0065 World at War 01 00 42 20

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and at the solicitation of Japan was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, 1 hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God. The arms embargo is far too great a security to American peace to permit its surrender without a last ditch fight. You people who oppose war and dictatorship, do not be dismayed because the warmongers and the interventionists control most of the avenues of propaganda. At this critical moment in the world's history, when the democracies of Europe are facing the test of life or death, all Americans are of one mind. We want to assist the democracies in every way we can with materials and supplies. England is the last and only barrier between the United States and total war. Our aid must not come too late. Therefore, we must give President Roosevelt power to set in motion an industrial blitzkrieg that will make it possible for England to blast Hitlerism from the face of the earth. It was fully anticipated We meet the faith. Men were stamped interventionists and isolationists and the debate grew bitter. Into this free debate crept the agents of the aggressors, for they too were permitted to speak in our democracy. They wore Hitler's uniforms, but they wrapped themselves in the American flag. They preached the doctrine of racial and class hatred, for Hitler had said America could be conquered from within and fall as an overripe plum to the Nazi master race. Jewish Moscow-directed combinations. We let them speak. When a lone outraged dissenter wanted to wear his opposition, we provided police to preserve order. This was Madison Square Garden in New York City and not Berlin nor Nuremberg. Later, this speaker was arrested. It was because he had filched money from his deluded followers and he was sent to Sing Sing to brood upon the strange ways of democracy. America was at war. It had been at war, although few Americans realized it, for more than 10 years. Ever since September 18th, 1931, when Japan clawed Manchuria out of the body of China. While Hitler was still brawling in the streets of Munich, Japan had already begun weaving the pattern of aggression. Started with an incident. A Japanese train on the South Manchurian Railway had been dynamited. Promptly, Japanese battalions invaded Mukden. This was not mechanized warfare. By later standards, this war was primitive, small, trivial, the Japanese cabinet officially labeled it when China protested to the League of Nations. 12 Japanese planes bombed a Chinese city. Trivial. The League branded Japan an aggressor and Japan resigned, deeply hurt. Japan moved further into China. Pausing only for breath, Japan inflated the Mukden incident into the China incident. It was not war, the Japanese said. 400 million Chinese were caught up in this incident. China was looted and shelled and put to the torch. Chinese forces united under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were pressed back by the invaders. China moved her armies and her meager war industries far into the interior. The Chinese fought on not so much with weapons as with space and time. And the warriors of Japan, still breathing the spirit of the samurai in an era of machines, adopted Western methods of warfare as they had adopted Western clothes and architecture and music. And the Japanese warriors dreamt of the conquest of Asia and then of the world. And their emperor invoked the blessings of the divine upon this dream. Italy too had dreams of empire. So, Italy too created an incident in Ethiopia. Having achieved unity within by virtue of the club, castor oil, and the concentration camp, Mussolini was ready. Two years after it had begun, the war was over. Italy had joined Japan in the partnership of aggression. On March 13th, 1938, Hitler marched into Austria. The trinity of aggression was complete. Four years Hitler had planned and plotted. So, Hitler marched into Austria. His conquest was bloodless. It was not entirely bloodless. German and Italian forces had been fighting in Spain. General Franco had revolted against the Republican government. He invited and received German and Italian aid. The duly elected government received some Russian aid. The democracies evolved the formula of non-intervention. The dictators brushed this aside. Here was opportunity for a dress rehearsal for full-scale war and excellent chance to test new weapons and tactics. The Spaniards were the guinea pigs. Men, women, and children. It was a long war ended finally by hunger. Hitler was not content with Austria. At Munich, he had said his theory of race and blood demanded the incorporation of all German-speaking peoples into the Reich. Hitler called upon Czechoslovakia to surrender the Sudetenland. That part of Czechoslovakia heavily populated by Germans. So, Hitler, Prime Minister Chamberlain of Great Britain, Mussolini, Premier Daladier of France met in Munich. And because the democracies of Europe were hungry for peace, removed the thorn from Hitler's side. The Czech army and the little Maginot Line. Hitler rolled into the Sudetenland. His people were jubilant. Here was the miracle man, they said. A man who conquered with words. This was a new kind of war. A delightful war. Bands and flowers and parades. Hitler told his people he was content. He wanted no more territory. He guaranteed the integrity of the mutilated Czecho-Slovak Republic. Thereupon, he paused to rest. And then marched into Prague. The Republic was destroyed. The democracies had lost a valuable ally. On April 14th, 1939, President Roosevelt appealed to Hitler and Mussolini for a 10-year guarantee of peace. And Hitler mocked as he called the roll of his future victims. The Reichstag roared. Hitler had signed a treaty of friendship with Poland. He had given Poland a slice of Czech territory. And now it was Poland's turn to ascend the sacrificial altar. Hitler didn't declare war. On September 1st, 1939, he struck without warning, which is the way of the aggressor. You will soon see Hitler's own photographic record of the blitz in Poland. The formula is simple enough. First, choose your victim. An army still living in the past. Few planes, fewer tanks, outmoded guns and outmoded tactics. Choose an army relying upon courage rather than machines. Then, mass your bombers. Load with your biggest bomb. Strike. Strike without warning. Destroy his inadequate air force on the ground. Blast those who escape out of the air. Strike again with your bombers. Wave after wave. Again and again. Strike at the railroad. So, then the victim cannot mobilize. It cannot move men and supplies. Its armies are isolated. Strike on the sea. Strike on land with tanks against forces. Giant guns against sabers and rifles. Choose your time carefully, making sure the weather favors your machine. Strike at his city. So, that civilians will take to the roads, hampering the army. So, that women and children will be killed in the streets or in hastily contrived shelters. Strike again. Repeat the dose day after day. And then add a drop of treachery in the form of fifth columnists. This was Warsaw. Repeat for 18 days. One Nazi pincer cuts the Polish corridor. Another races to crack her. From East Prussia, another army moves on Warsaw. Encircled, bombed, shelled, and starved, Warsaw surrendered. Now, over the roof of city, send your Luftwaffe sailing leisurely to photograph your handiwork. And on the ground, let the master race assemble the first of its slave population, a stunned and shocked and hungry people whose sufferings do not end with the armistice, nor their resistance. Now, gloat. France was waiting behind its Maginot Line, that vast underground fortress deemed impregnable by its military experts. Allied strategy relied upon starving the Reich into submission. Hitler's armies would collapse for lack of fuel and food and raw materials. Spring shattered this comfortable illusion. Norway and Denmark had staked their survival upon the strictest interpretation of neutrality to escape the war. Their sympathies were with the allies, but they took extraordinary precautions to avoid offending Hitler. So, on April 9th, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark was powerless to resist and didn't. Norway was stunned by an avalanche of force and treachery. Fifth columnists, led by Major Quisling, a Norwegian traitor, spread panic and confusion. On May 9th, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. This pictorial record you are watching was made by Nazi cameramen at the order of Dr. Goebbels, the German propaganda minister. He showed this Wagnerian symphony of devastation to neutral nations in Europe and South America to frighten them into surrender. You will observe that here in Holland, for example, not one German soldier is killed or wounded or even suffers a fractured ankle in an avalanche of destruction. Using tanks, dive bombers, big guns, the Nazi machine broke the back of Dutch resistance in four days. This was Rotterdam, bombed after the Dutch forces had surrendered. The Nazis said there had been a mistake. The news had not reached the Luftwaffe in time. And the next morning, reconnaissance planes flew over the city as they had flown over Warsaw, recording for the propaganda ministry another tribute to the efficacy of the Luftwaffe. While Rotterdam buried its dead as Warsaw had, and formal negotiations for surrender were duly completed. It took 18 days more to engulf the Belgians and drive the Anglo-French army into the sea. This was the Belgian cathedral city of Louvain, scarred in the First World War and restored anew. And again, it fell victim to the invaders. Again, its inhabitants took to the roads to escape the pursuing fires. The cathedral crashed in flames. The invaders rolled on. Morning found the refugees still fleeing blindly. Reputable observers said these refugees were machine-gunned from the air. There is no photographic evidence of this. And this is what they fled. The Nazi machine moved on, and after a day's destruction, paused only to sleep. This was Antwerp, where the democracies had fired oil tanks as their armies retreated. The improvised Allied defense collapsed. The British army was driven into the sea at Dunkirk, according to plan. Dunkirk has been called a triumph of man over the machine. To challenge the dive bombers, Spitfires rose from British bases and fought for the domination of the air over the desolate beach, while ground forces continued a stubborn rearguard action. British ships, cruisers, destroyers, yachts, paddle boats, anything that could float, crossed the channel and evacuated some 350,000 British and French troops back to England. For the British were determined to save their men. Here in the wreckage was the story of the epic evacuation. Men walked into the sea and swam to their rescuers. They couldn't take their weapons, trucks, tanks, or guns, but men were saved to fight again. Having slashed through Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland, five German armies fanned out across France. Treachery and incompetence had doomed the nations that only a decade ago had been leader of Europe. Now the campaign mounted in fury as France crumbled. On June 10th, 4 days before France fell, Mussolini entered the war. He had waited until that moment to make his decision. And now the Nazis entered Paris. This had been the dream of the Kaiser in the last war. Hitler achieved it. And the Maginot Line was still there. The Nazis had merely outflanked it. Now they tried direct attack and the Maginot Line fell. The First World War had ended officially in this railroad car where Marshal Foch had received the delegates of the vanquished Germans. Hitler commandeered the car for what he believed was the end of the Second World War. Here at Compiègne Vichy was born. Hitler was happy. Britain alone remained as Hitler's sole barrier to a total victory. Nazi submarines now burst on the conquered coast set out to starve the British people into submission. Nazi planes, now only a few minutes flight from the English coast, set out to bomb the British people into submission. Britain hung on. They bombed railroads and factories to disrupt transportation and war production. They bombed by day and when the Royal Air Force smashed more than 180 of the bombers out of the sky in one session, they bombed by night. The face of London changed. Historic landmarks disappeared. Night after night, London was left a sea of fire. Coventry. Air armadas appeared over these cities through the fall and winter of 1940 and well into the spring of 1941. Wreckage was cleared and production continued. A new army was created, equipped with new weapons. And Hitler, frustrated, turned east. If this were to be a long war, he would need Russian oil and Russian wheat. So he proclaimed himself anew the arch-enemy of communism, despite his earlier plea to the German people that National Socialism and Communism could live side by side. Now he told them he didn't mean what he said before, but he did mean what he said before that. Military spokesmen in Berlin said the Red Armies would be encircled and destroyed within 6 weeks. Its remnants would retreat back of the Urals. There the Japanese could deal with them at the proper time. Joseph Stalin rallied the Russian people. Soldiers and civilians responding with a unanimity that amazed the world that had heard much and knew little of it, rose to repel and harry the invader. Working with whatever tools they could seize, working against time, men and women, old and young, carved these huge tank traps. Weapons were distributed to civilian guerrillas assigned to operate back of enemy lines. And the aircraft guns swung into place to battle Luftwaffe advance units. Here was the wheat that Hitler wanted. And Russian men, women, and children were determined to keep it out of his hands. They would have neither food nor shelter. Factories worked day and night for the Russians knew this was a war of machines. Entire plants were moved east complete with workers. Weapons of war poured out of these factories and the Germans, as well as the rest of the world, discovered the Russians had tanks to meet tanks and planes to meet planes. The Russians retreated, but not without inflicting sizable casualties. German prisoners captured seemed shocked at the ruthless opposition they encountered. It had been different in France. Winter found the Russian army still intact. German casualties mounted until they were counted in the millions. Hitler's armies were not smashed in the winter campaign, but the Russians gained the initiative and held it. As the snows melted, Hitler was to meet new Russian armies and new machines as summer came to the 2,000-mile front. We were not sufficiently on the alert in Hawaii. The Japanese won a series of spectacular victories in the Pacific. Under General Douglas MacArthur, American and Filipino forces fought a fabulous delaying action in the Philippines. Manila was bombed although it was declared an open city. Because of vast distances, it was impossible to send supplies or reinforcements and Bataan fell only when Americans and Filipinos had eaten their mules. General MacArthur established his headquarters in Australia and as commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces in that area, prepared for the offensive that would develop inevitably. For despite setbacks, we had established a supply chain 6,000 miles across the Pacific that stretched to New Zealand. Like the other democracies, we were not prepared for total war. Fortunately, under the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, we had set out to become the arsenal of the free and fighting nations. We were determined to supply them with our war goods whether they could afford to pay or not. We were buying time. Time to convert the industries of peace into war. Time to make ships, merchant ships and warships. Time to make planes and more planes, bombers and fighters, faster, more powerful than any the world had ever seen. Time to make guns and more guns, shells and more shells, tanks and more tanks. Time to gather the huge strength which was ours, to pour the great riches of American earth into the cauldron of war, iron, steel, oil, coal. Time to build a navy called upon to fight in both oceans and upon all the seas to convoy men and weapons to Australia, to Britain, to the Middle East, to Russia. A navy that had already undertaken daring raids upon the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and brave Japanese waters and had taken a heavy toll of the invading forces in the Makassar Strait and had won the first battle in the Coral Sea. Time to expand a miniature professional army into a modern war machine. Time to take civilians gathered in the peacetime conscription while we were still debating to mold them into soldiers, train them in the use of new weapons, new tactics. And we were buying time to weld the home front and the fighting front into one for this was total war and we realized victories were born in the production line. We needed more ships, more planes, more tanks, more guns, more shells. We were not fighting alone. Nine of the Pan-American neighbors severed diplomatic relations with the Axis. Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. At this time, the issue is clearly drawn. There can be no peace until Hitlerism and its monstrous parasites are utterly obliterated and until Nine of the Pan-American nations declared war upon the aggressors. Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Mexico joined these nations in June 1942. We were not fighting alone. Even in the conquered countries, the will to fight survived. Dutch, Belgian, Yugoslav, Greek, Czech, Filipino, Pole, Norwegian, free Frenchman, all fought with us on the far-flung battlefields. Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Canadians, we were not fighting alone in this war of the people seeking a world without war for their children. Britain, growing steadily stronger in its third year of war, sweeping the skies of conquered Europe, harassing the enemy with commando raids, sending forth huge armadas of bombers over German cities Hitler promised would never be attacked. Russia, fighting with an unparalleled tenacity, drawing upon inexhaustible reserves, asking no mercy and offering none. China, knowing the patience of an ancient civilization, surmounting handicaps that would have destroyed other nations, fighting on as it had fought alone. And the people of the United States, an angry people whose resources and privileges were the envy of the world, offering things without stint, fighting in the factories and the battlefields, fighting in the jungles, the deserts, the frozen wastes, fighting on all the oceans, fighting for survival, fighting a war which would be hard and might be long, but which they would win.