One Year: 1942 | 1. The Most Hated Man in America

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the beginning of World War II, the greatest threat to the American war effort wasn’t the Nazis or the Japanese—it was runaway inflation. The man in charge of stopping it was the country’s “price czar,” Leon Henderson. In 1942, he controlled how much coffee ordinary people could drink and how many tires they could buy. Those rules made him a nationwide villain. But would they save the country? One Year is produced by Evan Chung, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, and Josh Levin. Derek John is senior supervising producer of narrative podcasts and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. Slate Plus members get to hear more about the making of One Year. Get access to extra episodes, listen to the show without any ads, and support One Year by signing up for Slate Plus for just $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sunday December 7th, 1941 was the final day of the NFL regular season.
0:07.0	At 2 PM Eastern, fans of the first place New York Giants tune their radios to W-O-R.
0:14.0	It's a long one down to around the three yard line.
0:18.0	The game was still scoreless, 26 minutes after the opening kickoff.
0:24.4	Then suddenly, a newscaster broke into the play-by-play.
0:29.2	We interrupt this broadcast and bring you this important bulletin from the United Press.
0:34.0	Flash, Washington. The White House announces Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
0:39.0	That was the first known radio bulletin about the military strike on Hawaii.
0:46.0	Within a few minutes, the news was everywhere.
0:49.0	The attack was a complete surprise at Pearl Harbor, only minimum forces of the Army and Navy
0:55.2	were on Sunday morning duty. The Japanese dive bombers have been making continuous
0:59.2	attacks apparently from a Japanese aircraft carrier. Three American battleships were hit, and the battleship West Virginia was reported so.
1:08.1	The attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,400 Americans.
1:14.4	When President Franklin Roosevelt heard the news,
1:17.4	he was getting ready to work on his stamp collection.
1:20.6	By the next afternoon, he'd brought the country into an existential fight that had already
1:26.2	engulfed most of the planet.
1:28.7	No matter how long it may take us, the American people in their righteous might will win through to
1:37.8	absolute victory. In those early days, absolute victory against Japan, Germany, and Italy felt more like a wish than a promise.
1:50.0	As the calendar flipped to January 1942, hundreds of thousands of young people enlisted in the military.
1:57.3	Millions more were likely to be drafted.
2:00.3	But in 1942, the war wouldn't be fought only on battlefields.
	...

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