" Arsenal of Democracy " was the main idea used by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio speech on December 29, 1940, about the danger to the United States. This speech was given nearly a year before the United States joined World War II (1939–1945). Roosevelt said the United States would help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by selling them military supplies, even though the United States did not join the fighting directly. He made this promise a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), a time when Nazi Germany had taken control of much of Europe and threatened Britain.

Nazi Germany had allies with Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan (called the Axis powers). At that time, Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a non-aggression treaty called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This agreement allowed both countries to work together in invading Poland in 1939. This deal stayed in place until 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in an operation called Operation Barbarossa.

Roosevelt’s speech encouraged the United States to support the Allied countries in Europe and, to a smaller degree, the Republic of China, in their fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The phrase "Arsenal of Democracy" came to mean the industries of the United States, which provided most of the supplies needed for the Allied war effort.

"Arsenal of democracy" describes the combined work of American industries to support the Allies. These efforts were mostly focused in the major industrial cities of the United States, such as Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Rochester, Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh, along with other cities.

Origins of the phrase

In 1918, Herbert S. Houston, a business leader at Doubleday, wrote an article called "Blocking New Wars." He stated that American businesses helped protect democracy, and the free American press was a powerful tool for democracy.

In 1928, Joseph Goebbels, a German writer, used the phrase "arsenal of democracy" in his newspaper, Der Angriff. He wrote that people could use democratic systems to attack them from within.

The idea of America being an "arsenal of democracy" came from Robert E. Sherwood, an American playwright. On May 12, 1940, the New York Times reported that Sherwood said the United States was already acting as a weapons supplier for democratic countries. Later that year, French economist Jean Monnet used the same phrase, but a lawyer named Felix Frankfurter advised him not to use it again so President Franklin D. Roosevelt could use it in his speeches. Roosevelt’s top advisor, Harry Hopkins, suggested the phrase. Another account says Roosevelt got the idea from William S. Knudsen, a car company leader in Detroit, who helped manage wartime production in the United States.

Synopsis

The ending of the speech aimed to encourage people to be alert. President Roosevelt explained the situation and discussed the problems with the United States staying away from world events. He said, "Some of us believe that even if Britain falls, we are safe because of the large distances of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans."

He disagreed, explaining that modern technology had made those distances much smaller. He mentioned that "planes could fly from the British Isles to New England and back again without stopping."

After describing the danger, the president asked people to take action. He referred to a telegram he had received. He disagreed with its message, which said, "Please, Mr. President, don't frighten us by telling us the facts." Roosevelt emphasized that the most important fact was the Heartland theory: "If Great Britain is defeated, the Axis powers will control Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the oceans. They will be able to use their military and naval strength against this hemisphere."

He then described the situation in Europe, warning that the Nazis might use similar tactics in the Western Hemisphere. He used strong descriptions, such as "The fate of these [occupied] nations tells us what it means to live at the point of a Nazi gun." Roosevelt criticized the British prewar policy of "appeasement," calling it ineffective. He gave examples of how European countries had failed to stop aggression before.

The only solution, he said, was to help Britain ("the spearhead of resistance to world conquest") while it was still possible.

Although he did not promise to stay out of the war, he stated, "our national policy is not directed toward war," and argued that helping Britain now would save Americans from fighting later. He said, "You can, therefore, reject any talk about sending armies to Europe as deliberate untruth." Europe does "not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the tools of war, such as planes, tanks, guns, and ships, which will allow them to fight for their freedom and our safety. We must send these weapons to them quickly and in large numbers so that we and our children can avoid the pain of war."

He urged people to act, stressing that open war would not harm the country: "the strength of this nation shall not be weakened by the failure of the Government to protect the economic well-being of its citizens." He focused on the theme of "cooperation between the Government, businesses, and workers" for several paragraphs. He explained how American workers would support the war effort and how manufacturing weapons and vehicles was essential to national strength.

He warned against labor disputes, saying, "The nation expects our defense industries to keep working without interruptions from strikes or lockouts. It expects and insists that business leaders and workers will resolve their differences through voluntary or legal means."

Roosevelt stressed that the American people, not the government, had the power to change the course of the war. He used the phrase "arsenal of democracy": "We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us, this is an emergency as serious as war itself. We must work with the same determination, urgency, patriotism, and sacrifice as we would if we were at war." Finally, he reassured the American people: "I believe that the Axis powers are not going to win this war."

Impact

The speech showed how the United States changed its approach to joining World War II. It indicated a shift away from the belief in staying out of foreign conflicts, which had been a major part of U.S. foreign policy between the world wars after the country’s involvement in World War I. At that time, even though the U.S. Navy seemed strong and many believed it would protect the Western Hemisphere from attack, only about 458,365 military members (excluding the Coast Guard) were on active duty—259,028 in the Army, 160,997 in the Navy, and 28,345 in the Marine Corps. By the next year, the number of active military personnel had grown almost four times, reaching about 1,801,101 total—1,462,315 in the Army, 284,437 in the Navy, and 54,359 in the Marine Corps.

Earlier policies, such as the Neutrality Acts, were gradually replaced by stronger support for Allied nations. This included the cash and carry policy in 1939 and the Destroyers for Bases Agreement in September 1940. The Lend-Lease program started in March 1941, several months after the Arsenal of Democracy speech. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941—less than a year after the Arsenal of Democracy speech—the United States officially entered the war.

United States armament manufacturers

Military spending during this time was divided as follows: 32% for aircraft, 14.8% for ships, 25.6% for ordnance (such as guns, ammunition, and military vehicles), 4.9% for electronics, and 22.7% for fuels, clothing, construction materials, and food. It is important to note that production costs decreased over time—by 1945, the same item cost significantly less to make than it did in 1942. The largest United States military prime contractors are listed below, ranked by the total value of munitions they produced from June 1940 through September 1944. These major companies made many different items, and aircraft manufacturers often assembled parts created by thousands of other firms.

References and further reading

• Herman, Aurther. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. (2013)

• Hyde, Charles K. Arsenal of Democracy: The American Automobile Industry in World War II. Published by Wayne State University Press in 2013. ISBN 978-0-81-433951-0

• Jordan, Jonathan W. American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II. (NAL/Caliber, 2015)

• Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945. 1999. Pages 468–69. ISBN 978-0-19-514403-1

• Klein, Maury. A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II. (Bloomsbury, 2013)

• Full text and audio recording of the speech
• Speech available on Wikisource