FDR – Audibly Speaking: A Site of History and Memory

Twitter Facebook In 1940, American democracy was gravely threatened as never before, and only the American people stood against it as a reliable line of defense.  Could we say the same today if American democracy were similarly threatened?  Here is an analysis of the famous “Arsenal of Democracy” speech, annotated by your host,  Rick Reiman Twitter Facebook

In this classic Fireside Chat, FDR rallies the Nation two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. One of his finest Fireside Chats, Roosevelt cleverly ties the mission to retaliate against Japan with the effort, not yet widely shared by Americans, to halt the march of fascism in Europe, represented by Hitler and Mussolini. The next day, December 10, Hitler would clear the way for FDR to accomplish this goal by suicidally declaring war on the United States.

Roosevelt’s first “fireside chat,” delivered just days after being sworn in as president, was one of his finest.  The entire banking system had collapsed prior to the speech. His task was to reassure Americans that their deposits were safe.  More important, he had to assure them that the government knew what it was doing in reorganizing and certifying the soundness of banks that were to reopen in days, so that the panic of the days before the shutdown of the banks would not be repeated.  Calling the closure a “bank holiday” was a delightful rhetorical slight of hand.  But the entire speech, and Roosevelt’s warm delivery (addressing “My Friends”) engendered a sense of confidence in his listeners that Hoover had been unable to engineer. The day the banks reopened, deposits exceeded withdrawals in all the major cities in the country. 

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