US Presidency
1944

From a strictly military standpoint, we had long ago accomplished certain of the main objectives of our Italian campaign the control of the islands the major islands the control of the sea lanes of the Mediterranean to shorten our combat and supply lines, and the capture of the airports, such as the great airports of Foggia, south of Rome, from which we have struck telling blows on the continent the whole of the continent all the way up to the Russian front. It would be unwise to inflate in our own minds the military importance of the capture of Rome. We shall have to push through a long period of greater effort and fiercer fighting before we get into Germany itself. The Germans have retreated thousands of miles, all the way from the gates of Cairo, through Libya and Tunisia and Sicily and Southern Italy. They have suffered heavy losses, but not great enough yet to cause collapse. Germany has not yet been driven to surrender.