The Pittsburgh Press (January 8, 1943)
Editorial: The President’s message
A confident Commander-in-Chief reported on the State of the Union and of the war yesterday. His message, in content factual, held to the achievements and broad purposes that unite us as a people. A sober report, it was lightened by a justified hope of victory.
Americans share the pride with which the President recounted production gains. They understand that all depends upon that arsenal which has grown so rapidly during the last year through the cooperation of government-industry-labor. For our Army and Navy, and the forces of our Allied as well, can advance no faster and no farther than the supplies from that arsenal will take them.
The President’s figures were a promise of mounting output. The 48,000 planes produced last year – more than all the Axis nations together – has already risen to a rate of 66,000. Production increases for the year ranged from five to 12 times. Let Hitler and Tōjō explain to their dupes, if they can, how this “decadent, inefficient democracy” can so quickly outproduce them.
Yet there was nothing smug about this progress report. The emphasis was more on what remains to be done than on what we have done – as it should be. We are “not
In discussing the better world for which we are fighting, the President presented no tentative blueprints. Those are to come later. He simply stressed the general aim of international security and security for individuals:
The men in our Armed Forces want a lasting peace, and, equally, they want permanent employment for themselves, their families, and their neighbors when they are mustered out at the end of the war.
From the President’s survey of the military situation, all of us can get a better global perspective on present and future battlefronts. He put first the Russian offensives, which are still rolling.
Our occupation of Northwest Africa, and the British sweep across Libya, are preparing the way for Allied attack on “the underbelly of the Axis,” after much more fighting in Tunisia. We are going to strike in Europe – “and strike hard.” Where and when, of course, he could not say. But he did specify bombing “day in and day out,” thanks to Allied air superiority.
The battle of the convoy routes in the Atlantic was stressed, and the destruction of Jap shipping by our submarines – up to “the very mouth of the harbor of Yokohama.”
In the Pacific, our “most important” victory was not in the essentially defensive delaying actions of the Solomons and New Guinea but off Midway. We shall strike at the Japanese home islands, and bomb them constantly. Hence the importance of China:
In the attacks against Japan, we shall be joined with the heroic people of China… We shall overcome all the formidable obstacles, and get the battle equipment into China to shatter the power of our common enemy.
But the Commander-in-Chief indulged in no promise of easy battles, no pledge of victory in 1943. The Axis has passed its peak. The Allies are on the offensive. But there is long hard fighting ahead.
The most he would prophesy for 1943 was:
…a substantial advance along the roads that lead to Berlin and Rome and Tokyo.
And even that – let us not forget for a single day – depends on all-out effort and unity here on the home front.