In fulfilling my duty to report upon the state of
the Union, I am proud to say to you that the spirit of the American
people was never higher than it is today-the Union was never more closely
knit together-this country was never more deeply determined to face
the solemn tasks before it.
The response of the American people has been instantaneous.
It will be sustained until our security is assured.
Exactly one year ago today I said to this Congress:
"When the dictators are ready to make war upon us, they will not
wait for an act of war on our part . . . They-not we-will choose the
time and the place and the method of their attack."
We now know their choice of the time: a peaceful Sunday
morning-December 7, 1941.
We know their choice of the place: an American outpost
in the Pacific.
We know their choice of the method: the method of Hitler himself.
Japan's scheme of conquest goes back half a century.
It was not merely a policy of seeking living room: it was a plan which
included the subjugation of all the peoples in the Far East and in the
islands of the Pacific, and the domination of that ocean by Japanese
military and naval control of the western coasts of North, Central and
South America.
The development of this ambitious conspiracy was marked
by the war against China in 1894; the subsequent occupation of Korea;
the war against Russia in 1904; the illegal fortification of the mandated
Pacific islands following 1920; the seizure of Manchuria in 1931; and
the invasion of China in 1937.
A similar policy of criminal conquest was adopted
by Italy. The Fascists first revealed their imperial designs in Libya
and Tripoli. In 1935 they seized Abyssinia. Their goal was the domination
of all North Africa, Egypt, parts of France, and the entire Mediterranean
world.
But the dreams of empire of the Japanese and Fascist
leaders were modest in comparison with the Gargantuan aspirations of
Hitler and his Nazis. Even before they came to power in 1933, their
plans for conquest had been drawn. Those plans provided for ultimate
domination, not of any one section of the world but of the whole earth
and all the oceans on it.
With Hitler's formation of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo alliance,
all of these plans of conquest became a single plan. Under this, in
addition to her own schemes of conquest, Japan's role was to cut off
our supply of weapons of war to Britain, Russia, and China-weapons which
increasingly were speeding the day of Hitler's doom. The act of Japan
at Pearl Harbor was intend to stun us-to terrify us to such an extent
that we would divert our industrial and military strength to the Pacific
area or even to our own continental defense.
The plan failed in its purpose. We have not been stunned.
We have not been terrified or confused. This reassembling of the Seventy-seventh
Congress is proof of that; for the mood of quiet, grim resolution which
here prevails bodes ill for those who conspired and collaborated to
murder world peace.
That mood is stronger than any mere desire for revenge.
It expresses the will of the American people to make very certain that
the world will never so suffer again.
Admittedly, we have been faced with hard choices.
It was bitter, for example, not to be able to relieve the heroic defenders
of Wake Island. It was bitter for us not to be able to land a million
men and a thousand ships in the Philippine Islands.
But this adds only to our determination to see to
it that the Stars and Stripes will fly again over Wake and Guam; and
that the brave people of the Philippines will be rid of Japanese imperialism,
and will live in freedom, security, and independence.
Powerful and offensive actions must and will be taken
in proper time. The consolidations of the United Nations' total war
effort against our common enemies is being achieved.
That is the purpose of conferences which have been
held during the past two weeks in Washington, in Moscow, and in Chungking.
That is the primary objective of the declaration of solidarity signed
in Washington on January 1st, 1942, by 26 nations united against the
Axis powers.
Difficult choices may have to be made in the months
to come. We will not shrink from such decisions. We and those united
with us will make those decisions with courage and determination.
Plans have been laid here and in the other capitals
for coordinated and cooperative action by all the United Nations-military
action and economic action. Already we have established unified command
of land, sea, and air forces in the southwestern Pacific theater of
war. There will be a continuation of conferences and consultations among
military staffs, so that the plans and operations of each will fit into
a general strategy designed to crush the enemy. We shall not fight isolated
wars-each nation going its own way. These 26 nations are united-not
in spirit and determination alone but in the broad conduct of the war
in all its phases.
For the first time since the Japanese and the Fascists
and the Nazis started along their blood-stained course of conquest they
now face the fact that superior forces are assembling against them.
Gone forever are the days when the aggressors could attack and destroy
their victims one by one without unity of resistance. We of the United
Nations will so dispose our forces that we can strike at the common
enemy wherever the greatest damage can be done.
The militarists in Berlin and Tokyo started this war.
But the massed, angered forces of common humanity will finish it.
Destruction of the material and spiritual centers
of civilization-this has been and still is the purpose of Hitler and
his Italian and Japanese chessmen. They would wreck the power of the
British Commonwealth and Russia and China and the Netherlands-and then
combine all their forces to achieve their ultimate goal, the conquest
of the United States.
They know that victory for us means victory for freedom.
They know that victory for us means victory for the
institution of democracy-the ideal of the family, the simple principles
of common decency and humanity.
They know that victory for us means victory for religion.
And they could not tolerate that. The world is too
small to provide adequate "living room" for both Hitler and
God. In proof of that, the Nazis have now announced their plan for enforcing
their new German, pagan religion throughout the world-the plan by which
the Holy Bible and the Cross of Mercy would be displaced by MEIN KAMPF
and the swastika and the naked sword.
Our own objectives are clear: the objective of smashing
the militarism imposed by warlords upon their enslaved peoples-the objective
of liberating the subjugated nations-the objective of establishing and
securing freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want,
and freedom from fear everywhere in the world.
We shall not stop short of these objectives-nor shall
we be satisfied merely to gain them and then call it a day. I know that
I speak for the American people-and I have good reason to believe I
speak also for all the other peoples who fight with us-when I say that
this time we are determined not only to win the war but also to maintain
the security of the peace which will follow.
But modern methods of warfare make it a task not only
of shooting and fighting, but an even more urgent one of working and
producing.
Victory requires the actual weapons of war and the
means of transporting them to a dozen points of combat.
It will not be sufficient for us and the other United
Nations to produce a slightly superior supply of munitions to that of
Germany, Japan, Italy, and the stolen industries in the countries which
they have overrun.
The superiority of the United Nations in munitions
and ships must be overwhelming-so overwhelming that the Axis nations
can never hope to catch up with it. In order to attain this overwhelming
superiority the United Nations must build planes and tanks and guns
and ships to the utmost limit of our national capacity. We have the
ability and capacity to produce arms not only for our own forces but
also for the armies, navies, and air forces fighting on our side.
And our overwhelming superiority of armament must
be adequate to put weapons of war at the proper time into the hands
of those men in the conquered nations, who stand ready to seize the
first opportunity to revolt against their German and Japanese aggressors,
and against the traitors in their own ranks, known by the already infamous
name of "Quislings." As we get guns to the patriots in those
lands, they too will fire shots heard 'round the world.
This production of ours in the United States must
be raised far above its present levels, even though it will mean the
dislocation of the lives and occupations of millions of our own people.
We must raise our sights all along the production-line. Let no man say
It cannot be done. It must be done-and we have undertaken to do it.
I have just sent a letter of directive to the appropriate
departments and agencies of our Government, ordering that immediate
steps be taken:
1. To increase our production rate of airplanes so
rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 60,000 planes, 10,000
more than the goal set a year and a half ago. This includes 45,000 combat
planes-bombers, dive bombers, pursuit planes. The rate of increase will
be continued, so that next year, 1943 we shall produce 125,000 planes,
including 100,000 combat planes.
2. To increase our production rate of tanks so rapidly
that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 45,000 tanks; and to continue
that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall produce 75,000 tanks.
3. To increase our production rate of anti-aircraft
guns so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall produce 20,000 of
them; and to continue that increase, so that next year, 1943, we shall
produce 35,000 anti-aircraft guns.
4. To increase our production rate of merchant ships
so rapidly that in this year, 1942, we shall build 8,000,000 deadweight
tons as compared with a 1941 production of 1,100,000. We shall continue
that increase so that next year, 1943, we shall build 10,000,000 tons.
These figures and similar figures for a multitude
of other implements of war will give the Japanese and Nazis a little
idea of just what they accomplished in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Our task is hard-our task is unprecedented-and the
time is short. We must strain every existing armament-producing facility
to the utmost. We must convert every available plant and tool to war
production. That goes all the way from the greatest plants to the smallest-from
the huge automobile industry to the village machine shop.
Production for war is based on men and women-the human;
hands and brains which collectively we call labor. Our workers stand
ready to work long hours; to turn out more in a day's work; to keep
the wheels turning and the fires burning 24 hours a day and 7 days a
week. They realize well that on the speed and efficiency of their work
depend the lives of their sons and their brothers on the fighting fronts.
Production for war is based on metals and raw materials-steel,
copper, rubber, aluminum, zinc, tin. Greater and greater quantities
of them will have to be diverted to war purposes. Civilian use of them
will have to be cut further and still further-and, in many cases, completely
eliminated.
War costs money. So far, we have hardly even begun
to pay for it. We have devoted only 15% of our national income to our
national defense. As will appear in my budget message tomorrow, our
war program for the coming fiscal year will cost 56 billion dollars,
or, in other words, more than one-half of the estimated annual national
income. This means taxes and bonds, and bonds and taxes. It means cutting
luxuries and other non-essentials. In a word, it means an "all-out"
war by individual effort and family effort in a united country.
Only this all-out scale of production will hasten
the ultimate all-out victory. Speed will count. Lost ground can always
be regained-lost time never. Speed will save lives; speed will save
this Nation which is in peril; speed will save our freedom and civilization-and
slowness has never been an American characteristic.
As the United States goes into its full stride, we
must always be on guard against misconceptions which will arise naturally
or which will be planted among us by our enemies.
We must guard against complacency. We must not underrate
the enemy. He is powerful and cunning-and cruel and ruthless. He will
stop at nothing which gives him a chance to kill and to destroy. He
has trained his people to believe that their highest perfection is achieved
by waging war. For many years he has prepared for this very conflict-planning,
plotting, training, arming, fighting. We have already tasted defeat.
We may suffer further setbacks. We must face the fact of a hard war,
a long war, a bloody war, a costly war.
We must, on the other hand, guard against defeatism.
That has been one of the chief weapons of Hitler's propaganda machine-used
time and again with deadly results. It will not be used successfully
on the American people.
We must guard against divisions among ourselves and
among all the other United Nations. We must be particularly vigilant
against racial discrimination in any of its ugly forms. Hitler will
try again to breed mistrust and suspicion between one individual and
another, one group and another, one race and another, one government
and another. He will try to use the same technique of falsehood and
rumor-mongering with which he divided France from Britain He is trying
to do this with us even now. But he will find a unity of will and purpose
against him, which will persevere until the destruction of all his black
designs upon the freedom and safety of the people of the world.
We cannot wage this war in a defensive spirit. As
our power and our resources are fully mobilized, we shall carry the
attack against the enemy-we shall hit him and hit him again wherever
and whenever we can reach him.
We must keep him far from our shores, for we intend
to bring this battle to him on his own home grounds.
American armed forces must be used at any place in
all the world where it seems advisable to engage the forces of the enemy.
In some cases these operations will be defensive, in order to protect
key positions. In other cases, these operations will be offensive, in
order to strike at the common enemy, with a view to his complete encirclement
and eventual total defeat.
American armed forces will operate at many points
in the Far East.
American armed forces will be on all the oceans-helping
to guard the essential communications which are vital to the United
Nations.
American land and air and sea forces will take stations
in the British Isles-which constitute an essential fortress in this
world struggle.
American armed forces will help to protect this hemisphere-and
also bases outside this hemisphere which could be used for an attack
on the Americas.
If any of our enemies from Europe or from Asia attempt
long-range raids by "Suicide" squadrons of bombing planes,
they will do so only in the hope of terrorizing our people and disrupting
our morale. Our people are not afraid of that. We know that we may have
to pay a heavy price for freedom. We will pay this price with a will.
Whatever the price, it is a thousand times worth it. No matter what
our enemies in their desperation may attempt to do to us-we will say,
as the people of London have said, "We can take it." And what's
more, we can give it back-and we will give
it back-with compound interest.
When our enemies challenged our country to stand up
and fight, they challenged each and every one of us. And each and every
one of us has accepted the challenge-for himself and for the Nation.
There were only some 400 United States Marines who
in the heroic and historic defense of Wake Island inflicted such great
losses on the enemy. Some of those men were killed in action; and others
are now prisoners of war. When the survivors of that great fight are
liberated and restored to their homes, they will learn that one hundred
and thirty million of their fellow citizens have been inspired to render
their own full share of service and sacrifice.
Our men on the fighting fronts have already proved
that Americans today are just as rugged and just as tough as any of
the heroes whose exploits we celebrate on the Fourth of July.
Many people ask, "When will this war end?"
There is only one answer to that. It will end just as soon as we make
it end, by our combined efforts, our combined strength, our combined
determination to fight through and work through until the end-the end
of militarism in Germany and Italy and Japan. Most certainly we shall
not settle for less.
That is the spirit in which discussions have been
conducted during the visit of the British Prime Minister to Washington.
Mr. Churchill and I understand each other, our motives and our purposes.
Together, during the past two weeks, we have faced squarely the major
military and economic problems of this greatest world war.
All in our Nation have been cheered by Mr. Churchill's
visit. We have been deeply stirred by his great message to us. We wish
him a safe return to his home. He is welcome in our midst, now and in
days to come.
We are fighting on the same side with the British
people, who fought alone for long, terrible months and withstood the
enemy with fortitude and tenacity and skill.
We are fighting on the same side with the Russian
people who have seen the Nazi hordes swarm up to the very gates of Moscow
and who, with almost superhuman will and courage, have forced the invaders
back into retreat.
We are fighting on the same side as the brave people
of China who for four and a half long years have withstood bombs and
starvation and have whipped the invaders time and again in spite of
superior Japanese equipment and arms.
We are fighting on the same side as the indomitable
Dutch.
We are fighting on the same side as all the other
governments in exile, whom Hitler and all his armies and all his Gestapo
have not been able to conquer.
But we of the United Nations are not making all of
this sacrifice of human effort and human lives to return to the kind
of world we had after the last world war.
We are fighting today for security for progress, and
for peace, not only for ourselves but for all men, not only for one
generation but for all generations. We are fighting to cleanse the world
of ancient evils, ancient ills.
Our enemies are guided by brutal cynicism, by unholy
contempt for the human race. We are inspired by a faith which goes back
all the years to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis:
"God created man in His own image."
We on our side are striving to be true to that divine
heritage.
We are fighting, as our fathers have fought, to uphold
the doctrine that all men are equal in the sight of God. Those on the
other side are fighting to destroy this deep belief and to create a
world in their own image-a world of tyranny and cruelty and serfdom.
That is the conflict that day and night now pervades
our lives. No compromise can end that conflict. There never has been-there
never can be-successful compromise between good and evil. Only total
victory can reward the champions of tolerance and decency and freedom
and faith.
FRANKLIN D.
ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE
January 6, 1942