, and it is still a major task. This is the very
worst time for any war worker to think of leaving his machine or to
look for a peacetime job.
And it goes almost without saying, too, that we must continue to
provide our government with the funds necessary for waging war not
only by the payment of taxes--which, after all, is an obligation of
American citizenship--but also by the purchase of war bonds--an act
of free choice which every citizen has to make for himself under
the guidance of his own conscience.
Whatever else any of us may be doing, the purchase of war bonds and
stamps is something all of us can do and should do to help win the
war.
I am happy to report tonight that it is something which nearly
everyone seems to be doing. Although there are now approximately
sixty-seven million persons who have or earn some form of income,
eighty-one million persons or their children have already bought
war bonds. They have bought more than six hundred million
individual bonds. Their purchases have totaled more than thirty-two
billion dollars. These are the purchases of individual men, women,
and children. Anyone who would have said this was possible a few
years ago would have been put down as a starry-eyed visionary. But
of such visions is the stuff of America fashioned.
Of course, there are always pessimists with us everywhere, a few
here and a few there. I am reminded of the fact that after the fall
of France in 1940 I asked the Congress for the money for the
production by the United States of fifty thousand airplanes that
year. Well, I was called crazy--it was said that the figure was
fantastic; that it could not be done. And yet today we are building
airplanes at the rate of one hundred thousand a year.
There is a direct connection between the bonds you have bought and
the stream of men and equipment now rushing over the English
Channel for the liberation of Europe. There is a direct connection
between your bonds and every part of this global war today.
Tonight, therefore, on the opening of this Fifth War Loan Drive, it
is appropriate for us to take a broad look at this panorama of
world war, for the success or the failure of the drive is going to
have so much to do with the speed with which we can accomplish
victory and the peace.
While I know that the chief interest tonight is centered on the
English Channel and on the beaches and farms and the cities of
Normandy, we should not lose sight of the fact that our armed
forces are engaged on other battlefronts all over the world, and
that no one front can be considered alone without its proper
relation to all.
It is worth while, therefore, to make over-all comparisons with the
past. Let us compare today with just two years ago--June, 1942. At
that time Germany was in control of practically all of Europe, and
was steadily driving the Russians back toward the Ural Mountains.
Germany was practically in control of North Africa and the
Mediterranean, and was beating at the gates of the Suez Canal and
the route to India. Italy was still an important military and
supply factor--as subsequent, long campaigns have proved.
Japan was in control of the western Aleutian Islands; and in the
South Pacific was knocking at the gates of Australia and New
Zealand--and also was threatening India. Japan had seized control
of most of the Central Pacific.
American armed forces on land and sea and in the air were still
very definitely on the defensive, and in the building-up stage. Our
allies were bearing the heat and the brunt of the attack.
In 1942 Washington heaved a sigh of relief that the first war bond
issue had been cheerfully oversubscribed by the American people.
Way back in those days, two year ago, America was still hearing
from many "amateur strategists" and political critics, some of whom
were doing more good for Hitler than for the United States--two
years ago.
But today we are on the offensive all over the world--bringing the
attack to our enemies.
In the Pacific, by relentless submarine and naval attacks, and
amphibious thrusts, and ever-mounting air attack, we have deprived
the Japs of the power to check the momentum of our ever-growing and
ever-advancing military forces. We have reduced the Japs' shipping
by more than three million tons. We have overcome their original
advantage in the air. We have cut off from a return to the homeland
tens of thousands of beleaguered Japanese troops who now face
starvation or ultimate surrender. And we have cut down their naval
strength, so that for many months they have avoided all risk of
encounter with our naval forces.
True, we still have a long way to go to Tokyo. But, carrying out
our original strategy of eliminating our European enemy first and
then turning all our strength to the Pacific, we can force the
Japanese to unconditional surrender or to national suicide much
more rapidly than has been thought possible.
Turning now to our enemy who is first on the list for destruction--
Germany has her back against the wall-- in fact three walls at
once!
In the south--we have broken the German hold on central Italy. On
June 4, the city of Rome fell to the Allied armies. And allowing
the enemy no respite, the Allies are now pressing hard on the heels
of the Germans as they retreat northwards in ever-growing
confusion.
On the east--our gallant Soviet allies have driven the enemy back
from the lands which were invaded three years ago. The great Soviet
armies are now initiating crushing blows.
Overhead--vast Allied air fleets of bombers and fighters have been
waging a bitter air war over Germany and Western Europe. They have
had two major objectives: to destroy German war industries which
maintain the German armies and air forces; and to shoot the German
Luftwaffe out of the air. As a result, German production has been
whittled down continuously, and the German fighter forces now have
only a fraction of their former power.
This great air campaign, strategic and tactical, is going to
continue--with increasing power.
And on the west--the hammer blow which struck the coast of France
last Tuesday morning, less than a week ago, was the culmination of
many months of careful planning and strenuous preparation.
Millions of tons of weapons and supplies, and hundreds of thousands
of men assembled in England, are now being poured into the great
battle in Europe.
I think that from the standpoint of our enemy we have achieved the
impossible. We have broken through their supposedly impregnable
wall in northern France. But the assault has been costly in men and
costly in materials. Some of our landings were desperate
adventures; but from advices received so far, the losses were lower
than our commanders had estimated would occur. We have established
a firm foothold. We are now prepared to meet the inevitable
counterattacks of the Germans-- with power and with confidence. And
we all pray that we will have far more, soon, than a firm foothold.
Americans have all worked together to make this day possible.
The liberation forces now streaming across the Channel, and up the
beaches and through the fields and the forests of France are using
thousands and thousands of planes and ships and tanks and heavy
guns. They are carrying with them many thousands of items needed
for their dangerous, stupendous undertaking. There is a shortage of
nothing--nothing! And this must continue.
What has been done in the United States since those days of 1940--
when France fell--in raising and equipping and transporting our
fighting forces, and in producing weapons and supplies for war, has
been nothing short of a miracle. It was largely due to American
teamwork-- teamwork among capital and labor and agriculture,
between the armed forces and the civilian economy--indeed among all
of them.
And every one--every man or woman or child--who bought a war bond
helped--and helped mightily!
There are still many people in the United States who have not
bought war bonds, or who have not bought as many as they can
afford. Everyone knows for himself whether he falls into that
category or not. In some cases his neighbors know too. To the
consciences of those people, this appeal by the President of the
United States is very much in order.
For all of the things which we use in this war, everything we send
to our fighting allies, costs money--a lot of money. One sure way
every man, woman, and child can keep faith with those who have
given, and are giving, their lives, is to provide the money which
is needed to win the final victory.
I urge all Americans to buy war bonds without stint. Swell the
mighty chorus to bring us nearer to victory!