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                              PAPER XXVII

"The United States cannot permit the occupation by Germany of strategic 
outposts in the Atlantic to be used as air or naval bases for eventual 
attack against the Western Hemisphere." 

Message to the Congress, relating to the dispatch of naval forces to 
   Iceland, July 7, 1941

To the Congress of the United States: 

I am transmitting herewith for the information of the Congress a message 
I received from the Prime Minister of Iceland on July 1, and the reply I 
addressed on the same day to the Prime Minister of Iceland in response 
to this message. 

In accordance with the understanding so reached, forces of the United 
States Navy have today arrived in Iceland in order to supplement, and 
eventually to replace, the British forces which have until now been 
stationed in Iceland in order to insure the adequate defense of that 
country. 

As I stated in my message to the Congress of September 3 last regarding 
the acquisition of certain naval and air bases from Great Britain in 
exchange for certain overage destroyers, considerations of safety from 
overseas attack are fundamental. 

The United States cannot permit the occupation by Germany of strategic 
outposts in the Atlantic to be used as air or naval bases for eventual 
attack against the Western Hemisphere. We have no desire to see any 
change in the present sovereignty of those regions. Assurance that such 
outposts in our defense frontier remain in friendly hands is the very 
foundation of our national security and of the national security of 
every one of the independent nations of the New World. 

For the same reason substantial forces of the United States have now 
been sent to the bases acquired last year from Great Britain in Trinidad 
and in British Guiana in the south in order to forestall any pincers 
movement undertaken by Germany against the Western Hemisphere. It is 
essential that Germany should not be able successfully to employ such 
tactics through sudden seizure of strategic points in the South Atlantic 
and in the North Atlantic. 

The occupation of Iceland by Germany would constitute a serious threat 
in three dimensions: 

The threat against Greenland and the northern portion of the North 
American Continent, including the islands which lie off it. 

The threat against all shipping in the North Atlantic. 

The threat against the steady flow of munitions to Britain-which is a 
matter of broad policy clearly approved by the Congress. 

It is, therefore imperative that the approaches between the Americas and 
those strategic outposts, the safety of which this country

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regards as essential to its national security and which it must 
therefore defend, shall remain open and free from all hostile activity 
or threat thereof. 

As Commander in Chief I have consequently issued orders to the Navy that 
all necessary steps be taken to insure the safety of communications in 
the approaches between Iceland and the United States, as well as on the 
seas between the United States and all other strategic outposts. 

This Government will insure the adequate defense of Iceland with full 
recognition of the independence of Iceland as a sovereign state. 

In my message to the Prime Minister of Iceland I have given the people 
of Iceland the assurance that the American forces sent there would in no 
way interfere with the internal and domestic affairs of that country, 
and that immediately upon the termination of the present international 
emergency all American forces will be at once withdrawn, leaving the 
people of Iceland and their Government in full and sovereign control of 
their own territory. 

                                                  FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, July 7, 1941. 

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Accompanying documents will be found in the Congressional Record of July 
7, 1941.