80 years ago today - Dec 12, 1941

[Heber J. Grant]

What little time I have had I had read quite a bit and I have been dumbfounded at the neglect at Pearl Harbor and the loss of a couple of battle ships and the death of Brother Clark's son-in-law, Mervyn S. Bennion, who was commander of the West Virginia. It looks like we were absolutely asleep when the Japanese struck.

... I feel in my heart there was no necessity of having war. It may be that I do him an injustice, but I blame the war on President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I think he had no business to meet Churchill and enter into a contract to join with him against Germany. Roosevelt has spent our money, in my judgment, lavishly to furnish employment, etc, simply, to put it in plain English, to bribe the poor people to vote for him for a third term. I do not think he was any more fit for a third term than any other man who has been the President of our nation. ... About half the Latter-day Saints worship him and the General Authorities of the Church have felt that he was not fit for a third term. The people are greatly divided, much to my sorrow. I did all in my power to keep us from repealing the prohibition act without coming right out and demanding the people vote to retain it. We surrendered ourselves to getting whisky back and we are reaping the reward.

[The Diaries of Heber J. Grant, 1880-1945, Abridged, Digital Edition Salt Lake City, Utah, 2015]

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