On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed both houses of Congress regarding the previous day’s attack by the Japanese air force on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The attack devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet in less than two hours. In his address to Congress, Roosevelt set out the case for engaging in the war. He pointed out that the United States had been at peace with Japan and had been consulting with that nation about ways to maintain peace in the Pacific. He conceded that diplomatic negotiation had seemed to reach a stalemate, with the Japanese expressing no confidence in continuing the dialogue. And he noted that Japan had nevertheless given no sign of intent to attack the United States.

In asking for a declaration of war, Roosevelt pointed out that the United States had no choice but to respond with military force to an unprovoked and planned attack–a “day which will live in infamy,” he noted in perhaps the speech’s most famous line. A further reason to respond as such was that the nation had been the victim of deception, since the Japanese had signaled that they were seeking diplomatic solutions. Roosevelt also noted that the Japanese had attacked several other sites in Asia and were intent on permanently injuring U.S. property and interests in the Pacific. Therefore, the only just response, in his opinion, was a call for “absolute victory” and for Congress to declare that a state of war existed between the United States and Japan.

President Roosevelt was greeted with loud cheers when he entered the House chamber to deliver his joint address to Congress. In less than seven minutes, with loud cheers breaking over his concluding remarks, Roosevelt effectively took command of the U.S. position regarding the war. One of his bitterest critics, the former president Herbert Hoover, announced his unqualified support of Roosevelt’s declaration of war. Very few responded as Senator Gerald P. Nye did, alleging that the president had manipulated the nation into war. Even Nye, in fact, voted for the war resolution, which needed only thirty-three minutes to pass both houses of Congress.