FDR Fireside Chat - First Crack In The Axis v

My fellow Americans, over a year and a half ago, I set this to the Congress. The militarists and Berlin and Rome and Tokyo started this war, but the massed and good forces of common humanity will finish it.

Today that prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled. The mass and good forces of common humanity are going forward in the vast Pacific area and into Europe, converging upon their ultimate objectives, Berlin and Tokyo.

I think the first crack in the Axis has come. The criminal corrupt fascist regime in Italy is going to pieces. The pirate philosophy of the fascists and the Nazis cannot stand adversity. The military superiority of the United Nations on sea and land and in the air has been applied in the right place and at the right time. Hitler refused to send

sufficient help to save Mussolini. In fact, Hitler's troops in Sicily stole the Italians motor equipment, leaving Italian soldiers so stranded that they had no choice but the surrender. Once again the Germans betrayed their Italian allies as they had done time and time again on the Russian front and in the long retreat from Egypt through Libya

and Tripoli to the final surrender into Niger. And so Mussolini came to the reluctant conclusion that that Jig was up. He could see the shadow of a long arm of justice. His fascist gang will be brought to book and punished for their crimes against humanity.

No criminal will be allowed to escape By the expedient of resignation, our terms to Italy are still the same. As our terms to Germany and Japan, unconditional surrender with fascism in any way, in any shape or manner.