![]() ![]() This law realistically provided for material aid "for the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States." In September, 1940, an agreement was completed with Great Britain for the trade of fifty destroyers for eight important offshore bases.Īnd in March, 1941, the Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill and an appropriation of seven billion dollars to implement it. Our Government rushed arms to meet her desperate needs. In June, 1940, Britain stood alone, faced by the same machine of terror which had overwhelmed her allies. And the night spread over Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. In the subsequent months, the shadows deepened and lengthened. The facts compel my stating, with candor, that darker periods may lie ahead." This policy had its origin in the first month of the war, when I urged upon the Congress repeal of the arms embargo provisions in the old Neutrality Law, and in that message of September 3, 1939, I said, "I should like to be able to offer the hope that the shadow over the world might swiftly pass. We instituted a policy of aid for the democracies-the Nations which have fought for the continuation of human liberties. We have added substantially to our splendid Navy, and we have mustered our manpower to build up a new Army which is already worthy of the highest traditions of our military service. This further solidified our hemisphere against the common danger.Īnd then, a year ago, we launched, and are successfully carrying out, the largest armament production program we have ever undertaken. It is unmistakably apparent to all of us that, unless the advance of Hitlerism is forcibly checked now, the Western Hemisphere will be within range of the Nazi weapons of destruction.įor our own defense we have accordingly undertaken certain obviously necessary measures:įirst, we have joined in concluding a series of agreements with all the other American Republics. European conquest was but a step toward ultimate goals in all the other continents. The first and fundamental fact is that what started as a European war has developed, as the Nazis always intended it should develop, into a world war for world domination.Īdolf Hitler never considered the domination of Europe as an end in itself. ![]() We cannot afford to approach them from the point of view of wishful thinkers or sentimentalists. The pressing problems that confront us are military and naval problems. Our future independence is bound up with the future independence of all of our sister Republics. It is appropriate that I do this for now, as never before, the unity of the American Republics is of supreme importance to each and every one of us and to the cause of freedom throughout the world. The members of this Board are the Ambassadors and Ministers of the American Republics in Washington. I am speaking tonight from the White House in the presence of the Governing Board of the Pan American Union, the Canadian Minister, and their families. ![]()
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