Allied Cooperation Quotes
This was 5 months before Pearl Harbor & U. S. entry in WWII. However, FDR was not allowing Germany to invade critical territory. Germany had invaded and occupied Denmark. Iceland then was a part of Denmark. In the month previous to this message, Iceland declared independence from Denmark and hence from Germany. The British had naval bases in Iceland. As part of the Lend Lease agreement providing war material to England, repayment included giving the U. S. title to the Icelandic bases. With Britain at war, Iceland was a legitimate target for the Germans who could say they were acting against the bases of an enemy and at the behest of Denmark who did not recognize the Independence. However Danish King Christian would not stand in the way of Icelandic Independence, & when the U. S. Navy occupied the bases, there was no way Germany could attack without bringing America actively into the war. In this way & many others, the U. S. was a military force even before we were in the war.
There were critics of the Treaty of Versailles in Britain as well as the United States.
This historic speech is regarded as one of the most important in Australia's history, marking a turning point in Australia's relationship with its founding country, the United Kingdom. Many felt that Prime Minister Curtin was abandoning Australia's traditional ties to the British Isles. -- Wikipedia
Things were looking bleak for the British & they were dependent on material help from the U.S. to give them a chance. The British navy was one of the largest and most powerful in the world & this cable was a veiled threat that if U.S. military aid did not come, England could not defend the country in the air, Churchill might be kicked out of office & his successors surrender to Germany turning over the British fleet to Hitler giving Germany control of the seas & with their ally Japan a naval force stronger than America’s. Anglophiles would not describe it as a threat, but merely a statement of the reality of the time. Roosevelt’s Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, a Nazi sympathizer & some American military officers were opposed to aid to Britain seeing it as a lost cause. Roosevelt, however, acting on his own marvelous instinct, his advice from Harry Hopkins, and his back-channel contacts in England, decided that if armed Britain could hold out. He turned out to be right.
