Roosevelt Conspired to Start World War II in Europe
We Elected Their Nemesis ... But He Was Ours
John Wear • January 26, 2019

Establishment historians claim that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt never wanted war and
made every reasonable effort to prevent war. This article will show that
contrary to what establishment historians claim, Franklin Roosevelt and his
administration wanted war and made every effort to instigate World War II in
Europe.
THE SECRET POLISH DOCUMENTS
The Germans seized a mass of documents from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs when they
invaded Warsaw in late September 1939. The documents were seized when a German
SS brigade led by Freiherr von Kuensberg captured the center of Warsaw ahead of
the regular German army. Von Kuensberg’s men took control of the Polish Foreign
Ministry just as Ministry officials were in the process of burning incriminating
documents. These documents clearly establish Roosevelt’s crucial role in
planning and instigating World War II. They also reveal the forces behind
President Roosevelt that pushed for war.
Some of the secret Polish documents were first published in the United States as The
German White Paper. Probably the most-revealing document in the collection
is a secret report dated January 12, 1939 by Jerzy Potocki, the Polish
ambassador to the United States. This report discusses the domestic situation in
the United States. I quote (a translation of) Ambassador Potocki’s report in
full:
There is a feeling now prevalent in the United States marked by growing hatred of
Fascism, and above all of Chancellor Hitler and everything connected with
National Socialism. Propaganda is mostly in the hands of the Jews who control
almost 100% [of the] radio, film, daily and periodical press. Although this
propaganda is extremely coarse and presents Germany as black as possible–above
all religious persecution and concentration camps are exploited–this
propaganda is nevertheless extremely effective since the public here is
completely ignorant and knows nothing of the situation in Europe.
At the present moment most Americans regard Chancellor Hitler and National Socialism
as the greatest evil and greatest peril threatening the world. The situation
here provides an excellent platform for public speakers of all kinds, for
emigrants from Germany and Czechoslovakia who with a great many words and with
most various calumnies incite the public. They praise American liberty which
they contrast with the totalitarian states.
It is interesting to note that in this extremely well-planned campaign which is
conducted above all against National Socialism, Soviet Russia is almost
completely eliminated. Soviet Russia, if mentioned at all, is mentioned in a
friendly manner and things are presented in such a way that it would seem that
the Soviet Union were cooperating with the bloc of democratic states. Thanks
to the clever propaganda the sympathies of the American public are completely
on the side of Red Spain.
This propaganda, this war psychosis is being artificially created. The American
people are told that peace in Europe is hanging only by a thread and that war
is inevitable. At the same time the American people are unequivocally told
that in case of a world war, America also must take an active part in order to
defend the slogans of liberty and democracy in the world. President Roosevelt
was the first one to express hatred against Fascism. In doing so he was
serving a double purpose; first he wanted to divert the attention of the
American people from difficult and intricate domestic problems, especially
from the problem of the struggle between capital and labor. Second, by
creating a war psychosis and by spreading rumors concerning dangers
threatening Europe, he wanted to induce the American people to accept an
enormous armament program which far exceeds United States defense
requirements.
Regarding the first point, it must be said that the internal situation on the labor
market is growing worse constantly. The unemployed today already number 12
million. Federal and state expenditures are increasing daily. Only the huge
sums, running into billions, which the treasury expends for emergency labor
projects, are keeping a certain amount of peace in the country. Thus far only
the usual strikes and local unrest have taken place. But how long this
government aid can be kept up it is difficult to predict today. The excitement
and indignation of public opinion, and the serious conflict between private
enterprises and enormous trusts on the one hand, and with labor on the other,
have made many enemies for Roosevelt and are causing him many sleepless
nights.
As to point two, I can only say that President Roosevelt, as a clever player of
politics and a connoisseur of American mentality, speedily steered public
attention away from the domestic situation in order to fasten it on foreign
policy. The way to achieve this was simple. One needed, on the one hand, to
enhance the war menace overhanging the world on account of Chancellor Hitler,
and, on the other hand, to create a specter by talking about the attack of the
totalitarian states on the United States. The Munich pact came to President
Roosevelt as a godsend. He described it as the capitulation of France and
England to bellicose German militarism. As was said here: Hitler compelled
Chamberlain at pistol-point. Hence, France and England had no choice and had
to conclude a shameful peace.
The prevalent hatred against everything which is in any way connected with German
National Socialism is further kindled by the brutal attitude against the Jews
in Germany and by the émigré problem. In this action Jewish intellectuals
participated; for instance, Bernard Baruch; the Governor of New York State,
Lehman; the newly appointed judge of the Supreme Court, Felix Frankfurter;
Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau, and others who are personal friends of
Roosevelt. They want the President to become the champion of human rights,
freedom of religion and speech, and the man who in the future will punish
trouble-mongers. These groups, people who want to pose as representatives of
“Americanism” and “defenders of democracy” in the last analysis, are connected
by unbreakable ties with international Jewry.
For this Jewish international, which above all is concerned with the interests of its
race, to put the President of the United States at this “ideal” post of
champion of human rights, was a clever move. In this manner they created a
dangerous hotbed for hatred and hostility in this hemisphere and divided the
world into two hostile camps. The entire issue is worked out in a mysterious
manner. Roosevelt has been forcing the foundation for vitalizing American
foreign policy, and simultaneously has been procuring enormous stocks for the
coming war, for which the Jews are striving consciously. With regard to
domestic policy, it is extremely convenient to divert public attention from
anti-Semitism which is ever growing in the United States, by talking about the
necessity of defending faith and individual liberty against the onslaught of
Fascism.
On January 16, 1939, Potocki reported to the Warsaw Foreign Ministry a conversation he had
with American Ambassador to France William Bullitt. Bullitt was in Washington on
a leave of absence from Paris. Potocki reported that Bullitt stated the main
objectives of the Roosevelt administration were:
The vitalizing foreign policy, under the leadership of President Roosevelt,
severely and unambiguously condemns totalitarian countries.
The United States preparation for war on sea, land and air which will be carried
out at an accelerated speed and will consume the colossal sum of $1,250 million.
It is the decided opinion of the President that France and Britain must put [an] end
to any sort of compromise with the totalitarian countries. They must not let themselves in for any
discussions aiming at any kind of territorial changes.
They have the moral assurance that the United States will leave the policy of
isolation and be prepared to intervene actively on the side of Britain and
France in case of war. America is ready to place its whole wealth of money and
raw materials at their disposal.
Juliusz (Jules) Łukasiewicz, the Polish ambassador to France, sent a top-secret report
from Paris to the Polish Foreign Ministry at the beginning of February 1939.
This report outlined the U.S. policy toward Europe as explained to him by
William Bullitt:
A week ago, the Ambassador of the United States, W. Bullitt, returned to Paris after
having spent three months holiday in America. Meanwhile, I had two
conversations with him which enable me to inform Monsieur Minister on his
views regarding the European situation and to give a survey of Washington’s
policy....
The international situation is regarded by official quarters as extremely serious
and being in danger of armed conflict. Competent quarters are of the opinion
that if war should break out between Britain and France on the one hand and
Germany and Italy on the other, and Britain and France should be defeated, the
Germans would become dangerous to the realistic interests of the United States
on the American continent. For this reason, one can foresee right from the
beginning the participation of the United States in the war on the side of
France and Britain, naturally after some time had elapsed after the beginning
of the war. Ambassador Bullitt expressed this as follows: “Should war break
out we shall certainly not take part in it at the beginning, but we shall end
it.”
On March 7,
1939, Ambassador Potocki sent another remarkably perceptive report on
Roosevelt’s foreign policy to the Polish government. I quote Potocki’s report in
full:
The foreign policy of the United States right now concerns not only the
government, but the entire American public as well. The most important
elements are the public statements of President Roosevelt. In almost every
public speech he refers more or less explicitly to the necessity of activating
foreign policy against the chaos of views and ideologies in Europe. These
statements are picked up by the press and then cleverly filtered into the
minds of average Americans in such a way as to strengthen their already formed
opinions. The same theme is constantly repeated, namely, the danger of war in
Europe and saving the democracies from inundation by enemy fascism. In all of
these public statements there is normally only a single theme, that is, the
danger from Nazism and Nazi Germany to world peace.
As a result of these speeches, the public is called upon to support rearmament and
the spending of enormous sums for the navy and the air force. The unmistakable
idea behind this is that in case of an armed conflict the United States cannot
stay out but must take an active part in the maneuvers. As a result of the
effective speeches of President Roosevelt, which are supported by the press,
the American public is today being conscientiously manipulated to hate
everything that smacks of totalitarianism and fascism. But it is interesting
that the USSR is not included in all of this. The American public considers
Russia more in the camp of the democratic states. This was also the case
during the Spanish civil war when the so-called Loyalists were regarded as
defenders of the democratic idea.
The State Department operates without attracting a great deal of attention, although it
is known that Secretary of State [Cordell] Hull and President Roosevelt swear
allegiance to the same ideas. However, Hull shows more reserve than Roosevelt,
and he loves to make a distinction between Nazism and Chancellor Hitler on the
one hand, and the German people on the other. He considers this form of
dictatorial government a temporary “necessary evil.” In contrast, the State
Department is unbelievably interested in the USSR and its internal situation
and openly worries itself over its weaknesses and decline. The main reason for
the United States interest in the Russians is the situation in the Far East.
The current government would be glad to see the Red Army emerge as the victor
in a conflict with Japan. That’s why the sympathies of the government are
clearly on the side of China, which recently received considerable financial
aid amounting to 25 million dollars.
Eager attention is given to all information from the diplomatic posts as well as to
the special emissaries of the President who serve as ambassadors of the United
States. The President frequently calls his representatives from abroad to
Washington for personal exchanges of views and to give them special
information and instructions. The arrival of the envoys and ambassadors is
always shrouded in secrecy and very little surfaces in the press about the
results of their visits. The State Department also takes care to avoid giving
out any kind of information about the course of these interviews. The
practical way in which the President makes foreign policy is most effective.
He gives personal instructions to his representatives abroad, most of whom are
his personal friends. In this way the United States is led down a dangerous
path in world politics with the explicit intention of abandoning the
comfortable policy of isolation. The President regards the foreign policy of
his country as a means of satisfying his own personal ambition. He listens
carefully and happily to his echo in the other capitals of the world. In
domestic as well as foreign policy, the Congress of the United States is the
only object that stands in the way of the President and his government in
carrying out his decisions quickly and ambitiously. One hundred and fifty
years ago, the Constitution of the United States gave the highest prerogatives
to the American parliament which may criticize or reject the law of the White
House.
The foreign policy of President Roosevelt has recently been the subject of intense
discussion in the lower house and in the Senate, and this has caused
excitement. The so-called Isolationists, of whom there are many in both
houses, have come out strongly against the President. The representatives and
the senators were especially upset over the remarks of the President, which
were published in the press, in which he said that the borders of the United
States lie on the Rhine. But President Roosevelt is a superb political player
and understands completely the power of the American parliament. He has his
own people there, and he knows how to withdraw from an uncomfortable situation
at the right moment.
Very intelligently and cleverly he ties together the question of foreign policy
with the issues of American rearmament. He particularly stresses the necessity
of spending enormous sums in order to maintain a defensive peace. He says
specifically that the United States is not arming in order to intervene or to
go to the aid of England or France in case of war, but because of the need to
show strength and military preparedness in case of an armed conflict in
Europe. In his view this conflict is becoming ever more acute and is
completely unavoidable.
Since the issue is presented this way, the houses of Congress have no cause to object.
To the contrary, the houses accepted an armament program of more than 1
billion dollars. (The normal budget is 550 million, the emergency 552 million
dollars). However, under the cloak of a rearmament policy, President Roosevelt
continues to push forward his foreign policy, which unofficially shows the
world that in case of war the United States will come out on the side of the
democratic states with all military and financial power.
In conclusion it can be said that the technical and moral preparation of the
American people for participation in a war–if one should break out in
Europe–is proceeding rapidly. It appears that the United States will come to
the aid of France and Great Britain with all its resources right from the
beginning. However, I know the American public and the representatives and
senators who all have the final word, and I am of the opinion that the
possibility that America will enter the war as in 1917 is not great. That’s
because the majority of the states in the mid-West and West, where the rural
element predominates, want to avoid involvement in European disputes at all
costs. They remember the declaration of the Versailles Treaty and the
well-known phrase that the war was to save the world for democracy. Neither
the Versailles Treaty nor that slogan have reconciled the United States to
that war. For millions there remains only a bitter aftertaste because of
unpaid billions which the European states still owe America.
These secret Polish reports were written by top-level Polish ambassadors who were not
necessarily friendly to Germany. However, they understood the realities of
European politics far better than people who made foreign policy in the United
States. The Polish ambassadors realized that behind all of their rhetoric about
democracy and human rights, the Jewish leaders in the United States who agitated
for war against Germany were deceptively advancing their own
interests.
There is no question that the secret documents taken from the Polish Foreign Ministry in
Warsaw are authentic. Charles C. Tansill considered the documents genuine and
stated, “Some months ago I had a long conversation with M. Lipsky, the Polish
ambassador in Berlin in the prewar years, and he assured me that the documents
in the German White Paper are authentic.”
William H. Chamberlain wrote, "I have been privately informed by an extremely
reliable source that Potocki, now residing in South America, confirmed the
accuracy of the documents, so far as he was concerned."
Historian Harry Elmer Barnes also stated, "Both Professor Tansill and myself have
independently established the thorough authenticity of these documents."
Edward Raczyński, the Polish ambassador to London from 1934 to 1945, confirmed in his
diary the authenticity of the Polish documents. He wrote in his entry on June
20, 1940: "The Germans published in April a White Book containing documents from
the archives of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consisting of reports from
Potocki from Washington, Łukasiewicz in Paris and myself. I do not know where
they found them, since we were told that the archives had been destroyed. The
documents are certainly genuine, and the facsimiles show that for the most part
the Germans got hold of the originals and not merely copies."
The official papers and memoirs of Juliusz Łukasiewicz published in 1970 in the book
Diplomat in Paris 1936-1939 reconfirmed the authenticity of the Polish
documents. Łukasiewicz was the Polish ambassador to Paris, who authored several
of the secret Polish documents. The collection was edited by Wacław
Jędrzejewicz, a former Polish diplomat and cabinet member. Jędrzejewicz
considered the documents made public by the Germans absolutely genuine, and
quoted from several of them.
Tyler G. Kent, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in London in 1939 and 1940, has also
confirmed the authenticity of the secret Polish documents. Kent says that he saw
copies of U.S. diplomatic messages in the files which corresponded to the Polish
documents.
The German Foreign Office published the Polish documents on March 29, 1940. The Reich
Ministry of Propaganda released the documents to strengthen the case of the
American isolationists and to prove the degree of America’s responsibility for
the outbreak of war. In Berlin, journalists from around the world were permitted
to examine the original documents themselves, along with a large number of other
documents from the Polish Foreign Ministry. The release of the documents caused
an international media sensation. American newspapers published lengthy excerpts
from the documents and gave the story large front-page headline coverage.
However, the impact of the released documents was far less than the German government had
hoped for. Leading U.S. government officials emphatically denounced the
documents as not being authentic. William Bullitt, who was especially
incriminated by the documents, stated, "I have never made to anyone the
statements attributed to me." Secretary of State Cordell Hull denounced the
documents: "I may say most emphatically that neither I nor any of my associates
in the Department of State have ever heard of any such conversations as those
alleged, nor do we give them the slightest credence. The statements alleged have
not represented in any way at any time the thought or the policy of the American
government."
American newspapers stressed these high-level denials in reporting the release
of the Polish documents.
These categorical denials by high-level U.S. government officials almost completely
eliminated the effect of the secret Polish documents. The vast majority of the
American people in 1940 trusted their elected political leaders to tell the
truth. If the Polish documents were in fact authentic and genuine, this would
mean that President Roosevelt and his representatives had lied to the American
public, while the German government told the truth. In 1940, this was far more
than the trusting American public could accept.
MORE EVIDENCE ROOSEVELT INSTIGATED WORLD WAR II
While the secret Polish documents alone indicate that Roosevelt was preparing the American
public for war against Germany, a large amount of complementary evidence
confirms the conspiracy reported by the Polish ambassadors. The diary of James
V. Forrestal, the first U.S. secretary of defense, also reveals that Roosevelt
and his administration helped start World War II. Forrestal’s entry on December 27, 1945 stated:
Played golf today with Joe Kennedy [Roosevelt’s Ambassador to Great Britain in the
years immediately before the war]. I asked him about his conversations with
Roosevelt and Neville Chamberlain from 1938 on. He said Chamberlain’s position
in 1938 was that England had nothing with which to fight and that she could
not risk going to war with Hitler. Kennedy’s view: That Hitler would have
fought Russia without any later conflict with England if it had not been for
Bullitt’s urging on Roosevelt in the summer of 1939 that the Germans must be
faced down about Poland; neither the French nor the British would have made
Poland a cause of war if it had not been for the constant needling from
Washington. Bullitt, he said, kept telling Roosevelt that the Germans wouldn’t
fight; Kennedy that they would, and that they would overrun Europe.
Chamberlain, he says, stated that America and the world Jews had forced
England into the war. In his telephone conversations with Roosevelt in the
summer of 1939 the President kept telling him to put some iron up
Chamberlain’s backside. Kennedy’s response always was that putting iron up his
backside did no good unless the British had some iron with which to fight, and
they did not...
What Kennedy told me in this conversation jibes substantially with the remarks
Clarence Dillon had made to me already, to the general effect that Roosevelt
had asked him in some manner to communicate privately with the British to the
end that Chamberlain should have greater firmness in his dealings with
Germany. Dillon told me that at Roosevelt’s request he had talked with Lord
Lothian in the same general sense as Kennedy reported Roosevelt having urged
him to do with Chamberlain. Lothian presumably was to communicate to
Chamberlain the gist of his conversation with Dillon.
Looking backward there is undoubtedly foundation for Kennedy’s belief that Hitler’s
attack could have been deflected to Russia...
Joseph Kennedy is known to have had a good memory, and it is highly likely that
Kennedy’s statements to James Forrestal are accurate. Forrestal died on May 22,
1949 under suspicious circumstances when he fell from his hospital window.
Sir Ronald Lindsay, the British ambassador to Washington, confirmed Roosevelt’s secret
policy to instigate war against Germany with the release of a confidential
diplomatic report after the war. The report described a secret meeting on
September 18, 1938 between Roosevelt and Ambassador Lindsay. Roosevelt said that
if Britain and France were forced into a war against Germany, the United States
would ultimately join the war. Roosevelt’s idea to start a war was for Britain
and France to impose a blockade against Germany without actually declaring war.
The important point was to call it a defensive war based on lofty humanitarian
grounds and on the desire to wage hostilities with a minimum of suffering and
the least possible loss of life and property. The blockade would provoke some
kind of German military response, but would free Britain and France from having
to declare war. Roosevelt believed he could then convince the American public to
support war against Germany, including shipments of weapons to Britain and
France, by insisting that the United States was still neutral in a non-declared
conflict.
President Roosevelt told Ambassador Lindsay that if news of their conversation was ever
made public, it could mean Roosevelt’s impeachment. What Roosevelt proposed to
Lindsay was in effect a scheme to violate the U.S. Constitution by illegally
starting a war. For this and other reasons, Ambassador Lindsay stated that
during his three years of service in Washington he developed little regard for
America’s leaders.
Ambassador Lindsay in a series of final reports also indicated that Roosevelt was delighted
at the prospect of a new world war. Roosevelt promised Lindsay that he would
delay German ships under false pretenses in a feigned search for arms. This
would allow the German ships to be easily seized by the British under
circumstances arranged with exactitude between the American and British
authorities. Lindsay reported that Roosevelt "spoke in a tone of almost impish
glee and though I may be wrong the whole business gave me the impression of
resembling a school-boy prank."
Ambassador Lindsay was personally perturbed that the president of the United States could
be gay and joyful about a pending tragedy which seemed so destructive of the
hopes of all mankind. It was unfortunate at this important juncture that the
United States had a president whose emotions and ideas were regarded by a
friendly British ambassador as being childish.
Roosevelt’s
desire to support France and England in a war against Germany is discussed in a
letter from Verne Marshall, former editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette,
to Charles C. Tansill. The letter stated:
President Roosevelt wrote a note to William Bullitt [in the summer of 1939], then
Ambassador to France, directing him to advise the French Government that if,
in the event of a Nazi attack upon Poland, France and England did not go to
Poland’s aid, those countries could expect no help from America if a general
war developed. On the other hand, if France and England immediately declared
war on Germany, they could expect “all aid” from the United States.
F.D.R.’s instructions to Bullitt were to send this word along to “Joe” and “Tony,”
meaning Ambassadors Kennedy, in London, and Biddle, in Warsaw, respectively.
F.D.R. wanted Daladier, Chamberlain and Josef Beck to know of these
instructions to Bullitt. Bullitt merely sent his note from F.D.R. to Kennedy
in the diplomatic pouch from Paris. Kennedy followed Bullitt’s idea and
forwarded it to Biddle. When the Nazis grabbed Warsaw and Beck disappeared,
they must have come into possession of the F.D.R. note. The man who wrote the
report I sent you saw it in Berlin in October, 1939.
William Phillips, the American ambassador to Italy, also stated in his postwar memoirs
that the Roosevelt administration in late 1938 was committed to going to war on
the side of Britain and France. Phillips wrote: “On this and many other
occasions, I would have liked to have told him [Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign
Minister] frankly that in the event of a European war, the United States would
undoubtedly be involved on the side of the Allies. But in view of my official
position, I could not properly make such a statement without instructions from
Washington, and these I never received.”
When Anthony Eden returned to England in December 1938, he carried with him an assurance from
President Roosevelt that the United States would enter as soon as practicable a
European war against Hitler if the occasion arose. This information was obtained
by Senator William Borah of Idaho, who was contemplating how and when to give
out this information, when he dropped dead in his bathroom. The story was
confirmed to historian Harry Elmer Barnes by some of Senator Borah’s closest
colleagues at the time.
The American ambassador to Poland, Anthony Drexel Biddle, was an ideological
colleague of President Roosevelt and a good friend of William Bullitt. Roosevelt
used Biddle to influence the Polish government to refuse to enter into
negotiations with Germany. Carl J. Burckhardt, the League of Nations High
Commissioner to Danzig, reported in his postwar memoirs on a memorable
conversation he had with Biddle. On December 2, 1938, Biddle told Burckhardt
with remarkable satisfaction that the Poles were ready to wage war over Danzig.
Biddle predicted that in April a new crisis would develop, and that moderate
British and French leaders would be influenced by public opinion to support war.
Biddle predicted a holy war against Germany would break out.
Bernard Baruch, who was Roosevelt’s chief advisor, scoffed at a statement made on March
10, 1939 by Neville Chamberlain that "the outlook in international affairs is
tranquil." Baruch agreed passionately with Winston Churchill, who had told him:
"War is coming very soon. We will be in it and you [the United States] will be
in it."
Georges Bonnet, the French foreign minister in 1939, also confirmed the role of William
Bullitt as Roosevelt’s agent in pushing France into war. In a letter to Hamilton
Fish dated March 26, 1971, Bonnet wrote, "One thing is certain is that Bullitt
in 1939 did everything he could to make France enter the war."
Dr. Edvard Beneš, the former president of Czechoslovakia, wrote in his memoirs that he had
a lengthy secret conversation at Hyde Park with President Roosevelt on May 28,
1939. Roosevelt assured Beneš that the United States would actively intervene on
the side of Great Britain and France against Germany in the anticipated European
war.
American newspaper columnist Karl von Wiegand, who was the chief European newspaper
columnist of the International News Service, met with Ambassador William Bullitt
at the U.S. embassy in Paris on April 25, 1939. More than four months before the
outbreak of war, Bullitt told Wiegand: "War in Europe has been decided upon.
Poland has the assurance of the support of Britain and France, and will yield to
no demands from Germany. America will be in the war soon after Britain and
France enter it."
When Wiegand said that in the end Germany would be driven into the arms of Soviet Russia and Bolshevism,
Ambassador Bullitt replied: "What of it. There will not be enough Germans left when the war is over
to be worth Bolshevizing."
On March 14, 1939, Slovakia dissolved the state of Czechoslovakia by declaring itself an
independent republic. Czechoslovakian President Emil Hácha signed a formal
agreement the next day with Hitler establishing a German protectorate over
Bohemia and Moravia, which constituted the Czech portion of the previous entity.
The British government initially accepted the new situation, reasoning that
Britain’s guarantee of Czechoslovakia given after Munich was rendered void by
the internal collapse of that state. It soon became evident after the
proclamation of the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia that the new regime enjoyed
considerable popularity among the people living in it. Also, the danger of a war
between the Czechs and the Slovaks had been averted.
However, Bullitt’s response to the creation of the German protectorate over Bohemia and
Moravia was highly unfavorable. Bullitt telephoned Roosevelt and, in an "almost hysterical" voice, Bullitt
urged Roosevelt to make a dramatic denunciation of Germany and to immediately ask Congress to repeal
the Neutrality Act.
Washington journalists Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen reported in their nationally
syndicated column that on March 16, 1939, President Roosevelt "sent a virtual ultimatum to Chamberlain"
demanding that the British government strongly oppose Germany. Pearson and Allen reported that "the President
warned that Britain could expect no more support, moral or material through the sale of airplanes,
if the Munich policy continued."
Responding to Roosevelt’s pressure, the next day Chamberlain ended Britain’s policy of
cooperation with Germany when he made a speech at Birmingham bitterly denouncing
Hitler. Chamberlain also announced the end of the British "appeasement" policy,
stating that from now on Britain would oppose any further territorial moves by
Hitler. Two weeks later the British government formally committed itself to war
in case of German-Polish hostilities.
Roosevelt also attempted to arm Poland so that Poland would be more willing to go to war
against Germany. Ambassador Bullitt reported from Paris in a confidential
telegram to Washington on April 9, 1939, his conversation with Polish Ambassador
Łukasiewicz. Bullitt told Łukasiewicz that although U.S. law prohibited direct
financial aid to Poland, the Roosevelt administration might be able to supply
warplanes to Poland indirectly through Britain. Bullitt stated: "The Polish
ambassador asked me if it might not be possible for Poland to obtain financial
help and airplanes from the United States. I replied that I believed the Johnson
Act would forbid any loans from the United States to Poland, but added that it
might be possible for England to purchase planes for cash in the United States
and turn them over to Poland."
Bullitt also attempted to bypass the Neutrality Act and supply France with airplanes. A
secret conference of Ambassador Bullitt with French Premier Daladier and the
French minister of aviation, Guy La Chambre, discussed the procurement of
airplanes from America for France. Bullitt, who was in frequent telephonic
conversation with Roosevelt, suggested a means by which the Neutrality Act could
be circumvented in the event of war. Bullitt’s suggestion was to set up assembly
plants in Canada, apparently on the assumption that Canada would not be a formal
belligerent in the war. Bullitt also arranged for a secret French mission to
come to the United States and purchase airplanes in the winter of 1938-1939. The
secret purchase of American airplanes by the French leaked out when a French
aviator crashed on the West Coast.
On August 23, 1939, Sir Horace Wilson, Chamberlain’s closest advisor, went to American
Ambassador Joseph Kennedy with an urgent appeal from Chamberlain to President
Roosevelt. Regretting that Britain had unequivocally obligated itself to Poland
in case of war, Chamberlain now turned to Roosevelt as a last hope for peace.
Kennedy telephoned the State Department and stated: "The British want one thing
from us and one thing only, namely that we put pressure on the Poles. They felt
that they could not, given their obligations, do anything of this sort but that
we could."
Presented with a possibility to save the peace in Europe, President Roosevelt rejected
Chamberlain’s desperate plea out of hand. With Roosevelt’s rejection, Kennedy
reported, British Prime Minister Chamberlain lost all hope. Chamberlain stated:
"The futility of it all is the thing that is frightful. After all, we cannot
save the Poles. We can merely carry on a war of revenge that will mean the
destruction of all Europe."
Conclusion
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisers played a crucial role in planning
and instigating World War II. This is proven by the secret Polish documents as
well as numerous statements from highly positioned, well-known and authoritative
Allied leaders who corroborate the contents of the Polish documents.
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