State of the Union AddressesRoosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano)
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State of the Union Addresses
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
There is much loose talk of our immunity from immediate and direct invasion
from across the seas. Obviously, as long as the British Navy retains its
power, no such danger exists. Even if there were no British Navy, it is not
probable that any enemy would be stupid enough to attack us by landing
troops in the United States from across thousands of miles of ocean, until
it had acquired strategic bases from which to operate.
But we learn much from the lessons of the past years in Europe--particularly
the lesson of Norway, whose essential seaports were captured by treachery
and surprise built up over a series of years.
The first phase of the invasion of this Hemisphere would not be the landing
of regular troops. The necessary strategic points would be occupied by
secret agents and their dupes--and great numbers of them are already here,
and in Latin America.
As long as the aggressor nations maintain the offensive, they--not we--will
choose the time and the place and the method of their attack.
That is why the future of all the American Republics is today in serious
danger.
That is why this Annual Message to the Congress is unique in our history.
That is why every member of the Executive Branch of the Government and
every member of the Congress faces great responsibility and great
accountability.
The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted
primarily--almost exclusively--to meeting this foreign peril. For all our
domestic problems are now a part of the great emergency.
Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a
decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within
our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a
decent respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, large and small.
And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Our national policy is this:
First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to
partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard
to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute
peoples, everywhere, who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping
war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination
that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and
the security of our own nation.
Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to
partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of
morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to
acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We
know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's
freedom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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