PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: FIRESIDE CHAT #19 (RADIO)
Summary
This radio program is a broadcast of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's nineteenth Fireside Chat from the White House in Washington, D.C. on December 9, 1941. The chief executive addresses the nation about America's declaration of war on Japan in response to that island nation's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt outlines the ten-year pattern of unexpected worldwide invasions and attacks by Axis powers Germany, Italy, and Japan. He challenges the U.S. media to accept their "grave responsibility to the nation through the duration of the war" so that miscommunication will not hurt the American war effort. The president touts the nation's quiet endeavor during the previous eighteen months as having helped produced a great industrial stength and the capacity to create war materials readily. Roosevelt asserts that helping the war effort is not a sacrifice for citizens but rather a privilege and that the American resolve will be met with success in defeating its enemies and in ensuring that "this form of treachery shall never endanger us again." The speech is followed by the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." (The Museum has numbered the "Fireside Chat" broadcasts in accordance with the book, "FDR's Fireside Chats," edited by Russell D. Buhite and David W. Levy.)
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: December 9, 1941 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:27:49
- COLOR/B&W: N/A
- CATALOG ID: R88:0325
- GENRE: Radio - Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: U S - Officials - Talk/Interviews; World War II - 1941
- SERIES RUN: NBC - Radio, 1941
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Franklin D. Roosevelt … Speaker