The Arsenal of Democracy
Delivered as a radio Fireside Chat on December 29, 1940, FDR rallied the American nation to produce military supplies for European allies resisting Nazi invasion, months before Pearl Harbor.
Full Transcript
My fellow Americans: This is not a fireside chat on war. It is a talk on national security; because the cause of the American people, their present member states, and their future, is in grave danger.
Never before since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now. For on September 27, 1940, by the Pact signed in Berlin, three powerful nations joined together in the threat that if the United States interfered with or blocked the expansion program of these three nations, they would unite in military action against the United States.
No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender.
We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.
Defining Key Excerpts
"We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself."
"No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness."
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