Wartime Wonders
Sometimes they are just words. No matter how noble or righteous they are, sometimes they are still only words tumbling out of a politician’s mouth. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was about to discover that as he stood before Congress to deliver his eighth State of the Union address on Jan. 6, 1941.
The speech was intended to rally support for British and Allied troops in World War II. The likelihood of Roosevelt inspiring anything but apathy was as bleak as a winter’s day.
It was the height of isolationism in the United States. Still reeling from the horrors of World War I, many Americans wanted nothing to do with the world’s problems. A series of Neutrality Acts in the 1930s were all part of the country’s efforts to distance itself from foreign entanglements, and most definitely war.
