Fdr Talks Frankly — (February/March 1982 | Volume: 33, Issue: 2)

Fdr Talks Frankly —

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February/March 1982 | Volume 33, Issue 2

On Friday morning, October 4, 1940, the Democratic leaders of the House, Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas and Floor Leader John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, were ushered into the Oval Office immediately following the noisy exit of the reporters who had attended the President’s six hundred and eighty-sixth press conference—his first appointment of the day. Roosevelt was clearly in an expansive mood, eager to talk about the two matters uppermost in his mind—the increasingly ominous outlook overseas and the tight race he was running with Wendell Willkie. His visitors only rarely got a word in edgewise.

“And you see,” FDR began, “look here now…. The prime minister of Japan has just given out an interview, which may or may not be true because they may deny it this afternoon, to the… INS papers, in which he says that Japan would regard it as an act of war if we were to give aid and comfort to any of the enemies of Japan. Now, what d’ya mean? [Here FDR begins an imaginary dialogue between himself and his opposition, a common feature of his conversations and always performed with histrionic relish.] What’s the word ‘attack’ mean—I don’t know. It’s perfectly possible—not the least bit probable—I mean it’s a, it’s a—as Jack Garner would say—a one-in-ten shot, that Hitler and Mussolini, and Japan, united, might— ah—feel that if they could stop American munitions from flowing to England— planes, guns, ships, airplanes, ammunition, and so forth, that they could lick England.

“Now, they might send us an ultimatum: “If you continue to send anything to England, we will regard that as an attack on us.’ [FDR emphasized this point by rapping on his desk.] I’ll say: ’I’m terribly sorry. We don’t want any war with you. We have contracts, and under our neutrality laws any belligerent has a right to come and buy things in this country and take ‘em away.’ They’ll thereupon say: ‘Well, if after such and such a date you are continuing to ship munitions to England—and planes—we will regard you as a belligerent.’

“All right, what have we got to say on this?… I’ll say: I’m terribly sorry. We don’t consider ourselves [FDR began to chuckle] a belligerent. We’re not going to declare war on you. If you regard us as a belligerent, we’re dreadfully sorry for you, because we don’t. Now, all we can say to you is that, of course, if you act on that assumption—that we’re a belligerent—and make any form of attack on us, were going to defend our own —we’re going to defend our own —and nothing further.’”

McCormack spoke briefly here, but most of what he said is unintelligible.

“Now, if that happens, of course,” FDR replied, “we’ll be in a position to say: ‘We’re not a belligerent, we’re not fightin’ y’ah, we’re not at war with y’ah, but we decline to change the