The Great Arsenal of Democracy: American Defense Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)

Quote #1

In other words, the Axis not merely admits but the Axis proclaims that there can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy of government and our philosophy of government. (18)

The first rule you ever learned was to treat others they way you wanted to be treated, and that rule exists because everyone's different. Coexisting peacefully means accepting those differences and trying to find a middle ground—except that Hitler made it super clear he wasn't about that. He had no plans to tolerate any type of government he wasn't in charge of, and that put the U.S. in a position of having to prepare to defend itself.

Quote #2

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. (48-49)

Hitler made it clear from the very beginning that, like some crazed supervillain, he had big plans for world domination. FDR totally understood why so many Americans were less than eager to involve themselves in the physical fighting, but he didn't approve of the way some people were choosing to ignore the problem in the hopes that it would go away. It doesn't work with homework, and it wasn't going to work with this mustachioed menace. The best way to ensure the safety of the United States would be to recognize the danger and start trying to figure out what can be done to stop it.

Quote #3

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 a war which others have had to endure. (120)

Even at this early stage of World War II, lots of people had already died, and the bad stuff had just barely gotten started. If the American people wanted to spare their children the same fate, keep them from having to fight on the ground in Europe as had happened a generation before in World War I, then U.S. industry needed to dedicate itself to producing the weapons and munitions the Allies needed to put a stop to the conflict. And they needed to do it yesterday.