That is no vision of a distant millennium.  It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.  That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception—­the moral order.  A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change—­in a perpetual peaceful revolution—­a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions—­without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch.  The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.  Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.  Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them.  Our strength is our unity of purpose.  To that high concept there can be no end save victory.

***

State of the Union Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt
January 6, 1942

In fulfilling my duty to report upon the State of the Union, I am proud to say to you that the spirit of the American people was never higher than it is today—­the Union was never more closely knit together—­this country was never more deeply determined to face the solemn tasks before it.

The response of the American people has been instantaneous, and it will be sustained until our security is assured.

Exactly one year ago today I said to this Congress:  “When the dictators. . . are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on our part. . . .  They—­not we—­will choose the time and the place and the method of their attack.”

We now know their choice of the time:  a peaceful Sunday morning—­December 7, 1941.

We know their choice of the place:  an American outpost in the Pacific.

We know their choice of the method:  the method of Hitler himself.

Japan’s scheme of conquest goes back half a century.  It was not merely a policy of seeking living room:  it was a plan which included the subjugation of all the peoples in the Far East and in the islands of the Pacific, and the domination of that ocean by Japanese military and naval control of the western coasts of North, Central, and South America.

The development of this ambitious conspiracy was marked by the war against China in 1894; the subsequent occupation of Korea; the war against Russia in 1904; the illegal fortification of the mandated Pacific islands following 1920; the seizure of Manchuria in 1931; and the invasion of China in 1937.

A similar policy of criminal conquest was adopted by Italy.  The Fascists first revealed their imperial designs in Libya and Tripoli.  In 1935 they seized Abyssinia.  Their goal was the domination of all North Africa, Egypt, parts of France, and the entire Mediterranean world.