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

U.S. Ties to Britain Strengthened 65
on May 27, after enduring a horrendous bombing; over 2,000
offi cers and crew went down with the ship. 33
Th e fi rst U.S. ship to be torpedoed by a German submarine
was a freighter, the Robin Moor, sunk in the South Atlantic on
May 21. News of the event reached the world only when survivors
fi nally landed in Brazil on June 11. Roosevelt was outraged.
But, although some British offi cials in Washington, as well as the
President’s close friend and adviser, Harry Hopkins, wished for
decisive U.S. retaliation, FDR did no more than remonstrate. 34
On June 6 Roosevelt authorized the seizure of all idle foreign
merchant ships in our ports “for urgent needs of commerce
and national defense.” 35 German, Italian, and Danish ships had
already been taken into “protective custody” on March 30 for the
duration of the emergency.
Th en on June 14 Roosevelt “ordered Axis funds in the United
States frozen.” Two days later the United States “requested withdrawal
of German and Italian consular staff s by July 10,” charging
them with having “engaged in activities wholly outside the
scope of their legitimate duties.” 36
FDR had long since given up all pretense of applying the
Neutrality Act equally to all belligerents. In his view, Britain had
enjoyed special status from the very beginning of the war. Th en
after Germany attacked Russia on June 21, 1941, FDR refrained
as well from applying the neutrality law to the Soviet Union. He
released Russian credits and promised Stalin lend-lease aid. By
these actions, Roosevelt was further committing this country to
the British cause and against Germany. At the same time that he
33 Abbazia, Mr. Roosevelt’s Navy, pp. 184–89.
34 L. Langer and S. Everett Gleason, Th e Undeclared War (London: Royal Institute
of International Aff airs, 1953), pp. 519–20.
35 Department of Navy, United States Naval Chronology, World War II, p. 9. See
also U.S. Congress, Events, p. 283.
36 Ibid. p. 284.