Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

50 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
I hate war, now more than ever. I have one supreme determination—to
do all that I can to keep war away from these
shores for all time. I stand, with my party, and outside of my
party as president of all the people, on the [Democratic Party]
platform, the wording that was adopted in Chicago less than
two months ago. It said:
We will not participate in foreign wars, and we will not send
our Army, naval or air forces to fi ght in foreign lands outside of
the Americas, except in case of attack. 48
While Roosevelt and his administration were reassuring the
British off and on of U.S. assistance in their war against Germany,
he was reassuring the American voters of our continued neutrality.
On October 23, he spoke in Philadelphia: 49
To Republicans and Democrats, to every man, woman and
child in the nation I say this: Your president and your Secretary
of State are following the road to peace.
We are arming ourselves not for any foreign war.
We are arming ourselves not for any purpose of conquest or
intervention in foreign disputes. I repeat again that I stand on
the Platform of our Party. . . .
It is for peace that I have labored: and it is for peace that I shall
labor all the days of my life.
48 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Th e Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, vol. 1: Th e Genesis of the New Deal, 1928–1932 (New York: Random
House, 1940), p. 313; Charles A. Beard, American Foreign Policy in the Making:
1932–1940 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1946), pp. 313–14.
49 Roosevelt, Public Papers, 1940, pp. 488ff . Partial quote in Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Quotations from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, July 1940–August 1,
1944, Republican National Committee, September 1944, p. 50. See also Beard,
American Foreign Policy in the Making, pp. 314–15.