FDR

The object of the Nazis and the Japanese is to separate the United States, Britain, China and Russia, and to isolate them one from another, so that each will be surrounded and cut off from sources of supplies and reinforcements.

We must fight at these vast distances to protect our supply lines and our lines of communication with our allies--protect these lines from the enemies who are bending every ounce of their strength, striving against time, to cut them.

Until our flow of supplies gives us clear superiority we must keep on striking our enemies wherever and whenever we can meet them, even if, for a while, we have to yield ground.

We must all understand and face the hard fact that our job now is to fight at distances which extend all the way around the globe.

The broad oceans which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies.

The present great struggle has taught us increasingly that freedom of person and security of property anywhere in the world depend upon the security of the rights and obligations of liberty and justice everywhere in the world.

He and the brave men who served with him knew that no man's life or fortune was secure without freedom and free institutions.

Washington's conduct in those hard times has provided the model for all Americans ever since--a model of moral stamina.

But, in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well--our hope and their hope for liberty under God.

And in the difficult hours of this day--through dark days that may be yet to come--we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human race are on our side.

So we are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.

We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini.

When we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil.

The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle.

Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia.

I do not think any American has any doubt of our ability to administer proper punishment to the perpetrators of these crimes.

We don't like it--we didn't want to get in it--but we are in it and we're going to fight it with everything we've got.

It was a thoroughly dishonorable deed, but we must face the fact that modern warfare as conducted in the Nazi manner is a dirty business.

We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat of deception, perfectly timed and executed with great skill.

We have learned that our ocean-girt hemisphere is not immune from severe attack--that we cannot measure our safety in terms of miles on any map any more.

There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerful aggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.

There is no such thing as security for any nation--or any individual--in a world ruled by the principles of gangsterism.

It is our obligation to our dead--it is our sacred obligation to their children and to our children--that we must never forget what we have learned.

Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wiped out, but the sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken.

I repeat that the United States can accept no result save victory, final and complete.