FDR on 'very great success' of Munich

CONFIDENTIAL
Press Conference #487,
Executive Offices of the White House,
September 30, 1938, 10:45 A.M.

Fifteen hours after the signing of the Munich Agreement, U.S. Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated: "On the European thing, the only thing I think I can comment on is the very wonderful service that was done by the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary and the other people in the Department of State, plus the American diplomatic stations at the various capitals that were concerned in it. It is a very fine example of team play and everybody working right together with very great success. Also I might add to that the fine way in which both the press and the radio kept their feet on the ground, nearly all of them. I have to qualify that and say, "nearly all of them" during a moment of very serious world tension. It was, as we all know, a very definite crisis and, though there are many things which are called crises which are not, this one was."