1941 and Pearl Harbor

              1941 AND PEARL HARBOR
mined step toward creating a permanent
world system based on force, on terror,
and on murder.
- ~ And I am sure that even now the Nazis
* are waiting to see whether the United States
will by silence give them the green light to
go ahead on this path of destruction.
The Nazi danger to our Western world
has long ceased to be a mere possibility.
The danger is here now—not only from a
military enemy but from an enemy of all
law, all liberty, al* morality, all religion.
There has now come a time when you
and I must see the cold, inexorable necessity of saying t these inhuman,
unrestrained seekers of world conquest
and permanent world domination by the
sword: 'You seek to throw our children
and our children's children into your form
of terrorism and slavery. You have now
attacked our own safety. You shall go no
further/
Normal practices of diplomacy—note
writing—are of no possible use in dealing
with international outlaws who sink our
ships and kill our citizens.
One peaceful Nation after another has
met disaster because each refused to look
the Nazi danger squarely in the eye until it
actually had them by the throat.
The United States will not make that
fatal mistake.
No act of violence, no act of intimidation will keep us from maintaining intact
two bulwarks of American defense: First,
our line of supply of materiel to the enemies of Hitler; and second, the freedom
of our shipping on the high seas.
No matter what it takes, no matter what
it costs, we will keep open the line of legitimate commerce in these defensive waters.
We have sought no shooting war with
Hitler. We do not seek it now. But neither
do we want peace so much, that we are
willing to pay for it by permitting him to
attack our naval and merchant ships while
they are on legitimate business.
I assume that the German leaders are
not deeply concerned, tonight or any other
time, by what we Americans or the American Government say or publish about them.
We cannot bring about the downfall of Nazism by the use of long-range invective.
But when you see a rattlesnake poised
to strike, you do not wait until he has
struck before you crush him.
These Nazi submarines and raiders are
the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic. They are a
menace to the free pathways of the high
seas. They are a challenge to our sovereignty. They hammer at our most precious
rights when they attack ships of the American flag—symbols of our independence,
our freedom, our very life.
It is clear to all Americans that the time
has come when the Americans themselves
must now be defended. A continuation of
attacks in our own waters, or in waters that
could be used for further and greater attacks on us, will inevitably weaken our
American ability to repel Hitlerism	
The time for active defense is now....
In the waters which we deem necessary
for our defense, American naval vessels
and American planes will no longer wait
until Axis submarines lurking under the
water, or Axis raiders on the surface of the
sea, strike their deadly blow—first.
Upon our naval and air patrol—now
operating in large number over a vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean—falls the duty
of maintaining the American policy of
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