"'Did you know that Hitler, even if victorious over Europe and the Mediterranean countries, cannot dominate our trade?'
The Claim
They (the dictatorship) would fasten an economic strangle-hold upon our several nations. . . Wages and hours would be fixed by Hitler. . . The American farmer would get for his products exactly what Hitler wanted to give. He would face obvious disaster and complex regimentation (President Roosevelt, in his 'unlimited emergency' speech of May 27, 1941, reported in Christian Science Monitor, May 28).
The Answer
However, the import requirements of Nazi Europe are so large and so varied that she is scarcely in a position to buy or refrain from buying at will her exports are wanted, but are not indispensable. Barring the use of force, her position in world markets will be as weak or as strong as her capacity to pay for the goods she needs. Clearly this is an issue whose outcome cannot be dictated entirely by Nazi Europe ("Nazi Europe and World Trade," published by the Brookings Institution, June, 1941, p. 184)
The United States can undersell totalitarian countries in world trade. . . Germany, not the United States, would be 'on the spot' economically is Germany were to win control of the European continent (in interview reported in the Wall Street Journal, June 6, 1941)
The 'Economic Menace'. . .
The interventionists dug up the 'Economic Menace'. The American people were told that a Nazi-dominated Europe threatened our very way of life; that our trade would collapse before the ingenuity of the Nazis; that we would be subdued without the necessity of military attack. The 'economic' theory could be advance persuasively because there was little evidence available of either its accuracy or its falsity. . . Now the evidence is available; the 'economic' theory is shown to have little basis in economic fact."
- Research Bureau, "Did You Know?", July 5, 1941