Navy Day Address
Franklin D Roosevelt was the 32nd American President who served in office from
March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945. An important event during his
presidency was his famous "Navy Day Address" speech. Public
opinion began to change in the late 1930's due to the acts of
aggression perpetrated by Germany. FDR kept the nation of informed
of events via his speeches and radio broadcasts.
Navy Day Address
The "Navy Day Address"
speech was made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the radio on
Navy Day, October 27, 1941, concerning the attack upon the destroyer
USS Kearny.
Franklin D.
Roosevelt's "Navy Day Address" on the Attack on
the Destroyer Kearney
Five months ago tonight I proclaimed to the
American people the existence of a state of unlimited emergency.
Since then much has happened. Our Army and Navy are temporarily in
Iceland in the defense of the Western Hemisphere.
Hitler has attacked shipping in areas close to the Americas in the
North and South Atlantic.
Many American-owned merchant ships have been sunk on the high seas.
One American destroyer was attacked on September fourth. Another
destroyer was attacked and hit on October seventeenth. Eleven brave
and loyal men of our Navy were killed by the Nazis.
We have wished to avoid shooting. But the shooting has started. And
history has recorded who fired the first shot. In the long run,
however, all that will matter is who fired the last shot.
America has been attacked. The U.S.S. Kearny is not just a navy
ship. She belongs to every man, woman and child in this nation.
Illinois, Alabama, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana
Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arkansas, New York, Virginia-those are
the home states of the honored dead and wounded of the Kearny.
Hitler's torpedo was directed at every American whether he lives on
our sea coasts or in the innermost part of the nation, far from the
seas and far from the guns and tanks of the marching hordes of
would-be conquerors of the world.
The purpose of Hitler's attack was to frighten the American people
off the high seas-to force us to make a trembling retreat. This is
not the first time he has misjudged the American spirit. That spirit
is now aroused.
If our national policy were to be dominated by the fear of shooting,
then all of our ships and those of our sister Republics would have
to be tied up in home harbors. Our Navy would have to remain
respectfully-abjectly-behind any line which Hitler might decree on
any ocean as his own dictated version of his own war zone.
Naturally we reject that absurd and insulting suggestion. We reject
it because of our own self-interest, because of our own
self-respect, because, most of all, of our own good faith. Freedom
of the seas is now, as it has always been, a fundamental policy of
your government and mine.
Hitler has often protested that his plans for conquest do not extend
across the Atlantic Ocean. But his submarines and raiders prove
otherwise. So does the entire design of his new world order.
For example, I have in my possession a secret map made in Germany by
Hitler's government-by the planners of the new world order. It is a
map of South America and a part of Central America, as Hitler
proposes to reorganize it. Today in this area there are fourteen
separate countries. The geographical experts of Berlin, however,
have ruthlessly obliterated all existing boundary lines; and have
divided South America into five vassal states, bringing the whole
continent under their domination. And they have also so arranged it
that the territory of one of these new puppet states includes the
Republic of Panama and our great life line-the Panama Canal.
That is his plan. It will never go into effect.
This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America
but against the United States itself.
Your government has in its possession another document made in
Germany by Hitler's government. It is a detailed plan, which, for
obvious reasons, the Nazis did not wish and do not wish to publicize
just yet, but which they are ready to impose-a little later-on a
dominated world-if Hitler wins. It is a plan to abolish all existing
religions-Protestant, Catholic, Mohammedan, Hindu, Buddhist and
Jewish alike. The property of all churches will be seized by the
Reich and its puppets. The cross and all other symbols of religion
are to be forbidden. The clergy are to be forever silenced under
penalty of the concentration camps, where even now so many fearless
men are being tortured because they have placed God above Hitler.
In the place of the churches of our civilization, there is to be set
up an International Nazi Church-a church which will be served by
orators sent out by the Nazi Government. In the place of the Bible,
the words of Mein Kampf will be imposed and enforced as Holy Writ.
And in place of the cross of Christ will be put two symbols-the
swastika and the naked sword.
A God of Blood and Iron will take the place of the God of Love and
Mercy. Let us well ponder that statement which I have made tonight.
These grim truths which I have told you of the present and future
plans of Hitlerism will of course be hotly denied tonight and
tomorrow in the controlled press and radio of the Axis Powers. And
some Americans-not many-will continue to insist that Hitler's plans
need not worry us-and that we should not concern ourselves with
anything that goes on beyond rifle shot of our own shores.
The protestations of these American citizens-few in number-will, as
usual, be paraded with applause through the Axis press and radio
during the next few days, in an effort to convince the world that
the majority of Americans are opposed to their duly chosen
Government, and in reality are only waiting to jump on Hitler's band
wagon when it comes this way.
The motive of such Americans is not the point at issue. The fact is
that Nazi propaganda continues in desperation to seize upon such
isolated statements as proof of American disunity.
The Nazis have made up their own list of modern American heroes. It
is, fortunately, a short list. I am glad that it does not contain my
name.
All of us Americans, of all opinions, are faced with the choice
between the kind of world we want to live in and the kind of world
which Hitler and his hordes would impose upon us.
None of us wants to burrow under the ground and live in total
darkness like a comfortable mole.
The forward march of Hitler and of Hitlerism can be stopped-and it
will be stopped.
Very simply and very bluntly-we are pledged to pull our own oar in
the destruction of Hitlerism.
And when we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism we shall help
to establish a new peace which will give to decent people everywhere
a better chance to live and prosper in security and in freedom and
in faith.
Each day that passes we are producing and providing more and more
arms for the men who are fighting on actual battle-fronts. That is
our primary task.
And it is the nation's will that these vital arms and supplies of
all kinds shall neither be locked up in American harbors nor sent to
the bottom of the sea. It is the nation's will that America shall
deliver the goods. In open defiance of that will, our ships have
been sunk and our sailors have been killed.
I say that we do not propose to take this lying down.
Our determination not to take it lying down has been expressed in
the orders to the American Navy to shoot on sight. Those orders
stand.
Furthermore, the House of Representatives has already voted to amend
part of the Neutrality Act of 1937, today outmoded by force of
violent circumstances. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has
also recommended elimination of other hamstringing provisions in
that Act. That is the course of honesty and of realism.
Our American merchant ships must be armed to defend themselves
against the rattlesnakes of the sea.
Our American merchant ships must be free to carry our American goods
into the harbors of our friends.
Our American merchant ships must be protected by our American Navy.
It can never be doubted that the goods will be delivered by this
nation, whose Navy believes in the tradition of "Damn the torpedoes;
full speed ahead!"
Yes, our nation will and must speak from every assembly line. Yes,
from every coal mine-the all-inclusive whole of our vast industrial
machine. Our factories and our shipyards are constantly expanding.
Our output must be multiplied.
It cannot be hampered by the selfish obstruction of any small but
dangerous minority of industrial managers who perhaps hold out for
extra profits, or for "business as usual." It cannot be hampered by
the selfish obstruction of a small but dangerous minority of labor
leaders who are a menace-for labor as a whole knows that that small
minority is a menace-to the true cause of labor itself, as well as
to the nation as a whole.
The lines of our essential defense now cover all the seas; and to
meet the extraordinary demands of today and tomorrow our Navy grows
to unprecedented size. Our Navy is ready for action. Indeed, units
of it in the Atlantic patrol are in action. Its officers and men
need no praise from me.
Our new Army is steadily developing the strength needed to withstand
the aggressors. Our soldiers of today are worthy of the proudest
traditions of the United States Army. But traditions cannot shoot
down dive bombers or destroy tanks. That is why we must and shall
provide, for every one of our soldiers, equipment and weapons-not
merely as good but better than that of any other army on earth. And
we are doing that right now.
For this-and all of this-is what we mean by total national defense.
The first objective of that defense is to stop Hitler. He can be
stopped and can be compelled to dig in. And that will be the
beginning of the end of his downfall, because dictatorship of the
Hitler type can live only through continuing victories-increasing
conquests.
The facts of 1918 are proof that a mighty German army and a tired
German people can crumble rapidly and go to pieces when they are
faced with successful resistance.
Nobody who admires qualities of courage and endurance can fail to be
stirred by the full-fledged resistance of the Russian people. The
Russians are fighting for their own soil and their own homes. Russia
needs all kinds of help-planes, tanks, guns, medical supplies and
other aids-toward the successful defense against the invaders. From
the United States and from Britain, she is getting great quantities
of those essential supplies. But the needs of her huge army will
continue-and our help and British help will have to continue!
The other day the Secretary of State of the United States was asked
by a Senator to justify our giving aid to Russia. His reply was:
"The answer to that, Senator, depends on how anxious a person is to
stop and destroy the march of Hitler in his conquest of the world.
If he were anxious enough to defeat Hitler, he would not worry about
who was helping to defeat him."
Upon our American production falls the colossal task of equipping
our own armed forces, and helping to supply the British, the
Russians and the Chinese. In the performance of that task we dare
not fail. And we will not fail.
It has not been easy for us Americans to adjust ourselves to the
shocking realities of a world in which the principles of common
humanity and common decency are being mowed down by the firing
squads of The Gestapo. We have enjoyed many of God's blessings. We
have lived in a broad and abundant land, and by our industry and
productivity we have made it flourish.
There are those who say that our great good fortune has betrayed
us-that we are now no match for the regimented masses who have been
trained in the Spartan ways of ruthless brutality. They say that we
have grown fat, and flabby, and lazy-and that we are doomed.
But those who say that know nothing of America or of American life.
They do not know that this land is great because it is a land of
endless challenge. Our country was first populated, and it has been
steadily developed, by men and women in whom there burned the spirit
of adventure and restlessness and individual independence which will
not tolerate oppression.
Ours has been a story of vigorous challenges which have been
accepted and overcome-challenges of uncharted seas, of wild forests
and desert plains, of raging floods and withering drought, of
foreign tyrants and domestic strife, of staggering problems-social,
economic and physical; and we have come out of them the most
powerful nation-and the freest-in all of history.
Today in the face of this newest and greatest challenge of them all
we Americans have cleared our decks and taken our battle stations.
We stand ready in the defense of our nation and the faith of our
fathers to do what God has given us the power to see as our full
duty.
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