Jerry Sanson
Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum
April 2026
President Franklin Roosevelt was well-known for his delivery of important speeches to the American people over the relatively new medium of radio. His famous “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” came from his first Inaugural Address, and many Americans first heard those stirring words while listening to his inauguration on a radio. He utilized radio to share his plans for the New Deal as though he were taking Americans into confidential conversations in the Oval Office or the Cabinet Room.
Roosevelt continued using radio to communicate with Americans after World War II began, telling them that the country would become the Arsenal of Democracy in order to supply the Allies, that U.S. military forces would escort Allied ships across Atlantic waters suddenly made dangerous by German U-boats, or that Japanese forces had attacked Pearl Harbor. The timbre and inflection of his voice, the aristocratic New York accent with which he spoke, became as much of the soundtrack of World War II as a Glenn Miller recording or men barking orders to other men in basic training.
The president sometimes used his control of the airwaves to speak to Americans about war-related subjects other than strictly military-related topics. The Alexandria Weekly Town Talk of October 21, 1944, in the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum collection reports one such instance when he delivered a nation-wide broadcast in support of the National War Fund.
National War Fund collection efforts are not as famous as the more-familiar War Bond sales efforts or scrap drives, and many histories of the American home front do not even include them, but they were a part of wartime life.
Numerous well-meaning humanitarian efforts began even before the United States became involved in the war. “Bundles for Britain” became popular soon after the European war began and was soon followed with organizations focused on individual countries caught up in the oppression and tragedies following Nazi armies across the continent. American Relief for Norway, the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, The British War Relief Society, the Greece War Relief Association, the United Seamen’s Service, the United Service Organization (the famous USO that provided so many services to troops during the war), and others were all worthy causes, but their ceaseless appeals for funding overwhelmed Americans and their wallets.
The government responded to this situation by creating the National War Fund in 1943 to coordinate fundraising and ensure that war-related needs received funding efficiently. It was based on the Community Chest model that many people across the country already knew and eventually provided funds for about twenty war-related relief agencies. Its biggest recipient was the USO that provided entertainment and tried to re-create a homelike refuge for American troops away from their home communities.
The Fund raised money through local community campaigns, much like its successor, today’s United Way, eventually receiving funds from about 43,000 communities, and President Roosevelt spoke to the American people in October1944 in support of a coordinated drive to convince them to send in their contributions.
His talk was much like his famous “Fireside Chats,” a conversation between friends rather than a formal address. He described donations as “democracy at its best” and reminded his listeners that “we send a token of our own personal friendship to the tragic victims of brute slavery and to those who have so long borne the burden of fighting this war. This gift—this expression of our own free will—speaks from the heart of the nation,” he remarked.
The National War Fund continued operating until 1947 and is judged one of the successful aspects of the American home front. Americans donated about $325 million to the Fund. Its largest contribution came from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and its second biggest contribution came from entertainer Bob Hope, who donated the royalties from his book I Never Left Home.”