(Burton K. Wheeler - the visage of a Gorilla or Bison suit to his lower right gives one pause)

An all but forgotten figure now but at the time (prior to our involvement in World War 2), Senator Burton K. Wheeler was an outspoken critic of the Lend-Lease Bill and HR 1776, which granted war making powers to the President. Initially an avid supporter of the America First Committee, even to the point of entertaining a vice-Presidential run on a third party ticket alongside Charles Lindbergh's Presidential candidacy. But just prior to Pearl Harbor in 1941, Wheeler was a frequent speaker on behalf of neutrality in our involvement in the European conflict.

Sen. Burton K. Wheeler: “HR 1776, a bill granting the President the right to give billions of American taxpayers dollars to finance foreign wars in any country on any continent in the world and for other purposes is now the law of the land. The bill was debated fully. The majority of both houses voted for it. The President signed it. It must and should be respected by all our people regardless of their previous opposition to it.”

Wheeler did an abrupt about-face after Pearl Harbor, even though it was always argued what his intentions were. There were many allegations that Wheeler, like many figures in the America First Movement were dupes of Berlin or simply naive. Regardless, Burton K. Wheeler was a visible figure in the Neutrality Movement.

Help us make our goal, by the way,

News on the War continued to be grim, but with a few high spots, this March 1st in 1942.

Starting with news of the Japanese invasion of Java and fierce fighting at the time of this broadcast. Also news on Japanese attacks on Port Moresby, bringing the war a little closer to Australia and fears an invasion could happen.

On the other side of the world, news of ground action in North Africa with no further details at air-time. On a positive note, it was learned British Commandos staged a successful raid on the French Coast, taking prisoners and testing the waters to see if it would be possible in the near or not-so-near future for a full-scale invasion of Europe. So far, so good.

Meanwhile in London, The Labour Party issued a pamphlet entitled Life In A Post-War World, the first to consider what a post-war Britain was going to be like and an appeal to address the concerns of the working people of Britain for the common good.

Over on Capitol Hill - Court-Martial proceedings were put on hold against Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Major-General Walter C. Short, accused of dereliction of duty during their Command of Pearl Harbor at the time of the surprise attack. It was felt any sort of proceedings would be best to take place after the war since a long and arduous Court-Martial trial would detract from the business at hand.

And some of that business at hand came from a group of Farm Bloc Senators organizing a protest to President Roosevelt over selling surplus food stocks at below parity. The President had gone on record rejecting calls for higher farm prices.

And a call to local governments to send their World War One era monuments of captured German cannons to the local scrap dealers for re-use as Allied guns to use against the Axis. A sort of "turn-about-is-fair-play" scheme was suggested. Although many Courthouses throughout the country would be hard pressed to find new resting grounds for the fleets of displaced Pigeons as the result.

And so went March 1st in 1942 as presented by NBC Radio on their Sunday World News Roundup.

Not a terribly upbeat day, this February 15th in 1942. Seventy years ago the news was anything but optimistic for Allied forces fighting around the globe.

From Radio Tokyo came rumors the British forces in Singapore were asking the Japanese for an armistice, but no word of confirmation from London. Meanwhile, The Japanese were launching an offensive in Sumatra aimed at taking the oil fields in Palembang, which were the largest in the Far East and the main source for fueling Allied ships in the Pacific. The Dutch were readying destruction of the fields.

In Britain, further fears of a pending invasion were fueled by reports of the sighting of German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the English Channel. Speculation had it the ships, largely unopposed, could provide cover for an invasion force as a sizable German fleet was now in the North Atlantic. For our part, it also fueled speculation that the Germans could conceivably stage a "prestige raid" of the East Coast of the U.S. since our navies were stretched way too thin to be effective. As one government official put it we were "fighting a two ocean war with a one ocean navy".

The only good news to be had came from the Eastern Front where Russian forces were pushing the Germans back to the old Polish border and had re-taken four towns in the process. German casualties were reported as heavy during this offensive.

All this had an alarming effect on Congress, who sent out calls for stepped up War production and an investigation as to why Synthetic Rubber production hadn't been increased before Pearl Harbor when just this scenario was considered. In the interim, a demand for the immediate conservation of rubber was issued as supplies were quickly drying up. And an investigation into the causes for the suspicious fire that destroyed the French Liner Normandie in New York was issued and a request the investigation not be handled by the Navy Department.

Labor was adding to the picture as some 600 workers at the nations biggest Aluminum production facility in Detroit went on strike over a demand for Sunday double-time pay.

All in all, a pretty dismal day (for a Sunday no less), this February 15, 1942 as reported by NBC Radio on their Weekend Roundup.

Exactly seventy years ago, on the morning of December 7, 1941 the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by Japanese Naval and Air Forces in what became the "Day Of Infamy" and America's combat entry into the Second World War.

Here is a composite of the first few hours, beginning with the initial bulletin, following up through the subsequent air raid of Manila in The Philippines and reaction to the events in Washington as broadcast by NBC and Mutual Radio.

For the next 40 minutes the actions pretty much speak for themselves.

History as it was happening.

(Sixty-nine years ago on this day, the world became a different place)

The event is fading from view because the participants are slowly fading away themselves. The world has changed in infinite ways since it was December 7, 1941. War is still the same though - that will never change. How it's waged has changed, but the politics haven't. The enemy has changed, but the armies of refugees and innocent loss of life is the same.

George Putnam (NBC News): “The flame of ruthless war is burning clear around the world tonight, set off by a wanton Japanese surprise attack on American Pacific outposts from Guam to Hawaii and on shipping off the continental coast of these United States.”

And that was then, this day sixty-nine years ago.