The U.S. At War: The U.S. At War, Dec. 29, 1941

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For the first time in nearly IQ years of publication, TIME finds itself unable to tell its readers freely and frankly all the things it knows. Readers in many parts of the U.S. will doubtless see military preparations of which no news appears in these pages.

TIME still believes that no editor has a right to decide that the public should not know certain facts. But in wartime to disclose secret military information which might be of value to the enemy is not only illegal but unpatriotic. So TIME, although it will still make every effort to continue telling the truth and nothing but the truth, will be unable for the duration to tell all the truth about military matters.

But TIME does pledge itself 1) to report, as soon as its disclosure will do no harm, any military information that may be temporarily withheld, 2) to have the courage to send its editors to jail rather than connive at the concealment of any significant facts of a non-military nature.