America Mobilizes Economy For War – Foreign Policy Association – talk by John C. DeWilde – December 21, 1941 – NBC – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
December 21, 1941 – fourteen days since Pearl Harbor, America was mobilizing for the war that lay ahead. Every aspect and of American society was being enlisted in the war effort. And the economy, the cost of waging that war was of utmost importance.
The message had dramatically changed, even from a year earlier when neutrality was the message, despite all signs saying otherwise. Still, the mood of America at the time was not to get involved in the European conflict. Good enough to be sending food and supplies along with materials – but sending troops, fearing a repeat of the First World War, the one that concluded only twenty-five years earlier, was a memory no one wanted repeated.
But on this December 21st, the story had changed. We were now in it and events were moving quickly. Despite America’s increased war production in 1940, as part of the lend-lease program, we were not as well prepared as we had hoped. We were building bigger and faster planes and more modern ships, but we needed to build them faster in order to make up for losses brought on by engagements in the Pacific, as the Japanese war machine was busy capturing island after island with fears The Philippines were next.
And so this talk, given by John C. DeWilde, Research Associate of the Foreign Policy Association, was one of a flood of messages and addresses given by government and military officials, preparing America for the job ahead. The entire country needed to be prepared to gear up and expect sacrifices – the need for war workers was huge, and the number of enlistments for military service was skyrocketing, even to the point of raising concern there would be a shortage of workers needed to tackle this Herculean effort of waging war.
This was what America was hearing, this December 21, 1941 as presented by NBC and The Foreign Policy Association.
