Arsenal of Democracy

Sure.

So our chapter was one of the originals, right? Founded in 1944, and it was right on the heels of the Arsenal of Democracy push.

And I, I keep always referring back to Freedom's Forge by, uh, Dr. Arthur Herman.

It's a fantastic book, but it, it really talks about how we were able to mobilize in time of emergency.

One, the fragility.

The fragility, despite what it's been able to demonstrate through Gettysburg and the Civil War and all the challenges of World War II and the Arsenal democracy, all these challenges, America has prevailed.

But it's very fragile, as Franklin said.

And the comment of if we can keep it is the clarion call for all of us, only if we do our part.

Well, a different time, isn't it? He's into his strides now.

He's, he's got-- he's won his third term, and he's got Lend Lease underway, and the, the factories are doing the Arsenal of, of Democracy.

It's very easy to do it then.

I wouldn't say that's a, I wouldn't s-see that as a criticism of FDR, but it is interesting.

Up next, the story of a pivotal battle during World War II, but this battle wasn't fought on a tiny island in the Pacific or in the hedgerows of France, but in factories across America.

Here to tell the story of the arsenal of democracy is A.J. Boehm.

Take it away, A.J. People should

really understand what life was like, not just in America, but all over the world in the 1930s.

World War II became really a contest of mass production and of horsepower, of weapons mounted on wings and wheels.

It was a mechanized war.

We must be the great arsenal of democracy.

When we come back, more of this remarkable story here on Our American Stories.

Factories which had once produced household goods like sewing machines, typewriters, and automobiles were converted over to churning out rifles, helmets, tanks, jeeps, aircraft, and other vital war weapons by the hundreds of thousands, while a huge force of non-combatant civilians, including a record number of women, were hired to staff them.

The result was a nigh unstoppable arsenal of democracy that ultimately swamped the wartime economies of Germany, Italy, and Japan and guaranteed Allied victory.

But one American wartime factory stood out among the rest, Air Force Plant 31 in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, better known as Willow Run.

At peak capacity in April of 1944, a complete B24 Liberator heavy bomber was rolling out of this facility's doors every single hour, a staggering feat of industrial production that has yet to be matched.

Of course, we were doing other things.

We were finishing the Arsenal Democracy monograph.

We had the seven-front war against Israel.

We had major concerns with the Pentagon and other issues.

To end, Brad, I'd love to kick it to you.

You've spoken throughout this conversation.

The book opens and closes by extolling FDR's efforts to educate the American public on the World War II axis, right through his Arsenal Democracy speech and other fireside chats.

How can policymakers educate in a similar way the American public about the threat posed by the Axis today.

By nineteen forty-two, they were producing tanks, bombers, rifles, and ships in quantities the world had never seen.

The nation became, in President Roosevelt's words, "The arsenal of democracy." Ford's massive Willow Run plant produced B-24 bombers at a rate of one per hour.

Shipyards launched Liberty ships in days rather than months.

Women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers, their bandanas and overalls replacing aprons.

But during his tenure, his tone deviated from the White House in certain key respects, and after his resignation, he attended the major YES Conference in Kyiv.

His piece is titled Rewiring the Arsenal of Democracy and is essentially a critique of the Western defense procurement model and its failing deterrence impact in the modern era, using Ukraine's successful innovation as a case study in what NATO countries are failing to do.

He says the post-Cold War international order slowly withered for decades but reached a clear inflection point on June first, twenty twenty-five, when Ukraine deployed less than a million dollars' worth of hobby shop technology to destroy Russian strategic bombers worth billions, i.e., Operation Spider's Web.

Dom and I were in Odessa at the time, if I recall.

Dan Driscoll is the outgoing or recently, recently, I would say, evicted because he did not particularly have the friendliest relationship with Pete Hegseth, but until recently, the army secretary in the US.

So he's written a paper in For-Foreign Affairs magazine, headline, "Rewiring the Arsenal of Democracy." Then there is a subhead about allies and all.

I'm leaving that, but you can see it on your screens.

"Rewiring the Arsenal of Democracy." So three things, what the pointers that we got from General Dhirendra Seth, then something that the former Ukrainian defense minister, Fedorov, said, and then this detailed paper about what might be the shape of the modern battlefield and what is it that democracy should do to deal with the new challenges.

We have three things pointing in the same direction, each one obviously coming at it from their own vantage point or from their own realistic appreciation of what they're facing in their likely battlefield.

So first of all, what did General Dhirendra Seth, Seth say? First of all, very importantly, he started with the portrait of the 1971 surrender, 16 December 1971, the surrender ceremony in, in, in Dhaka.

So capability and mass will go together.

That's also the larger lesson that we draw from this really detailed article by Dan Driscoll.