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September 13, 1944: Thomas Dewey's Reply To President Roosevelt's War Address

Posted on 09/13/2007 5:23:01 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat



Good evening, gentlemen and ladies of America. I speak to you tonight as a patriot, and believe me, I do love our country and honor the servicemen fighting in foreign theatres of war.

The plan we are currently pursuing in the theatres of Europe and the Pacific are clearly not working. The President, the generals and soldiers serving in the field may believe the mission is being accomplished, but the results show otherwise.

Our President's foolish behavior in provoking our European enemies started by his signing of the "Lend Lease" bill back in 1941. Instead of trying to negotiate with the totalitarian regimes of Europe, President Roosevelt instead chose a belligerent course of action--helping to arm the democracies of the Continent.

Of course, when we were attacked on December 7th of that year, the whole civilized world was on our side. But President Roosevelt has squandered our goodwill. Look at how many nations in Europe have fallen to the Nazis, despite our best efforts.

Who can forget that November day less than two years ago, when more than 450 American boys lost their lives in one day fighting in France? The President has never held the generals in that battle to account. Instead, he has stubbornly refused to remove our servicemen from Europe, and we continue to lose soldiers.

In February of this year, at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, our forces had 6,000 casualties in just ONE WEEK.

Clearly, it is time for our fighting men to come back home.

Clearly, the war is being mismanaged.

The President says we must continue the fight until victory is achieved. But he has not thought about post-war Europe and has no plan to win the peace.

We were against the war when it was first proposed. And I believe that nothing which General Eisenhower or any other so-called expert in the next few days will in any way undermine the basic problem: There is no military solution. That has been said for years now. And that is why I believe we should start bringing our troops home.Hitlery Clinton

What we're concerned about hearing from these generals, is that it will be basically a sales job by the White House, that it'll be a PR document -- because that's what we've continually gotten from this administration, throughout the course of the war.The Breck Girl

The first obligation and job of an American president is to keep this country safe and secure. I would argue that today presently our troops in Europe are doing just the opposite of that. We're more vulnerable, less safe, more insecure today as a result of the presence there because we've turned Europe into an incubator for Nazis and Facists.Waitress Sandwich Dodd

And the president now is trying to present an argument that somehow because there has been some impact as a consequence of extra troops in Europe, that that has brought about some movement among anti-totalitarian populations in Germany and Italy. At this point, I think everybody is aware there will be no military solution to what's happening in Europe. The question is, are we going to be able to bring about a political accommodation?"Barack HUSSEIN Obama


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: fakebutaccurate; fakenews; falselight; gossip; idiocy; libel; notfunny; opposition; rathergate; slander; war
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To: Nervous Tick; Admin Moderator
Pulling the thread would be an asinine over-reaction.

No, it would be the right thing to do.

21 posted on 09/13/2007 7:25:47 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: Recovering_Democrat

Bet back then the New York Slimes wasn’t running cut-rate full-page ads of the ilk “To the Shower with Eisenhower”.....


22 posted on 09/13/2007 9:15:41 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: cynwoody
This is the kind of stuff that is on the same Amazon page as that book your quoted from:

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.

Now aren't you embarrassed that you would use that book to try to denigrate the honor of Thomas Dewey?

23 posted on 09/13/2007 9:35:35 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe
Now aren't you embarrassed that you would use that book to try to denigrate the honor of Thomas Dewey?

The fact that Dewey was preparing to spring a nice surprise on FDR shows that partisan politics was alive and well in 1944. But how does it denigrate Dewey's honor to cite the fact that, when cautioned by Marshall, he chose to give up a hot campaign issue rather than risk damaging the war effort?

As to the truth of the tale (that Dewey was going to raise the foreknowledge issue but was dissuaded by Marshall), there are plenty of sources other than Stinnett's book. E.g., here's a quote from a 1956 article in Time:

George Marshall had learned that Dewey knew the U.S. was cracking Japan's code. He feared that Candidate Dewe[y] might accuse the Roosevelt Administration of having blundered into Pearl Harbor even while intercepting messages spelling out the Japanese intention to attack. Marshall was not so much concerned about the political implications as he was about the military dangers: the fact that the U.S. had cracked the Japanese code was a zealously guarded military secret. Marshall begged Dewey to keep quiet about the code, and offered a weekly briefing on top U.S. diplomatic and military secrets.
In actual fact, the United States had broken the Japanese diplomatic code (the Purple code) before the war and thus knew that the Japs were going to war against the US. But they hadn't at that point broken the naval codes, and therefore Roosevelt didn't know the details of the planned attack (they thought it would be in the Far East). However, once the war got going, the US did break the naval codes, and the information thus obtained was immensely valuable. What Marshall feared was that Dewey's raising the issue would prompt the Japs to change all their codes.

Here is the text of Marshall's message to Dewey (BTW, it contains an interesting tidbit about the OSS in Portugal):

                       TOP SECRET

FOR MR. DEWEY'S EYES ONLY

COPY
                                                                       27 September 1944

               Colonel Clarke , my messenger to you of yesterday, September 26th,
has reported the result of his delivery of my letter dated September 25th.
As I understand him you (a) were unwilling to commit yourself to any agree-
ment regarding "not communicating its contents to another person" in view
of the fact that you felt you already knew certain of the things probably re-
ferred to in the letter, as suggested to you by seeing the word "cryptograph,"
and (b) you could not feel that such a letter as this to a presidential can-
didate could have been addressed to you by an officer of my position without
the knowledge of the President.

               As to (a) above I am quite willing to have you read what comes here-
after with the understanding that you are bound not to communicate to any other
person any portions on which you do not now have or later receive factual knowl
-edge from some other source than myself. As to (b) above you have my word that
neither the Secretary of War nor the President has any intimation whatsoever
that such a letter has been addressed to you or that the preparation or sending
of such a communication was being considered. I assure you that the only per-
sons who saw or know of the existence of either this letter or my letter to you
dated September 25th are Admiral King, seven key officers responsible for secur-
ity of military communications, and my secretary who typed these letters. I am
trying my best to make plain to you that this letter is being addressed to you
solely on my initiative, Admiral King having been consulted only after the let-
ter was drafted, and I am persisting in the matter because the military hazards
involved are so serious that I reel some action is necessary to protect the in-
terests of our armed forces.

               I should have much preferred to talk to you in person but I could not
devise a method that would not be subject to press and radio reactions as to
why the Chief of Staff of the Army would be seeking an interview with you at
this particular moment. Therefore I have turned to the method of this letter,
with which Admiral King concurs, to be delivered by hand to you by Colonel
Clarke, who, incidentally, has charge or the most secret documents of the War
and Navy Departments.

               In brief , the military dilemma is this :

                      The most vital evidence in the Pearl Harbor matter consists
        of our intercepts of the Japanese diplomatic communications. Over a
        period of years our cryptograph people analyzed the character of the
        machine the " Japanese were using for encoding their diplomatic messages.
        Based on this a corresponding machine was built by us which deciphers
        their messages. Therefore, we possessed a wealth of information re-
        garding their moves in the Pacific, which in turn was furnished the
        State Department - rather than as is popularly supposed, the State

                                                                                                                       DECLASSIFIED
                                                                                                        E.O. 11552 Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E)
                                                                                                         Authority ___ [ NND 750046] ____
                                                                                                         By __[??]__ NARS, Date _[2/4/74 __

                                TOP SECRET

{PAGE BREAK}

                                TOP SECRET

                      Department providing us with the information - but which unfortunately
        made no reference whatever to intentions towards Hawaii until the last
        message before December 7th, which did not reach our hands until the
        following day, December 8th.

                      Now the point to the present dilemma is that we have gone
        ahead with this business of deciphering their codes until we possess
        other codes, German as well as Japanese, but our main basis of informa-
        tion regarding Hitler's intentions in Europe is obtained from Baron
        Oshima's messages from Berlin reporting his interviews with Hitler and
        other officials to the Japanese Government. These are still in the
        codes involved in the Pearl Harbor events.

                      To explain further the critical nature of this set-up which
        would be wiped out almost in an instant if the least suspicion were
        aroused regarding it, the battle of the Coral Sea was based on de-
        ciphered messages and therefore our few ships were in the right place
        at the right time, Further, we were able to concentrate our limited
        forces to meet their naval advance on Midway when otherwise we almost
        certainly would have been some 3,000 miles out of place. We had full
        information of the strength of their forces in that advance and also
        of the smaller force directed against the Aleutians which finally
        landed troops on Attu and Kiska.

                      Operations in the Pacific are largely guided by the informa-
        tion we obtain of Japanese deployments. We know their strength in var-
        ious garrisons, the rations and other stores continuing available to
        them, and what is of vast importance, we check their fleet movements
        and the movements of their convoys. The heavy losses reported from
        time to time which they sustain by reason of our submarine action,
        largely result from the fact that we know the sailing dates and routes
        of their convoys and can notify our submarines to lie in wait at the
        proper points.

                      The current raids by Admiral Halsey's carrier forces on Jap-
        anese shipping in Manila Bay and elsewhere were largely based on timing
        on the known movements of Japanese convoys, two of which were caught,
        as anticipated, in his destructive attacks.

              You will understand from the foregoing the utterly tragic consequences
if the present political debates regarding Pearl Harbor disclose to the enemy,
German or Gap, any suspicion of the vital sources of information we possess.

              The Roberts' Report of Pearl Harbor had to have withdrawn from it
all reference to this highly secret matter, therefore in portions it neces-
sarily appeared incomplete. The same reason which dictated that course is
even more important today because our sources have been greatly elaborated.

                                                      - 2 -

                                TOP SECRET

{PAGE BREAK}

                                TOP SECRET

              As another example of the delicacy of the situation, some of Dono-
van's people (the OSS) without telling us, instituted a secret search of the
Japanese Embassy offices in Portugal. As a result the entire military attaché
Japanese code all over the world was changed, and though this occurred over a
year ago, we have not yet been able to break the new code and have thus lost
this invaluable source of information, particularly regarding the European
situation.

              A further most serious embarrassment is the fact that the British
government is involved concerning its most secret sources of information,
regarding which only the Prime Minister, the Chiefs of Staff and a very
limited number of other officials have knowledge.

              A recent speech in Congress by Representative Harness would clearly
suggest to the Japanese that we have been reading their codes, though Hr.Har-
ness and the American public would probably not draw any such conclusion.

              The conduct of General Eisenhower's campaign and of all operations
in the Pacific are closely related in conception and timing to the information
He secretly obtain through these intercepted codes. They contribute greatly
to the victory and tremendously to the saving in American lives, both in the
conduct of current operations and in looking towards the early termination
of the war.

              I am presenting this matter to you in the hope that you will see
your way clear to avoid the tragic results with which we are now threatened
in the present political campaign.

              Please return this letter by bearer. I will hold it in my most
secret file subject to your reference should you so desire.

                                                       Faithfully yours,

                                                                (Sgd) G. C. MARSHALL

 

                                                      - 3 -

                                TOP SECRET

This is the kind of stuff that is on the same Amazon page as that book your quoted from:

Active discussions in related forums

  Discussion Replies Latest Post
WTC 7 and the 911 Conspiracy 1657 15 minutes ago
Twin Towers not knocked down by aircraft 168 52 minutes ago
Why are all the discussions on Amazon left leaning 327 59 minutes ago
Bribery 2 1 hour ago
9-11: The dancing israelis...van full of explosives 8 2 hours ago
The Problem(s) With Israel 671 5 hours ago

Of what relevance are Amazon's forums to the current discussion?

24 posted on 09/13/2007 10:48:39 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: cynwoody; Admin Moderator
Dewey never attempted to accuse FDR of blundering on Pearl Harbor, or as your stupid book suggests, deliberately letting the attack happen in order to get us into war. Marshall thought that Dewey might use the knowledge that he had obtained about the codes as a campaign issue. Dewey never even expressed an interest in doing so. Marshall let Dewey have additional information not available to anyone else in order to make sure that it was never made a campaign issue.

The book you pointed to denigrates both Dewey and FDR and suggests that FDR was complicit in the attack on Pearl Harbor and that Dewey had to be constrained from leaking information about the Japanese Code; neither of which was true.

Of what relevance are Amazon's forums to the current discussion?

The same idiots who think that Bush knew about 9/11 are the same idiots who would buy into the book you quoted from. It is anti-American revisionism. And posting a stupid fake speech by Thomas Dewey in order to make a point about demcratic treachery is not funny and it is in bad taste.

I still don't know why the Admin Moderator hasn't pulled this thread. I'll ping him again.

25 posted on 09/14/2007 12:16:16 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe
Thomas Dewey never made any such speech. In fact nobody would have made this speech in 1944.

My point exactly. And I've used the "opposition" party's own words.

26 posted on 09/14/2007 12:35:59 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat ((I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!))
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To: Nervous Tick; P-Marlowe; Recovering_Democrat; Admin Moderator
Oh for God's sake:

1. I've posted it in an opinion section of the board.

2. The "speech" itself contains nearly direct quotes and attributions to Democrat operatives.

3. There is no record, as far as I know, of any Dewey speech given that day.

4. Innumerable histories of WWII never make reference to such a speech.

5. My first post after the piece mentions it wasn't real.

If anyone takes this as history and not for the reason intended, they are fools of the first division.

27 posted on 09/14/2007 12:41:02 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat ((I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!))
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To: stratman1969
If the defeatists of today had been around in 1942, we’d never have won World War II.

Exactly!

These are the same guys who were patriotic after 9/11 but now cannot actually deal with the sacrifices necessary to win the war on terror.

Thomas Paine called them 'sunhine patriots'.

28 posted on 09/14/2007 4:12:49 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (We must beat the Democrats or the country will be ruined! - Lincoln)
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To: All
Thomas Paine called them 'sunhine patriots'.

Correction: Sunshine patriots

29 posted on 09/14/2007 4:18:28 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (We must beat the Democrats or the country will be ruined! - Lincoln)
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To: Williams
Democrats are just filthy rotten pigs.

Pigs world wide rise up in righteous anger to condemn you for this outrageous slander.

30 posted on 09/14/2007 4:19:55 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (DemocraticUnderground.com is an internet hate site.)
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To: Recovering_Democrat
It is OUTRAGEOUS to me that Democrats, in a time of war, are demanding rebuttal.

But the nation is not at war.

A small volunteer military force is at war.

The ADMINISTRATION, for heaven's sake, is not even at war, except possibly the Defense Department. Possibly.

The reason your faux Dewey speech would have been inconceiveable is because the Roosevelt administration understood the meaning of war, and because they, through executive orders and enabling legislation transformed the nation into a warmaking machine in just a few short weeks between December 8, 1941 and mid-February, 1942.

They understood that press censorship, full-time propaganda operations, total control of labor and capital, unlimited expansion of the armed forces, internment or expulsion of enemy aliens, militant border control, and rapid, even reckless, military operations directed at conquest and subjection of the enemy were all required to mobilize that nation for war, and to keep it there.

This didn't hurt, either:

..."the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."

George Bush could have had anything he asked for on September 16, 2001. He didn't ask for much.

31 posted on 09/14/2007 4:22:09 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Trails of troubles, roads of battle, paths of victory we shall walk.)
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To: wastedyears
Teddy Roosevelt would slap the Democrats around like little kids.

Perhaps he would, but George Bush is the President.

32 posted on 09/14/2007 4:23:07 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Trails of troubles, roads of battle, paths of victory we shall walk.)
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To: Jim Noble
But the nation is not at war.

Horse droppings.

33 posted on 09/14/2007 5:45:34 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat ((I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!))
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To: Recovering_Democrat; Admin Moderator
1. I've posted it in an opinion section of the board.

It is posted in NEWS. It was not posted in an "opinion" section.

There is nothing in the headline which suggests that it was a fake story.

There is no record, as far as I know, of any Dewey speech given that day.

Well, there is now, isn't there?

Here's a nice Headline for places like DU and Daily Kos or even the MSM:

FREE REPUBLIC POSTS FAKE NEWS STORIES!

If anyone takes this as history and not for the reason intended, they are fools of the first division.

Anyone glancing through it without reading your comment (carefully) at the end could easily conclude that this was HISTORY. Indeed at post #7 someone was confused and inquired as to whether or not Dewey actually made this speech. At first I thought that this was supposedly from some archive.

It was not posted as being a fake story nor was it given a VANITY designation. It was, in fact, posted as a news article.

My point exactly. And I've used the "opposition" party's own words.

FAKE BUT ACCURATE.

Yeah, we need that here. That's just what Free Republic needs to increase it's credibility in the world. Fake stories that drive home real points.

Admin Moderator, I think this thread should be pulled.

Thank you.

34 posted on 09/14/2007 5:50:30 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: P-Marlowe
It is posted in NEWS. It was not posted in an "opinion" section.

No, it was posted under the "Your Opinion" category. If it got into news, it wasn't by my hand.

You're entitled to complain all you want--for anyone wanting to get the point (for which there were URLS to the Democrat quotes!), my post did the job.

35 posted on 09/14/2007 5:58:35 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat ((I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!))
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To: P-Marlowe

Does anyone have a copy of the cover of Life magazine from the 40’s?


36 posted on 09/14/2007 6:02:12 AM PDT by mathluv
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To: Recovering_Democrat; Admin Moderator
No, it was posted under the "Your Opinion" category. If it got into news, it wasn't by my hand.

I've been here seven years and I've never seen a "YOUR OPINION" Category here on Free Republic.

Your opinion is supposed to be posted following the news article.

So now that we are in agreement that this thread should not have been posted in News/Activism, then perhaps you would join me in requesting that it be pulled.

You're entitled to complain all you want--for anyone wanting to get the point (for which there were URLS to the Democrat quotes!), my post did the job.

Yeah it made Thomas Dewey look like a 21st Century democrat. Good job.

37 posted on 09/14/2007 6:05:47 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: Recovering_Democrat
If Dewey or anyone else had rebutted FDR during WWII, they would have been on a one way ticket to Fort Leavenworth sooooo fast...

In many ways we had a much saner society back then.

38 posted on 09/14/2007 6:10:07 AM PDT by Little Ray (Rudy Guiliani: If his wives can't trust him, why should we?)
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To: P-Marlowe
Look carefully at the top of the page "TOPIC": it is under your opinion.

If you've never seen the "YOUR OPINION" category on the front page of Free Republic in seven years, then you're blind.

NO WONDER you're throwing a conniption fit over the post. :)...

Earlier you said:Anyone glancing through it without reading your comment (carefully) at the end could easily conclude that this was HISTORY. Indeed at post #7 someone was confused and inquired as to whether or not Dewey actually made this speech. At first I thought that this was supposedly from some archive.

Perhaps; and anyone worth their SALT would see, as you did, that the "speech" was a reflection of today's opposition party.

If we were to fear speaking because someone might take our words out of context, then we'd not be posting ANYTHING...because ANYTHING, if not read carefully, could be taken out of context!

Okay, look: I'll let you rant on--if it makes you feel better, I'll not respond. That way you can think you got the last word in "and really told me", okay? Flame away--I think I've said my piece.

RD ,

39 posted on 09/14/2007 6:29:12 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat ((I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!))
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To: Admin Moderator; Jim Robinson; John Robinson; Sidebar Moderator; Lead Moderator
I googled Thomas Dewey's Reply to Persident Roosevetl's war address and apparently someone at LIBERTY POST has posted this as a news story there.

How long before there is a link from Democrat underground or Daily Kos.

ADMIN MODERATOR, PLEASE PULL THIS THREAD!

THIS FAKE STORY IS ALREADY IN THE SEARCH ENGINES.

IT HAS BEEN LINKED AT ANOTHER SITE.

40 posted on 09/14/2007 6:29:25 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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