Feb 12, 1943
(The Public Papers of F. D. Roosevelt, Vol 12, p. 71)
(Radio Address)
The decisions reached and the actual plans made at
Casablanca were not confined to any one theater of war or to
any one continent or ocean or sea. Before this year is out,
it will be made known to the world-in actions rather than
words-that the Casablanca Conference produced plenty of news;
and it will be bad news for the Germans and Italians-and the
Japanese.
We have lately concluded a long, hard battle in the
Southwest Pacific and we have made notable gains. That battle
started in the Solomons and New Guinea last summer. It has
demonstrated our superior power in planes and, most
importantly, in the fighting qualities of our individual
soldiers and sailors.
American armed forces in the Southwest Pacific are
receiving powerful aid from Australia and New Zealand and also
directly from the British themselves.
We do not expect to spend the time it would take to bring
Japan to final defeat merely by inching our way forward from
island to island across the vast expanse of the Pacific.
Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will be
taken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Important
actions will be taken in the skies over China-and over Japan
itself.
The discussions at Casablanca have been continued in
Chungking with the Generalissimo by General Arnold and have
resulted in definite plans for offensive operations.
There are many roads which lead right to Tokyo. We shall
neglect none of them.
In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster, the
Axis propagandist are trying all of their old tricks in order
to divide the United Nations. They seek to create the idea
that if we win this war, Russia, England, China, and the
United States are going to get into a cat-and-dog fight.
This is their final effort to turn one nation against
another, in the vain hope that they may settle with one or two
at a time-that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful
as to be duped into making "deals" at the expense of our
Allies.
To these panicky attempts to escape the consequences of
their crimes we say-all the United Nations say-that the only
terms on which we shall deal with an Axis government or any
Axis factions are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca:
"Unconditional Surrender." In our uncompromising policy we
mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we
do mean to impose punishment and retribution in full upon
their guilty, barbaric leaders...
In the years of the American and French revolutions the
fundamental principle guiding our democracies was established.
The cornerstone of our whole democratic edifice was the
principle that from the people and the people alone flows the
authority of government.
It is one of our war aims, as expressed in the Atlantic
Charter, that the conquered populations of today be again the
masters of their destiny. There must be no doubt anywhere
that it is the unalterable purpose of the United Nations to
restore to conquered peoples their sacred rights.
