 Good evening from the White House in Washington Ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States my fellow Americans I Have just returned from Berlin The city from which the Germans intended to rule the world It is a ghost city The buildings are in ruins Its economy and its people are in ruins Our party also visited what is left of Frankfurt and Darmstadt We flew over the remains of Kessel Magdeburg and other devastated cities German women and children and old men were wandering over the highways Returning to bombed-out homes or leaving bombed-out cities searching for food and shelter War has indeed come home to Germany and to the German people It has come home in all the frightfulness with which the German leaders started and waged it The German people are beginning to atone for the crimes of the gangsters whom they placed in power and Whom they wholeheartedly approved and obediently followed We also saw some of the terrific destruction which the war had brought to the occupied countries of Western Europe and to England How glad I am to be home again and how grateful to Almighty God that this land of ours has been spared We must do all we can to spare her from the ravages of any future breach of the peace That is why though the United States wants no territory or profit or selfish advantages out of this war We're going to maintain the military bases necessary for the complete protection of our interest and of world peace Bases which our military experts deemed to be essential for our protection and which are not now in our possession We will acquire We will acquire them by arrangements consistent with the United Nations Charter No one can foresee what another war would mean to our own cities and our own people What we are doing to Japan now even with a new atomic bomb is Only a small fraction of what would happen to the world in a third world war That is why the United Nations are determined that there shall be no next war That is why the United Nations are determined to remain united and strong We can never permit any aggressor in the future to be clever enough to divide us or strong enough to defeat us That was the guiding spirit in the conference at San Francisco That was the guiding spirit in the conference of Berlin That will be the guiding spirit in the peace settlements to come In the conference of Berlin It was easy for me to get along in mutual understanding and friendship with Generalissimo Stalin With Prime Minister Churchill and later with Prime Minister Atley Strong foundations of goodwill and cooperation had been laid by President Roosevelt And it was clear that those foundations rested upon more than the personal friendships of three individuals There was a fundamental accord and agreement upon the objectives ahead of us Two of the three conferees of Tehran and Yalta were missing by the end of this conference Each of them was sorely missed Each had done his work toward winning this war Each had made a great contribution toward establishing and maintaining a lasting world peace Each of them seems to have been ordained to lead his country in its hour of greatest need And so thoroughly had they done their jobs That we were able to carry on and to reach many agreements essential to the future peace and security of the world The results of the Berlin conference have been published There were no secret agreements or commitments apart from current military arrangements And it was made perfectly plain to my colleague at the conference That under our constitution the president has no power to make any treaties Without ratification by the Senate of the United States I want to express my thanks for the excellent services Excellent services which are rendered at this conference by Secretary of State Byrne And which were highly commended by the leaders of the other two powers I am thankful also to the other members of the American delegation Admiral Ehey and ambassadors Harriman Davies and Paulie And to the entire American staff Without their hard work and sound advice the conference would have been unable to accomplish as much as it did The conference was concerned with many political and economic questions But there was one strictly military matter uppermost in the minds of the American delegates It was the winning of the war against Japan On our program that was the most important item The military arrangements made at Berlin were of course secret One of those secrets was revealed yesterday when the Soviet Union declared war on Japan The Soviet Union before she had been informed of our new weapon Agreed to enter the war in the Pacific We gladly welcome into this struggle against the last of the Axis aggressors Our gallant and victorious ally against the Nazis The Japs will soon learn some more of the military secrets agreed upon at Berlin They will learn them first hand and they will not like them Before we met at Berlin the United States government had sent to the soviet and british governments Our ideas of what should be taken up at the conference At the first meeting our delegation submitted these proposals for discussion Subject were added by the soviet and british governments But in the main the conference was occupied with the american proposals Our first non-military agreement in berlion was the establishment of the council of foreign ministers The council is going to be the continuous meeting ground of the five principal governments On which to reach common understanding regarding the peace settlement This does not mean that the five governments are going to try to dictate to or dominate other nations It'll be their duty to apply so far as possible The fundamental principles of justice underlying the charter adopted at san francisco Just as the meeting at dumbarton oaks grew up the proposals to be placed before the conference at san francisco So this council of foreign ministers will lay the groundwork for future peace settlements This preparation by the council will make possible speedier more orderly more efficient and more cooperative peace settlements Than could otherwise be obtained One of the first tasks of the council of foreign ministers Is to draft proposed treaties of peace with former enemy countries Italy romania bulgaria Hungary and finland These treaties of course will have to be passed upon by all the nation's concerns In our own country the senate will have to ratify them But we shall begin at once the necessary preparatory work Adequate study now may avoid the planting of the seeds of future wars I'm sure that the american people will agree with me That this council of foreign ministers will be effective in hastening the day of peace and reconstruction We are anxious to settle the future of italy first among the former enemy countries Italy italy was the first to break away from the axis She helped materially in the final defeat of germany She has now joined us in the war against japan She's making real progress toward democracy A peace treaty with a democratic italian government Will make it possible for us to receive italy as a member of the united nation The council of foreign ministers will also have to start the preparatory work for a german peace settlement But his final acceptance will have to wait until germany has developed a government with which a peace treaty can be made In the meantime the conference of berlin laid down the specific political and economic principles Under which germany will be governed by the occupying powers Those principles have been published. I hope that all of you will read them They seek to rid germany of the forces Which have made her so long feared and hated and which have now brought her to complete disaster They are intended to eliminate nazism armaments war industries the german general staff and all its military tradition They seek to rebuild democracy by control of german education By reorganizing local government and the judiciary By encouraging free speech free press freedom of religion and the right of labor to organize The german industry is to be decentralized in order to do away with concentration of economic power in cartels and monopolies Chief emphasis is to be on agriculture and peaceful industries German economic power to make war is to be eliminated The germans are not to have a higher standard of living than their former victims The people of the defeated and occupied countries of europe We are going to do what we can to make germany over into a decent nation So that it may eventually work its way from the economic chaos. It has brought up on itself Back into a place in the civilized world The economic action taken against germany at the berlin conference included another most important item reparations We do not intend again to make the mistake of exacting reparations in money And then lending germany the money with which to pay Reparations this time are to be paid in physical assets From those resources of germany which are not required for her peacetime subsistence The first purpose of reparation is to take out of germany everything with which she can prepare for another war Its second purpose is to help the devastated countries to bring about their own recovery By means of the equipment and material taken from germany At the kermia conference A basis for fixing reparations had been proposed for initial discussion and study by the reparations commission That basis was a total amount of reparations of 20 billions of dollars Of this sum One half was to go to russia Which had suffered more heavily in the loss of life and property than any other country But at berlin the idea of attempting to fix a dollar value on the property to be removed from germany was dropped To fix a dollar value on the share of each nation Would be a sort of guarantee that the amount each nation would get a guarantee which might not be fulfilled Therefore it was decided to divide the property by percentages of the total amount available We still generally agreed that russia should get approximately half of the total for herself and poland And that the remainder should be divided among all the other nations and title to reparations Under our agreement at berlin The reparations claims of the soviet union and poland are to be met from the property Located in the zone of germany occupied by the soviet union And from the german assets in bulgaria finland Hungary rumania and east austria The reparations claims of all other countries are to be met from the property located in the western zones of occupation of germany And from the german assets in all other countries The soviet waves all claim to gold captured by the allied troops in germany This formula of taking represent reparations by zones Will lead to less friction among the allies than the tentative basis originally proposed for study at yatha The difficulty with this formula however Is that the industrial capital equipment? Not necessary for german peace economy is not evenly divided among the zones of occupation The western zones have a much higher percentage than the eastern zone Which is mostly devoted to agriculture and to the production of raw materials In order to equalize the distribution and to give russia and poland their fair share of approximately 50 percent It was decided that they should receive without any reimbursement 10 percent of the capital equipment in the western zones available for reparation As you will note from the communique A further 15 percent of the capital equipment in the western zones not necessary for germany's peace economy Is also to be turned over to russia and poland But this is not free For this property poland and russia will give to the western zones an equal amount in value in food coal and other raw materials This 15 percent therefore is not an additional reparation is a not additional reparations for russia and poland It is a means of maintaining a balanced economy in germany And providing the usual exchange of goods between the eastern part and the western part It was agreed at berlin that the payment of reparations From whatever zones taken should always leave enough resources to enable the german people to subsist Without sustained support from other nations The question of poland was the most difficult one Certain compromises about poland had already been agreed upon at the chromia conference They obviously were binding upon us at berlin By the time of the berlin conference The polish provisional government of national unity had already been formed and it had been recognized by all of us The new polish government had agreed to hold free and unfettered elections as soon as possible On the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot In acceptance in accordance with the chromia agreement We sought the opinion of the polish provisional government of national unity With respect to its western and northern boundaries They agreed as did we all that the final determination of the borders could not be accomplished at berlin But must await the peace settlement However a considerable portion of what was the russian zone of occupation in germany Was turned over to poland at the berlin conference for administrative purposes until the final determination of the peace settlement Nearly every international agreement has in it the element of compromise The agreement on poland is no exception No one nation can expect to get everything that it wants It is a question of give and take Of being willing to meet your neighbor halfway In this instance there is much to justify the action taken The agreement An agreement on some line Even provisionally it was necessary to enable the new poland to organize itself And to permit the speedier withdrawal of the armed forces which had liberated her from the germans In the area east of the kurzon line There are over three million pols who are to be returned to poland They need rooms to room to settle the new area in the west was formally populated by germans But most of them have already left in the face of the invading soviet army We were informed that there were only about a million and a half germans left The territory the pols are to administer will enable poland better to support its population It will provide a sharp and more easily defensible frontier between poland and germany Settled by pols it will provide a more homogeneous nation The three powers also agreed to help bring about the earliest possible return to poland of all pols who wish to return Including soldiers with the assurance that they would have all the rights of other polis citizens The action taken at berlin will help carry out the basic policy of the united nations toward poland To create a strong independent and prosperous nation With a government to be selected by the people themselves It was agreed to recommend that in the peace settlement A portion of east prussia should be turned over to russia That too was agreed upon at yalta It will provide the soviet union which did so much to bring about victory in europe With an ice-free port at the expense of germany At yalta it was agreed you were to call That the three governments would assume a common responsibility In helping to establish in the liberated and satellite nations of europe Governments broadly representative of the democratic elements in the population That responsibility still stands We all recognize it as a joint responsibility of the three governments It was reaffirmed in the berlin declarations on rumenia vulgaria and hungary These nations are not to be spheres of influence of any one power They are now governed by allied control commission Composed of representatives of the three governments which met at yalta and berlin These control commissions. It is true have not been functioning completely to our satisfaction But improved procedures were agreed upon at berlin Until these states are reestablished as members of the international family. They are the joint concern of all of us The american delegation was much disturbed over the inability of the representatives of a free press To get information out of the former german satellite nation The three governments agreed at berlin that the allied press would enjoy full freedom from now on To report to the world upon all developments in rumenia vulgaria hungary and finland The same agreement was reaffirmed also as to poland One of the persistent causes for wars in europe in the last two centuries Has been the selfish control of the waterways of europe I mean the danube the black sea straits the rime the keel canal And all the inland waterways of europe which border upon two or more states The united states proposed at berlin that there be free and unrestricted navigation of these inland waterways We think this is important to the future peace and security of the world We propose that regulations for such navigation be provided by international authorities The function of the agencies would be to develop the use of the waterways And assure equal treatment on them for all nations Membership on the agencies would include the united states great britain the soviet union and france Plus those states which border on the waterways Our proposal was considered by the conference and was referred to the council of ministers There the united states intends to press for its adoption Any man who sees europe now Must realize that victory in a great war is not something you can win once and for all like a victory in a ball game Victory in a great war is something that must be won and kept won It can be lost after you have won it if you are careless or negligent or indifferent Europe today is hungry I'm not talking about german I'm talking about the people of the countries which are overrun and devastated by the german And particularly about the people of western europe Many of them lack clothes and fuel and tools and shelter and raw materials They lack the means to restore their cities and their factories As the winter comes on the distress will increase Unless we do what we can to help We may lose next winter what we won at such terrible cost last spring Desperate men are liable to destroy the structure of their society To find in the wreckage some substitute for hope If we let you europe go cold and hungry We may lose some of the foundations of order on which the hope for world peace must rest We must help to the limit of our strength And we will Our meeting at berlin was the first meeting of the great ally since the victory was won in europe Naturally our thoughts now turn to the day of victory in japan The british chinese and united states government Have given the japanese people adequate warning of what is in store for them We have laid down the general terms on which they can surrender Our warning went unheeded Our terms were rejected Since then the japanese have seen what our atomic bomb can do They can foresee what it will do in the future The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima a military base That was because we wished in the first attack to avoid in so far as possible The killing of civilians But that attack is only a warning of things to come If japan does not surrender Bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and unfortunately Thousands of civilian lives will be lost I urge japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately and save themselves from destruction I realized the tragic significance of the atomic bomb Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this government But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it We know now how close they were to finding it And we knew the disaster which would come to this nation And to all peace loving nations to all civilization if they had found it first That is why we felt compelled to undertake the long and uncertain and costly labor of discovery and production We won the race of discovery against the german Having found the bomb we have used it We have used it against those who attack us without warning at pearl harbor Against those who have starved and beaten and executed american prisoners of war Against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war In order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young americans We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy japan's power to make war Only a japanese surrender will stop us The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world That is why great britain canada and the united states Who have the secret of its production Do not intend to reveal that secret until means have been found to control the bomb So as to protect ourselves and the rest of the world from the danger of total destruction As far back as last may Secretary of war simpson at my suggestion Appointed a committee upon which secretary of state burn served as my personal representative To prepare plans for the future control of this bomb I shall ask the congress to cooperate to the end that is production and use be controlled And that his power be made an overwhelming influence toward world peace We must constitute ourselves trustees of this new force To prevent its misuse And to turn it into the channels of service to mankind It is an awful responsibility which has come to us We thank god that it has come to us instead of to our enemies And we pray that he may guide us to use it in his ways and for his purposes Our victory in europe was more than a victory of arms It was a victory of one way of life over another It was a victory of an ideal founded on the rights of the common man On the dignity of the human being On the conception of the state as the servant and not the master of its people A free people showed that it was able to defeat professional soldiers Who's only moral arms were obedience and the worship of force We tell ourselves that we have emerged from this war the most powerful nation in the world The most powerful nation perhaps in all history That is true But not in the sense some of us believe it to be true The war has shown us that we have tremendous resources To make all the materials for war It has shown us that we have skillful workers and managers and able generals And a brave people capable of bearing arms All these things we knew before The new things the thing which we had not known The thing which we have learned now and should never forget is this That a society of self governing men Is more powerful more enduring More creative than any other kind of society however disciplined are ever centralized We know now that the basic proposition of the worth and dignity of man Is not a sentimental aspiration or a vain hope or a piece of rhetoric It is the strongest most creative force now present in this world Now let us use that force and all our resources and all our skills In the great cause of a just and lasting peace The three great powers are now more closely than ever bound together In determination to achieve that kind of peace From Tehran and the Crimea from San Francisco and Berlin We shall continue to march together to a lasting peace and a happy world Ladies and gentlemen, you have just heard the president of the united states And now our national anthem. This is the national broadcasting company