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honorable means to remain at peace; in the midst of peace negotiations,   
we were foully attacked by Germany's partner in the Orient. Like Austria,   
Czechoslovakia, Poland and the rest, we were made the victims of Axis   
aggression at the very moment when their diplomats were talking peace.   
How then could we have confidence in the word of any axis power? In the   
conviction that anything less than complete victory would endanger the   
principles we fight for and our very existence as a nation, the United   
States of America will prosecute this war until the Axis collapses. We   
shall not again allow ourselves to be imperilled from behind while we are   
talking peace with criminal aggressors of the kind referred to in the   
"Sumni Pontificatus" as men without faith to the plights word.  
                                                            
 
                                                            
 
Our confidence in the final and complete victory is based upon the most   
objective foundations. There is nothing of emotional optimism or wishful   
thinking in it. We are prepared for a long war. We forsaw early reverses.   
But in the end, we know that no nation or combination of nations can   
               stand against us in the field.               
 
                                                            
 
 
In the first place, we are a nation united as never before in our history.   
Axis propaganda had made itself felt in the United States as elsewhere   
before our entry into war, and we know they are boasting of divisions   
among us. Let no one be decived. Our very love of peace made it difficult   
for some of our people to see the world menace Nazism. Pearl Harbor opened   
their eyes. The dishonorable attack of Japan at the very moment when her   
special ambassador was talking peace at Washington united overnight America  
ns of all the shades of opinion. Among the architects of this unity are   
the foremost Catholic leaders in our country, the bishops and the prominent  
 laymen of all racial strains. Their public utternaces and the editorial   
statements of Catholic papers after the aggression of Pearl Harbor can be   
summed up in these words: Prosecute the war to a victorious conclusion;   
and then bend every every effort for peace that will be just, charitable   
and lasting. Most notable of all Catholic pronouncments was that contained   
in the letter of the Catholic Hierarchy to the President of the United   
States pledging the whole-hearted cooperation of Catholics in the national   
war effort. This letter, individually authorized by the Bishops of the   
United States, solemnly engaged "thelives, the treasure, and the sacred   
honor" of American Catholics in the defense of their freedon against   
aggression. The response of the presisdent was historic:" We shall win   
this war," wrote Mr. roosevelt, " and in victory we shall seek not   
vengeance but the establishment of an international order in which the   
pirit of Christ shall rule the  hearts of man and of nations