FDR Fireside Chat: Response to Editorials 1 and 2

 

There is no need to remind you, my fellow Americans, that our country has enough problems of her own. As we work to rebuild our country from a devastating depression, we must be careful of "foreign entanglements" - good advice from President Washington. That said, we can only look at the world and see storm clouds gathering:

 

1.     Japan has attacked our ally, China. The atrocities we hear of in Nanking are troubling.

2.     Italy has slaughtered thousands of innocent Ethiopians... and need I remind you that the leader of Italy, Benito Mussolini, is a political ally of Adolph Hitler.

3.     And what about Hitler. He claims Czechoslovakia is German and belongs to Germany. And he threatens to back it up with force.

 

My Cousin Teddy was famous for saying, "Walk softly and carry a big stick."

My fellow Americans, it is time for the stick. The Daily Mirror hints at "atrocities" in China. I have before me, intelligence reports that say between 20,000 to 80,000 women have been raped by Japanese soldiers in the city of Nanking. These same reports say that the Japanese army is systematically - SYSTEMATICALLY - executing Chinese citizens. Estimates run as high as 300,000 people.

America cannot ally itself with a country that commits atrocities on innocent civilians, and then calls it "war." I am submitting a plan to Congress that will allow our country to arm our Chinese allies. I have contacted Premier Chiang Kai-Shek to open negotiations.

So what do we do? We become the "Arsenal of Democracy". We send weapons and assistance to China and any other of our friends who are brutally attacked. But at the same time, we must respect the spirit of The Neutrality Act. Americans WANT to remain neutral. Ambassador Bullitt, my close friend, was 100% wrong to tell the French that we would fight with them if Hitler invaded. The U.S. will not join a “stop-Hitler bloc” under any circumstances, and in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. will remain neutral.

Sincerely,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt