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History That Doesn't Suck
188: World War II in Europe & The American Response (1939–40): Isolationism vs. Arsenal of Democracy
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Hi, I'm Nancy Cartwright. You may know me better as the voice of Bart Simpson on Simpsons Declassified. We're diving into the mysteries that keep the Simpsons forever young. Have you ever wondered how the Simpsons regularly predicts future events? Who better to ask than the show's creators, performers and writers, the celebrity guests? Be sure to follow and listen to Simpsons Declassified wherever you get your podcasts. It's just past seven on a windy, rainy Thursday evening, May 6, 1937, and eight year old Werner Doner is likely glued to the window. Who wouldn't be flying in an airship? The view of New Jersey's Lakehurst Naval Air Station a few hundred feet below and is nothing short of spectacular. Werner's father has even pulled out the movie camera and probably not for the first time. So many sites worth capturing on their transatlantic voyage. So many views to memorialize. You know the slightly stormy weather is going to keep this lighter than air vessel of the skies from landing for a while, so let me fill you in while we wait. Taking off From Frankfurt, Germany three days ago, this airship is transporting 62 passengers, including the donor family, to the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. And it's an incredible way to travel across the Atlantic, flying far lower than you and I will on future commercial flights. These passengers have enjoyed close up aerial views of European towns, ocean ice sheets and New York City's towering skyline. Sights that most can only dream of. The airship is also nothing short of luxurious. It boasts a beautiful dining room, a lounge with a piano and a smoking room. Guests can even tour the control room and brave the Catwalks inside the frame. It's also faster than an ocean liner. This thing has a top speed of 82 miles per hour. And unlike ocean liners, airships, which have carried tens of thousands of paying customers on more than 2,000 flights over the last few decades, have never had a fatal commercial accident. Yes, no. Titanic of the skies, if you will. So whether it's the view, the speed, the luxury or the safety, there are plenty of reasons Werner's parents might have chosen to return from this vacation in their native Germany to their lives in Mexico by returning to the Western hemisphere in an airship. Particularly this one, which has made more than 60 successful flights and bears the name of the last president of the recently ended Weimar Republic. Yes, this airship is known as the Hindenburg. And I'd say that gets us up to speed. So let's get back to the donor family, shall we? Spectacular as the view still is, Werner's father knows that they're close to landing. This storm has delayed their approach for hours. But now they're only 200 or 300ft off the ground. The ship's crew crew is dropping the mooring lines and the ground crews are rushing out to secure them. Yeah, they're maybe 10 minutes from the ground. So he packs up the camera and heads back to the cabin to stow it. And as the family man walks off, that's the last time little Werner will ever see his father. Suddenly, the airship lurches and then a deafening explosion rips through the rainy sky. The Hindenburg's hydrogen ignites and in seconds the The 804 foot long airship becomes a roaring falling inferno. As the airship rocks in the fire filled air, Werner's mother, Matilda knows she must act fast. Staying put means certain death. She grabs her oldest son, Werner's big brother, and throws him out the window. She next turns to little Werner, but the ship hitches, throwing her back. Still, she refuses to give up. Struggling back to her young son, she shoves him out the same window. Flames are everywhere as she turns to her daughter. But she can't force the girl out. In a matter of seconds, Matilda is forced to make impossible choices. She won't leave her sons to be orphans. She jumps, lying on the ground. Werner is alive. So is his brother, who yells at the eight year old to get up and move. Pushing through the searing pain of burns, Werner stands and stumbles forward. Soon they're with their mother. She too has survived, though with a broken hip. Her first thought though, is her daughter. Still in the wreckage. She tells a surviving steward and the man doesn't hesitate. Rushing back into the inferno, he somehow finds the girl and carries her out. She's alive for now. But as for their father, he's still somewhere inside that infant endless heap of twisted metal stretching across the scorched land. As acrid smoke and the cries of the wounded fill the evening sky, Werner, his siblings and his mother already know the devastating truth. He never stood a chance. Welcome to history that doesn't suck. Hello, I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. 36 died in the Hindenburg disaster. 35 were passengers or crew. Of the total, 97 on board, one was ground crew. Among them were Werner's father and eventually his sister. She died the next morning. The tragedy changes commercial air travel, pushing it toward airplanes. But it also offers insight into the United States desire, like appeasement, seeking Britain to stay out of Adolf Hitler's path in the late 1930s. To be clear, there's nothing political about this loss of innocent lives. But the flight was only possible because relations between Nazi Germany and the US remained normal enough in 1937. And symbolically, those relationships will soon explode, much like the airship itself. Which brings us to this episode's story. In the last episode, Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland started the Second World War in Europe. Today, after several episodes providing much needed European historical background, we return to the American perspective as we follow the war's first year in Europe from the invasion on September 1, 1939, through the end of 1940, and examine how the United States responds. We'll find that initially, America wants to stay isolationist or non interventionist, to use a more modern term, as it has arguably since its founding. But as the phoney war ends, France falls and and Britain fights for survival in the skies, Americans begin to reconsider that long held precedent. We'll see a nation torn. On one side is fdr, who will gradually shift from traditional isolationism and neutrality to selling arms through cash and carry and later toward lend lease under the banner of an arsenal of democracy. On the other are Americans who still want to stay out of the war entirely and remain isolationist. They form the America First Committee, and amid this tension, FDR will break another precedent by running for a third term in the White House. From policy to politics, Americans face serious choices in 1940. So let's see which path they take. Beginning with a crash course on a century and a half of isolationism, Rewind. Free from British rule and reinvented as a federal republic, the United states of the 1790s sets a foreign policy course later called isolationism. That doesn't mean cutting itself off from the world. The US Is happy to trade and maintain diplomacy, but wants to avoid permanent alliances and wars outside of the Western Hemisphere, especially European wars. In his 1796 farewell address, George Washington advises the young nation to honor its commitments but avoid interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe. This, he believes, will protect U.S. interests and sovereignty. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson agrees, listing what he calls the essential principles of our government. In his inaugural address, he calls for entangling alliances with none. Loosely speaking, this Western Hemisphere focused version of isolationism holds for generations. In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine doubles down, warning Europe against colonizing the Americas and claiming the entire Western Hemisphere as the US Sphere of influence. It's a bold move for a small, relatively weak nation. But the Monroe Doctrine becomes an entrenched part of US foreign policy well into the 20th century. And though the 19th century US fights foreign wars, they're one offs, fought alone, without permanent alliances. To quote historian Justice Doanecke, although the United States engaged in several major wars in the 19th century, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish American War, all these conflicts were fought unilaterally and therefore did not violate classic isolationist principles. By that specific definition, Even the early 20th century United States under President Theodore Roosevelt remains pretty isolationist. Revisit episode 116 for the details on his foreign policy. But remember that TR's two big ideas. One, speak softly and carry a big stick, that is deter war by preparing for it. And two, his Roosevelt corollary, which expands on the Monroe Doctrine to justify US Policing of the Americas. Even with territories in the Pacific like the Philippines, the US still avoids permanent alliances and stays focused on the Western Hemisphere. Obviously, the Great War of 1914-1918 is a European conflict, and it includes alliances. Yet American isolationism isn't dead. As you might remember from our World War I episodes, the US joins the Allies not as a full member, but as an associated power. Meanwhile, General Blackjack Pershing fights like a devil dog at Belleau Wood to make sure neither the French nor British ever have the final say over his American doughboys over there. And even after the Great War, the United States sticks to isolationism. The Senate rejects President Woodrow Wilson's dream of a League of Nations. We covered this in episode 147, but I'll remind you that it does so over fears of surrendering national sovereignty or entangling the US in future Conflicts, in essence, the very things GW and Tommy Jay warned against. So as we step into the interwar period, that is the roughly two decades between the world world wars, the US reaches its 150th birthday, still holding by hook and crook to its Western hemisphere loving and largely Europe avoiding version of isolationism. In fact, the US is so committed to not committing to global gains, it dismantles much of the military that it built up during the Great War. Pacifism feels like the way forward. But as the Roaring Twenties give way to the Great Depression and authoritarianism rises in Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan, Americans in the 1930s have to where is the line between avoiding foreign entanglements and stopping dictators bent on global conquest? On September 18, 1931, the Imperial Japanese army invades Manchuria. Some historians argue that this is the first domino toward the Pacific front of World War II. We'll get to that story later, but for today's purposes, it marks an important early moment in Post Versailles Treaty U.S. foreign Policy. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover and Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared the US will not recognize Japanese conquests that violate international treaties. Henry wants economic sanctions too, but Bert limits the response to non recognition. America is staying out of it. On March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes the oath of office. As we know from episode 173, unemployment is at 24.9%. And on that cold rainy day, FDR standing in leg braces, assures the nation the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Economic recovery is the top priority. But it's not all he talks about. FDR also introduces his good neighbor foreign policy. We covered this policy in episode 175. But in short, Franklin promises a less interventionist approach to Latin America, where the US has a long history of meddling. To quote him in the field of world policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor. It's a subtle but telling moment, even as the United States continues to embrace the Monroe Doctrine and view the Western Hemisphere as its backyard. FDR's call for softer power and non intervention shows just how strong the isolationist mood still is. And at this stage, FDR supports it. In fact, FDR has even been a neighbor of sorts to the ussr with the worst economic emergencies addressed. He formally recognizes the Soviet Union on November 16, 1933. This isn't because he likes the USSR, it's economic pragmatism, as the economically battered United States could use another big trading partner besides the isolationist US has no appetite for confronting authoritarianism anywhere. And only a month later, FDR restates his stance. The definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed intervention. That said, Franklin is leery of Adolf Hitler's rise in Germany and Japan's growing Navy. He tries to walk the line between reducing military expenditures and ensuring national security. In June 1933, he channels his old assistant Secretary of the Navy self diverting $238 million from Public Works to build 32 new ships. In 1934, the Vinson Trammell act lays the groundwork to expand the Navy to treaty limits. Pacifists protest, but FDR insists this is about defense, not seeking war. There's no immediate danger. Not yet. Meanwhile, the army is a far cry from fighting shape. With 140,000 troops excluding the National Guard, the US ranks 17th in military strength in the world, just as it did before World War I. Some officers have even been transferred to the Civilian Conservation Corps. This is why Chief of staff Douglas MacArthur kind of loses it on FDR while discussing future budget cuts to the army in 1933. Yes, I told you that explosive story in episode 174. And as we know, FDR listens and dials back those cuts. It's a moment that underscores the challenge in balancing the need to prepare for a potential war with Germany or Japan while also supporting the public's economic and isolationist demands. It's a nearly impossible balance. Then comes the Senate's Nye Committee. In 1935, prompted by public suspicion that World War I had more to do with selling munitions and supporting bankers than protecting democracy, the committee investigates with FDR's support. It doesn't find a smoking gun. Yes, pun intended. But does further stoke isolationist sentiment and open the door to a series of neutrality acts that aim to keep the US out of another foreign war by cutting economic ties to war waging nations. On August 31, 1935, the first neutrality act to quote it, prohibits the export of arms, ammunition and implements of war to belligerent countries. In other words, it's now illegal to export munitions to nations that are at war. Meanwhile, dictatorial warmongers are crossing lines. Earlier this same year, Adolf Hitler renounced the Versailles Treaty's disarmament clauses. And in October, Benito Mussolini's Italy invades Abyssinia, AKA Ethiopia. But Americans still want nothing to do with foreign wars, and Franklin knows it. He responds to Italy's invasion by reminding the world of America's neutrality, of its gospel of the good neighbor. Early the next year, January 3, 1936, FDR once again holds the isolationist line in his State of the Union address, speaking at night and over the airwaves so that average Americans can listen. A scandalous break from tradition in the eyes of some Republicans. The President condemns the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe and Asia. But the key message is America remains neutral. The Next month, on February 29, 1936, Congress renews the first Neutrality act through May of 1937, this time adding a key Americans are now prohibited from loaning money to any nation at war. But as the Spanish Civil War breaks out that summer, and as threats and acts of violence rise in Europe, Franklin feels increasingly uneasy about the Neutrality Act. Is it too rigid, too limiting in this increasingly aggressive world? Still, the American people want peace, and Franklin knows it. So while campaigning for re election in Chautauqua, New York that August, he reaffirms his commitment to isolationism. We shun political commitments which might entangle us in foreign wars. I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I hate war. But I have spent unnumbered hours. I shall pass unnumbered hours thinking and planning how war may be kept from this nation. Franklin sweeps the 1936 election, winning 523 electoral votes to his Republican opponent, Kansas Gov. Alf Landon's eight. FDR carries every state but Maine and Vermont. Talk about a mandate. With that resounding victory, Franklin goes into his second term feeling a little more leeway on foreign affairs. He wants to expand the Good Neighbor program into a hemispheric alliance. Once again, he's drawing on the old Monroe Doctrine, but reinterpreting it to insist that this is about collective conversation, not just unilateral U.S. actions. He's building a peaceful American as in America, because American neighborhood, if you will. Also, FDR is ready for that Neutrality act to get another update. The May 1, 1937 version bans U.S. citizens from traveling on belligerent ships and prohibits American merchants from selling arms to belligerent nations, even if those arms were made abroad. But Franklin, starting to stretch some internationalist wings, manages to add exactly small yet crucial exception for Britain and France. This is the cash and carry policy. This allows belligerent countries to buy anything that isn't an implement of war, such as raw materials, as long as they pay up front and transport the goods themselves on non American ships. The carry part. It's a clever compromise and getting it through a Congress that's even more contentious than it was when the first Neutrality act was signed in 1935 is a real political feat. 1938 brings more international anxiety, particularly as Nazi Germany annexes Austria that March. Franklin is mindful of the growing Jewish refugee crisis. But as established in several episodes, U.S. immigration has a strict quota system. The merging of Germany and Austria also merges their quotas. Sure, but that doesn't change. There's still small total number. From 1938 to 1941, 150,000 refugees will be granted entry. Meanwhile, FDR pushes other countries to take in more Jewish refugees, leading to the Avion Conference in the summer of 1938. But as we know from episode 185, it's of little use. And of course, we know the path to war that follows from the last episode. Adolf Hitler takes the Sudeten with his munich Agreement in September 1938, then blatantly breaks the agreement by invading Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Meanwhile, Congress, still deeply isolationist, allows the cash and carry policy to expire as it hits its two year limit. FDR takes it as a slap in the face. But six months later, on September 1st, Adolf invades Poland, officially speaking, starting World War II in Europe. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. It's a tense, gut wrenching descent into conflict. And as appeasement fails and Nazi aggression drags Europe into war, the American President knows he must speak directly to the American people. It's the evening of September 3, 1939, only hours after Britain and France declared war on Germany in response to its invasion of Poland. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is seated behind a desk crowded with microphones, some water and a reading light in the diplomatic reception room of the White House. It's time to do what his counterparts across the Atlantic have already done. Announce the start of another world conflict to his nation and explain what this means for them. And of course, FDR will do so in his patented fashion that allows Americans to feel like he's talking to them in their very own living rooms. This is one of his famous fireside chat broadcasts. Placing the removable bridge in his mouth that silences the soft whistling sound that's only discernible when he's heard over the radio. FDR begins.
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My countrymen and my friends, tonight my single duty is to speak to the whole of America. Until 4:30 o' clock this morning, I had hoped against hope that some miracle would prevent a devastating war in Europe and bring to an end the invasion of Poland by Germany. It is easy for you and for me to shrug our shoulders and say that conflicts taking place thousands of miles from the continental United States and indeed thousands of miles from the whole American hemisphere, do not seriously affect the Americas, and that all the United States has to do is to ignore them and go about its own business passionately. Though we may desire detachment, we are forced to realize that every word that comes through the air, every ship that sails the sea, every battle that is fought, does affect the American future. Let no man or woman thoughtlessly or falsely talk of America sending its armies to European fields. This nation will. Will remain a neutral nation. But I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well. Even a neutral has a right to take account of facts. Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or close his conscience. We seek to keep war from our own firesides by keeping war from coming to the Americas. For that we have historic precedent that goes back to the days of the administration of President George Washington. I have said not once, but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. I say that again and again. I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will. And I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your government will be directed toward that end. As long as it remains within my power to prevent. There will be no blackout of peace in the United States.
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As evidenced by FDR's broadcast, George Washington's words of warning and the desire to stay at peace, to remain neutral and in isolation, still run deep. That said, the start of the Second World War in Europe has put a crack in Congress. Isolationism. Two months after this fireside chat, a new Neutrality act in November 1939 restores the cash and carry policy. After all, better to send American munitions than American boys to war, right? As FDR biographer Frank Friedel writes, the United States turned slowly from its isolation into a non belligerent engaged in quasi war to defend what the President identified as vital national interests. And that's a critical shift. Uncle Sam may still be neutral, but clearly he's picking. And right now that side's bracing for invasion.
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Having officially declared war on insatiable Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939, the Allied nations of Britain and France prepare for and expect invasion. And yet all remains mostly quiet on the Western Front. Don't get me wrong, there's some action. That same September 3rd, German submarine U30 sinks a British passenger liner, the Athenia, killing 112, which includes 28Americans. That same month, the first British troops deploy to Allied France and the French army briefly pokes into the German Saarland. Over the following months, Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe and its submarines, AKA U boats, continue to strike British ships, keeping Winston Churchill, who as Britain's prophet of Nazi aggression has been returned to the position of First Lord of the Admiralty by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. More than busy enough yet, the Fuhrer's invasion of Belgium and France keeps getting delayed. In November, the weather holds him back. Then, on January 10, 1940, a German plane carrying the latest invasion plans crashes in Belgium, effectively handing the Nazi playbook to the Allies, forcing Adolf back to the drawing board. Thus, from September 1939 right into the spring of 1940, Britain and France prepare, while Western Europe's war remains mostly on paper. That's why these first eight months of the war are known as the phoney war. The only real war in Europe at this point seems to be Joseph Stalin's invasion of Finland. Taking advantage of his non aggression pact with Adolf Hitler, the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin not only seizes eastern Poland in late 1939, but also forces Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into mutual assistance treaties. Then in November, he demands territory from Finland as a buffer against future conflict with Germany. But the Finns refuse and fight back. With strong organization, winter expertise and gas filled bottles. They call Molotov cocktails a jab at Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The Finns punch above their weight, though Britain and France offer no help and Finland loses the winter war in March 1940. It keeps its independence, cedes just 10% of its land and embarrasses the Red army in the process. But only weeks after the Winter War ends, Germany gets back on the warpath. On April 9, 1940, Nazi forces invade both Denmark and Norway. Denmark falls faster than you can watch the original, not extended Lord of the Rings trilogy surrendering that same day. Supported by the British. Norway hangs in there for two months, but ultimately succumbs as well. On May 10, the Fuhrer officially ends the phoney war with an attack against the Low Countries, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. And oh, is the Nazi war machine effective? Its carefully coordinated attacks consisting of Panzer tanks and motorized infantry on the ground and Luftwaffe in the air. This lightning quick attack style called blitzkrieg prevails left and right. Luxembourg falls that same day. The Netherlands folds four days later while Belgium holds a little longer. Convinced that the Germans are going to attack France via Belgium, the Allies commit serious support to the fighting there. But only days in, it already isn't going well. Across the Atlantic. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is appalled. Delivering a broadcast speech at Constitution hall that same May 10, he declares that I am so glad. We are shocked and angered by the tragic news that has come to us from Belgium and the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Less than a week later, he warns a joint session of Congress that America isn't without risk, that it isn't as isolated as it once was. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans were reasonably adequate defensive barriers when fleets under sail could move at an average speed of five miles an hour. But the new element, air navigation, steps up the speed of possible attack 200 to 300 miles an hour. So called impregnable fortifications no longer exist. In short, FDR is calling for ramping up the US military. He goes on to specify that he wants the nation cranking out 50,000 warplanes in the next year, an increase from its previous 6,000 to 12,000 per year. As for the United States, meager 17th in the world army. Oh, that's gotta change. And recently promoted army chief of staff George C. Marshall is on it. He's determined to see the nation reorganize and recognize rearm to be ready for an increasingly likely throwdown. The largely isolationist Congress shifts a touch more. Not that its members are becoming pro war, but they appreciate FDR's point that the ocean alone can't keep America safe. And it's time to rearm for the sake of defense. Congress even dares to vote for new taxes to fund this defense spending, despite it being an election year. Meanwhile, FDR establishes the seven member National Defense Advisory Commission, or NDAC for short, to oversee this increase in production. Tapping renowned business leaders, he's trying to bring the best of the business world to bear without sacrificing new deal reforms. But Franklin wishes his only problem was rearming. Rather, the commander in chief has to weigh out the value of building up American firepower against sending that firepower to Britain and France. The immediate fight. It's amid this internal debate that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin their bromance. They've communicated in the past, but since Winston replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister the same day the Nazis invaded the Low Countries, May 10, the telegrams have been flying across the Atlantic at record speed. On May 15, the Brit writes his American counterpart.
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The small countries are simply smashed up one by one like matchwood.
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Britain is prepared to wage war alone.
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But I Trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long.
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Hmm. Is that a subtle jab at America's hesitation in 1914? Maybe. But Winston's not wrong. As Belgium falls on May 28, hundreds of thousands of British, French and Belgian troops are cornered on the northeastern coast of France at Dunkirk. They appear doomed, but the German army pauses to reassess. That gives time for a bold rescue operation, Operation Dynamo, to begin. It includes not just British and French warships, but hundreds of daring civilian sailors and their vessels, all braving the Luftwaffe's bombs to whisk these otherwise doomed soldiers from Dunkirk across the English Channel to England. They leave equipment behind, but the salvation of nearly 340,000 men, which is the vast majority of these allied troops, is nothing short of miraculous. But while the Dunkirk evacuation brings a newfound euphoria, the fight continues. Britain's Royal Air Force tangles with Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe in the skies. Prime Minister Winston Churchill knows the fight is only beginning on June 4th. He makes this clear with a speech in the House of Commons that very much keeps his broadcast audience of both Britons and Americans in mind. Winston calls on the British people to keep their grit and fighting spirit. He again appeals to the United States in the New World for aid. And in the process, Winston delivers what will become one of his most memorable orations.
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We shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary, for years, if necessary alone. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule. We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
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This rousing call to action is not lost on Franklin Roosevelt. The American President agrees with the Allied High Command's position that one airplane sent to the Allies now will be worth More than 10 sent in six weeks and more than 100 sent in six months. But alas, even with America's cash and carry policy, it appears that the British will soon be defending their island. Home alone, France is teetering. Here's the deal. It turns out that when the French military surged to Belgium's aid Amid the Nazis May 10th invasion of the Low Countries, they were falling into the Fuhrer's trap. See, the French felt that they could commit in Belgium as much as they did because of their impressive line of fortifications along their 280mile border with Germany, known as the Maginot Line. It was a logical defense to build after the Great War's trench warfare. And it's likewise logical that the Germans would want to come at France via Belgium rather than tangle with these fortresses. But what the French didn't expect was for the Nazis to navigate their armored divisions through southeastern Belgium's and Luxembourg's dense forest, the Ardennes. In doing so, they skirted the Maginot Line to appear on French turf only days after the May 10th invasion. By May 20th, the Nazis had the Allies trapped at Dunkirk. And while we know most of these Allied troops were saved, France was left exposed. On June 10, the same day Fascist Italy declares war on France, the French government flees Paris. Only four days later, the Fuhrer accomplishes what Germany so desperately tried and failed to do in World War I. He captures the French French capital at 6:30am June 14, 1940. Just off the famous Champs Elysees, Nazi troops fill the Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris. Flanking the square is the pre revolution neoclassical Hotel de Crillon. It will soon become Wehrmacht headquarters. Throughout the city, loudspeakers cut through the morning air. In every arrondissement they awaken the mere 700,000 Parisians remaining in the capital that was until so recently home to 2.8 million to announce a strict curfew of 8 o'. Clock. Yes, Paris is officially occupied and under Nazi rule. Unless there be any doubt, German troops announced their conquest in the most visual of ways, with swastikas. Naturally, they go to the most symbolic places. This morning one hangs from the Arc de Triomphe, which memorializes French victories in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Soon the swastika will flutter from France's most recognizable icon, the tallest of man made structures up until New York's skyscraper race but a decade ago, the Eiffel Tower. The Nazis will also raise the swastika at that greatest symbol of French power where a generation ago the Germans signed that treaty ending World War I that they so deeply despise. The palace of Versailles. A massive parade begins at 9:45am led by a military band. General Von Kluge's 4th army marches down the Champs Elysees. The site is one of seemingly endless field gray uniforms and an intentional imitation of the French army taking its victory laps and defeating Germany in 1918. Meanwhile, tragedy plays out among individual Parisians like 56 year old Austrian born and Jewish, Ernst Weiss. Ernst served in the Austro Hungarian army during World War I. He's a novelist now, a student of Sigmund Freud and a friend of Franz Kafka. The man fled Vienna for Prague in 1938, Prague for Paris in 1939 and now watches the Germans promenade victoriously through his city of refuge. This is too much. Overcome with fear, he commits suicide. I can't overstate this. The world is shocked by the fall of France, through its universal military service, France had a several millions strong army. Granted, some of that strength is only on paper, but arguably the French military was on par with the Germany's. Nonetheless, low morale, poor strategic decisions and generally poor leadership on France's part allowed the Nazis to take Paris a mere month or so after the May 10th invasion, as the fleeing French government all but throws the reins to great war hero Marshal Philippe Petain. Ah, Philippe Petain. You might remember him from the Great War episodes. He oversees the signing of an embarrassing armistice with Germany that ushers in a collaborationist regime operating out of Vichy in central France. But that story, along with the tale of France's unyielding General Charles de Gaulle, is one for another day. For now, we'll just note that with France's capitulation, the fight jumps from the continent to the skies over Britain. Just when the Battle of Britain begins and ends is something future German and and British historians will differ on. But for the Brits, its Official dates are July 10 to October 31, 1940. As for this being an aerial throwdown, that's because the Fuhrer knows his planned invasion of the island of Great Britain itself, called Operation Sea lion, won't work unless his Luftwaffe can take out the Royal Air Force first. Thus, German pilots soon shift from attacking shipping in the English Channel to targeting RAF airfields in southeast England. Day after day, RAF pilots scramble to meet their German foe in the air. But not all of these pilots are British. Some come from across the Empire, some come from parts of the recently conquered continent, and some come from the neutral United States. It's August 16, 1930. We're near the English Channel in Tingmere, England, where American RAF pilot William Billy Fisk III is charging out to the airfield and climbing into a single seat monoplane fighter aircraft, a Hurricane. And yes, he's American. It wasn't easy for this native Chicagoan to join the raf, given his nation's neutrality. He may have implied that he's Canadian, but how could he know not? Billy spent much of his youth in England, graduated from Cambridge University and has built a life here. So in his mind he had to join up. Or as Billy puts it, the English have been damn good to me in good times, so naturally I feel I ought to try and help out in the bad times. Yes, Billy's a man who's loyal to his friends. He's also proven quite a good pilot. Billy roars into the sky. This is his second mission of the day. His squadron number 601, is out to intercept a group of German dive bombers. U87 Stukas intent on bombing their base. But not if they can help it. Bombs fall and bullets fly as British Hurricanes and German Stukas tangle in the air. Now, I can't tell you exactly what happens, but at some point, as the Germans peel off and flee back out over the sky, we think Billy closes in on a Stuka. And we think that German aircraft returns fire and gets the better of him. But whatever the details, Billy's hit. Maneuvering carefully back toward the airfield with a stopped engine, Billy manages to bring his Hurricane down for a rocky wheels up landing. The plane explodes in flames with him still inside. Hurrying over with an ambulance and firefighters. Two members of the ground crew pull Billy from the burning wreckage and put out the flames leaping from his pants, putting him on a stretcher. They carry Billy, this two time Olympic bobsledding medalist turned pilot, to nearby St Richards Hospital in Chichester, where morphine brings relief. But it can't heal his burned body. Only 29 years old, Billy dies the next day. The Brits lay Billy to rest with gratitude. His well publicized funeral is attended by many, including Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Undoubtedly, the PM wants his American cousins to know how grateful the British are for Billy's sacrifice for their freedom. Meanwhile, the Battle of Britain continues in the sky. German Messerschmitt fighters and Shintoka dive bombers clash with British Hurricanes and Spitfires. On the ground, civilians take cover. Particularly as of September 7, when Germany's blitz bombardment begins. Hundreds of German bombers fly over London, Making it the largest air attack to date on a single city. 400 people are killed within minutes. 1400 are severely injured. By the end of October, the Fuhrer realizes he isn't invading Britain anytime soon. Hence British historians later calling this the moment Britain prevails in the Battle of Britain. But that doesn't mean he can't continue to terrorize the British. The blitz continues for the foreseeable future. The relentless bombing will leave much of London in ruins. And famously force many Londoners to take refuge in underground stations, or tube stations, as they're called. Once again, children are evacuated to the countryside, just as they were at the start of the war. Yet as the bombs fall, the British people continue to endure, to live up to Winston Churchill's exhortation to make this their finest hour as they keep calm and carry on despite incessant bombardment. But with France fallen, how long can embattled Britain endure? And will America answer Winston's call for aid before it's too late? These are these are exactly the sort of questions racing through FDR's mind as he contemplates running for a third presidential term in 1940. And Doug Limu and I always tell you to customize your car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. But now we want you to feel it. Cue the emu music. Limu Save yourself money today. Increase your wealth. Customize and save. We save. That may have been too much feeling. Only pay for what you need@liberty mutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts this episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for 40% off terms apply. This episode is brought to you by KPMG making an impact is how KPMG Helps make the Difference KPMG applies advanced tools and strategic thinking to convert data into actionable knowledge and deliver value by improving performance through transformation, modernizing processes with technology, harnessing the power of data, navigating complex MA transactions, and enhancing trust among stakeholders. Go to KPMG US Advisory to learn more. KPMG make the Difference In 1796, George Washington decided not to seek a third term as President. This set a powerful precedent. Not that the occasional two term President didn't try or want to run again. Looking at you Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. But as of now in 1940, no major party has ever re nominated a two termer. Yet in these days before the later 22nd amendment that will set Georgia's two term example and Constitution Stone Current President Franklin D. Roosevelt is looking at the war clouds to the east and the nation's still struggling economy and wondering can he or should he really step aside if the people still want him? Ultimately he decides that if nominated and elected, I could not in these times refuse to take the inaugural oath even if I knew I would be dead within 30 days. As such, when the Democrats re nominate or rather re renominate fdr. After a bit of political hullabaloo in July, he accepts. Franklin is now officially the first President in American history to run for a third Presidential term as the candidate of one of the two major parties. His opponent is Wendell Wilkie a handsome, charismatic corporate lawyer, former Democrat turned Republican and political outsider. Wendell naturally strikes at FDR for seeking a. But as the campaigning plays out, support for air battling Britain and preparing the nation for possible war are of course major points of discussion. And this includes possibly reviving the Selective Service. Yes, the Selective Service, AKA military conscription, or the draft. It was last implemented when the US entered the Great War back in 1917, as we saw in episode 133. Well, on Friday, August 2, 1940, a reporter asks FDR at a morning press conference about proposed legislation in Congress to reintroduce the draft. This would mean implementing conscription while the nation is still at peace, something never done in U.S. history. Yet Franklin's answer confirms the worst nightmares of American mothers across the nation. The draft is needed because according to the President, it is essential to national defense. The draft is controversial even in Congress. Opponents are found in both parties, but it moves forward and gets a real shot in the arm. As Franklin's Republican opponent for the White House, Wendell Wilkie, declares his agreement with the sitting President, he too supports the draft. In fact, FDR finds himself quite impressed with his partisan foe, who likewise rejects isolationism. On September 16, 1940, the Selective Service act is passed. Chief of staff of the U.S. army George Marshall is delighted. Meanwhile, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt is also playing a significant part in the national conversation on military service. She supports the draft as well, though caveats that there should be a wider form of national service inclusive of those not eligible for the draft. She writes in a public column that democracy requires service from each and every one of us. But more than that, Eleanor wants to further the conversation about black men in the service. And on the very same day that Congress passes the selective service act, September 16, she addresses a gathering of the nation's largest all black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, held at the Harlem YMCA in New York. Invited by BSCP President A. Phil Randolph, she speaks in favor of civil rights, challenging the widespread discrimination found across the branches of the armed forces. Nor does Eleanor stop there. A week and a half later, on September 27, she brings civil rights leaders to Washington to meet with her presidential husband, Navy Secretary Frank Knox, and the Assistant Secretary of War, Robert Patterson. Philip Randolph informs these preeminent national leaders that the Negro people feel they are not wanted in the armed forces of this country. Franklin responds by explaining that unlike the Great War, this time they will not be confining the Negro to the non combat services. Which is something. Yes, it's certainly something, but it's not desegregation it's not equality. It's the start of a long series of conflicts, conversations, ones that we'll follow in coming episodes. Once again, two things of note happen on the same day. While civil rights leaders are meeting with FDR. That September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan have representatives in Berlin signing the Tripartite Pact. Yes, after a few years of warm up agreements, this is the Axis powers formal military alliance and and it's made with the United States very much in mind. Now if the US goes to war with Japan in the Pacific, that means Germany and Italy will attack from the Atlantic and vice versa. The Axis powers want America to stay out of Europe and hope that the threat of a two theater war will do the trick. Frankly, plenty of Americans share that hope. Many remain isolationist and do not want the US in this war. This is especially true of the newly founded America First Committee which is proud to count among its isolationist supporting members Aviator Charles Lindbergh and automobile titan Henry Ford. Meanwhile, the presidential race continues and is looking far tighter than in 36. Wendell Wilkie is eloquent, intelligent and FDR's bid for a third term chafes even some Democrats. Franklin pauses presidential duties for campaign speeches and the drawing of draft numbers on October 29, the first peacetime draft in American history. But then, on November 5, while relaxing in his childhood home in Hyde Park, New York, Franklin does what no American has ever done before. He wins the presidency for the third time. Though not as overwhelming a victory as his last one, it's still solid. FDR wins nearly 55% of the popular vote and 449 electoral votes to Wendell's 82. Considering the myriad of domestic and international issues facing the nation, it's a serious vote of confidence. And it's just the confidence FDR needs as Britain's crisis grows worse. At this point, the blitzed and bombed out nation is on the verge of bankruptcy. On December 7, Prime Minister Winston Churchill writes to Franklin pleading for help.
- [57:41]
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My dear Mr. President, as we reach the end of this year, I feel you will expect me to lay before you the prospects for 1941. I do so strongly and confidently. Unless we can establish our ability to feed this island, to import the munitions of all kinds which we need, we may fall by the way. And the time needed by the US to complete her defensive preparations may not be forthcoming. Only the United States could supply the crucial weapons of war. The moment approaches where we shall no longer be able to pay cash for shipping and other supplies. I believe you will agree that it would be wrong in principle and mutually disadvantageous in effect, if at the height of this struggle, Great Britain were to be divested of all salable assets, so that after the victory was won, with our blood, civilization saved, and the time gained for the United States to be fully armed against all eventualities, we should stand stripped to the bone. Such a course would not be in the moral or economic interests of our countries.
- [58:50]
A
Franklin is moved and convinced that America can do more, can do better. And he explains this to the press nine days later, on December 16, 1940, with the perfect analogy, or illustration as he calls it, to quote him. Suppose my neighbor's home catches on fire and I have a length of garden hose four or 500ft away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help to put out his fire. Now what do I do? I don't say to him before that Operation Neighborhood, my garden hose cost me $15. You have to pay me $15 for it. What is the transaction that goes on? I don't want $15. I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. Alright, if it goes through the fire alright, intact, without any damage to it, he gives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it. Yes, FDR wants to lend to his neighbor. By this he means that instead of cash and carry, which Britain can't afford at this point, it's time for something we'll call Lend Lease, as in lending or leasing military supplies with the neighborly understanding that Britannia will pay Uncle Sam back after the war. Now, Franklin doesn't have 100% support for the idea, and we'll hear more about Congressional debates in the next episode. But take note of Lend Lease because this is the start of a new era of FDR diplomacy. And a little over a week after this chat with the press, the President is ready to share this idea with the American people. It's about 9:30pm Dec. 29, 1940. Across the nation, Americans are gathered around their home radios, ready to listen to the President's 16th fireside chat across the Atlantic. Our friends in London likewise tune into their radios, but do so in bomb shelters, aware of FDR's speech tonight, the German blitz is out in full force, hoping their bombs can break the British spirit more than the American President's words can build it. Because there is no question Franklin wants to help desperately in tonight's fireside chat will prove it. Suddenly, we hear the President's voice in our living room just as if he was sitting by the fire chatting with us as old friends do.
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My friends, this is not a fireside chat on war. It is a talk on national security. Never before, since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, has our American civilization been in such danger as now. The Axis proclaims that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy, their philosophy of government, and our philosophy of government. In view of the nature of this undeniable threat, it can be asserted properly and categorically that the United States has no right or reason to encourage talk of peace until the day shall come when there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon all thought of dominating or conquering the world.
- [62:27]
A
We continue to listen while Franklin references the Monroe Doctrine as a way we've historically sought protection and national defense, as Franklin reminds us of our moral imperative to protect our allies in Great Britain from German aggression and domination. And we listen as he points out how in our modern world, the Atlantic and the Pacific can't protect us if, God forbid, written false. He explains how the past two years have taught us that appeasement does not work against the Nazis. Indeed, it appears that isolationism and neutrality are no longer options. Even an armistice won't work. It would be, to use the President's word, nonsense. And with that premise, Franklin lays out some next steps.
- [63:15]
C
Thinking in thinking terms of today and tomorrow, I make the direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack in another war later on. The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters, which will enable them to fight for their liberty and for our security. Emphatically, we must get these weapons to them, get them to them in sufficient volume and quickly enough so that we and our children will be saved the agony and suffering of war which others have had to endure. American industrial genius, unmatched throughout all the world in the solution of production problems, has been called upon to bring its resources and its talents into action. Manufacturers of watches, of farm implements, of liner types and cash registers and automobiles and sewing machines and lawn mowers and locomotives are now making fuses and bomb packing crates and telescope mounts and shells and pistols and tanks. 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. I have the profound conviction that the American people. People are now determined to put forth a mightier effort than they have ever yet made to increase our production of all the implements of defense to meet the threat to our democratic faith. As President of the United States, I call for that national effort. I call for it in the name of this nation which we love and honor and which we are privileged and proud to serve. I call upon our people with absolute confidence that our common cause will greatly succeed.
- [66:45]
A
Calling for an effective end to American isolationism, a path that Americans have largely trusted to keep themselves disentangled from Europe and war for more than a century and a half. This is not a speech FDR ever expected to make when he entered the White House. Then again, who would have expected that an alliance of authoritarian empires would set out to conquer the world? But if the Axis powers want to fight to the death with democracy, then so be it. FDR will do all he can to support America's allies and get his nation in fighting shape as it reinvents itself, to reiterate that vivid phrase from tonight's Fireside Chat as the great arsenal of democracy. And yet this is not a declaration of war. That remains Congress prerogative. And what of the influence of of the rapidly growing and adamantly isolationist America First Committee? Just how much can FDR do within the limits of the Executive? And can the British, still getting bombarded as the Nazis blitz continues, make do with what Franklin can send? Or until the United States joins the war, assuming it ever does? We'll answer these questions and more next time. Mystery that Doesn't Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson Sir Winston Churchill read by Tim Wells Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Riley Neub Production by Airship Audio editing by Mohammad Shahzid Sound design by Molly Bach Theme music composed by Greg Jackson Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham of Airship for bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consultant writing this episode, visit htbspodcast.com foreignership My gratitude to Kind Soul providing funding to help us keep going. Thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Ahmad Chapman Andrew Nissan Anthony Pope Art Lane Bob Stin, Charlie Maple Christopher Merchant Christopher Coleman Cindy Rosenthal Colleen Martin Dan G. David Rifkin Donald Moore Durante Spencer Elizabeth Chris Jansen, Ellen Stewart, Ernie Lomaster G2303 Jeffrey Nelson George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Slender Katie McCreary Jerry Zangora, Jeffrey Moose Jennifer Root, Jeremy Wells, Jessica Poppett, Joe Dobas, John Movie John Frugal Duval John Huber, John Keller John Nessman Don Oliveros, John Rudlevich John Schaefer, Jonathan Schaet, Jordan Corbett Josh Wood Joshua Steiner, Justin M. Spriggs, Justin May, Karen Bartholomew, Carlene Elizabeth Sally Carl Breeden, Carl Hindle, Ken Colbert, Tim R. Kirsten Pratt, Kyle Decker L. Norman L. Paul Goeringer Lawrence Neubauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark Ellis, Matt Siegel, Nate Secunder, Nick Capro, Noah Hoff, Owen W. Sedlak Rock J. Rhys Humphries Wadsworth Rick Brown Rob Drazovich Sarah Trick, Sharon Thiesen Sean Baines Stacy Ritter Steve Williams Creepy Girl Thomas Churchill Thomas Matthew Edwards Thomas Sabbath Tim and Sarah Turner Todd Curran Tomba Stefka Bustley McKee Zach Green Zach Jackson Join me in two weeks where I'd like to tell you a story.
- [70:33]
B
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A
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B
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