1939-1948: WAR

The evils of Nazism and the shock of Pearl Harbor drew the nation into a conflict that would establish America as a world power

WORLD BATTLEFRONTS

THE PRESIDENCY Preface to War

The telephone in Franklin Roosevelt's bedroom at the White House rang at 2:50 a.m. on the first day of September. In more ways than one it was a ghastly hour; but the operators knew they must ring. Ambassador Bill Bullitt was calling from Paris. Mr. Bullitt told Mr. Roosevelt that World War II had begun. Adolf Hitler's bombing planes were dropping death all over Poland.

Mr. Roosevelt telephoned to Secretary of State Hull at the Carlton Hotel, also to Under Secretary of State Welles, Secretary of War Woodring, Acting Secretary Edison of the Navy....

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