"The question is, ought we go to war? It is not a question to be answered simply by contemplating the undeniable crimes of the Nazi regime of by asserting what I have always admitted, namely that British Imperialism offers fewer dangers to America than German and is less of a curse to the earth.
The question is whether the means of full entry into this war by America will gain the end of peace and freedom for mankind or to put tin another form, whether the dangers which our entry into war will bring upon us are not greater than any conceivable dangers which may come upon us if we stay out of war. . .
The possibilities serious enough to deserve attention are these: (1) a German victory, before an America unprepared for aggressive long range war, can make her weight felt; (2) a complete Anglo-American victory over the Axis and probably Japan, after a long and costly struggle; (3) some degree of stalemate with exhaustion and then perhaps Stalin as the final victor. It is this third possibility which seems to me, on the evidence, the most probable. Any of these possibilities, given the realities of war, America's own unsolved problems, and the American temperatment, will require us to lose our internal democracy for the duration of the war. . . On the other hand, victory would be accompanied, not by the achievement of the noble purposes which a minority of interventionists profess, but by an American or Anglo-American imperialism which would perpetuate armaments, and for which Fascism at home in this generation must be the inevitable accompaniment. . . The real question is how far should the United States go to preserve and increase democracy rather than to spread fascism by spreading the total area of total war?"
- Radio Debate featuring Norman Thomas [member of AFC and Socialist Party presidential candidate 1928-1948]