胡佛演講稿：War Comes to Europe

赫伯特·克拉克·胡佛(herbert clark hoover,1874年8月10日-1964年10月20日)，美國第31任總統。共和黨籍。除從事政治外，還是採礦工程師和作家。曾任沃倫·g·哈定和卡爾文·柯立芝兩屆總統的商務部長，其間打出“經濟現代化”的旗號推動政府幹預經濟。1928年大選，此前從未經選舉而擔當政府職位的胡佛輕鬆贏得黨內提名，並在國內一片欣欣向榮的樂觀氣氛中完勝民主黨候選人阿爾·史密斯當選總統。他是美國迄今為止由內閣部長直接升為總統的最後一人。

war comes to europe

september 1, 1939

fellow americans of the radio audience:

this is one of the saddest weeks that have come to humanity in a hundred years. a senseless war seems inevitably forced upon hundreds of millions of people. the whole world still prays for some miracle that might deliver us. for war means the killing of millions of the best and the most courageous of men who might contribute something to human's progress. it means the killing and starvation of millions of women and children. it means another quarter of a century of impoverishment for the whole world. and it will likely be a long war. it is possible that the brave people of poland may be overrun in a few months, but there seems no point of access from which an overwhelming attack can be delivered from the british and french on one side, to the germans on the other, which might quickly end this war. it's likely to be a war of slow attrition, and the fate of poland will depend upon its ending. the air defenses of france and england, their greatly superior naval strength, their manpower, their resources, their resolution, make it certain that they can defend themselves. and it is true that vast fleets of airplanes on both sides contribute a new and uncertain factor, but there is nothing which proves that even the superiority in airplanes can win the war. and while assurances have been given that there will be no bombing of women and children, there may come a time of desperation when all restraints go to the winds. it's likely to be the most barbarous war that we have ever known.

this situation in the world today is not the act of the german people themselves, but it's the act of a group who hold them in subjection. the whole nazi system is repugnant to the american people. the most of american sympathy will be to the democracies, but whatever our sympathies are, we can not solve the problems of europe. america must keep out of this war. the president and the congress should be supported in their every effort to keep us out. we can keep out, if we have the resolute national will to do so. we can be of more service to europe and to humanity if we preserve the vitality and strength of the united states for use in the period of peace which must sometime come. and we must keep out if we are to preserve for civilization the very foundations of democracy and of free men.