Video: 'Roosevelt Speaking About Cancer Of Nazis And Aid To Britain (1940)'

(Sunday, December 29, 1940, 9:30-10:00 p.m. EST; during World War II) — In a radio “fireside chat” directed primarily to the American people but broadcast throughout the world, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tonight promised to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by providing them with war supplies.

“We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war itself,” he said. “We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.”

Video: 'Fireside Chat The Arsenal Of Democracy (December 29th 1940)'

Roosevelt declared the United States’ determination to send more and more munitions and supplies to the British, the Greeks and others in the front lines of democracy’s battle, and defied any dictator or “combination of dictators” to try to weaken that determination by threats of how they will construe it.

Video: 'The World at War: On Our Way: U.S.A. - 1939-1942 (7 of 26)' (Dec. 29, 1940, at 10:35)

Expressing a belief, based upon the latest and best information, that the Axis powers “are not going to win this war.” the President ruled out all suggestions that his government lend its influence toward negotiating peace, at least until the “unholy alliance” of Germany, Italy and Japan had abandoned its effort to conquer the world.