FDR

Second, it would provide supreme proof to all our fighting men that we are giving them what they are entitled to, which is nothing less than our total effort.

And, third, it would be the final, unequivocal answer to the hopes of the Nazis and the Japanese that we may become halfhearted about this war and that they can get from us a negotiated peace.

National service legislation would make it possible to put ourselves in a position to assure certain and speedy action in meeting our manpower needs.

We must build on the foundations that have already been laid and supplement the measures now in operation, in order to guarantee the production that may be necessary in the critical period that lies ahead.

The record made by management and labor in war industry has been a notable testimony to the resourcefulness and power of America.

In the field of foreign policy, we propose to stand together with the United Nations not for the war alone but for the victory for which the war is fought.

It is not only a common danger which unites us but a common hope.

Ours is an association not of Governments but of peoples--and the peoples' hope is peace.

Here, as in England; in England, as in Russia; in Russia, as in China; in France, and through the continent of Europe, and throughout the world; wherever men love freedom, the hope and purpose of the people are for peace--a peace that is…

We delude ourselves if we believe that the surrender of the armies of our enemies will make the peace we long for.

The unconditional surrender of the armies of our enemies is the first and necessary step--but the first step only.

We have seen already, in areas liberated from the Nazi and the Fascist tyranny, what problems peace will bring.

And we delude ourselves if we attempt to believe wishfully that all these problems can be solved overnight.

But the continuance and assurance of a living peace must, in the long run, be the work of the people themselves.

The nearer we come to vanquishing our enemies the more we inevitably become conscious of differences among the victors.

International cooperation on which enduring peace must be based is not a one-way street.

Nations like individuals do not always see alike or think alike, and international cooperation and progress are not helped by any Nation assuming that it has a monopoly of wisdom or of virtue.

We cannot deny that power is a factor in world politics any more than we can deny its existence as a factor in national politics.

But in a democratic world, as in a democratic Nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.

Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace.

Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.

In our disillusionment after the last war we preferred international anarchy to international cooperation with Nations which did not see and think exactly as we did.

We gave up the hope of gradually achieving a better peace because we had not the courage to fulfill our responsibilities in an admittedly imperfect world.

We must not let that happen again, or we shall follow the same tragic road again--the road to a third world war.

But it is a good and a useful thing-- it is an essential thing--to have principles toward which we can aim.