Editor’s note: On April 17, 1939, Stalin signs a pact, aligning Russia with Britain and France against Nazi Germany.
Also, in April 1939, the U.S. military war planners completed their initial assessment of the potential threats from Germany, Italy and Japan. Their concern was the build-up of Naval forces by Japan in the Pacific and fear that if Germany and Italy joined forces and established a foothold in South or Central America, there would be risk of invasion. They established a series of “Rainbow” plans to prepare for the possible scenarios. “The most limited plan (RAINBOW 1) would provide for the defense of the Western Hemisphere south to the bulge of Brazil (10� south latitude) the Western Hemisphere being taken to include Greenland (but not Iceland, the Azores, or the Cape Verde Islands) to the east, and American Samoa, Hawaii, and Wake (but not Guam or the Philippines) to the west.” These plans were further refined by June 1930.
See http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/SP1941-42/chapter1.htm
This plan also included a much needed build up in the Air Force, Army and Navy resources to protect the western hemisphere. Manufacture of airplanes, ships and military equipment became an urgent priority.
4/17/39 #1
Baby Girl:
Don’t be frightened by the special, as everything is all right. I was a bad boy, and didn’t find the time to write you yesterday, and I knew that would worry if you didn’t hear from me. So I hope this gets there either tonight or tomorrow morning. Looking at the weather, it doesn’t look like there will be much sky traffic today.
Saturday I bought a couple of reams of paper and went to work on my short story. I also wrote Aiken and asked if I could go up there next week-end, or sometime soon.
Believe it or not, I finally got in touch with Rettenmeyer. I was invited to drop in on his office Tuesday. With the invitation, I shan’t feel that I am taking his time.
Went to the show yesterday which was lousy. The stage show was good. Chick Webb blew hell out of everything with his drums, Ella Fitzgerald swung the pants off of Deep Purple [Click link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nghXDkurkjk ], St. Louis Blues, and a bunch of others. Peg Leg Bates put on a swell tap show, in spite of being minus a leg, as also did Chuck and the Chuckles.
Then the orchestra went to town on a jam session. No kidding, we had jitterbugs in the aisle and everything! Gee, I wish you had been with me. You would have gotten a big kick out of it.
Well, Darling, it is time for breakfast, and I have to walk about 8 blocks to the Post Office before I eat. I shall try to write more completely this afternoon or tomorrow night. Good-night, precious, –I hope you’re getting this tonight. I’m waiting for you, and always shall until I finally have you.
Your husband, Cy
# 2
Precious Girl:
Well, here it is, the same day, and I’m writing to you again. I have two of your letters to answer, for that little note this morning didn’t say much.
As concerns the Thursday trip to NYC, you probably know that it was all a mistake. I do want to see the kids, though, so I hope I hit them on their way home.
Precious, three days to go! We have put in nearly a year of restraint on an order of which we can both be justly proud. For my part, it has not only shown me how much I care for you, but also, and of more importance, it has shown me how deeply rooted that care is.
I shall try to drop Sam (you said Bill, but it is Sam) Vandivert a line sometime this evening. I doubt if JH would make the trip, although if he is ever down here again, we might hook up for a while.
You should have the card for Mrs. Huntoon by now. I couldn’t find another envelope large enough to house it, so you will have to scare one up.
OK, precious, on the holidays and stuff. Keep me posted and I shall be a good boy. I suggested to JH* that he have a picture made for his mother’s birthday.
I wish I had Andy’s confidence. I feel like I’m sitting on a volcano. I shall make few definite plans about anything until that is cleared up. I suppose when it is we should wait until fall to make a formal announcement. I have no objections to telling your folks, but I would wait until we are ready to announce our engagement. Then we could give her the chance if she wants to, and if she won’t do it, I would be more than pleased to have Doris and Cliff do the honors. I’m afraid I shall always consider them as my real in-laws. We would make a lot of our friends embarrassed if we announced it as soon as we both want to. By fall I should be able to handle the ring situation a little more effectively.
Did you get to see Orrin? I’ll bet it was good.
So you like my idea! Well, good! I feel insanely happy about it, so let’s not think any more about it until the present battle is cleared up. When it is all out of the way, we shall elaborate on this other plan. As you say, we will have to watch out for that little blonde.
I can’t see a chance of being able to stand up under a strain like the one we underwent in those 8 months or so in Chicago, and we can handle the marriage situation if we use our heads.
For goodness sakes. Of course I have no objection to your wanting your things from the farm. Of course, I yet don’t feel that you have much chance of getting them, but there is the chance that once this other is cleared away, your Mother will be so sick and tired of the Kennedy family that she will accept anything, even me! Who knows, maybe after I tell her to go to and stay a couple of times she will begin to like me.
I got a card from Fritz tonight saying he was going to be out here most of the week. I shall call him and see if I can’t have dinner with him once at least. His hours are not so hot for much of anything as he works until 10 P.M. But it certainly was good to hear from him, and I shall get a big kick out of talking to the old horse-thief.
Don’t ever tell him I told you, and I mean that, but Johny says that he misses you more than anything he left in the middle west. I must be nuts, but I’m not the least bit jealous! I’ll bet we have a lot of week-end company one of these days.
Baby girl, we have an awful lot to accomplish in the next fifteen years, but I’d rather work at it with you than with anyone else in the world. There are a lot of things I could say, but I can express the meaning better by just not saying them. You’re still my baby, and I love you, and I guess that’s about all that we can let count at this stage of the game. Still your best friend, but a lot more, I hope.
Cy
*John Huntoon