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From The Militant, Vol. V No. 13, 29 March 1941, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The opening of the “Battle of the Atlantic” raises to the forefront the next step in U.S. war participation. Passage of the Lend-Lease Law and the seven billion dollar appropriations to give it effect brought this country to the point where the next step could easily be active involvement of its armed forces in the conflict. That next step may lie just ahead.
The newspapers are already preparing the ground and so is the Gallup poll. There is obvious logic in the argument that if the country is going to spend seven billion dollars for war supplies it is not going to permit those supplies to be sent to the bottom by Hitler’s sea raiders. This is simply the “logic” of the involvement of U.S. imperialism in the war.
What, we are supposed to help “decide” now is whether U.S. warships should act as convoys a quarter, a third, or two-thirds of the way across the Atlantic. At the outer limit, British warships would take up the guard. The idea is already strongly advanced that U.S. convoys should extend as far as the Azores.
Actually this is like asking whether we should dip our hands into the boiling oil only as far as the wrist or as far as the elbow. It doesn’t really matter. We’re going to get badly burned either way.
We don’t hear anymore about “acts short of war” because and there never was. Every conscious act of the Roosevelt administration has been an act of war and U.S. war participation has been increasing gradually under the banner of “acts short of war.” The only thing lacking has been actual military acts and the establishment of convoys for the aid-to-Britain ships is apparently to be the first of these.
We may be sure that Hitler has already discounted U.S. war entry. He is not going to abandon the Battle of the Atlantic to avoid a clash with the U.S.
If the rate of loss of British tonnage in the Battle of the Atlantic continues as at present – more than 100,000 tons a week – the question of U.S. warship convoys is certain to become more and more pressing. We’re already in the war up to our armpits. When those convoys start, we’ll be in op to our necks.
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Last updated: 3 October 2015