WAR FOR MEN'S MINDS

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the struggle of two worlds moves towards its fearful climax [Music] over the german war machine forced back across the destruction wrought by its own guns hang the shadows of approaching defeat down the eastern front the russian barrages creeped forward sapping nazi manpower and morale and swarming in through the mediterranean sea the united nations of the west closed the circle from behind and those who have studied hitler's strategies believe that with prices deepening around him he may now launch a desperate campaign fought with his favorite weapon the weapon of psychological warfare all around the globe this strange other war is being fought a battle of persuasive voices striving repeating endlessly that might is right here slogan one for all and also one here japan promising for asia a paradise of prosperity and china's brave reply we have no faith in supermen we believe in common men and then the powerful voices of democracy offering to all a world founded on poor freedom already this warfare persuasion is rallying the nations to new creeds new orders of society and the democracies are realizing that if their vision of the people's century is to triumph through the world then they themselves must conquer men's minds for their own great cause the cause of human freedom everywhere [Music] in pre-war europe one man believed he understood that magic power by which men's minds are conquered a prophet without honor a banner with a strange device some looked on listlessly and others only laughed but himself frustrated this man became the living expression of a frustrated people's vengeful dream within a year the little painter from austria was gazing down upon the gigantic spectacle of a nation molded to his own brooding image [Music] but the spectacle that hollywood might have staged for a show gibbel's stage who doped the human spirit [Music] with the blood flag of the munich push in his left hand with the cold stare of hatred in his eyes he blessed the mystic standards and bestowed upon their bearers the bully's right to kick their fellow men around on my faith at your work he said we shall build our new germany [Music] and the people regimented in their thousands acclaimed the figure who had conquered their minds in the name of fear and vengeance you are our sublime image they chanted our father our mother and our brother and while these are bester when you address the masses wrote this sublime image of cynicism in his book you must remember that they can memorize only the simplest idea repeated until even the stupidest can grasp it you must remember he wrote that the primitive masses will never fall victim to a small lie since they themselves are always lying in small matters but they will certainly fall victim to a great lie because they are unable to imagine that others are capable of such infamous distortion [Applause] and this is a fact well known to all the great lying artists of the world and afterwards that fevered fanatic rudolph tess called upon the multitude bewitched to bow down before the god of lies i can't speak not kidnap hitler even today the priests of national socialism boast that propaganda brought us to power and propaganda will yet give us dominion over all the world [Applause] so the dark creed of hatred spread across the frontiers of the right and among nations of a different temperament became ridiculous through england citadel of order and good sense the spreading struggle for men's minds could only seem a nightmare tale of the underworld told on the movie screens and even with war upon her england still asked incredulously if the yelling dictators could indeed command the fanatic loyalty needed to send millions to their death with deep emotion britain hailed the coming of churchill for in this staunch figure was a statesman who well understood the terrible power of nazi fanaticism and a leader who could inspire his people with the faith and will to meet it unafraid and in those early days of war while the armies of france and germany stood poised along the rhine we did not realize to what insidious lengths the nazis were carrying their battle for men's minds they floated messages across asking in injured innocents frenchman why do you make war on us your friends and then sweet music to relieve the boredom of the zitskrieg [Music] and along the bastions of the maginot line beneath the proud tri-color of france they danced to the tunes which goebbels called [Music] and when the bear mark burst across the frontiers the articles of germany's own vengeful tree were daily thrust before her soldiers eyes to remind them of the fruits of victory and in the forefront of every campaign with the specialists of the german propaganda companies painting their picture of terror for all to see cameramen sacrificing their lives to shoot the so-called grandeur of advance radio engineers pushing their microphones forward to let the whole world hear the sound and fury of destruction but even with their armies marching through the streets of paris the nazis could not conceal the fear behind their grim philosophy of hate frenchmen you need not have wept to see the barbarians swarming into your beloved city you need not have wept to see the gross figure of gearing speeding down your boulevards in his stolen rolls-royce you need not have wept to see these sights or in your city those who had sought to conquer the minds of all men bet their greatest spiritual [Music] defeat in your city the fanatics whose religion was narrow nationalism came face to face with universal human greatness with the glory that was greece with the splendor that was the renaissance [Music] in your city their ugly dream of a slave world ruled by a master race found itself in the presence of that far greater spirit which had sent forth to the peoples of the earth a mighty message of hope for all men liberty equality fraternity [Music] and today spiritual defeat hangs even over germany's home front where gables admitting that the very life of the fatherland is at stake must now crave unity and further sacrifices of the nation which on his orders turned and rent its own people gables now please but in the streets where the cheers once echoed and the great parades once passed there is silence when gables pleads for unity [Music] [Music] today the new world has thrown all its strength into the battle for men's minds first weapon in north america's global strategy of truth is the free press with all its lifelines for the exchange of new ideas between fighting nations spread across the earth to every warfront by going special correspondence not only to gather news but to help free men everywhere to a sense of common participation in a single cause understood in every land is the language of the motion picture industry now engaged in bringing into vivid focus the great dramatic stories of the war [Music] [Applause] mobilize two and this new warfare to persuasion are the great radio networks from strategic centers the world over their reporters are sending back the lessons of new tactics new methods of attack and behind the closed doors of secret studios the shortwave announcers carry on day and night their battle of the air broadcasting their messages of hope to conquered lands across the sea [Music] but today surveying the distress of europe we are realizing that if we of the new world are to inspire mankind with a new faith and a new vision for the future then a strategy of truth is not by itself enough for we know that the men of france seeking the true reasons for their present plight are not discussing whether their armies were ill-equipped or their generals disloyal rather they are looking back to that dark day in february 1934 when paris paid and riot and bloodshed were all the dissension that infected french democracy in the years between the wars the internal mistrust which germany so skillfully exploited for her own ends and in this new light we are looking back on the errors of our own past and of the human fear and want which followed them realizing now that these were contradictions in our system which we could not then find the collective strength to sweep away and with this awareness that our own faith and democracy is everywhere on trial we are looking with humility to great allies like china remembering that while her armies were resisting the invader we were still enjoying our chinese concessions trying as was perhaps only natural to shut out with gates of steel the terrible forces born of human suffering which even then were beginning to rise and seed around us [Music] but now the veil of fear and hesitation has lifted from our eyes everywhere the people are reasserting that great concept which on their soil first proclaim the supremacy of the common man in every heart the spirit of the french and american revolutions is on the march once more the will to wield again the weapon of faith and human greatness that overwhelm the nazis even as they march through paris liberty equality paternity all men are created equal and with this weapon of human brotherhood in our hands we are seeing the war for men's minds not as a battle of truth against lies but as a lasting alliance pledged in faith with all those millions driving forward to create the true new order the world order of the people first the people before all [Music] and in the might of our armed forces taking up the torch of freedom from conquered europe we have the power of action which europe could not find in time for in our citizen armies in the fleets of sea and sky launched by the strength and skill of common men we see the forceful means of achieving our sworn purpose that the meek shall inherit the earth [Music] and as the three peoples march together towards the final phase of this war for a people's world they find the rising in their midst a new spirit of universal comradeship it is the spirit which swept through the cities of england in the full fury of the blitz stirring that warmth of heart which in the face of human need forgets the privilege of personal right remembers only the responsibility of service today on every front of the war that same spirit is abroad wherever the battle of production is fought you find it in the labor management committees eager that the working man shall everywhere take part in planning the people's war and among countless men and women coiling through the long night shifts there is today a comradeship in common purpose just as firm as any on the fighting fronts and there are many in the factories of england who say that you will find this new sense of fellowship even in the crates of war equipment crossing the atlantic from american and canadian plants and the people of england they say will not forget [Music] wherever the need is urgent this new spirit is a stir of cooperation with fellow men and wherever it appears it's as though the rule of the people had taken on a deeper and a wider meaning as though a kinship and future purpose had been pledged with all the millions around the world whose eyes like ours are fixed upon the promise of [Music] tomorrow yesterday we were afraid that the propaganda of fascism might infect us with its philosophy of despair today we fear no more for the people are moving forward in their might and power no force no trickery deceit or violence can stop them now and if we of the new world prove to our comrades and arms in every land that we fight with them in spirit as in combat then indeed we shall have one our struggle for men's minds and we shall see the separate anthems of the nations become the single united marching song of all mankind [Music] already the millions of the earth standing on the threshold of the people century are looking back on all the suffering they themselves endured as the birth pangs of a greater age they are looking at the agony of europe taking fresh courage from that fierce inner flame which could survive the loss of all that a man can lose yet never yield they are gazing with admiration of the endurance which could rise above the misery of the conquered countries and they are seeing these dreadful things not in pity but as triumphant proof of the strength of the human spirit the very strength on which tomorrow's world will rest [Music] standing at the threshold of their own century the people of the earth are drawing new inspiration from the proud bearing of their fellow men in the terrible moments of human crisis from the calm dignity of the prisoners on every front from all those thousands who in loyalty have withstood terror and torture with none to help them they are drawing new confidence for battle from the knowledge that many now their enemies took up arms against them only at the bayonets point standing at the threshold of this the people century the people are marveling at the bravery of men faced with horrors beyond belief and in these men these who can laugh in the face of death they perceive not strangers but brothers fathers sons with such proof of their own towering strength of spirit the people of the earth march forward into their new age march forward in the certainty that the gates of hell cannot prevail against them you