What Makes For An "Emergency" « Expat Yank

re: "...Now was mid-August 1941, and that above is a statement from Senator Burton Wheeler reacting to the U.S. House having just renewed — by one vote — Selective Service...[snip]...That attitude was particularly perplexing to many abroad, especially given another American attitude that was common then just as it is now. Upon hearing of the single vote passage, an American radio commentator recalled a statement he heard from a British “man on the street”: “The Americans are curious people. I can’t make them out. One day, they’re announcing they’ll guarantee freedom and fair play for everybody everywhere in the world. The next day, they’re deciding by only one vote that they’ll go on having an Army.”..."...