The decisions reached and the actual plans made at Casablanca were not confined
to any one theater of war or to any one continent or ocean or sea. Before
this year is out, it will be made known to the world-in actions rather
than words-that the Casablanca Conference produced plenty of news; and
it will be bad news for the Germans and Italians-and the Japanese.
We have lately concluded a long, hard battle in the
Southwest Pacific and we have made notable gains. That battle started
in the Solomons and New Guinea last summer. It has demonstrated our
superior power in planes and, most importantly, in the fighting qualities
of our individual soldiers and sailors.
American armed forces in the Southwest Pacific are
receiving powerful aid from Australia and New Zealand and also directly
from the British themselves.
We do not expect to spend the time it would take to
bring Japan to final defeat merely by inching our way forward from island
to island across the vast expanse of the Pacific.
Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will
be taken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Important actions
will be taken in the skies over China-and over Japan itself.
The discussions at Casablanca have been continued
in Chungking with the Generalissimo by General Arnold and have resulted
in definite plans for offensive operations.
There are many roads which lead right to Tokyo. We
shall neglect none of them.
In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster,
the Axis propagandist are trying all of their old tricks in order to
divide the United Nations. They seek to create the idea that if we win
this war, Russia, England, China, and the United States are going to
get into a cat-and-dog fight.
This is their final effort to turn one nation against
another, in the vain hope that they may settle with one or two at a
time-that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be duped
into making "deals" at the expense of our Allies.
To these panicky attempts to escape the consequences
of their crimes we say-all the United Nations say-that the only terms
on which we shall deal with an Axis government or any Axis factions
are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca: "Unconditional Surrender."
In our uncompromising policy we mean no harm to the common people of
the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution
in full upon their guilty, barbaric leaders...
In the years of the American and French revolutions
the fundamental principle guiding our democracies was established. The
cornerstone of our whole democratic edifice was the principle that from
the people and the people alone flows the authority of government.
It is one of our war aims, as expressed in the Atlantic
Charter, that the conquered populations of today be again the masters
of their destiny. There must be no doubt anywhere that it is the unalterable
purpose of the United Nations to restore to conquered peoples their
sacred rights.