Brooklyn Eagle (November 13, 1941)
U.S. ships called aggressors in recent warship sinkings
Editor, the Brooklyn Eagle:
As many of us doubters contended after the Greer incident, we now learn through Mr. Stark’s statement that the Greer attacked a German submarine after being informed of its whereabouts by English scouting planes and chasing it for three or more hours. Our President declared at the time that the facts of the case were that the Greer had been attacked first. When the Germans issued a statement that the Greer was the aggressor, the President stuck to his story and intimated that the Germans were simply prevaricating blackguards. And probably some people believed him without reservation.
Recently, a great to-do was made over the damaging of the Kearny, Chairman Tom Connally of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called the sinking:
…a dastardly act of aggression that must be avenged.
We now learn, probably through some leak in the armor of subterfuge employed by the administration and its supporters and “yes-men,” that the Kearny left ome convoy to help in the rescue of another, from which it received an SOS, and that it was attacked only after it had dropped several depth charges. Since the President and the administration leaders are so prone to call Hitler a liar and yet the statements which he has made concerning these incidents have proven to be true, would it not be in order, in all fairness, to judge our President and his leaders on the same basis?
Do these leaders expect the German submarines to stand by and do nothing when subjected to attack by U.S. vessels? Do they even expect them to refrain from attacking them first, knowing as they do that these ships have orders to shoot on sight? Rather than increasing war sentiment by these trumped-up “outrages,” they are making it increasingly difficult for American citizens to stomach their deceit.
The frank opinion of a great majority of us is that the U.S. is the dastardly aggressor and not Germany, who is anxious to avert war with the U.S. The truth of the Reuben James incident remains to be heard. And may I ask when the ships of this country began convoy duty?
The American people want none of this war, the war party is cognizant of that fact, and yet each one, for his own selfish reason, is doing his utmost to plunge this country into war.
80%-ER
Brooklyn, Nov. 1