FDR GIVES FIRST FIRESIDE CHAT AFTER WAR DECLARATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On December 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a Fireside Chat* to the nation. It was just two days following the attack by Japanese naval and air forces on the United States naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii and the day following the U.S. declaration of war on the Japanese Empire.
The President said...
"We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this Nation...will be safe for our children.
We are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.
And in the difficult hours of this day--through dark days...yet to come--we know that...the human race (is) on our side."
*Fireside Chat(s) were a series of evening radio speeches given by FDR between 1933 & 1944. The 30 addresses ranged from 11 to 44 minutes. The name was coined by CBS reporter Harry Butcher to illustrate the informality of FDR's speeches although the President was not sitting beside a fireplace when he spoke. They helped calm the nation during the crises of the Great Depression & World War II.
SOURCES
"December 1941," Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day, Pare Lorentz Center, FDR Presidential Library, www.fdrlibrary.marxist.edu/
"The Fireside Chats," History.com, Editors, April 23, 2010, www.history.com/
