On this episode of Our American Stories on Sunday December President Franklin D Roosevelt was working in the White House when news arrived that Japanese planes had attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor The nation was stunned its Pacific Fleet devastated and the United States suddenly faced the prospect of entering World War II With his regular speechwriters away in New York Roosevelt called in his secretary Grace Tully and began dictating the words he would deliver before Congress the following day Among his handwritten revisions was a small change that would give the speech its place in
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