- Headline
-
FDR 'Shoot On Sight' Order Brings Threat of War Answer From Axis
- Sub-Headline
- Axis Claims 26 Ships Sunk; Early Raps Lindbergh Talk
- Publication Date
- Friday, September 12, 1941
- Historical Event
-
Charles Lindbergh Makes ‘Un-American’ Speech
This database includes 1,447 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- Lyle C. Wilson (UP)
- Article Text
- WASHINGTON, Sept. 12—The White House delivered a new denunciation of isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh today as the Capital anxiously waited to see whether President Roosevelt's naval policy of attacking Axis raiders on sight would soon mean actual shooting on the seas.
The White House compared Lindbergh's speech last night with recent "outpourings of Berlin.''
Mr Roosevelt's "shoot on sight" orders to the Navy, announced in his historic address last night applied to Axis warships found in American "defensive waters." The President's secretary, Stephen T. Early, refused today to interpret or define these areas.
It was certain, however, that they include the sea route from North America to Iceland, America's easternmost Atlantic outpost; at least part of the supply routes to the British Empire through the Middle and South Atlantic; and large areas of the Pacific.
There were no official statements from the Axis nations, but the Fascist propagandist, Virginio Gayda, proclaimed that Mr. Roosevelt's decision left the Axis no alternative "but to attack United States naval ships on sight."
Presume Pacific Hunt Started
It was presumed that one immediate assignment of American naval units was to hunt an Axis surface raider in the Pacific. That raider was reported to have sunk a Dutch freighter off the western coast of South America.
Intensive hunt for the submarine that attacked the U. S. Destroyer Greer has been under way in the vicinity of Iceland for several days.
The fresh White House criticism of Lindbergh resulted from the aviator's address, under America First Committee sponsorship, at Des Moines, la., last night soon after the President spoke. Lindbergh charged that "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt Administration" are leading America toward war.
Commenting on this, Early said:
"You have seen the outpourings of Berlin in the last few days.
"You saw Lindbergh's statement last night.
"I think there is a striking similarity between the two."
Implementation of the new naval policy, it was assumed, will be discussed at the regular weekly cabinet meeting which Mr. Roosevelt scheduled for this afternoon
Second Largest Audience
Mr. Roosevelt told radio listeners, estimated by the White House on the basis of a radio agency survey as his second largest audience, that this nation wanted peace, but not at the price of permitting Adolf Hitler to "attack our naval and merchant ships while they are on legitimate business."
The shooting order he explained means that in our defensive waters American forces will protect not only our ships but merchant ships of any flag. The defensive area extends at least to Iceland, which is about two-thirds of the way from American and Canadian ports to British terminals of the Empire life line. Mr. Roosevelt promised to keep rolling across the Atlantic bridge of ships the supplies to "help destroy" Hitler and all his works.
Charging that the Axis has begun a campaign of "unrestricted submarine warfare," Mr. Roosevelt said that henceforth German or Italian warships will enter our defensive waters "at their peril."
"I have no illusions," he continued "about the gravity of this step. It is the result of anxiety and prayer. In the protection of your nation and mine it cannot be avoided."
The precise areas of American defensive waters was not defined but the major trouble spot obviously was the Atlantic, although a vast but less often raided Pacific area reaching well beyond Hawaii and to the Siberian coast in the Far North apparently would be included. He did not, however, mention
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- Location of Research
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Learn More about this Historical Event: Charles Lindbergh Makes ‘Un-American’ Speech
- The United States and the Holocaust (Encyclopedia article)
- Transcript of Lindbergh’s September 11, 1941, speech in Des Moines, Iowa (PBS, American Experience)
- Fallen Hero: Charles Lindbergh in the 1940s (PBS, American Experience)
- Charles Lindbergh's - September 11, 1941 Speech in Des Moines, Iowa (partial audio; Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project)
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