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[[note at top]] all in it and we are together [[strikethrough]] at last [[/strikethrough]] [[/note at top]]

THE WAR HAS COME TO AMERICA

How I want [[strikethrough]] to take this opportunity [[/strikethrough]] to say a few words about [[strikethrough]] a courageous [[/strikethrough]] my people who are today, and will be in the dark days ahead of us, your ally in a fight-to-the-death against he enemies of democracy. [[strikethrough]] I want to talk about our new ally -- China.  [[/strikethrough]]

[[strikethrough]] We should be proud to be fighting by the side of a [[/strikethrough]] my people whose courage and persistence in the face of overwhelming odds has been proved to us. For more than four long years, the men, women and children of China have been fighting the fight that has only begun for us. For more than four years the people of China have been suffering as no people in this horrible war have suffered. Fifty million of these people were uprooted from their homes four years ago when the Japanese marched into the coastal provinces, and today many thousands of them still are sleeping where they can, eating where they can, thankful that life is given to them to go on another day. Many thousands of these brave people not only are homeless, but they are hungry. They have been bombed unmercifully. Yet not once have they hesitated. Not once have they shown fear nor weakness.

China fights on ..... and it is up to us to do more than just cheer.

Now that the Far Eastern war has engulfed the United States, we can no longer fail to recognize the part that China has played during the past four years in defending America's vital interests in the Pacific.

Today we are fighting side by side with the Chinese against a common foe. The defense of the Burma Road is as important to the security of America as is the defense of Pearl Harbor and of Sandy Hook. For we know now that China's fight is our fight, and that if China can stay on her feet, and prolong the masterful resistance that she has made for four years, Japan will collapse far sooner than if we alone had to face this enemy.