Atlantis and Other Places (17 page)

June 1, 1942—Official proclamation

June 7, 1942—
San Francisco Chronicle

The Imperial Japanese Navy dealt the U.S. Pacific Fleet a devastating blow off Midway Island three days ago. Though Navy officials are maintaining a tight-lipped silence, reliable sources say both the
Saratoga
and the
Hornet
were sunk by Japanese dive bombers. Several support vessels were also sunk or damaged.

Japanese troops have landed on Midway. The
Yamato
, the mightiest battleship in the world, is bombarding the island with what are reported to be 18-inch guns. Japanese planes rule the skies. Resistance is said to be fading.

When the Japanese succeed in occupying Midway, Hawaii will be vulnerable to their bombers. So will convoys coming from the mainland to supply Hawaii—and so will convoys leaving Hawaii for Australia and New Zealand.

Japanese submarines sailing out of Midway will have an easier time reaching the West Coast. They could even threaten the Panama Canal.

This war has seemed to be an uphill fight from the beginning. For all practical purposes, it is unwinnable now. The only person in the country who fails to realize that, unfortunately, lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

June 8, 1942—
Baltimore News-Post

Trying to shore up flagging public support for his war, FDR lashed out at American newspapers in a speech before midshipmen at the Naval Academy in Annapolis yesterday. “How can we fight with any hope of success when they trumpet our doings to the foe?” he complained.

The midshipmen applauded warmly. Whether Roosevelt could have found such a friendly reception from civilians is a different question.

“Reporters seem proud when they find a new secret and print it,” he said, shaking his fist from his wheelchair. “If printing that secret means our brave sailors and soldiers die, they don’t care. They have their scoop.”

According to FDR, the staggering loss at Midway can be laid at the feet of newsmen. Our own military incompetence and Japanese skill and courage apparently had nothing to do with it. However loudly the young, naive midshipmen may cheer, the rest of the nation is drawing other conclusions.

June 9, 1942—
Washington Post
editorial

Nothing is ever Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fault. If you don’t believe us, just ask him. German U-boats are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic coast? It’s all the newspapers’ fault. The Navy and the Army have suffered a string of humiliating defeats in the Pacific? The papers are to blame there, too.

Throwing rocks at the press may make FDR feel better, but that is all it does. What he really blames the newspapers for is pointing out his mistakes. Now the whole country can take a good look at them. Roosevelt does not care for that at all.

With him, image is everything; substance, nothing. Have you ever noticed how seldom he is allowed to be photographed in his wheelchair? If people aren’t reminded of it, they won’t think about it. That is how his mind works.

But when it comes to the acid test of war, image is not enough. You need real victories on the battlefield, and the United States has not been able to win any. Why not? No matter what Roosevelt and his stooges say, it is not because the press has blabbed our precious secrets.

The fact of the matter is, whether we read codes from Germany and Japan hardly matters. Even when we have good intelligence, we don’t know what to do with it. Example? The Japanese tried out their Zero fighter in China in 1940. General Claire Chennault, who led the volunteer Flying Tigers, warned Washington what it was like. It came as a complete surprise to the Navy anyhow.

Most of our intelligence, though, was incredibly bad. We were sure France could give Germany a good fight. We were just as sure our Navy could whip Japan’s with ease. We fatally underestimated German technology and resourcefulness, to say nothing of Japanese drive and élan. Japan and Germany are fighting for their homelands. What are
we
fighting for? Anything at all?

FDR is too sunk in pride to get out of the war he stumbled into while the country still has any chestnuts worth pulling from the fire. He will not—he seems unable to—admit that the many mistakes we have made are his and his henchmen’s.

And since he will not, we must put someone in the White House who will. Impeachment may be an extreme step, but the United States is in extreme danger. With this war gone so calamitously wrong, we need peace as soon as we can get it, and at almost any price.

June 11, 1942—
Boston Globe

Vice President Henry Wallace said American foreign policy needs to change course. “I’m not the President. I can’t make policy,” he said last night at a Longshoremen’s Union banquet. “Right now, the President doesn’t even want to listen to me. But I can see it’s time for a change. Only peace will put our beloved country back on track.”

Wallace did not speak of the growing sentiment for impeachment. After all, he stands to take over the White House after Roosevelt is ousted. But he left no doubt that he would do everything in his power to pull American troops back to this country. He also condemned the huge deficits our massive military adventure is causing us to run.

With his commonsense approach, he seemed much more Presidential than the man still clinging to power in Washington.

June 16, 1942—
Washington Post

House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Judiciary Committee Chairman Hatton Sumners met today to discuss procedures for impeaching President Roosevelt. Both Texas Democrats were tight-lipped as they emerged from their conference.

Sumners offered no comment of any kind. Rayburn said only, “I am sorry to be in this position. The good of the country may demand something I would otherwise much rather not do.”

Only one President has ever been impeached: Andrew John-son in 1868. The Senate failed by one vote to convict him.

Sumners has experience with impeachment. He was the House manager in the proceedings against Judges George English and Halsted Ritter. English resigned; Ritter was convicted and removed from office.

Sumners has also clashed with FDR before. He was the chief opponent of Roosevelt’s 1937 scheme to pack the Supreme Court.

Roosevelt’s time in office must be seen as limited now. And that is a consummation devoutly to be wished. With a new leader, one we can respect, will surely come what Abraham Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.” It cannot come soon enough.

THE CATCHER IN THE RHINE