I
illustrated the futility--the impossibility--of that idea in my
message to the Congress last week. Obviously, a defense policy
based on that is merely to invite future attack.
And, finally, there are a few among us who have deliberately and
consciously closed their eyes because they were determined to be
opposed to their government, its foreign policy and every other
policy, to be partisan, and to believe that anything that the
government did was wholly wrong.
To those who have closed their eyes for any of these many reasons,
to those who would not admit the possibility of the approaching
storm--to all of them the past two weeks have meant the shattering
of many illusions.
They have lost the illusion that we are remote and isolated and,
therefore, secure against the dangers from which no other land is
free.
In some quarters, with this rude awakening has come fear, fear
bordering on panic. It is said that we are defenseless. It is
whispered by some that, only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals,
our way of life, can we build our defenses adequately, can we match
the strength of the aggressors.
I did not share those illusions. I do not share these fears.
Today we are now more realistic. But let us not be calamity-howlers
and discount our strength. Let us have done with both fears and
illusions.
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