Message to the Foreign Policy Association.

EVERY school child knows what our foreign policy is. It is to defend the honor, the freedom, the rights, the interests, and the well-being of the American people. We seek no gain at the expense of others. We threaten no one, nor do we tolerate threats from others. No Nation is more deeply dedicated to the ways of peace; no Nation is fundamentally stronger to resist aggression.

When mighty forces of aggression are at large, when they have ruthlessly overrun a continent, when we know that they seek ultimately to destroy our freedom, our rights, our well-being, everything for which this Government stands, our foreign policy cannot remain passive. There are a few persons in this country who seek to lull us into a false sense of security, to tell us that we are not threatened, that all we need to do to avoid the storm is to sit idly by- and to submit supinely if necessary. The same deadly virus has been spread by Hitler's agents and his Quislings and dupes in every country which he has overrun. It has helped immeasurably.

The American people are not easily fooled; they are hardheaded realists and they fear no one. A free people with a free press makes up its own mind. In this process free discussion of the facts and issues involved, such as that which you are sponsoring, is of the greatest value. We do not take orders as to what we shall think; we judge the facts for ourselves and decide what course we must follow. We reach decisions slowly, but when they are made they are backed by the determination of 130,000,000 free Americans and are inexorable.

Our people have decided, and they are constantly becoming more determined, that Hitler's threat to everything for which we stand must be struck down. We have followed and are following a policy of giving aid to other Nations which are actively resisting aggression. This policy is sound common sense, but it represents merely a method, certainly not an end in itself.

The real end, the inescapable end, is the destruction of the Hitler menace. In achieving that end, our responsibility is fully as great as that of the peoples who are fighting and dying for it. I know that our country will not shrink from that responsibility nor quail before whatever sacrifices it may demand.