FOREIGN RELATIONS: Admission

The first overt act by Germany against the U.S. in World War II was the torpedoing of the freighter Robin Moor, six months before Pearl Harbor. The sinking brought a burning rebuke from Franklin Roosevelt, touched off new verbal skyrockets in the already explosive isolationist-interventionist debate. North Dakota’s Senator Nye “guessed” that the British had sunk her—then hastily retracted. For obvious reasons, Germany kept mum.

Last week for no apparent reason, Radio Berlin finally admitted the attack. Settled, once & for all, was the question of who fired the first shot.