罗斯福于1940年的一次炉边谈话

罗斯福于1940年的一次炉边谈话 英文版

 

The Great Arsenal of Democracy

My friends，

This is not a fireside chat on war. It is a talk on national security; because the nub of the whole purpose of your President is to keep you now, and your children later, and your grandchildren much later, out of a last-ditch war for the preservation of American independence, and all of the things that American independence means to you and to me and to ours.

Tonight of a world crisis, my mind goes back eight years to a night in the midst of a domestic crisis. It was a time when the wheels of American industry were grinding to a full stop, when the whole banking system of our country had ceased to function I well remember that while I sat in my study in the White House, preparing to talk with the people of the United States, I had before my eyes the picture of an those Americans with whom l was talking. I saw the workmen in the mills, the mines, the factories, the girl behind the counter, the small shopkeeper, the farmer doing his spring plowing, the widows and the old men wondering about their life’s savings. I tried to convey to the great mass of American people what the banking crisis meant to them in their daily lives.

Tonight, I want to do the same thing, with the same people, in this new crisis which faces America. We met the issue of 1933 with courage and realism. We face this new crisis, this new threat to the security of our nation, with the same courage and realism. Never before since Jamestown CD and Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now. For on September 27th, 1940 this year by an agreement signed in Berlin, three powerful nations, two in Europe and one in Asia, joined themselves together in the threat that if the United States of America interfered with or blocked the expansion program of these three nations a program aimed at world control—they would unite in ultimate action against the United States.

The Nazi masters of Germany have made it clear that they intend not only to dominate all life and thought in their own country, but also to enslave the whole of Europe, and then to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world. It was only three weeks ago that their leader stated this: There are two worlds that stand opposed to each other. And then in defiant reply to his opponents he said this: “they are correct when they say ‘With this world we cannot ever reconcile ourselves. I can beat any other power in the world’.”So said of the Nazis Leader other words, the Axis not merely admits but the Axis proclaims that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy—their philosophy of government—and our philosophy of government. In view of the nature of this undeniable threat, it can be asserted, properly and categorically, that the United States has no right or reason to encourage talk of peace until the day shall come when there is a clear intention on the part of the aggressor nations to abandon all thought of dominating or conquering the world.

At this moment the forces of the States that are leagued against all peoples who live in freedom are being held away from our shores. The Germans and the Italians are being blocked on the other side of the Atlantic by the British and by the Greeks, and by thousands of soldiers and sailors who were able to escape from subjugated countries. In Asia the Japanese are being engaged by the Chinese nation in another great defense. In the Pacific Ocean is our fleet.

Some of our people like to believe that wars in Europe and in Asia are of no concern to us. But it is a matter of most vital concern to us that European and Asiatic war makers should not gain control of the oceans which lead to this hemisphere. One hundred and seventeen years ago the Monroe Doctrine was conceived by our government as a measure of defense in the face of a threat against this hemisphere by an alliance in Continental Europe, Thereafter, we stood guard in the Atlantic, with the British as neighbors, There was no treaty. There was no unwritten agreement. And yet there was the feeling, proven correct by history, that we as neighbors could settle any disputes in peaceful fashion. And the fact is that during the whole of this time the Western Hemisphere bas remained free from aggression from Europe or from Asia Addresses of Franklin. Does anyone seriously believe that we need to fear attack anywhere in the Americas while a free Britain remains our most powerful naval neighbor in the Atlantic. And does anyone seriously believe, on the other hand, that we could rest easy if the Axis powers were our neighbors there? If Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the Continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Austral-Asia, and the high seas. And they will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere. It is no exaggeration to say that all of us in all the Americas would be living at the point of a gun—a gun loaded with explosive bullets, economic as well as military. We should enter upon a new and terrible era in which the whole world, our hemisphere included, would be run by threats of brute force.

And to survive in such a world, we would have to convert ourselves permanently into a militaristic power on the basis of war economy. Some of us like to believe that even if Britain falls, we are still safe, because of the broad expanse of the Atlantic and of the Pacific. But the width of those oceans is not what it was in the days of clipper ships. At one point between Africa and Brazil the distance is less than it is from Washington to Denver, Colorado, five hours for the latest type of bomber. And at the north end of the Pacific Ocean, America and Asia almost touch each other. Why, even today we have planes that could fly from the British Isles to New England and back again without refueling. And remember that the range of the modern bomber is ever being increased.

During the past week many people in all parts of the nation have to me what they wanted me to say tonight. Almost all of them expressed a courageous desire to hear the plain truth about the of the situation One telegram, how expressed the attitude of the small minority who want to see no evil and hear no evil, even though they know in their hearts that evil exists. That telegram begged me not to tell again of the ease with which our American cities could be bombed by any hostile power which had gained bases in this Western Hemisphere. The gist of that telegram was: “Please, Mr. President, don’t frighten us by telling us the facts.” Frankly and definitely there is danger ahead danger against which we must prepare. But we well know that we cannot escape danger, or the fear of danger, by crawling into bed and pulling the covers over our heads.

Some nations of Europe were bound by solemn nonintervention pacts with Germany. Other nations were assured by Germany that they need never fear invasion. Nonintervention pact or not, the fact remains that they were attacked, overrun, thrown into modern slavery at an hour’s notice or even without any notice at all. As an exiled leader of one of these nations said to me the other day, “The notice was a minus quantity. It was given to my government two hours after German troops had poured into my country in a hundred places.”The fate of these nations tells us what it means to live at the point of a Nazi gun.

The Nazis have justified such actions by various pious frauds. One of these frauds is the claim that they are occupying a nation for the purpose of “restoring order”. Another is that they are occupying or controlling a nation on the excuse that they are protecting it against the aggression of somebody else. For example, Germany has said that she was occupying Belgium to save the Belgians from the British. Would she then hesitate to say to any South American country: “We are occupying you to protect you from aggression by the United States.” Belgium today is being used as an invasion base against Britain, now fighting for its life. And any South American country, in Nazi hands, would always constitute a jumping off place for German attack on any one of the other republics of this hemisphere.

Analyze for yourselves the future of two other places even nearer to Germany if the Nazis won, Could Ireland hold out? Would Irish freedom be permitted as an amazing pet exception in an unfree world, the islands of the Azores, which still fly the flag of Portugal after five centuries? You and I think of Hawaii as an outpost of defense in the Pacific. And yet the Azores are closer io our shores in the Atlantic than Hawaii is on the other side.

There are those who say that the Axis powers would never have any desire to attack the Western Hemisphere. That is the same dangerous form of wishful thinking which has destroyed the powers of resistance of so many conquered peoples. The plain facts arc that the Nazis have proclaimed, time and again, that all other races are their inferiors and therefore subject to their orders. And most important of all, the vast resources and wealth of this American hemisphere constitute the most tempting loot in all of the round world.

Let us no longer blind ourselves to the undeniable fact that the evil forces which have crushed and undermined and corrupted so many others are already within our own gates.Your government knows much about them and every day is ferreting them out. Their secret emissaries are active in our own and in neighboring countries. They seek to stir up suspicion and dissension, to cause internal strife. They try to turn capital against labor, and vice versa. They try to reawaken long slumbering racial and religion us enmities which should have no place in this country. They are active in every group that promotes intolerance. They exploit for their own ends our own natural abhorrence of war. These trouble-breeders have but one purpose. It is to divide our people, to divide them into hostile groups and to destroy our unity and shatter our will to defend ourselves.

There are also American citizen—many of them in high places, who unwittingly in most cases, are charge these American citizens with being foreign agents. But I do charge them with doing exactly the kind of work that the dictators want done in the United States. These people not only believe that we can save our own skins by shutting our eyes to the fate of other nations. Some of them go much further than that. They say that we can aryl should become the friends and even the partners of the Axis powers. Some of them even suggest that we should imitate the methods of the dictatorships. But Americans never can and never will do that.

The experience of the past two years has proven beyond doubt that no nation can appease the Nazis. No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb.

We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender. Even the people of Italy have been forced to become accomplices of the Nazis; but at this moment they do not know bow soon they will be need to death by their allies. American appeasers ignore the warning to be found in the fate of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They tell you that the Axis powers are going to win anyway; that all of this bloodshed in the world could be saved that the United States might just as well throw its influence into the scale of a dictated peace and get the best out of it that we can. They call it a“negotiated peace”. Nonsense! Is it a negotiated peace if a gang of outlaws surrounds your community and on threat of extermination makes you pay tribute to save your own skins? For such a dictated peace would be no peace at all. It would be only another armistice, leading to the most gigantic armament race and the most devastating trade wars in all history. And in these contests the Americas would offer the only real resistance to the Axis power.

With all their vaunted efficiency, with all their parade of pious purpose in this war, there are still in their background the concentration camp and the servants of chains. The history of recent years proves that the shootings and the chains and the concentration camps are not simply the transient tools but the very altars of modern dictatorships. They may talk of a “new order”in the world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and the worst tyranny. In that there is no liberty, no religion, and no hope. The proposed “new order” is the very opposite of a United States of Europe or a United States of Asia. It is not a government based upon the consent of the governed. It is not a union of ordinary, self-respecting men and women to protect themselves and their freedom and their dignity from oppression. It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

The British people and their allies today are conducting an active war against this unholy alliance. Own future security is greatly dependent on the outcome of that fight. Our ability to “keep out of war” is going to be affected by that outcome. Thinking in terms of today and tomorrow, I make the direct statement to the American people that there is far less chance of the United States getting into war if we do all we can now to support the nations defending themselves against attack by the Axis than if we acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack in another war later.

If we are to be completely honest with ourselves, we must admit that there is risk in any course we may take. But l deeply believe that the great majority of our people agree that the course that I advocate involves the least risk now and the greatest hope for world peace in the future, The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, and the guns, the freighters which will enable them to fight for their liberty and for our security. Emphatically, we must get these weapons to them, get them to them in sufficient volume and quickly enough so that we and our children will be saved the agony and suffering of war which others have had to endure.

Let not the defeatists tell us that it is too late. It will never be earlier. Tomorrow will be later than today.

Certain facts are self-evident.

In a military sense Great Britain and the British Empire are today the spearhead of resistance to world conquest. And they are putting up a fight which will live forever in the story of human gallantry. There is no demand for sending an American expeditionary force outside our own borders. There is no intention by any member of your government to send such a force. You can therefore, nail, nail any talk about sending armies to Europe as deliberate untruth. Our national policy is not directed toward war. Its sole purpose is to keep war away from our country and away from our people.

Democracy’s fight against world conquest is being greatly aided, and must be more greatly aided, by the rearmament of the United States and by sending every ounce and every ton of munitions and supplies that we can possibly spare to help the defenders who are in the front lines. And it is no more unneutral for us to do that than it is for Sweden, Russia, and other nations near Germany to send steel and ore and oil and other war materials into Germany every day in the week.

We are planning our own defense with the utmost urgency, and in its vast scale we must integrate the war needs of Britain and the other free nations which are resisting aggression. This is not a matter of sentiment or of controversial personal opinion. It is a matter of realistic, practical military policy, based on the advice of our military experts who are in close touch with existing warfare. These military and naval experts and the members of the Congress and the Administration have a single-minded purpose: the defense of the United States.

This nation is making a great effort to produce everything that is necessary in this emergency, and with all possible speed. And this great effort requires great sacrifice. I would ask no one to defend a democracy which in turn would not defend every one in the nation against want and privation. The strength of this nation shall not be diluted by the failure of the government to protect the economic well-being of its citizens, lf our capacity to produce is limited by machines, it must ever be remembered that these machines are operated by the skill and the stamina of the workers.

As the government is determined to protect the rights of the workers, so the nation has a right to expect that the men who man the machines will discharge their full responsibilities to the urgent needs of defense. The worker possesses the same human dignity and is entitled to the same security of position as the engineer or the manager or the owner. For the workers provide the human power that turns out the destroyers, and the planes, and the tanks. The nation expects our defense industries to continue operation without interruption by strikes or lockouts. It expects and insists that management and workers will reconcile their differences by voluntary or legal means, to continue to produce the supplies that are so sorely needed. And on the economic side of our great defense program, we are, as you know, bending every effort to maintain stability of prices and with that the stability of the cost of living.

Nine days ago I announced the setting up of a more effective organization to direct our gigantic efforts to increase the production of munitions. The vast sums of money and a well-coordinated executive direction of our defense efforts are not in themselves enough. Guns, planes, ships and many other things have to be built in the factories and the arsenals of America. They have to be produced by workers and managers and engineers with the aid of machines which in turn have to be built by hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the land.

In this great work there has been splendid cooperation between the government and industry and labor. And I am very thankful. American industrial genius, unmatched throughout all the world in the solution of production problems, has been called upon to bring its resources and its talents into action. Manufacturers of watches, of farm implements, of I no types and cash registers and automobiles, and sewing machines and lawn mowers and locomotives, are now making fuses and bomb packing crates and telescope mounts and shells and pistols and tanks.

But all of our present efforts are not enough. We must have more ships, more guns, more planes more of everything. And this can be accomplished only if we discard the notion of “business as usual”. This job cannot be done merely by superimposing on the existing productive facilities the added requirements of the nation for defense. Our defense efforts must not be blocked by those who fear the future consequences of surplus plant capacity. The possible consequences of failure of our defense efforts now are much more to be feared. And after the present needs of our defense are past, a proper handling of the country’s peacetime needs will require all of the new productive capacity, if not still more. No pessimistic policy about the future of America shall delay the immediate expansion of those industries essential to defense.

I want to make it clear that it is the lose of the nation to purer build now with all possible speed every machine, every arsenal, every factory that we need to manufacture our defense material. We have the men, the skill, the wealth, and above all, the will. I am confident that if and when production of consumer or luxury goods in certain industries requires the use of machines and raw materials that are essential for defense purposes, then such production must yield, ill gladly yield, to our primary and compelling purpose. And still appeal to the owners of plants, to the managers, to the workers, to our own government employees to put every ounce of effort into producing these munitions swiftly and without stint. With this appeal I give you the pledge that all of us who are officers of your government will devote ourselves to the same whole-hearted extent to the great task that lies ahead.

As planes and ships and guns and shells are produced, your government, with its defense experts, can then determine how best to use them to defend this. The decision as to how much shall be sent abroad and how much shall remain at home must make on the basis of our overall military necessities.

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war. We have furnished the British great material support and we will furnish far more in the future. There will be no “bottlenecks” in our determination to aid Great Britain. No dictator, no combination of dictators, will weaken that determination by threats of how they will construe that determination.

The British have received invaluable military support from the heroic Greek Army and from the forces of all the governments in exile. Their strength is growing. It is the strength of men and women who value their freedom more highly than they value their lives.

I believe that the Axis powers are not going to win this war. I base that belief on the latest and best of information.

We have no excuse for defeatism. We have every good reason for hope—hope for peace, yes, and hope for the defense of our civilization and for the building of a better civilization in the future. I have the profound conviction that the American people are now determined to put forth a mightier effort than they have ever yet made to increase our production of all the implements of defense, to meet the threat to our democratic faith.

As President of the United States, I call for that national effort. I call for it in the name of this nation which we love and honor and which we are privileged and proud to serve. I call upon our people with absolute confidence that our common cause will greatly succeed.

罗斯福于1940年的一次炉边谈话 中文版

民主国家的兵工厂

朋友们：

这不是关于战争的一场炉边会谈，而是一次关乎国家安全的谈话。我作为总统进行这次谈话主要是为了让现在的你们，之后你们的孩子以及再以后你们的孙辈远离不得不进行的卫国战争，是为了维护美国独立以及所有对我们而言的各种意义的美国独立。

今晚，面对这场世界性危机，我的思绪回到了八年前国内危机时期的一个晚上。当时，美国工业之轮戛然而止，我国的银行系统停止运行。我还清晰地记得，当我坐在白宫的书房里，准备与我的国民谈话，眼前就闪过所有要与我谈话之人的面庞。我看见了在作坊里、矿井中以及工厂里的工人们，收银台的姑娘、小老板、春耕的农民和担心自己毕生储蓄的寡妇和老人们。我尝试向绝大多数的美国人民表达清楚银行危机对他们的日常生活意味着什么。

今晚，在美国面临着新危机的时刻，我还要对那些人做同样的事。那时，我们以勇气和现实主义态度应对1933年的危机。现在，我们要以同样的勇气和现实主义态度来应对此次的新危机，应对国家安全所受到的新威胁。自从美利坚文明在詹姆斯敦和普利茅斯石卜产生以来，我们从未身处于当下这样的险境。因为就在今年——1940年9月27日，三大强国在柏林签署协议。其中，两个是欧洲强国，一个是亚洲强国。它们勾结起来恐吓美国，如果美国干预或妨碍这三个国家企图控制全球的扩张计划，那么它们将联合起来给美国致命一击。

德国纳粹的军统们宣告，他们不仅要控制本国人民的生活和思想，还要征服整个欧洲，然后利用欧洲的资源控制全世界。仅在三个星期前，他们的首领声称：“世界上存在着两个对立的阵营。”接着他用挑衅的口吻回应他的敌对者：“那些人说得很对，我们在这个世界上永远不会安分守己。”“我能够击败世界上任何一个强大对手。”纳粹首领就是这么说的。换言之，轴心国不仅承认，而且公开声明，他们的政治观点同我们的政治观点不可能完全调和。考虑到这不可否认的威胁，我们可以毫无疑问地明确断言，只要侵略国方面不明确表示愿意放弃统治或征服全世界的念头，美国就没有权利，也没有理由去促进和谈。

此时，那些反对人类自由的国家已经结成了同盟，它们的武装力量现在还被阻止在远离我们海岸的地方。英国人、希腊人以及大批从被占领国逃脱的士兵和水手将德国人和意大利人阻遏在大西洋的另一端。在亚洲，中华民族顽强抵抗日本人的侵略。而太平洋上有我们的舰队。

我们有些人倾向于认为，发生在欧洲和亚洲的战争与我们无关。但我们不能让欧洲和亚洲的战争制造者控制通向我们这个半球的海域，那关系到我们的生死存亡。一百七十年前，我国政府将门罗主义拟定为护国方针，与欧洲大陆联合起来应对我们这个半球面临的威胁。后来，我们与不列颠为邻，守护着大西洋。我们没有签署条约，也没有“不成文协议”。但是，有一种观点认为我们作为邻国，可以用和平的方式来解决任何争端。这种观点已被历史证明为是正确的。事实上，在那整个时期里，欧洲和亚洲始终都没侵略到西半球。是否有人真的相信，当自由的不列颠依然是我们大西洋上强大的海上邻国时，我们就不必担心美洲任何地方会遭受袭击了呢?还是认为如果轴心国与我们为邻，我们就可以高枕无忧了?如果大不列颠沦陷，轴心国就会控制欧洲、亚洲和非洲大陆以及澳大拉西亚和公海。这样一来，它们就能占据有利位置，从而调动大量军事力量和海上资源来攻击我们这个半球。毫不夸张地说，那时，我们全美洲人民将生活在一支已上膛的枪口之下，经济和军事都会受到威胁。那时，我们就会进入一个陌生而可怕的时代，包括我们这个半球的整个世界都会被野蛮势力的威胁所笼罩。

而要在这样的世界上生存下去，我们将必须以战时经济为基础，转变为一个永远的军事强国。我们中还有一些人一厢情愿的认为，即使不列颠沦陷，广袤的大西洋和太平洋会让我们不受威胁。但如今海域宽度的意义已不再像帆船时代那样。从非洲某地到达巴西某地的距离比从华盛顿到科罗拉多州丹佛市还近，最新式的轰炸机飞完全程只需五小时。在太平洋北端，美洲和亚洲几乎接壤。当然，即使今天我们的飞机可以从不列颠群岛到新英格兰飞来回，途中不用加油。而且要记住，新型轰炸机的种类也在不断增加。

在过去的一个星期里，全国各地的许多人告诉我，他们今晚想听到他们想要我说的话。绝大部分人都强烈要求听到关于现状严重性的真相。然而，有一个电报表达了少数人的态度。他们表示不想看到也不要听到灾难临头，尽管他们内心知道它的存在。那个电报求我不要再轻易说出，美国城市可能会受到敌国的轰炸，并且他们已经在西半球建立了根据地。那个电报的主要意思是：“总统先生，请不要说出实情吓唬我们。”直言不讳地说，危险迫在眉睫，我们必须准备应对这种危险。而我们也清楚地知道，不是爬上床，用被子蒙住头就可以逃避危险或摆脱恐惧。

欧洲的一些国家因与德国签署过严正的互不干涉条约而被束缚。德国还向另外一些国家保证过，它们永远不必担忧被入侵。但不管有没有签署过互不干涉条约，事实上这些国家都被攻占，被蹂躏，成了现代奴隶。它们有的在一小时前才收到宣战书，有的则是不宣而战。有一天，那些被侵略国家中的一个流亡领袖告诉我：“下宣战书的时间就是负数。我们政府是在德军涌入国家上百个地方两小时后才收到宣战书。”那些国家的命运告诉我们生活在纳粹枪口下意味着什么。

纳粹用各种虚伪的谎言为这种行径开脱。其中之一是声称它们是为了“恢复秩序”而占领一个国家。另一种诡辩是它们为了“保护”一个国家免遭其他国家的侵略而占领或控制这个国家。比如，德国称占领比利时是为了从不列颠手里把比利时人民拯救出来。难道德国以后还会有顾忌地对任何一个南美国家说：“我们占领你们是为了让你们不受美国侵略。”如今，比利时已被用作进攻不列颠的基地，尽管它现在还在为生存而奋战。任何一个被纳粹控制的南美国家都会成为德国进攻这个半球的任何一个共和国的跳板。

你们自己分析一下，如果纳粹在这场战争中获胜，离德国更近的其他两个地方将来会怎样。爱尔兰能幸存吗?在这个失去自由的世界里，德国会因为将爱尔兰当成玩物，而例外地保留爱尔兰的自由吗?经过五个世纪，葡萄牙的旗帜仍然飘扬在亚述尔群岛之上，这片群岛能幸存吗?我们都会认为夏威夷是太平洋上的防卫前哨，但亚述尔群岛在大西洋上比另一边的夏威夷离我们的海岸更近。

有些人说轴心国绝无进攻西半球的欲望。这种一厢情愿的想法也是危险的，它已摧毁了许多被征服人民的抵抗能力。显而易见的事实是，纳粹分子已一再声明其他民族都是劣等民族，因而都得对德国唯命是从。最为重要的是，辽阔富饶的美洲被视为世界上最有吸引力的掠夺目标。

我们不能再对不争的事实视而不见了。邪恶势力已经镇压、破坏、摧毁了如此多的国家，而现在已闯入我们的国门。对此政府了如指掌并且每天四处搜寻他们的踪迹。他们的秘使正在我国和邻国频繁活动，试图挑起猜疑和争端，以引起内乱。他们企图使资本家和劳动者相互敌对，让原已在这个国家平息多时并销声匿迹的种族和宗教敌对死灰复燃。他们活跃在每个令人厌恶的团体中，利用我们对战争本能的憎恶来达到自己的目的。这些麻烦制造者的唯一目的就是要离间我们的人民，把我们分化为对立的集团，然后破坏我们的团结，最终摧毁我们保卫自己的决心。

还有些美国公民，他们中很多人身居高位，在大多数情况下还糊里糊涂地协助和帮助那些中介者的工作。我并不是指责那些美国人与外国代理人勾结在一起，但要谴责他们做那些独裁者正想在美国做的事情。那些人仅认为我们能够对他国的命运视而不见以求明哲保身。更有甚者认为我们可以也应该成为轴心国的朋友甚至伙伴。有些人甚至建议我们应该效仿独裁国家的做法，但美国人永远不会也不愿意那样做。

过去两年的经历毫无疑问地证明，任何国家都平息不了纳粹分子。谁也不能靠抚摸一只老虎就把它驯服成小猫。对残暴行为是不能姑息的，也无法和一颗燃烧弹讲道理。

现在我们知道，一个国家只有彻底投降才能够同纳粹分子和平共处。即使意大利人民被迫与纳粹同盟，但此刻它们也不知道多久之后会被它们的同盟者扼杀。美国的绥靖主义者对奥地利、捷克斯洛伐克、波兰、挪威、比利时、荷兰、丹麦和法国的命运所发出的警告视而不见。他们会说不管怎样轴心国都会胜利，全世界的杀戮会被制止，美国也同样可以介入所谓的和平，并发挥最大的作用。他们称之为“协商和平”。这简直就是胡说八道!如果一帮歹徒包围了你们的社区，然后架着刀子来让你对得以自保感天谢地，难道那样是协商和平吗?如果是这样的所谓的和平，那么就根本不会和平。那只是另一种形式的停火，只会导致历史上最庞大的军备竞赛和最令人震惊的贸易大战。在这些竞赛中，美国人民会对轴心国进行一次真正的抵抗。

他们自负于自己的效率，吹嘘在这场战争中虚伪的目的，但在他们的背后仍然有集中营和被囚禁的牧师。最近几年来的历史证明：枪杀、镣铐和集中营不仅仅是现代独裁者的权宜之计，他们已将此奉若神明。也许，他们在口头上还奢谈世界“新秩序”，而他们内心想的只是恢复最古老、最野蛮的暴政——没有自由，没有宗教信仰，没有希望。他们提出的“新秩序”恰与所谓的“欧洲联合国”或“亚洲联合国”背道而驰。这类政府的建立没有经过被统治者的认可。这类政府也不是一个由具有自尊心的普通人所组成的、用来保护自己、让自由和尊严免遭压迫的联盟。它是一个邪恶的企图统治和奴役人类的政权与财团的联盟。

今天的英国人民和他们的盟友正在为反抗这一邪恶的同盟而奋战。我们将来的安全在很大程度上取决于这场战斗的结果。我们能否有能力“置身于战争之外”将受到这个结果的影响。思考今天，展望未来，我直言不讳地告诉美国人民，美国要想尽可能不卷入这场战争，现在就要不遗余力地支持那些正在保卫自己抗击轴心国的国家，不能对它们的失败袖手旁观。也不能屈服于轴心国的胜利，等待它在下一次战争中对我们发起进攻。

实事求是地讲，我们必须承认，我们采取的任何方针都有风险。但是我深信我国绝大多数人都会同意我所提议的方针。这个方针是现在风险最小的，将来会给世界和平带来最大的希望。欧洲人民正在自卫，并不要求我们帮他们打仗。他们要求我们供给作战工具，飞机、坦克、大炮、货船，使他们能为自己的自由和我们的安全而战。我要强调的是，我们必须尽快向他们提供数量充足的武器，这样，我们和我们的孩子就不必承受别人已经遭受的战争伤痛。

别让失败主义者来告诉我们为时已晚。不要拖到明天，现在正是时候。

有些事实是不言自明的。

从军事上说，大不列颠和不列颠帝国今天是抵抗世界征服行动的先遣部队。他们正在浴血奋战，将在人类英勇行为的历史上永垂不朽。他们并不要求美国派远征军到国外去。你们政府的任何官员也不想派出这样一支军队。所以，这就揭露出任何关于派兵去欧洲的谣传都是故意捏造的。我们国家的政策并非走向战争，其唯一目的是让我们的国家和人民远离战争。

民主制度对抗世界征服的斗争正得到巨大援助，而且必须得到更多的帮助。美国重整军备，并把我们尽可能省下来的每一两、每一吨军火和供给品送去帮助在前线的防卫部队。我们这种做法并不比瑞典、俄罗斯和与德国为邻的其他国家天天把钢铁、矿砂、石油和其他作战物资运到德国去的做法更有违中立。

我们正在十万火急地制订本国的防卫计划。在这个规模庞大的计划中，我们必须把英国和其他抵抗侵略的自由国家在作战方面的种种需要也包括在内。这与情感或具争议的个人意见无关。这是一个务实的实用军事策略，是以熟知这场战争的军事专家们提供的建议作为基础的。这些军事专家、海军专家、议员和行政官员只有一个目标——保卫美国。

这个国家正尽一切努力并用最快的速度来生产所有急需物品。这样的努力需要做出巨大的牺牲。我不会让任何人来保卫民主，因为民主也不会保护国家的每个公民免受贫穷和贫困。即使政府无法维护公民的经济福利，国力也不能衰弱。如果我们的生产力受制于机器，那么你们一定要记住这些机器依靠工人的技术和体力来进行操作。

正如政府一心维护工人的权利，国家也有权要求操纵机器的工人对防卫急需品负起全责。与工程师、经理或是店主一样，工人也有个人尊严、有权捍卫自己的地位，因为工人们可以提供人力来生产出驱逐舰、飞机和坦克。国家希望我们的国防工业持续运作，不受罢工或停工的干扰。国家也要求并坚持管理者和工人能用自愿的或合法的手段调和矛盾来持续生产急需供给品。如你所知，在大规模防御计划的经济方面，我们正尽最大努力来维持物价以稳定生活成本。

九天前，我宣布建立一个更高效的组织来指导我们更加努力地提高军需品的产量。巨款的大量拨付，防御的严密布置，这些还远远不够。枪支、飞机、轮船和许多其他物资必须由美国的工厂和兵工厂生产。它们必须由工人、管理者和工程师依靠机器来生产，而机器也必须要由全国成百上千的工人生产。

政府与工业和劳动力之间已经有了杰出的合作，这让我十分感激。美国工业界的天才解决生产问题的能力举世无双，他们已被唤起，将以其聪明才智在战斗中一展风采。手表厂、农具厂、成型活字铸造厂、现金出纳机厂、缝纫机厂、割草机厂和机车制造厂等等，现在纷纷转而生产导火线、炸药箱、望远镜底座、炮弹、手枪和坦克。

但是我们目前的一切努力还不够，我们必须有更多的船只、更多的枪炮、更多的飞机，更多的一切物品。我们只有摒弃“照常办事”的观念，才能达到上述目标。仅仅依靠现有的生产设备，附加一些国防的需要是不能实现这一目标的。我们的防卫努力绝不能因为那些担心将来工厂生产能力过剩的人而受到阻碍。而我们目前的防卫努力若是失败，其后果才更令人担忧。当目前的国防需求不再的时候，对国家和平时期需求的正确处理将需要全新的生产能力，如果不是更多的话。任何对美国前途悲观的政策都会耽误国防所需各种工业的立即扩展。

我想让大家明白，我们的目的是现在尽快建立我们需要用来制造国防物资的每部机器、每个兵工厂、每个工厂。我们具备这种人员、这种技术、这种财富，尤其是这种决心。我确信，如果某些工业需要使用国防方面所需的机器和原料去生产消费品和奢侈品，那么这种生产必须而且应该心甘情愿地让步于我们主要的和紧急的目标。因此我号召工厂的所有者、经理、工人、我们自己的政府官员把点滴的努力都用于生产军火。要迅速，要不遗余力。同时，我也向你们保证，我们所有政府官员也将同样全心全意地献身于当前这项艰巨的任务。

飞机、军舰、大炮和炮弹生产出来之后，你们的政府和国防专家就能决定如何最妥当地使用它们来保卫这个半球。必须根据我们全面的军事需要，来决定把多少运到国外，多少留在国内。

我们必须成为民主国家的兵工厂。

对我们来说，这是一项同战争本身一样严肃的紧急任务。我们必须以如同亲身作战一样的决心、一样的迫切心情、一样的爱国和牺牲的精神，来致力于完成我们的任务。我们已经提供给英国人巨大的物资支持，在未来我们还会提供更多。我们协助大不列颠的决心没有瓶颈。没有一个独裁者或独裁者联盟能够威胁我们，以削弱我们的决心。

英国人已从英勇的希腊军队和其他流亡政府军那里获得了无价的军事帮助，他们的实力在增强。这股力量是来自那些珍视自由重于生命的人们。

基于最新和最详细的情报，我相信轴心国不会在这场战争中获胜。

我们不要为失败主义寻找借口。我们有充分的理由期盼和平，是的，期盼我们的文明得到保卫，期盼在未来建设一个更好的文明。我深信，美国人民现在正坚定不移地以前所未有的努力来增加各种防卫物资的生产，迎击我们民主信仰所受到的威胁。

作为合众国总统，我号召全民努力。我以这个国家的名义发出这个号召，因为我们热爱这个国家，尊敬这个国家。能为这个国家服务，我们感到荣幸和自豪。我以绝对的自信号召我们的人民取得巨大的成功。