L.T. - SUNOC. MOM^AY. DECEMBER 3. IQ/1. GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: Here’s a statement from Pres ident^Roose ve! It ^ I I issued from the White House only a short time ago. It reads:- . "Obviously Germany did all it could to I * push Japan into the war. It was the German hope tha if the United States and Japan could be pushed in thj war, tkxt such a conflict would put an end to the Lend-Lease program." The statement s ay ^ faiitirCT:^ casts and announcements etre -it'tLoJr continuously and completely one hundred per cent inaccurateV is shown by the fact that the Lend-Lease A program is and will continue in full operation. \ LEAD - 2 Just as that statement was released at the White House, there came a report from Washington y that some people believe Hitler is getting ready to help his Japanese allies, by springing a raid on the Eastern coast of the United States, The people who believe that are in what is known as "high diplomatic quarters. AXIS ! 9f si \Jc-^ Until the Pres ident finished .-spga te4n-g r-^aany i /\ Congressmen were prepared to hear him ask for a declaration against not only Japan but the Axis I i-3 \l powers. After the drama in Congress was over, the A question arose whether that declaration against Japan If *1 did not put us automatically war with Nazi Germany A and Fascist Italy. The question was brought up not n , m I ^ as a question but as a fact by the Rome Radio, A broadcast from the Fasc't'irt uupTfkl ufas ovorheaTd stating that accordin^o the Tri-partite^ Alliance, 1 r=! "i I the declaration ofCongress today renders Germany and Italy automatically at war with us. w/ -I 2. tr-i t-t ^ 11^ Qut j>n i-hn f. e / i —^inv^4-i4^ Thailand, wfa±irh---TrTTT>T»i3TT7t7>rPd-~fff^^^^ r b^iLLcil-iiie:5:x«4'uiir:«, besieging Hong Kong, bombing Singapore, landing troops on the Malay Peninsula, i picking up every undefended island of the United State^j in the Pacific. What our own naval and military forces are doing we do not know, and if we did know, it wouldn't be lawful to tell publicly. Orders from the Army, from the Navy, from the Federal Communications Commission, from the Treasury and the Post Office, forbid the may be of any value to /) ‘ the enemy. The Navy and the Federal Communications Commission dmit thxi ol-o ~-<XilRF-"Qf censorship. The Army calls it "restriction", patb-er tha^i oo-ftoorohip. The Espionage Act, passed in 1917, has never been repealled and the War Department v;ill enforce it. WAR FOLLOW LEAD - 3 Reporters asked t’to- spokesman ■f=e^!^<yiyp^-ATm.y A at Manila what he would call the results of the first I whether it could be considered win, lose or draw. The Navy still pives out no information about what happened at Pearl harbor. But the White House admitted that fifteen hundred were killed in Hawaii, fifteen hundred wounded, and an old battleship, presumably the OKLAHOMA, capsized.___ ^ J The Japanese claims are not official, they were made by the Tokyo radio, which said it had the facts from Imperial Naval Headquarters. Radio Tokyo . .!; IT broadcast the claim that the Japanese had sunk two ;j American battleships, plus an aircraft carrier. damaped four other battleships, four heavy cruisers, A 9nd destroyed numerous merchant ships and auxiliaries r 1 WAP FOLLOr L^AD - I The latest from Sin'^apore is that the British I claim they were ready for the Japanese, and that, using American built bombers, they damaged two Japanese troopships with direct hits, also a barge loaded with Japanese troops. ^ y. . ^ ^ And the I—fruui Manila ia—that, nn substantja 11 H —i«—chjn"eT~ i i I I m ! CONGRESS The 3iost interesting votes in Congress today were those cast by members who in Nineteen Seventeen voted against war* For instance, there was Congressman Harold Knutson of Minnesota, who voted against the war with the Kaiser’s Germany. Today he said that this nation had no choice but to declare a state of war withJapan. ij Senator Norris of Nebraska was another of Today Norris said: the Nineteen Seventeen objectors. A A "There cannot be any American now who would hold back.j If we don’t fight now," he added, "we might as well s ink our navy, dissolve our army, haul down the American flag and Heil Hitler." Incidentally, the [| aged Senator Norris was the only man to. sound a questioning note about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He said he could not understand what our li planes were doing over there. "Apparently," he addeclt CONGRESS -2 "thev were not ready and were surprised.” In the Senate, as you know, not one single dissenting voice. Isolationist Leader Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, announcing his ballot, stated. "Vihen war come s to us, I stand with the Coiarnander— in Chief, notwithstanding past differences on ioreign policy. And in a rhetorical apostrophe to the Japanese,^ he cried: "You have unsheathed the sword and by you shall die." ■ The focus of interest in the House was on a aenber who had voted against v.ar in Nineteen Seventeen. Congresswocan Jeanette Rankin of ..lontana tired to * interrupt the proceeair.gs from the outset. Democratic Leader McCormick of iassachusetts, moved for a suspension of the rules. Whereupon Cor.g resswoxan Rankin| arose and said, *1 object.- Speaker Rayburn indignantly banged on his dess and shouted: -There can oe no objection.* f It was notable that the Republicans did ,re declaiming than the Democrats. Perhaps the CONGRESS - 3 most rousing speech was that of Congressman Hamilton Fish of New York, who had hitherto been the leader of the Isolationists of the House. Fish admitted that for three years he iiad been fighting against any American entry into war. But now, he said, the time for action had come. "There can only be one answer -- war and final victory. The Japanese," saia he, "have gone stark raving mad. When President Roosevelt faced the joint session to the sound of tremendous cheers, he spoke just five hundred words. And he was at his best, brief, terse, crisp, no unnecessary adjectives, no flowery oratory. In the course of those five hundred words he gave us a complete picture of v/hat had happened, though he did not tell us the full extent. of the damage that the Japanese raid had inflicted at Pearl Harbor: he didn’t tell us whether the Japanese had told the truth when they claimed to have destroyed two battleships, damaged four heavy cruisers and sunk an aircraft carrier. COi'iCaRtii^S “ 4- At twelve-thirty-five the President began to address the joint session, and only a few minutes* after four, he signed the resolution, declaring that the Government and the people of the United States were at war with the Japanese hmpire. The war which wafei already more than twenty-four hours old.fhye-witnesses of that historic signing ceremony report that the President sat in his office looking tired, resting his head on one hand. But as the Vice-President, Speaker Sam Rayburn, and Congressional leaders of both parties | i filed in, he looked up and smiled and exchanged greeting! T as jovial as ever. If he looked tired, it was no i wonder, since he has had little sleep in the past twenty-four hours. A’iEBICA FIRST Here’s something to illustrate the v^ay this crisis has unified the nation;- The Directors of the America First Committee have issued a statement that "in this var, the America First Committee pledges its aid to the President as Commanda--in -ch ief of the armed forces of the United States. And an announcement from Lindbergh ’’V*e must meet this crisis as united Americans, regardles. of our attitude in the past toward the policy our Government has followed, " says the Lone Eagle and adds:- "Whether or not that policy ah has been wise, our country has been attacked by force of arms and by force of arms we must retaliate." "Our defenses and our military position have already been neglected too Icn^, said the flying colonel. "We must now turn our every effort to build­ ing the greatest and most efficient Army, Navy and Air Force in the world. CHUBCHILL i Britain*s Prime Minister it%=was as pwi A - w - iar=-f s c t h e promised that in case of war between the United States and Japan, Great Britain would follow with a declaration _ — ---- ---- — ----------------- "within the hour." rBritain*s formal declaration came I several hours bej^r^ our own. ‘A British Cabinet doesn* have to ask permission of its Parliament, ^o when the Prime Minister went before the House att-th^ee ^ p afternoonr-jridrrrCT to inform the Commons that y: /V /\ His Majesty’s Government had already declared a state of j \ war with Japan, th&t-wmm a o e,ordi!ig 1 / _________ c-CJZ<-£J2p Yias more oratorical A than our own President. He talked about the insane ambition and the insatiable appetite of the Japanese. At the same time, he issued a note of warning when he CHURCHILL,- 2 said: ’’The enemy h^s attacked with an audacity which may spring from recklessness, but which may also apring from cnviction of strength. That insane ambition, which is the root of evil, must be ’ ext irpated Ii Incidentally, he revealed the fact, which most of us did not know over here, that he had had a conversation with President Roosevelt last night by trans - A tlant ic RadM telephone. \ On all sides today people with knowledge | ol Naval and Military matters were warning -- this may turn out to be a long hard battle. T he United; States and its allies seem certain to win in the long run, but the defeat cf Japan and the destruetionjpl of its her armed power may take time and the largest; kind of^ efforj^^ These Naval and Military experts are not so much inclined to put'full reliance on the opinion often expressed -- that the Japanese war power is an inflated bubble that would burst easily, that the Japs can’t light ships, shoot big guns. or fly war planes. It may be that we will win this (Lie thing in several brief months, some have been saying. Let’s hope we do, -aut«a let’s be prepared mentally A for the long haul. I ^ So the expertsbeen warning us^. A > KXPKHTS - 2 and I*d like to point out one interesting thing about these last several years of war. The war machines that have been despised before going into action have not always turned out to be so feeble. If In fact, the war record shows a whole series of under^stimations, in which outfits held in contempt 77 ^ have turned out to be formidable. The most striking case, of course, is that of the Hed army. Most people, didn’t give the Soviets a chance -- and look what happened -- so completely unexpected after the t showing the Red army made against the Finns. imfl—wi^o. ]] A gave the Finns a chance? The' same goes for the Greeks against the Italians. and then -- before the European Bar began there were plenty of stories to prove that the Nazi war machine was no good -- a hollow shell, wooden tanks and their motorized A equipment broke down even in the unresisted invasion | 5 HiXPERTS of Austria !- ail that sort of thing. On tne other hand, take the most highly touted military establishment of all, the French -- the best army in the world,” as it was so frequently[ IT called. Some outfits, of course, did live up to promise -- like the British Navy. And^the Italian army and Navy lived up to their lack of promise -- tx they justified the poor opinion in which they were generally held. The past record of miscalculation, it seems I to me, should^ake us wary about underjestimating the | war power of Japan. It may crack up as quickly as | many have predicted -- but it*s a good idea for us not to expect too much sensational success too soon. .A H'here is one expert on Naval matters who i gives us one most important bit of explanation today. r IP tthen it was disclosed that in the bombing of Hawaii EXPERTS_.__^__ a Japanese aircraft carrier had brought^im plane &nd ifc<i4--init finr—a.yA.y—r.y4»a the islands, people asked --1 A why didn't the Navy know something about the approacn ol the aircraft carrier? How could a Japanese warship have got so near to our great Naval base without Weren't being spotted? there any air scouts? Weren't A they on the alert? Today, writing in the New York Evening Post Fletcher and for the Overseas News Agency, Naval Expert^I±«tKte|| Pratt reminds us of a few pertinent facts^--- "the spaces of the Central Pacific are immense; and M ysBBA the Japanese warships in the operation probably took a^^c ir cu i tous route from their bases to Hawaii. They could lose themselves for days in the vast area of the Pacific. The^^the aircraft carrier could have run through the night until five or six hundred miles off Hawii, and turned loose its planes at dawn - 1 ] I 1 EXPEHTS^-^^ to fly the rest of the distance. This could be accomplished with only the least chance of detection by the most alert system of air scouting -- so writes Fletcher Pratt, authority on Naval matters. There’s no reason to suppose that the Navy was not on the alert -- he proves. 1 ^' V BONDiS All day recruiting offices, East, West, North and South were jammed. And tonight we have a message from Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau telling us how we can help, who cannot fight: Buy a bond. Defense Bonds.* One of the things we are going to need against this enemy is money by the billions. So buy bonds.' ? 'i pi; BUSSIA Here*s n^ws which on an ordinary day would have been momentous and taken ud half my time on the A air - Hitler has ^iven up hopes of taking Moscow this winter. A admission to come from Berlin. r The Nazi spokesman said it was the Russian winter that had licked them. They give no credit to the SHxaitx resolute a^rrd—de^Jr^te fighting of the Red armies. [ a ^ a J In any event, & marks a new epoch i -1 for that war injRussia. The way the Nazis explain it, is that their war in that part of the world will x cease to be a war of movement. In other words, they're going to dig in, consolidate and wait for soft weather *■ in thejSpring. TkxxSxxxwtx 'xx^Bokxx The Soviet spokesme'n, for their part. made further claims of having the Nazis on the run in the South, surrounded at Taganrog. They also claim to RUSSIA - 2 have recaptured an important highv/ay on the south :4 c 6C ow front. Question:- Will Hitler’s army start a more furious campaign in Africa, or another attempt to invade Britain? European questions as we go forth to war in the Pacific! Time carries all the answers. And s-l-u-t-m! BULLETIN And here*s a late bulletin just handed me from V.^ashing ton: - Representative John D. Dinpell, Democrat of Michigan, tonight demanded that court martial proceedings be instituted against five top army and navy commanders, including Admiral Husband E. Kimmel Commander-in-l!^hief of the United States Fleet, for the ^naval debacle” at Pearl Harbor.