In considering the state of the nation, the war and
the peace that is to follow are naturally uppermost in the minds of
all of us.
This war must be waged — it is being waged —
with the greatest and most persistent intensity. Everything we are and
have is at stake. Everything we are and have will be given. American
men, fighting far from home, have already won victories which the world
will never forget.
We have no question of the ultimate victory. We have
no question of the cost. Our losses will be heavy.
We and our Allies will go on fighting together to
ultimate total victory. We have seen a year marked, on the whole, by
substantial progress toward victory, even though the year ended with
a set-back for our arms, when the Germans launched a ferocious counter-attack
into Luxembourg and Belgium with the obvious objective of cutting our
line in the center.
Our men have fought with indescribable and unforgettable
gallantry under most difficult conditions and our German enemies have
sustained considerable losses while failing to obtain their objectives.
The high tide of this German effort was reached two
days after Christmas. Since then we have reassumed the offensive, rescued
the isolated garrison at Bastogne and forced a German withdrawal along
the whole line of the salient.
The speed with which we recovered from this savage
attack was largely possible because we have one supreme commander in
complete control of all the Allied armies in France. General Eisenhower
has faced this period of trial with admirable calm and resolution and
with steadily increasing success. He has my complete confidence.
Further desperate attempts may well be made to break
our lines, to slow our progress. We must never make the mistake of assuming
that the Germans are beaten until the last Nazi has surrendered.
And I would express another most serious warning against
the poisonous effects of enemy propaganda.
The wedge that the Germans attempted to drive in western
Europe was less dangerous in actual terms of winning the war than the
wedges which they are continually attempting to drive between ourselves
and our Allies.
Every little rumor which is intended to weaken our
faith in our Allies is like an actual enemy agent in our midst-seeking
to sabotage our war effort. There are, here and there, evil and baseless
rumors against the Russians, rumors against the British, rumors against
our own American commanders in the field.
When you examine these rumors closely, you will observe
that every one of them bears the same trademark-"Made in Germany."
We must resist this divisive propaganda-we must destroy
it-with the same strength and the same determination that our fighting
men are displaying as they resist and destroy the Panzer divisions.
In Europe, we shall resume the attack and-despite
temporary setbacks here or there-we shall continue the attack relentlessly
until Germany is completely defeated.
It is appropriate at this time to review the basic
strategy which has guided us through three years of war and which will
lead, eventually, to total victory.
The tremendous effort of the first years of this war
was directed toward the concentration of men and supplies in the various
theatres of action at the points where they could hurt our enemies most.
It was an effort-in the language of the military men-of
deployment of our forces. Many battles-essential battles-were fought;
many victories-vital victories-were won. But these battles and these
victories were fought and won to hold back the attacking enemy and to
put us in positions from which we and our Allies could deliver the final,
decisive blows.
In the beginning our most important military task
was to prevent our enemies-the strongest and most violently aggressive
powers that ever have threatened civilization-from winning decisive
victories. But even while we were conducting defensive, delaying actions,
we were looking forward to the time when we could wrest the initiative
from our enemies and place our superior resources of men and materials
into direct competition with them.
It was plain then that the defeat of either enemy
would require the massing of overwhelming forces-ground, sea and air-in
positions from which we and our Allies could strike directly against
the enemy homelands and destroy the Nazi and Japanese war machines.
In the case of Japan, we had to await the completion
of extensive preliminary operations-operations designed to establish
secure supply lines through the Japanese outer-zone defenses. This called
for overwhelming sea power and air power, supported by ground forces
strategically employed against isolated outpost garrisons.
Always-from the very day we were attacked-it was right
militarily as well as morally to reject the arguments of those short-sighted
people who would have had us throw Britain and Russia to the Nazi wolves
and concentrate against the Japanese. Such people urged that we fight
a purely defensive work against Japan while allowing the domination
of all the rest of the world by nazism and fascism.
In the European theatre, the necessary bases for the
massing of ground and air Dower against Germany were already available
in Great Britain. In the Mediterranean area we could begin ground operations
against major elements of the German Army as rapidly as we could put
troops in the field, first in North Africa and then in Italy.
Therefore, our decision was made to concentrate the
bulk of our ground and air forces against Germany until her utter defeat.
That decision was based on all these factors; and it was also based
on the realization that, of our two enemies, Germany would be more able
to digest quickly her conquests, the more able quickly to convert the
manpower and resources of her conquered territory into a war potential.
We had in Europe two active and indomitable Allies-Britain
and the Soviet Union-and there were also the heroic resistance movements
in the occupied countries, constantly engaging and harassing the Germans.
We cannot forget how Britain held the line, alone,
in 1940 and 1941 and at the same time, despite ferocious bombardment
from the air, built up a tremendous armaments industry which enabled
her to take the offensive at El Alamein in 1942.
We cannot forget the heroic defense of Moscow and
Leningrad and Stalingrad or the tremendous Russian offensives of 1943
and 1944 which destroyed formidable German armies.
Nor can we forget how, for more than seven long years,
the Chinese people have been sustaining the barbarous attacks of the
Japanese and containing large enemy forces on the vast areas of the
Asiatic mainland.
In the future we must never forget the lesson that
we have learned-that we must have friends who will work with us in peace
as they have fought at our side in war.
As a result of the combined effort of the Allied forces,
great military victories were achieved in 1944: the liberation of France,
Belgium, Greece and parts of the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia
and Czechoslovakia, the surrender of Rumania and Bulgaria, the invasion
of Germany itself and Hungary, the steady march through the Pacific
islands to the Philippines, Guam and Saipan and the beginnings of a
mighty air offensive against the Japanese islands.
Now, as this seventy-ninth Congress meets, we have
reached the most critical phase of the war.
The greatest victory of the last year was, of course,
the successful breach on June 6, 1944, of the German "impregnable"
sea wall of Europe and the victorious sweep of the Allied forces through
France and Belgium and Luxembourg-almost to the Rhine itself.
The cross-Channel invasion of the Allied armies was
the greatest amphibious operation in the history of the world. It overshadowed
all other operations in this or any other war in its immensity. Its
success is a tribute to the fighting courage of the soldiers who stormed
the beaches, to the sailors and merchant seamen who put the soldiers
ashore and kept them supplied and to the military and naval leaders
who achieved a real miracle of planning and execution. And it is also
a tribute to the ability of two nations, Britain and America, to plan
together and work together and fight together in perfect cooperation
and perfect harmony.
This cross-Channel invasion was followed in August
by a second great amphibious operation, landing troops in southern France.
In this, the same cooperation and the same harmony existed between the
American, French and other Allied forces based in North Africa and Italy.
The success of the two invasions is a tribute also
to the ability of many men and women to maintain silence when a few
careless words would have imperiled the lives of hundreds of thousands
and would have jeopardized the whole vast undertaking.
These two great operations were made possible by success
in the battle of the Atlantic.
Without this success over German submarines we could
not have built up our invasion forces or air forces in Great Britain,
nor could we have kept a steady stream of supplies flowing to them after
they had landed in France.
The Nazis, however, may succeed in improving their
submarines and their crews. They have recently increased their U-boat
activity. The Battle of the Atlantic-like all campaigns in this war-demands
eternal vigilance. But the British, Canadian and other Allied navies,
together with our own, are constantly on the alert.
The tremendous operations in western Europe have overshadowed
in the public mind the less spectacular but vitally important Italian
front. Its place in the strategic conduct of the war in Europe has been
obscured and-by some people, unfortunately-underrated.
It is important that any misconception on that score
be corrected-now.
What the Allied forces in Italy are doing is a well-considered
part of our strategy in Europe, now aimed at only one objective-the
total defeat of the Germans. These valiant forces in Italy are continuing
to keep a substantial portion of the German Army under constant pressure-including
some twenty first-line German divisions and the necessary supply and
transport and replacement troops-all of which our enemies need so badly
elsewhere.
Over very difficult terrain and through adverse weather
conditions, our Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army-reinforced by
units from other United Nations, including a brave and well-equipped
unit of the Brazilian Army-have, in the past year, pushed north through
bloody Cassino and the Anzio beachhead and through Rome until now they
occupy heights overlooking the valley of the Po.
The greatest tribute which can be paid to the courage
and fighting ability of these splendid soldiers in Italy is to point
out that although their strength is about equal to that of the Germans
they oppose, the Allies have been continuously on the offensive.
That pressure, that offensive, by our troops in Italy
will continue.
The American people-and every soldier now fighting
in the Apennines-should remember that the Italian front has not lost
any of the importance which it had in the days when it was the only
Allied front in Europe.
In the Pacific during the past year, we have conducted
the fastest-moving offensive in the history of modern warfare. We have
driven the enemy back more than 3,000 miles across the central Pacific.
A year ago, our conquest of Tarawa was a little more
than a month old.
A year ago, we were preparing for our invasion of
Kwajalein, the second of our great strides across the central Pacific
to the Philippines.
A year ago, General MacArthur was still fighting in
New Guinea almost 1,500 miles from his present position in the Philippine
Islands.
We now have firmly established bases in the Mariana
Islands from which our Super-Fortresses bomb Tokyo itself-and will continue
to blast Japan in ever-increasing numbers.
Japanese forces in the Philippines have been cut in
two. There is still hard fighting ahead-costly fighting. But the liberation
of the Philippines will mean that Japan has been largely cut off from
her conquest in the East Indies.
The landing of our troops on Leyte was the largest
amphibious operation thus far conducted in the Pacific.
Moreover, these landings drew the Japanese fleet into
the first great sea battle which Japan has risked in almost two years.
Not since the night engagements around Guadalcanal in November-December,
1942, had our Navy been able to come to grips with major units of the
Japanese fleet. We had brushed against their fleet in the first battle
of the Philippine Sea in June, 1944, but not until last October were
we able really to engage a major portion of the Japanese Navy in actual
combat. The naval engagement which raged for three days was the heaviest
blow ever struck against Japanese sea power.
As the result of that battle, much of what is left
of the Japanese fleet has been driven behind the screen of islands that
separates the Yellow Sea, the China Sea and the Sea of Japan from the
Pacific.
Our Navy looks forward to any opportunity which the
lords of the Japanese Navy will give us to fight them again.
The people of this nation have a right to be proud
of the courage and fighting ability of the men in the armed forces-on
all fronts. They also have a right to be proud of American leadership
which has guided their sons into battle.
The history of the generalship of this war has been
a history of teamwork and cooperation, of skill and daring. Let me give
you one example out of last year's operations in the Pacific.
Last September Admiral Halsey led American naval task
forces into Philippine waters and north to the East China Sea and struck
heavy blows at Japanese air and sea power.
At that time, it was our plan to approach the Philippines
by further stages, taking islands which we may call A, C and E. However,
Admiral Halsey reported that a direct attack on Leyte appeared feasible.
When General MacArthur received the reports from Admiral Halsey's task
forces, he also concluded that it might be possible to attack the Japanese
in the Philippines directly-by-passing islands A, C and E.
Admiral Nimitz thereupon offered to make available
to General MacArthur several divisions which had been scheduled to take
the intermediate objectives. These discussions, conducted at great distances,
all took place in one day.
General MacArthur immediately informed the joint Chiefs
of Staff here in Washington that he was prepared to initiate plans for
an attack on Leyte in October. Approval of the change in plan was given
on the same day
Thus, within the space of twenty-four hours, a major
change of plans was accomplished which involved Army and Navy forces
from two different theatres of operations-a change which hastened the
liberation of the Philippines and the final day of victory-a change
which saved lives which would have been expended in the capture of islands
which are now neutralized far behind our lines.
Our over-all strategy has not neglected the important
task of rendering all possible aid to China. Despite almost insuperable
difficulties, we increased this aid during 1944. At present our aid
to China must be accomplished by air transport-there is no other way.
By the end of 1944, the Air Transport Command was carrying into China
a tonnage of supplies three times as great as that delivered a year
ago and much more each month than the Burma Road ever delivered at its
peak.
Despite the loss of important bases in China, the
tonnage delivered by air transport has enabled General Chennault's Fourteenth
Air Force, which includes many Chinese fliers, to wage an effective
and aggressive campaign against the Japanese. In 1944, aircraft of the
Fourteenth Air Force flew more than 35,000 sorties against the Japanese
and sank enormous tonnage of enemy shipping, greatly diminishing the
usefulness of the China sea lanes.
British, Dominion and Chinese forces together with
our own have not only held the line in Burma against determined Japanese
attacks but have gained bases of considerable importance to the supply
line into China.
The Burma campaigns have involved incredible hardship
and have demanded exceptional fortitude and determination. The officers
and men who have served with so much devotion in these far distant jungles
and mountains deserve high honor from their countrymen.
In all of the far-flung operations of our own armed
forces-on land and sea and in the air-the final job, the toughest job,
has been performed by the average, easy-going, hard-fighting young American
who carries the weight of battle on his own shoulders.
It is to him that we and all future generations of
Americans must pay grateful tribute.
But it is of small satisfaction to him to know that
monuments will be raised to him in the future. He wants, he needs and
he is entitled to insist upon our full and active support-now.
Although unprecedented production figures have made
possible our victories, we shall have to increase our goals even more
in certain items.
Peak deliveries of supplies were made to the War Department
in December, 1943. Due in part to cut-backs, we have not produced as
much since then. Deliveries of Army supplies were down by 15 per cent
by July, 1944, before the upward trend was once more resumed.
Because of increased demands from overseas, the Army
Service Force in the month of October, 1944, had to increase its estimate
of required production by 10 per cent. But in November, one month later,
the requirements for 1945 had to be increased another 10 per cent, sending
the production goal well above anything we have yet attained. Our armed
forces in combat have steadily increased their expenditure of medium
and heavy artillery ammunition. As we continue the decisive phases of
this war, the munitions that we expend will mount day by day.
In October, 1944, while some were saying the war in
Europe was over, the Army was shipping more men to Europe than in any
previous month of the war.
One of the most urgent immediate requirements of the
armed forces is more nurses. Last April the Army requirement for nurses
was set at 50,000. Actual strength in nurses was then 40,000. Since
that time the Army has tried to raise the additional 10,000. Active
recruiting has been carried on, but the net gain in eight months has
been only 2,000. There are now 42,000 nurses in the Army.
The present shortage of Army nurses is reflected in
undue strain on the existing force. More than a thousand nurses are
now hospitalized and part of this is due to overwork. The shortage is
also indicated by the fact that eleven Army hospital units have been
sent overseas without their complement of nurses. At Army hospitals
in the United States there is only one nurse to twenty-six beds, instead
of the recommended one to fifteen beds.
It is tragic that the gallant women who have volunteered
for service as nurses should be so overworked. It is tragic that our
wounded men should ever want for the best possible nursing care.
The inability to get the needed nurses for the Army
is not due to any shortage of nurses. Two hundred eighty thousand registered
nurses are now practicing in this country. It has been estimated by
the War Manpower Commission that 27,000 additional nurses could be made
available to the armed forces without interfering too seriously with
the needs of the civilian population for nurses.
Since volunteering has not produced the number of
nurses required, I urge that the Selective Service Act be amended to
provide for the induction of nurses into the armed forces. The need
is too pressing to await the outcome of further efforts at recruiting.
The care and treatment given to our wounded and sick
soldiers have been the best known to medical science. Those standards
must be maintained at all costs. We cannot tolerate a lowering of them
by failure to provide adequate nursing for the brave men who stand desperately
in need of it.
In the continuing progress of this war we have constant
need for new types of weapons. For we cannot afford to fight the war
of today or tomorrow with the weapons of yesterday. For example, the
American Army now has developed a new tank with a gun more powerful
than any yet mounted on a fast-moving vehicle. The Army will need many
thousands of these new tanks in 1945.
Almost every month finds some new development in electronics
which must be put into production in order to maintain our technical
superiority-and in order to save lives. We have to work every day to
keep ahead of the enemy in radar. On D-day, in France, with our superior
new equipment, we located and then put out of operation every warning
set which the Germans had along the French coast.
If we do not keep constantly ahead of our enemies
in the development of new weapons, we pay for our backwardness with
the life's blood of our sons.
The only way to meet these increased needs for new
weapons and more of them is for every American engaged in war work to
stay on his war job-for additional American civilians, men and women,
not engaged in essential work to go out and get a war job. Workers who
are released because their production is cut back should get another
job where production is being increased. This is no time to quit or
change to less essential jobs.
There is an old and true saying that the Lord hates
a quitter, and this nation must pay for all those who leave their essential
jobs-or all those who lay down on their essential jobs for nonessential
reasons. And, again, that payment must be made with the life's blood
of our sons.
Many critical production programs with sharply rising
needs are now seriously hampered by manpower shortages. The most important
Army needs are artillery, ammunition, cotton duck, bombs, tires, tanks,
heavy trucks and even B-29s. In each of these vital programs, present
production is behind requirements.
Navy production of bombardment ammunition is hampered
by manpower shortages; so is production for its huge rocket program.
Labor shortages have also delayed its cruiser and carrier programs and
production of certain types of aircraft.
There is critical need for more repair workers and
repair parts; this lack delays the return of damaged fighting ships
to their places in the fleet and prevents ships now in the fighting
line from getting needed overhauling.
The pool of young men under 26 classified as 1-A is
almost depleted. Increased replacements for the armed forces will take
men now deferred who are at work in war industry. The armed forces must
have an assurance of a steady flow of young men for replacements. Meeting
this paramount need will be difficult and will also make it progressively
more difficult to attain the 1945 production goals.
Last year, after much consideration, I recommended
that the Congress adopt a National Service Act as the most efficient
and democratic way of insuring full production for our war requirements.
This recommendation was not adopted.
I now again call upon the Congress to enact this measure
for the total mobilization of all our human resources for the prosecution
of the war. I urge that this be done at the earliest possible moment.
It is not too late in the war.
In fact, bitter experience has shown that in this
kind of mechanized warfare, where new weapons are constantly being created
by our enemies and by ourselves, the closer we come to the end of the
war the more pressing becomes the need for sustained war production
with which to deliver the final blow to the enemy.
There are three basic arguments for a national service
law.
First-It would assure that we have the right numbers
of workers in the right places at the right times.
Second-It would provide supreme proof to all our fighting
men that we are giving them what they are entitled to, which is nothing
less than our total effort.
And third-It would be the final, unequivocal answer
to the hopes of the Nazis and the Japanese that we may become half-hearted
about this war and that they can get from us a negotiated peace.
National service legislation would make it possible
to put ourselves in a position to assure certain and speedy action in
meeting our manpower needs.
It would be used only to the extent absolutely required
by military necessities. In fact, experience in Great Britain and in
other nations at war indicates that use of the compulsory powers of
national service is necessary only in rare instances.
This proposed legislation would provide against loss
of retirement and seniority rights and benefits. It would not mean reduction
in wages.
In adopting such legislation, it is not necessary
to discard the voluntary and cooperative processes which have prevailed
up to this time. This cooperation has already produced great results.
The contribution of our workers to the war effort has been beyond measure.
We must build on the foundations that have already been laid and supplement
the measures now in operation in order to guarantee the production that
may be necessary in the critical period that lies ahead.
At the present time we are using the inadequate tools
at hand to do the best we can by such expedients as manpower ceilings
and the use of priority and other powers to induce men and women to
shift from nonessential to essential war jobs.
I am in receipt of a joint letter from the Secretary
of War and the Secretary of the Navy, dated Jan. 3, 1945, which says:
"With the experience of three years of war and
after the most thorough consideration, we are convinced that it is now
necessary to carry out the statement made by the Congress in the joint
resolutions declaring that a state of war existed with Japan and Germany;
that 'to bring the conflict to a successful conclusion, all of the resources
of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.'
"In our considered judgment, which is supported
by General Marshall and Admiral King, this requires total mobilization
of our manpower by the passage of a national war service law. The armed
forces need this legislation to hasten the day of final victory and
to keep to a minimum the cost in lives.
"National war service, the recognition by law
of the duty of every citizen to do his or her part in winning the war,
will give complete assurance that the need for war equipment will be
filled. In the coming year we must increase the output of many weapons
and supplies on short notice. Otherwise we shall not keep our production
abreast of the swiftly changing needs of war. At the same time it will
be necessary to draw progressively many men now engaged in war production
to serve with the armed forces and their places in war production must
be filled promptly. These developments will require the addition of
hundreds of thousands to those already working in war industry. We do
not believe that these needs can be met effectively under the present
methods.
"The record made by management and labor in war
industry has been a notable testimony to the resourcefulness and power
of America. The needs are so great, nevertheless, that in many instances
we have been forced to recall soldiers and sailors from military duty
to do work of a civilian character in war production because of the
urgency of the need for equipment and because of inability to recruit
civilian labor."
Pending action by the Congress on the broader aspects
of national service, I recommended that the Congress immediately enact
legislation which will be effective in using the services of the 4,000,000
men now classified as 4-F in whatever capacity is best for the war effort.
In the field of foreign policy, we propose to stand
together with the United Nations not for the war alone but for the victory
for which the war is fought.
It is not only a common danger which unites us but
a common hope. Ours is an association not of governments but of peoples-and
the peoples' hope is peace. Here as in England, in England as in Russia,
in Russia as in China, in France and through the Continent of Europe
and throughout the world wherever men love freedom, the hope and purpose
of the peoples are for peace-a peace that is durable and secure.
It will not be easy to create this peoples' peace.
We delude ourselves if we believe that the surrender of the armies of
our enemies will make the peace we long for. The unconditional surrender
of the armies of our enemies is the first and necessary step but the
first step only.
We have seen already in areas liberated from the Nazi
and fascist tyranny what problems peace will bring. And we delude ourselves
if we attempt to believe wishfully that all these problems can be solved
overnight.
The firm foundation can be built-and it will be built.
But the continuance and assurance of a living peace must, in the long
run, be the work of the people themselves.
We ourselves, like all peoples who have gone through
the difficult processes of liberation and adjustment, know of our own
experience how great the difficulties can be. We know that they are
not difficulties peculiar to any continent or any nation. Our own Revolutionary
War left behind it, in the words of one American historian, "an
eddy of lawlessness and disregard of human life." There were separatist
movements of one kind or another in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
Tennessee, Kentucky and Maine. There were insurrections, open or threatened,
in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. These difficulties we worked out
for ourselves as the peoples of the liberated areas of Europe, faced
with complex problems of adjustment, will work out their difficulties
for themselves.
Peace can be made and kept only by the united determination
and peace-loving peoples who are willing to work together; willing to
help one another, willing to respect and tolerate and try to understand
one another's opinions and feelings.
The nearer we come to vanquishing our enemies the
more we inevitably become conscious of differences among the victors.
We must not let those differences divide us and blind
us to our more important common and continuing interests in winning
the war and building the peace.
International cooperation on which enduring peace
must be based is not a one-way street.
Nations like individuals do not always see alike or
think alike and international cooperation and progress are not helped
by any nation assuming that it has a monopoly of wisdom or of virtue.
In the future world, the misuse of power, as implied
in the term "power politics," must not be a controlling factor
in international relations. That is the heart of the principles to which
we have subscribed. We cannot deny that power is a factor in world politics
any more than we can deny its existence as a factor in national politics.
But in a democratic world as in a democratic nation power must be linked
with responsibility and obliged to defend and justify itself within
the framework of the general good.
Perfectionism no less than isolationism or imperialism
or power politics may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let
us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century
ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation,
but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.
In our disillusionment after the last war we preferred
international anarchy to international cooperation with nations which
did not see and think exactly as we did. We gave up the hope of gradually
achieving a better peace because we had not the courage to fulfill our
responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect world.
We must not let that happen again or we shall follow
the same tragic road again-the road to a third world war.
We can fulfill our responsibilities for maintaining
the security of our own country only by exercising our power and our
influence to achieve the principles in which we believe and for which
we have fought.
In August, 1941, Prime Minister Churchill and I agreed
to the principles of the Atlantic Charter, these being later incorporated
into the declaration by United Nations of Jan. 1, 1942. At the time
certain isolationists protested vigorously against our right to proclaim
the principles-and against the very principles themselves. Today many
of the same people are protesting against the possibility of violation
of the same principles.
It is true that the statement of principles in the
Atlantic Charter does not provide rules of easy application to each
and every one of this war-torn world's tangled situations. But it is
a good and a useful thing-it is an essential thing-to have principles
toward which we can aim.
And we shall not hesitate to use our influence-and
to use it now-to secure so far as is humanly possible the fulfillment
of the principles of the Atlantic Charter. We have not shrunk from the
military responsibilities brought on by this war. We cannot and will
not shrink from the political responsibilities which follow in the wake
of battle.
I do not wish to give the impression that all mistakes
can be avoided and that many disappointments are not inevitable in the
making of peace. But we must not this time lose the hope of establishing
an international order which will be capable of maintaining peace and
realizing through the years more perfect justice between nations.
To do this we must be on our guard not to exploit
and exaggerate the differences between us and our Allies, particularly
with reference to the peoples who have been liberated from Fascist tyranny.
That is not the way to secure a better settlement of those differences
or to secure international machinery which can rectify mistakes which
may be made.
I should not be frank if I did not admit concern about
many situations-the Greek and Polish, for example. But those situations
are not as easy or as simple to deal with as some spokesmen, whose sincerity
I do not question, would have us believe.
We have obligations, not necessarily legal, to the
exiled governments, to the underground leaders and to our major Allies,
who came much nearer the shadows than we did.
We and our Allies have declared that it is our purpose
to respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government
under which they will live and to see sovereign rights and self-government
restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them. But with
internal dissension, with many citizens of liberated countries still
prisoners of war or forced to labor in Germany, it is difficult to guess
the kind of self-government the people really want.
During the interim period, until conditions permit
a genuine expression of the people's will, we and our Allies have a
duty which we cannot ignore to use our influence to the end that no
temporary or provisional authorities in the liberated countries block
the eventual exercise of the people's right freely to choose the government
and institutions under which, as free men, they are to live.
It is only too easy for all of us to rationalize what
we want to believe and to consider those leaders we like responsible
and those we dislike irresponsible. And our task is not helped by stubborn
partisanship, however understandable, on the part of opposed internal
factions.
It is our purpose to help the peace-loving peoples
of Europe to live together as good neighbors, to recognize their common
interests and not to nurse their traditional grievances against one
another.
But we must not permit the many specific and immediate
problems of adjustment connected with the liberation of Europe to delay
the establishment of permanent machinery for the maintenance of peace.
Under the threat of a common danger, the United Nations joined together
in war to preserve their independence and their freedom. They must now
join together to make secure the independence and freedom of all peace-loving
States so that never again shall tyranny be able to divide and conquer.
International peace and well-being, like national
peace and well-being, require constant alertness, continuing cooperation
and organized effort.
International peace and well-being, like national
peace and well-being, can be secured only through institutions capable
of life and growth.
Many of the problems of the peace are upon us even
now while the conclusion of the war is still before us. The atmosphere
of friendship and mutual understanding and determination to find a common
ground of common under standing, which surrounded the conversations
at Dumbarton Oaks, gives us reason to hope that future discussions will
succeed in developing the democratic and fully integrated world security
system toward which these preparatory conversations were directed.
We and the other United Nations are going forward
with vigor and resolution in our efforts to create such a system by
providing for it strong and flexible institutions of joint and cooperative
action.
The aroused conscience of humanity will not permit
failure in this supreme endeavor.
We believe that the extraordinary advances in the
means of intercommunication between peoples over the past generation
offer a practical method of advancing the mutual understanding upon
which peace and the institutions of peace must rest, and it is our policy
and purpose to use these great technological achievements for the common
advantage of the world.
We support the greatest possible freedom of trade
and commerce.
We Americans have always believed in freedom of opportunity,
and equality of opportunity remains one of the principal objectives
of our national life. What we believe in for individuals, we believe
in also for nations. We are opposed to restrictions, whether by public
act or private arrangement, which distort and impair commerce, transit
and trade.
We have housecleaning of our own to do in this regard.
But it is our hope, not only in the interest of our own prosperity but
in the interest of the prosperity of the world, that trade and commerce
and access to materials and markets may be freer after this war than
ever before in the history of the world.
One of the most heartening events of the year in the
international field has been the renaissance of the French people and
the return of the French nation to the ranks of the United Nations.
Far from having been crushed by the terror of Nazi
domination, the French people have emerged with stronger faith than
ever in the destiny of their country and in the soundness of the democratic
ideals to which the French nation has traditionally contributed so greatly.
During her liberation France has given proof of her
unceasing determination to fight the Germans, continuing the heroic
efforts of the resistance groups under the occupation and of all those
Frenchmen throughout the world who refused to surrender after the disaster
of 1940.
Today French armies are again on the German frontier
and are again fighting shoulder to shoulder with our sons.
Since our landings in Africa we have placed in French
hands all the arms and materials of war which our resources and the
military situation permitted. And I am glad to say that we are now about
to equip new French forces with the most modern weapons for combat duty.
In addition to the contribution which France can make
to our common victory, her liberation likewise means that her great
influence will again be available in meeting the problems of peace.
We fully recognize France's vital interest in a lasting
solution of the German problem and the contribution which she can make
in achieving international security. Her formal adherence to the declaration
by United Nations a few days ago and the proposal at the Dumbarton Oaks
discussions, whereby France would receive one of the five permanent
seats in the proposed security council, demonstrate the extent to which
France has resumed her proper position of strength and leadership.
I am clear in my own mind that, as an essential factor
in the maintenance of peace in the future, we must have universal military
training after this war and I shall send a special message to the Congress
on this subject.
An enduring peace cannot be achieved without a strong
America-strong in the social and economic sense as well as in the military
sense.
In the state of the union message last year, I set
forth what I considered to be an American economic bill of rights.
I said then and I say now that these economic truths
represent a second bill of rights under which a new basis of security
and prosperity can be established for all-regardless of station, race
or creed.
Of these rights the most fundamental, and one on which
the fulfillment of the others in a large degree depends, is the "right
to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms
or mines of the nation." In turn, others of the economic rights
of American citizenship, such as the right to a decent home, to a good
education, to good medical care, to social security, to reasonable farm
income will, if fulfilled, make major contributions to achieving adequate
levels of employment.
The Federal Government must see to it that these rights
become realities-with the help of States, municipalities, business,
labor and agriculture.
We have had full employment during the war. We have
had it because the Government has been ready to buy all the materials
of war which the country could produce-and this has amounted to approximately
half our present productive capacity.
After the war we must maintain full employment, with
Government performing its peacetime functions. This means that we must
achieve a level of demand and purchasing power by private consumers-farmers,
business men, workers, professional men, housewives-which is sufficiently
high to replace wartime Government demands; and it means also that we
must greatly increase our export trade above the pre-war level.
Our policy is, of course, to rely as much as possible
on private enterprise to provide jobs. But the American people will
not accept mass unemployment or mere makeshift work. There will be need
for the work of everyone willing and able to work-and that means close
to 60,000,000 jobs.
Full employment means not only jobs, but productive
jobs. Americans do not regard jobs that pay substandard wages as productive
jobs.
We must make sure that private enterprise works as
it is supposed to work-on the basis of initiative and vigorous competition,
without the stifling presence of monopolies and cartels.
During the war we have guaranteed investment in enterprise
essential to the war effort. We should also take appropriate measures
in peacetime to secure opportunities for new small enterprises and for
productive business expansion for which finance would otherwise be unavailable.
This necessary expansion of our peacetime productive
capacity will require new facilities, new plants and new equipment.
It will require large outlays of money which should
be raised through normal investment channels. But while private capital
should finance this expansion program, the Government should recognize
its responsibility for sharing part of any special or abnormal risk
of loss attached to such financing.
Our full-employment program requires the extensive
development of our natural resources and other useful public works.
The undeveloped resources of this continent are still vast. Our river-watershed
projects will add new and fertile territories to the United States.
The TVA, which was constructed at a cost of $750,000,000-the cost of
waging this war for less than four days was a bargain. We have similar
opportunities in our other great river basins.
By harnessing the resources of these river basins,
as we have in the Tennessee Valley, we shall provide the same kind of
stimulus to enterprise as was provided by the Louisiana Purchase and
the new discoveries in the West during the Nineteenth Century.
If we are to avail ourselves fully of the benefits
of civil aviation and if we are to use the automobiles we can produce,
it will be necessary to construct thousands of airports and to overhaul
our entire national highway system.
The provision of a decent home for every family is
a national necessity if this country is to be worthy of its greatness-and
that task will itself create great employment opportunities. Most of
our cities need extensive rebuilding. Much of our farm plant is in a
state of disrepair. To make a frontal attack on the problems of housing
and urban reconstruction will require thoroughgoing cooperation between
industry and labor, and the Federal, State and local Governments.
An expanded Social Security program and adequate health
and education programs must play essential roles in a program designed
to support individual productivity and mass purchasing power. I shall
communicate further with the Congress on these subjects at a later date.
The millions of productive jobs that a program of
this nature could bring are jobs in private enterprise. They are jobs
based on the expanded demand for the output of our economy for consumption
and investment. Through a program of this character we can maintain
a national income high enough to provide for an orderly retirement of
the public debt along with reasonable tax reduction.
Our present tax system geared primarily to war requirements
must be revised for peacetime so as to encourage private demand.
While no general revision of the tax structure can
be made until the war ends on all fronts, the Congress should be prepared
to provide tax modifications at the end of the war in Europe designed
to encourage capital to invest in new enterprises and to provide jobs.
As an integral part of this program to maintain high employment, we
must, after the war is over, reduce or eliminate taxes which bear too
heavily on consumption.
The war will leave deep disturbances in the world
economy, in our national economy, in many communities, in many families
and in many individuals. It will require determined effort and responsible
action of all of us to find our way back to peacetime and to help others
to find their way back to peacetime-a peacetime that holds the values
of the past and the promise of the future.
If we attack our problems with determination we shall
succeed. And we must succeed. For freedom and peace cannot exist without
security.
During the past year the American people, in a national
election, re-asserted their democratic faith.
In the course of that campaign, various references
were made to "strife" between this Administration and the
Congress, with the implication, if not the direct assertion, that this
Administration and the Congress could never work together harmoniously
in the service of the nation.
It cannot be denied that there have been disagreements
between the legislative and executive branches-as there have been disagreements
during the past century and a half.
I think we all realize, too, that there are some people
in this capital city whose task is in large part to stir up dissension
and to magnify normal, healthy disagreements so that they appear to
be irreconcilable conflicts.
But I think that the overall record in this respect
is eloquent: the Government of the United States of America-all branches
of it-has a good record of achievement in this war.
The Congress, the Executive and the judiciary have
worked together for the common good.
I myself want to tell you, the members of the Senate
and of the House of Representatives, how happy I am in our relationships
and friendships. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting some of
the new members in each house, but I hope that opportunity will offer
itself in the near future.
We have a great many problems ahead of us and we must
approach them with realism and courage.
This New Year of 1945 can be the greatest year of
achievement in human history.
Nineteen hundred forty-five can see the final ending
of the Nazi-Fascist reign of terror in Europe.
Nineteen hundred forty-five can see the closing in
of the forces of retribution about the center of the malignant power
of imperialistic Japan.
Most important of all-1945 can and must see the substantial
beginning of the organization of world peace. This organization must
be the fulfillment of the promise for which men have fought and died
in this war. It must be the justification of all the sacrifices that
have been made-of all the dreadful misery that this world has endured.
We Americans of today, together with our Allies, are
making history-and I hope it will be better history than ever has been
made before.
We pray that we may be worthy of the unlimited opportunities
that God has given us.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 6, 1945.