Hopkins (June 1940)

Harry Lloyd Hopkins

25th June, 1940

France has fallen into the hands of Germany. The people here in the United States are appalled... The American government has been adopting a largely isolationist stance through Germany's march of conquest. However, I doubt this will last for long. As much as the citizens of the United States do not want to get involved in this war, we cannot possibly just sit back and watch as potentially more Western countries get engulfed by the power-hungry Hitler. We do not need to be actively or directly involved in the war at this stage... especially because we do not want to upset our citizens. This does not mean that we will do nothing at all about the situation. Need be, there will be an implementation of new financial programs to help the affected countries in the Western Hemisphere pick themselves up to fight well in the war.

The fall of France has witnessed the sheer humiliation of the French. Germany's success in military strategy and tactic that enabled the swift progress through the low countries in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg is indeed remarkable, albeit stunningly threatening, especially due to the ideological threat that it holds against the West. France has undeniably performed poorly in its defense against Germany's invasion. From the outside, it looks to me like it was a huge problem in the leadership and commands given in the internal dynamics of French military coordination... this is quite apparent from Gamelin's dismissal in the French military. There was indeed plenty of indecisiveness in commands that led to what seemed to be confusion when Germany unexpectedly used Ardennes as a passage way to France.

The biggest fear that has been derived from the fall of France is that Britain now stands alone against Germany. The United States will have to intervene to some extent to help Britain should the situation get worse.