A COMPARISON OF PRESIDENTS

On July 10, 1940, as France reeled before the Nazi blitzkrieg, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini - believing Germany would be victorious - declared war on France and Britain. As his military commander Marshal Badoglio told him the country was completely unprepared for war, without even enough uniform shirts for everyone in the Army, he replied: “I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought.”

That same day, Franklin Roosevelt went to the Unversity of Virginia to speak about the events of the day. The president did not hesitate to call Mussolini’s action “a stab in the back,” and did not hesitate to call it a "stab in the back" and he made it clear that the United States stood on the side of freedom and would offer material support to those who were oppressed and declare that America would speed up the process of re-arming in order to be able to defend itself:

“The Government of Italy has now chosen to preserve what it terms its "freedom of action" and to fulfill what it states are its promises to Germany. In so doing it has manifested disregard for the rights and security of other nations, disregard for the lives of the peoples of those nations which are directly threatened by this spread of the war; and has evidenced its unwillingness to find the means through pacific negotiations for the satisfaction of what it believes are its legitimate aspirations.

“On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.

“On this tenth day of June, 1940, in this University founded by the first great American teacher of democracy, we send forth our prayers and our hopes to those beyond the seas who are maintaining with magnificent valor their battle for freedom.

“In our American unity, we will pursue two obvious and simultaneous courses; we will extend to the opponents of force the material resources of this nation; and, at the same time, we will harness and speed up the use of those resources in order that we ourselves in the Americas may have equipment and training equal to the task of any emergency and every defense.

“All roads leading to the accomplishment of these objectives must be kept clear of obstructions. We will not slow down or detour. Signs and signals call for speed - full speed ahead.

“It is right that each new generation should ask questions. But in recent months the principal question has been somewhat simplified. Once more the future of the nation and of the American people is at stake.

“We need not and we will not, in any way, abandon our continuing effort to make democracy work within our borders. We still insist on the need for vast improvements in our own social and economic life. But that is a component part of national defense itself.

“The program unfolds swiftly and into that program will fit the responsibility and the opportunity of every man and woman in the land to preserve his and her heritage in days of peril.

“I call for effort, courage, sacrifice, devotion. Granting the love of freedom, all of these are possible.

“And the love of freedom is still fierce and steady in the nation today.

Within a month, the nation would enact its first peacetime draft in history. At that point, the entire U.S. military had a total strength of 243,095 men, primarily in the Army, which was smaller than Portugal's army at that time. By 1945 there would be 12,055,884 men and women in the armed forces.

In September, the President would call on the American aviation industry to prepare for the production of an unheardof 50,000 airplanes in a year - four years later, that industry would produce 100,000 airplanes in the year of 1944 alone.

The die was cast.

Compare that with the past 140 days of what passes for our current president, particularly on the day that has seen the largest Russian attack on the people of Ukraine and this president’s reponse.

Comments are for paid subscribers.