 Fire is a destroyer of lives and property and precious natural resources. War, when launched by a pyromaniac aggressor, bent upon conquest and the subjugation of peoples, can be a still greater destroyer. War can destroy the freedom and liberties of free men, if they are not sufficiently manned, armed and equipped to halt the spreading flames and beat them out. Fire is used to fight fire. Backfiring is called. In war, armed force must be met by armed force. There is no other choice for free men who would remain free. Personal property lost in the fire can be replaced. Freedom and personal liberty, once crushed under the aggressor's ruthless heel, may never be regained. A modern military force is as vital to the safety of the nation as our modern fire departments for the protection of our towns and great cities. But we as a peace-loving nation have been slow to learn that lesson. To follow the admonition by George Washington in 1790, in his first annual address to Congress, to be prepared for war, he said, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. Soon after World War I and the demobilization of our armed forces, we quickly fell back into our old, comfortable ways of isolation and complacency. Any lessons we might have learned from the war to end all wars, the war that was waged to make the world safe for democracy, were soon forgotten. As was the great truth that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Even then, it was later than we knew or cared to admit. 1939 and the fires of war in China were still raging. Half a world away, Czechoslovakia, dismembered by the Munich Pact, fell to Hitler without a battle. Hitler demanded that Poland surrender the Baltic seaport of Danzig with its strategic corridor to the sea. A prize lost by Germany in 1920 at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Poland did not yield. In defiance of British and French warnings, the Nazis, after making a secret non-aggression pact with Russia, invaded Poland September 1, 1939 with their smashing blitzkrieg tactics. The heroic Poles fought the invaders with a courage that was phenomenal, but futile against overwhelming odds. To act one of World War II was raised. Britain and France declared war. The die was cast. British Prime Minister Chamberlain knew there would be no peace in our time. The United States proclaimed its neutrality, just as it had at the beginning of World War I. 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean, it seemed, were still an ample safeguard for the immediate defense of our nation. In a cynical agreement, Germany and Russia had partitioned conquered Poland. Soon, Russia attacked little Finland. The valiant Fens fought the Russians to a standoff. In China, the two Asian giants continued their struggle to the death. With the rest of the world exploding into violent war, the New York World's fair opened to throngs of peaceful and pleasure-loving Americans. The wars in Europe and Asia were still far away. We read about them in the newspapers and watched the unfolding events in our newsreels. As at the beginning of World War I, we had proclaimed our traditional neutrality. Millions of Americans were more interested in Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees taking force straight from Cincinnati in the World Series than they were in the deadly games being played in Europe and Asia, where aggressors were out to take all. In the grim international game of war, the aggressor teams were pitching and running the bases in what then looked like a shutout. But the World Series and that big league had yet to be played. Three years before, General Douglas MacArthur had retired from active duty to become military advisor to the Philippines. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then a field grade officer, was a member of MacArthur's staff. By coincidence, General George C. Marshall was appointed chief of staff the same day the Nazis invaded Poland. Omar N. Bradley was a member of the War Department's general staff. Leslie J. McNair was executive officer in the office of the chief of field artillery. General Brigham Somerville was head of the Depression-born Works Progress Administration in New York City. It would be another year before General Henry Hap Arnold would become deputy chief of staff of the Army Air Corps. Robert L. Eichelberger was still a colonel, commanding the 30th Infantry at the Procedure of San Francisco. George S. Patton Jr., a colonel then, was post-commander of Fort Meier in Virginia. Mark Clark was a member of the staff of the 3rd Division at Fort Lewis Washington. General Walter Kruger commanded the 2nd Division at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Courtney Hodges was then a colonel, assistant commandant of the Infantry School at Fort Benning. Alexander M. Patch was serving as a Lieutenant Colonel on the Infantry Board at Fort Benning. Their commander-in-chief, the President of the United States, took the first step that was to make America the arsenal of democracy. In November 1939, Roosevelt signed a bill removing the Arms Embargo Act. Now we could supply the implements of war to England and France on a cash and carry basis. Full-scale land lease was still in the future, but our neutrality was starting to crack. The wheels of our industrial complex were beginning to turn. The slumbering, complacent giant among nations was awakening. Slowly we began to increase our military manpower. The Army was authorized to recruit some 83,000 men. The Marine Corps, 10,000. The Navy, 42,000. But our combined military establishment was still less than half a million men. Hardly a token force in light of world events. Only a small handful of our forces was adequately equipped and partially trained for combat. In the spring of 1940, the Nazi war machine rolled into Denmark and into Norway. The gallant with small Norwegian army was forced to withdraw to last-ditch positions in the north. It was brutally crushed. In one deadly swoop, the Nazis overran Belgium, Luxembourg, and smashed across the French frontier. It was blitzkrieg, lightning war. The aggressors struck with massive air power, with mobile artillery. Strike fast, strike hard with overwhelming ruthless force. Destroy entire cities. Reduce them to ashes and rubble along with the charred bones of their inferior civilian population. Show no mercy. Destroy the will to fight. Show them the hopelessness of resistance. Those were Hitler's orders. The British rushed in what combat-ready troops they had to try and help the French stem the German tidal wave that was sweeping the continent. Winston Churchill, an indomitable man of the century, born of an English father and an American mother, took over the reins of government. In America, another great leader put before Congress and the nation the urgent need for defense. These are ominous days. Days whose swift and shocking developments force every neutral nation to look to its defenses in the light of new factors. The brutal force of modern offensive war has been loosed in all its horror. Surely the developments of the past few weeks have made it clear to all of our citizens that the possibility of attack on vital American zones ought to make it essential that we have the physical, the ready ability to meet those attacks and to prevent them from reaching their objective. Our task is plain. The road we must take is clearly indicated. Our defenses must be invulnerable, our security absolute. The French army was fast disintegrated. British forces were saved from annihilation or capture by the miraculous evacuation at Dunkirk. Italy declared war against France and Britain. Paris, undefended, fell like a ripe plum into the Nazi basket of conquests. What remained of the French army retreated to Mediterranean ports for evacuation to North Africa to live to fight another day and help win the victory. Hitler signed an armistice with France and became master of all Western Europe. He could now concentrate on the destruction of his greatest adversary, England. Only Britain, fighting for her life, and the Atlantic Ocean stood between the United States and what was then the most powerful conquering armed force the world had ever known. On the 1st of September 1940, in response to the growing peril, President Roosevelt called up 60,000 National Guardsmen from 26 states for one year service. In the same month, for the third time in its history, Congress enacted a selective service bill. 16 million Americans registered for the draft. There were some who asked, why me? But the majority knew why. And despite any inner emotional conflicts, they responded in the same spirit as had their forefathers. They knew that the gutty men who made and preserved this nation never asked, why me? These were men who could look anyone in the eye and say, I'm proud to be an American and to serve my country in its time of need. From the cities, the towns, the villages, the farms, the plains and the mountains they came. Citizens from every walk of life who would soon prove themselves to be soldiers in the finest traditions of the American fighting man. Within a year, our army grew to 1,500,000 men. It would continue to grow to a peak strength of 8 million. They had to be trained to combat hardness if they were to meet and destroy an enemy already toughened and blooded by combat. A new and mighty army was being forged along new lines to meet the challenge of improved enemy weapons, new tactics, new strategies. At last, our top military leaders were being given the wherewithal to implement plans they had made for the defense of America under direction of George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff. General Leslie McNair was charged with directing the gigantic training program. General Somerville was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of supply. His was to be a superhuman task. Dwight D. Eisenhower was to have a meeting with Destiny. General Hap Arnold, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army Air Corps, stepped up the training of much-needed pilots. America was rising up out of the rut of her apathy. She was beginning to understand the hard fact that she was an integral part of the world, a world that suddenly had become one of violence and brutality, one in which America would have to fight to the death if she were to survive. While we were marshaling our resources, England was being given the bloodbath Hitler had promised. Britain's Royal Air Force fought night and day, taking a heavy toll of Nazi bombers, inspiring Winston Churchill's famous statement that, never had so many owed so much to so few. Americans knew what would happen to the United States if Britain fell. Our response to the desperate plea for help came late, but not too late in 1940. It is the purpose of the nation to build now, with all possible speed, every machine and arsenal and factory that we need to manufacture our defense material. We have the men, the skill, the wealth, and above all, the will. We must be the great arsenal of democracy. In North Africa, British forces were fighting an Italian drive upon Egypt. Nazi and fascist troops smashed into the Balkans, into Greece. The Greeks fought with their traditional courage, but were overwhelmed by the Nazi tidal wave. 1940 was a black year for what was left of the free world. 1941 was to be an even blacker year, during which the aggressors attacked the only two remaining major powers not yet at war, Russia and the United States. For the aggressors, it was to be the world or nothing. In June 1941, Hitler suddenly unleashed his forces against Soviet Russia. Sorely wounded, the Russian bear retreated, falling back before the onrushing Nazi legions. There was only one major power in the free world to go, the militarily weak United States. Now she stood alone, but how long could she stand? The Asian Axis partner thought she had an answer to that, one that would complete the aggressor's pattern for conquest of the entire world. It was a quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii. A newly risen sun shown on beautiful Oahu. It was symbolic. It was the last time we were to be caught napping by a rising sun. The surprise attack was a staggering blow to our Navy at Pearl Harbor. Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. I asked that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. Soon, the fall of Bataan and the never-to-be-forgotten death march of thousands of American and Filipino troops, many would never reach the prison 65 miles away. Hundreds met death along the way. A terrible price to pay for unpreparedness, complacency, or apathy for the military weakness that invited the aggressor to attack. Does anything more need to be said?