Second Draft, “Day of Infamy” speech, cover memo from Harry Hopkins

At 8:30 a.m. on December 8, FDR met with Harry Hopkins to review his 12:30 p.m. speech to Congress. They worked with this typed second draft of the speech, making their changes in pencil. At Hopkins’s suggestion, the President added a stirring sentence near the end of the address. A handwritten version of the sentence (with FDR’s and Hopkins’s handwriting), titled “Deity,” appears on page 4 of this draft. In the final version of the speech delivered by FDR it reads: “With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.” Master Speech File.