The Plunge

Armed forces of the U.S. went to the theater of war last week.

Naval and marine units occupied Iceland, which lies directly in the battlefield of the Atlantic. This act, which constituted the first U.S. plunge into cold action, was of tremendous strategic importance. It meant that a new visible weight, not just the clatter of it, was actually beginning to loom up in the west against the Germans. At the moment, it loomed not very large --but it loomed.

Behind the hull-down weight there were three specific strategic considerations, which President Roosevelt listed in his message to Congress explaining the move (see p. 11).

First: this force would be charged with warding off threats to Greenland and the rest of North America's northern flank.

Second: it would take a hand in protecting "all shipping in the North Atlantic."

Third: it would assist in insuring the steady flow of munitions to Britain.

The arrival of the force made it possible for the British to evacuate their garrison of occupation, which had been in Iceland since a month after the Nazi invasion of Iceland's sister kingdom, Denmark. The British-Canadian garrison had been estimated at about 80,000 men, who would be useful elsewhere.

But, most important of all, U.S. men had moved. They had set a precedent. They had started something it would be hard to stop.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.