The U.S. at War

THE PRESIDENCY

Full Blast

The U.S., having declared war on three nations in five days, looked to the White House last week for leadership, and for action.

The action came in a steady series of powerful moves. The U.S. discovered that in some ways the nation was much better prepared for World War II than it had dreamed. There was no need to slam on brakes, twist the wheel sharply, set off in another direction. The U.S. needed only to step on the gas.

Planes, tanks, guns, ships were in production. Plans to handle enemy aliens were long ready. Under LendLease a working alliance had long since been effected with Great Britain, Russia, China, the Dutch. The seizure of foreign shipping, the increase in the size of the Army, Navy, air forces, armored force — all these things had been anticipated. More might have been done, but a great deal had been done.

Speech. During World War I Woodrow Wilson canceled all press conferences. Mr. Roosevelt met the press, lectured them on what they might and might not print. He looked calm, rested, cheery, buoyant.

That night he spoke for 27 minutes from the partly blacked-out diplomatic cloakroom in the White House basement.

He conceded that the U.S. had suffered a serious defeat in the Pacific. He called on the people to prepare for a long war which "we are going to win."' He outlined a program for "doubled and quadrupled" war production by increasing the working week to the maximum of seven 24-hour days; by building new plants; increasing those already built and converting unused factories; by giving more of all available materials to the military, less to civilians.

He warned against rumors and "fantastic claims," promised to make public all information he had that would not give aid & comfort to the enemy. Said the President:

"We are now in this war. We are all in it all the way. Every single man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news. . . .

"So far the news has all been bad.

"This Government will put its trust in the stamina of the American people. . . . We must be set to face a long war against crafty and powerful bandits. . . . It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war. . . .

". . . We must begin the great task that is before us by abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity. In these past few years — and, most violently, in the past few days — we have learned a terrible lesson.

"It is our obligation to our dead — it is our sacred obligation to their children and to our children — that we must never forget what we have learned.

"We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this nation, and all that this nation represents, will be safe for our children.

". . . We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows."

Action. Next day the moves began: exchanges of pledges and information with the British, the Russians, the Chinese, the Dutch, all the American nations. Navy Secretary Frank Knox was dispatched to Honolulu in a Navy bomber. Congress was asked to kill the ban on sending out an A.E.F. — and did, without debate. The Senate added a couple of billions to an $8,000,000,000 war appropriation. Industrial and labor leaders were called to meet this week to agree on a basic war labor policy. QPMite William Knudsen ordered the 168-hour week into effect in basic arms industries; ordered the expenditure of $1,000,000,000 a week (present spending rate: more than $500,000,000 weekly).

All arms schedules were upped enormously. The Navy asked Congress to increase the size of the coming two-ocean fleet. The French liner Normandie, the Swedish liner Kungsholm, and 13 lesser vessels were seized. Censorship of all outgoing radio, telephone, wireless and cable communication was established. (Next: plain mail.) Congress got down to brass tacks on price control, on tax legislation.

The President established eight defense sea areas off the East and West Coasts into which non-U.S. Navy vessels might enter only with Navy permission and only on clear days. Petroleum Coordinator Harold Ickes took over absolute control of aviation gasoline.

The President held repeated strategy discussions with his War Council. He opened a $50,000,000 Red Cross drive, sent to Congress a message asking a declaration of war on Germany and Italy; signed the declaration two hours, 45 minutes later. He signed an order giving the Defense Communications Board power to use, control, inspect or shut down all radio stations. He ordered Thailand funds frozen in the U.S. He conferred with Soviet Ambassador Maxim Litvinoff, with Adviser Harry Hopkins, and with his ex-Vatican envoy, Myron C. Taylor.

With British permission the U.S. made plans to make Eritrea, the sun-cursed, camel-smelling little country (670 miles by 200 Miles) on the barren, feverstricken Red Sea coast, 1,000 miles from Suez on the Canal, into an assembly plant, an African sub-station of the Democracies' Arsenal. Thousands of U.S. technicians and skilled workmen will be poured into the onetime Italian colony to assemble war materials, well out of Axis bomb range.

The President sent Congress a chronology of U.S.-Japanese relations (88 years of peace smashed in one day's treachery) as "the record, for all history to read in amazement, in sorrow, in horror and disgust! "

This was a heavy week — but not much heavier than some other White House weeks. The difference was mainly in spirit. The U.S. had been reacting to "other peoples" wars. It was now in its own war.