# Famous Military Speeches



## imalko (May 7, 2009)

Throughout history statesmen, military leaders and commanders addressed the public during wartime and especially soldiers in the field of battle in order to boost their morale, to inspire and motivate them. Some of these speeches are true model of oratory skill like Lincoln's Gettysburg address or many Churchill's speeches. In this thread I would like if we could make some sort of collection of quotes from most famous speeches in military history.

Here is one example:

_"Precisely at 15.00 hours enemy is to be broken with your unstoppable charge and destroyed with your hand grenades and bayonets. Honor of our capitol city must be preserved.
Soldiers! Heroes! The supreme command erased our regiment from their list, our regiment is sacrificed for honor of Belgrade and Fatherland... Don't think about your lives which no longer exist... Forward to glory!" 

Major Gavrilović to the soldiers of 2nd battalion 10th foot regiment Serbian Army during defence of Belgrade in September 1915 in WW1​_
Note: This is not limited to military speeches of WW1 WW2 era. Please feel free to post quotes from speeches from any period in history. For example, Napoleon was known to be able to inspire his men with proclamations and speeches...


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## ToughOmbre (May 7, 2009)

Don't know if it would be qualified as a "speech", but it did help to boost the morale of the Screaming Eagles.....

Brig General Anthony Clement McAuliffe's response to the German demand for the Americans' surrender of Bastogne on 22 December, 1944.

"To the German Commander: *NUTS!* The American Commander."

TO


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## Vassili Zaitzev (May 7, 2009)

Here's Eisenhower's speech to the troops before the landings on D-day.

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have
striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The 
hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. 
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on
other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war
machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of
Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well
equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of
1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats,
in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their
strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home
Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions
of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men.
The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to
Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in
battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! 

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great
and noble undertaking.


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## Amsel (May 7, 2009)

Great one Vassili!


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## ToughOmbre (May 7, 2009)

That's a good one VZ.

TO


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## Vassili Zaitzev (May 7, 2009)

Thanks, I always liked that speech.


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## Amsel (May 7, 2009)

> "They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come."
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Patrick Henry of Virginia


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## Gnomey (May 7, 2009)

Great speeches. 

Attached is another, from one of the all time great orators, Churchill's "Never Surrender" speech from after the Fall of France.

For those that don't want to listen to it, here is a full transcript: Churchill


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## Marshall_Stack (May 7, 2009)

OK, it is a fictitious one from a movie, but I still like it....

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning, it smells like ..victory".


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## Amsel (May 7, 2009)

Or Wiliam Wallaces speech in Mel Gibsons, Braveheart. A stirring evocation!


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## ccheese (May 7, 2009)

The speech that I found most inspiring was General Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech at West Point, May 12, 1962... I would have given an arm and a leg to have been present that day. _*Duty, Honor, Country*_

Charles


General Westmoreland, General Groves, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps. As I was leaving the hotel this morning, a doorman asked me, "Where are you bound for, General?" and when I replied, "West Point," he remarked, "Beautiful place, have you ever been there before?"

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this, coming from a profession I have served so long and a people I have loved so well. It fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily for a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code - the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the meaning of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always.

"Duty," "Honor," "Country" - those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you want to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.

The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness; the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory?

Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world's noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.

His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast.

But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people.

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

And twenty years after, on the other side of the globe, against the filth of dirty foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of the relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropic disease, the horror of stricken areas of war.

[Continued, below]


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## ccheese (May 7, 2009)

[continued]

Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory - always victory, always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following your password of Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training - sacrifice. In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him. However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country, is the noblest development of mankind.

You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres and missiles marked the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind - the chapter of the space age. In the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a greater, a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms: of harnessing the cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; of purifying sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundred of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of space ships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all time.

And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars. Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purpose, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishments; but you are the ones who are trained to fight.

Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the Nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country.

Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds. But serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war guardians, as its lifeguards from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiators in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice.

Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government. Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as firm and complete as they should be.

These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.

The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished - tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll.

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.

I bid you farewell.


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## ToughOmbre (May 7, 2009)

Here is another fictitious speech but it's worth mentioning.

From the movie "The Purple Heart" (1944), based on a true story of eight captured Doolittle Raiders put on trial by the Japanese for "war crimes".

The raiders had a choice, tell the Japanese where they came from, or be executed. 

After refusing to divulge to a Japanese "court", where the Doolittle Raid originated, Captain Harvey Ross (Dana Andrews) was asked by the Japanese "judge" if this was their final word. 

His reply.....

*"No excellency. It's true we Americans don't know very much about you Japanese. And we never did. But now I realize you know even less about us. You can kill us. All of us, or part of us. But if you think that's going to put the fear of god into the United States of America, and stop them from sending other flyers to bomb you, you're wrong. Dead wrong. They'll come by night, they'll come by day. Thousands of them. They'll blacken your skies and burn your cities to the ground and make you get down on your knees and beg for mercy. This is your war. You wanted it. You asked for it. You started it. And now you're going to get it. And it won't be finished until your dirty little empire is wiped off the face of the earth."*

It was said that movie audiences in 1944 all over America stood and cheered as they watched this scene, and Dana Andrews became an instant Hollywood hero. 

A great morale booster for the American public. Probably a boost for military recruitment as well.

TO


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## Ferdinand Foch (May 7, 2009)

Hey guys, great speeches so far! 
Don't know if this is accurate, but I always liked this part in "Michael Collins." 


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6L66xhKdgE_


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## bigZ (May 7, 2009)

General Sedgewick during the Battle Of Spotsylvania, 1864 (American civil war):-

_*"Don't worry, boys. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"*_


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## Ferdinand Foch (May 7, 2009)

bigZ said:


> General Sedgewick during the Battle Of Spotsylvania, 1864 (American civil war):-
> 
> "Don't worry, boys. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"



He, famous last words.


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## Thorlifter (May 7, 2009)

Another good (IMO) fiction speech. Aragorn at the Black Gates in the Lord of the Rings.


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgSdiX0kDI_


What about Al Pacino's speech in Scent of a Woman?


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAxnB6Ap4o_

Oh wait, military speeches. But in the movie, he was ex military.


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## comiso90 (May 7, 2009)

Great thread!

Keep them coming!


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## imalko (May 7, 2009)

Great posts guys. It wasn't my original intention but interesting that some of you mentioned fictitious speeches from movies etc. There's several I really like from movie Gettysburg. Here's one:

_"Virginians! Virginians!
For your lands! For your homes! For your sweethearts! For your wives! For Virginia!
Forward march!"_

_Brigadier General Lewis Armistead (played by Richard Jordan) to his Brigade at the beginning of ill-fated Picket's charge. _​
Keep posting.


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## ToughOmbre (May 7, 2009)

From the movie "Patton" (1970). 

The opening speech was a compilation of a number of Patton's most memorable quotes taken from actual speeches. 

*"Be seated. Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball player, the toughest boxer. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.

Now, an Army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious bastards who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.

We have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit and the best men in the world. You know, by God I actually pity those poor bastards we’re going up against. By God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel.

Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you will all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood. Shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.

Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose.

There’s one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home. And you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you’re sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what did you do in the great World War II, you won’t have to say, "Well, I shoveled **** in Louisiana." 

Alright now, you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel. Oh, and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle – anytime, anywhere.

That’s all."*

LiveLeak.com - Patton Speech From The Movie "Patton"

TO


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## bigZ (May 7, 2009)

"The Lord God is my Armour!"
- Gustavus Adolphus, refusing the steel body armour offered by his aides. 
At the Battle of Lützen (where he was killed), 16. September 1632.
The reason he didn't want to wear armour is that he had been wounded in Dirschau, Poland,
and couldn't wear armour because of that wound.
He refused to stay in camp despite that he couldn't wear armour.

"I'd rather go down the river with seven studs than with a hundred shitheads"
- Colonel Charlie Beckwith 

"My only fear is that the Zulu will not fight"
- Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford,
commanding British forces, just before the invasion of Zululand. 

"This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning"
Winston Churchill (after the victory at El Alamein)

"Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed."
- General Norman Cota: Omaha Beach, 1944 

"We are going to find a solution to the Middle East conflict as soon as the Arabs agrees with us.."
- Moshe Dayan, Israeli Minister of Defense during the Six Say War (1967) 

"Hard pressed on my right; my left is in retreat. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking. Attaquez!"
- General Ferdinand Foch (to General Joffre during Battle of the Marne)
From Liddel-Harts book "Reputations"

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pus*y."
- Attributed to General Tommy Franks
Also Attributed to US Marine Major General James Mattis as he addressed
the Marines of 1st Marine Division prior to commencement of
combat operations in support of Iraqi Freedom.

"The Ruhr will not be a subject to a single bomb. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr,
my name is not Herman Goering; you can call me Meier!"
- Reichsmarshal Herman Goering, 9 august 1939.

"The day of parachute troops is over"
- Adolf Hitler, after the heavy losses suffered by the airborne units on Crete in 1941

"The atom bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives."
- Admiral William Leahy to President Truman
before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 

"This is the epitaph I want on my tomb: "Here lies one of the most intelligent animals who ever appeared on the face of the earth."
- Benito Mussolini 

"You're planning to make a ship sail against wind and tide by lighting a fire below deck?? I don't have time to listen to that kind of nonsense!"
- Napoleon, about Robert Fultons plans to make a Steamboat. 

"My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast,
unaware that the microphone was already on 

"The Pope! how many divisions has he got?"
- Stalin
In 1935, a French visitor asked Soviet leader Josef Stalin if he thought Pope Pius XI might prove to be an ally.

"Tell my son Josef that he will meet my divisions in eternity."
- Reply from the Pope when he heard the story years later. 

"It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.
- Ferdinand Foch 

It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army
- Joseph Stalin

"If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there."
- Marshall Geogi Zhukov to General Eisenhower, 1945 

Funny Quotes. Funny Military Quotes


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## Marshall_Stack (May 7, 2009)

After the failure of Market-Garden (but General Montgomery claims as a success)...

"My country can never again afford the luxury of another Montgomery success." Prince Bernhard of Netherlands.


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## RabidAlien (May 8, 2009)

I'd have to drag out some books to get the exact wording/dates/times/etc, but a couple I've loved from Patton:


(to a group of Army wives at a social get-together) "My, what pretty widows you will make!"

"Its 4:15! What's holding you guys up?" (Patton, over the radio to a German division after learning, through broken codes, of an impending offensive scheduled to begin at 4PM sharp. The Germans subsequently realized the Allies were ready and cancelled the attack....and changed their codes.)


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## ToughOmbre (May 8, 2009)

*Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation

Delivered on December 8, 1941*​
Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

TO


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## rochie (May 8, 2009)

"I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I inspired the Nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar"
- Sir Winston Churchill, Speech Nov. 1954.

and this from Lt. Col Tim Collins before the invasion of Iraq

We go to liberate, not to conquer.
We will not fly our flags in their country
We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own.
Show respect for them.
There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly.
Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send.
As for the others, I expect you to rock their world.
Wipe them out if that is what they choose. 
But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.
Iraq is steeped in history. 
It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham.
Tread lightly there.
You will see things that no man could pay to see
-- and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.
You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing.
Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. 
Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.
If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow them dignity in death.
Bury them properly and mark their graves.
It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive.
But there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign.
We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. 
There will be no time for sorrow.
The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction.
There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam.
He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done.
As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.
It is a big step to take another human life.
It is not to be done lightly.
I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts.
I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.
The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.
If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer.
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest -- for your deeds will follow you down through history.
We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.
(On Saddam's chemical and biological weapons.)
It is not a question of if, it's a question of when.
We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself.
If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.
As for ourselves, let's bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.
Our business now is north.

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## Amsel (May 8, 2009)

Thanks for sharing that Rochie. It is a great speech that reflects the fighting spirit and character of our modern day warriors.


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## Ferdinand Foch (May 9, 2009)

Hey guys, here's the opening speech from the movie Patton with a modern twist to it. 

_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyUX6wV1lBQ_


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## imalko (May 10, 2009)

This is one of my all time favorite movie military speech. It could be characterized also as an monolog or conversation between Brigadier General Armistead (played by Richard Jordan) and Col. Fremantle during preliminary artillery bombardment before commencing Picket's charge at Gettysburg.

Anyway here's the link (hope it works):


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Xu_Jni4V4_

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## vikingBerserker (May 10, 2009)

It's really hard to beat Churchill's speach IMHO.

The best fictionalized speach I have ever heard was Henry V's St Crispins day speach.


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## jipi (Dec 16, 2011)

Hi, this is the translation to De Gaulle’s June 18th call, considered the corner step of the French resistance.

It took place just after France’s capitulation. The guy speaking is just an unknown general, just owning at this time the desk he is working on, and Churchill’s friendship.
On June 18th 1940, De Gaulle looks like a loser 

‘Governments of gathering may have capitulated, giving in to the panic, forgetting honour, handing over the country to servitude.
However, nothing is lost.
Nothing is lost, because this war is a world war.
In the free universe, tremendous forces have not been yet involved.
One day, these forces will crush the enemy. This day, the France will have to be present at the victory.
Then, she’ll find her liberty and its greatness. Such is my goal, my only one.

That’s why I invite all the French, wherever they are, to unite to me in the action, sacrifice and hope.

Our country is in danger of death. Let’s fight to save her.’


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## yulzari (Dec 31, 2013)

Viking speech.

_Cattle die, kinsmen die, all men are mortal, words of praise will never perish nor a noble name.
_
Another version, said to have been used outside York;

_Cattle die, women die, men die. You cannot choose if you die but you can choose how you die.
_

Or the last word recorded of King Harold Godwinson's Huskarls at the end of the Battle of Hastings;

_"Ut! Ut! Godemite! Olicrosse!_ (Out! Out! God Almighty! Holy Cross!)"


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## mikewint (Dec 31, 2013)

One needs to be VERY careful about "Speeches" reported AFTER the fact during a time when recording devices were not present/available/invented. One of the first and best examples is earlier in this thread when a "Speech" by Patrick Henry is presented. To avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore and his Royal Marines, the Second Virginia Convention met March 20, 1775 inland at Richmond--in what is now called St. John's Church--instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg. Delegate Patrick Henry presented resolutions to raise a militia, and to put Virginia in a posture of defense. Henry's opponents urged caution and patience until the crown replied to Congress' latest petition for reconciliation.
On the 23rd, Henry presented a proposal to organize a volunteer company of cavalry or infantry in every Virginia county. By custom, Henry addressed himself to the Convention's president, Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg. Henry's words were not transcribed, but all were in agreement about Henry's closing words: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" 
Henry's first biographer, William Wirt of Maryland, was three-years-old in 1775. An assistant federal prosecutor in Aaron Burr's trial for treason at Richmond in 1807, and later attorney general of the United States, Wirt began to collect materials for the biography in 1808, nine years after Henry's death. From the recollections of men like Thomas Jefferson, Wirt reconstructed an account of Henry's life including several of his speeches.
Ear-witnesses to Henry's hypnotic orations remarked that while they always seemed to be convincing in the moment, they had a difficult time remembering exactly what he had said immediately afterwards. According to Thomas Jefferson, "Although it was difficult, when [Henry] had spoken, to tell what he had said, yet, while speaking, it always seemed directly to the point. When he had spoken in opposition to my opinion, had produced a great effect, and I myself had been highly delighted and moved, I have asked myself, when he ceased, 'What the devil has he said?' and could never answer the inquiry." There has been much debate as to whether Henry's speeches are more Wirt than Henry.


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## mikewint (Dec 31, 2013)

Shakespeare penned this work nearly two hundred years after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 
Prior to the Battle, Henry V had led his English footmen across Northwestern France, seizing Calais and other cities in an attempt to win back holds in France that had once been in English possession and to claim the French crown through the obscure but powerful Salig Law. 
The French, aware of Henry's troops weakening condition because of their distance from England and the attacks of dysentery that had plagued the dwindling band, moved between King Henry and Calais, the port he needed to reach in order to return to England. The troops followed Henry's band along the rivers, preventing their crossing and daring them to a battle they thought they could not win. 
The English knights fought on foot after the manner devised by Edward III. Archers were to be used in support, the English and Welsh longbows having established their credentials both at Crecy (1347) and at Poiters (1356). But here the French seemed to have sufficient numbers to deal with even this threat, and they refused to allow Henry pass, angered by the English seizure of the cities. 
Morale in the English line as they looked upon the overwhelming force of heavily armored, highly skilled French knights must have been extremely low. King Henry, rising to the occasion, spoke words of encouragement that rallied the English troops and carried them to a victory. 
Army Special Forces have been drawn to the end of the speech:
We few, we happy few, *we band of brothers*; 
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 
This day shall gentle his condition; 
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed 
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.


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## Capt. Vick (Dec 31, 2013)

Two that I am fond of and likely where never actually said was the one about horses credited to Spartans at his last battle and the speech by Calgacus before the battle of Grapius Mons against the Romans. I'll see if I can find them and post them here later. They were probably so good because they were crafted after the fact.


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## R Pope (Jan 6, 2014)

I like Winston's response to Hitler saying he would wring England's neck like a chicken. Churchill stood up in the Canadian gov't hall and said, "Some chicken....." Pause for cheers..."Some neck!"


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## parsifal (Jan 6, 2014)

Pattons address to 3rd Army. There is quite a bit to it, but the most famous rendition (there are mnany versions of the same basic speech was his address to 6th armoured, on 31 May'44

Patton delivered the speech extemporaneously, without notes of his own, and so though it was substantially the same at each occurrence, the order of some of its parts varied. One notable difference occurred in the speech he delivered on 31 May 1944, while addressing the U.S. 6th Armored Division, when he began with a remark that would later be among his most famous

*No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.*

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## Shinpachi (Jan 9, 2014)

Ouch


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## mikewint (Jan 9, 2014)

Shinpachi, you are quite philosophical (哲学的). War is indeed a large, giant OUCH!!

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## stona (Jan 9, 2014)

Most 'fictional' historical speeches are based on something that actually happened. This one probably is not!

As the Spanish Armada sailed up the Channel in 1588 Elizabeth I supposedly addressed her militia thus.

_"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my Lieutenant General shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my General, by your concord in the camp, and by your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people."_


Hitler made some fantastic speeches too. This is one of my favourites from 8th November 1942, about Stalingrad.

_“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already.
There are only some very small places remaining. Now the others say: ‘Why aren’t they fighting faster?’ – Because I don’t want to have a second Verdun there, I’d rather take it with small assault groups.”_

Yeah right!!!

Cheers

Steve


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## mikewint (Jan 9, 2014)

Well, not exactly a military speech but by the Greek Heraclitus:
Out of every one hundred men
That you send to us
Ten shouldn't even be here
Eighty are just targets
Nine are the real fighters
And we are lucky to have them
For they the battle make.
Ah, but the one,
One is a warrior
And he will bring the others back. 

― Heraclitus

It is necessary to understand that war is common, strife is customary, and all things happen and pass away because of strife and necessity.


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## parsifal (Jan 9, 2014)

Robert E lees farewell speech to the Army Of Virginia


Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia 
Appomattox Courthuse, April 10, 1865 

(General Orders No. 9) 

After four years' arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. 

I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them, but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss which would have attended the continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God may extend to you His blessing and protection. With an increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 

Robert E. Lee 
General 

Shows the depth of character of the man and his integrity in my opinion. Americas greatest general who just happened to be on the losing side

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## nuuumannn (Jan 17, 2014)

Robert Nesta Marley; War:


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XHEPoMNP0I_

Excerpt from the speech from which this song originated; H.I.M Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia speaking at the United Nations on 4 October 1963:

"...until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned; That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained; 

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil..."

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## parsifal (Jan 18, 2014)

love that song and love Bob marleys music

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## nuuumannn (Jan 18, 2014)

Oh, yessss; sssswwwffffffftttttt..... Haaaaaaaah......

Actually, come to think of it, that was a predictable and rather dumb post I added. Like you Pars; I too, like Bob Marley's music; I was bought up on a healthy dose of reggae and heavy rock in equal measure. My older brother fancied himself as a Rastafarian and grew dreads and smoked pot and all that; I just loved the music.


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