Ribbentrop’s assurances were fully in line with Hitler’s remarks during Matsuoka’s visit to Berlin in the spring, that Germany would immediately draw the consequences should Japan get into conflict with the USA.303 But at this point, before entering any formal agreement with the Japanese, Ribbentrop evidently deemed it necessary to consult Hitler. He told Oshima this on the evening of 1 December.304 The next day, Hitler flew, as we have seen, to visit Army Group South following the setback at Rostov. Bad weather forced him to stay overnight in Poltava on the way back, where he was apparently cut off from communications. He was able to return to his headquarters only on 4 December.305 Ribbentrop reached him there and gained approval for what amounted to a new tripartite pact — which the German Foreign Minister rapidly agreed with Ciano — stipulating that should war break out between any one of the partners and the USA, the other two states would immediately regard themselves as also at war with America.306 Already before Pearl Harbor, therefore, Germany had effectively committed itself to war with the USA should Japan — as now seemed inevitable — become involved in hostilities.
The agreement, which had inserted the mutual pledge and not just left a one-sided commitment, was still unsigned when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This unprovoked Japanese aggression gave Hitler what he wanted without having already committed himself formally to any action from the German side. However, he was keen to have a revised agreement — completed on 11 December, and now stipulating only an obligation not to conclude an armistice or peace treaty with the USA without mutual consent — for propaganda reasons: to include in his big speech to the Reichstag that afternoon.307
The idea of a speech to the Reichstag in mid-December, giving an account of the war-year 1941, had been in Hitler’s mind for some weeks. He had spoken to Goebbels about it as early as 21 November.308 Immediately following Pearl Harbor, he decided to make a declaration of war on the USA the high-point of his long-planned speech. As soon as he heard the news of the Japanese attack, he telephoned Goebbels, expressing his delight, and ordering the summoning of the Reichstag for Wednesday, 10 December, ‘to make the German stance clear’. Goebbels commented: ‘We will, on the basis of the Tripartite Pact, probably not avoid a declaration of war on the United States. But that’s now not so bad. We’re now to a certain extent protected on the flanks. The United States will no longer be so rashly able to provide England with aircraft, weapons, and transport-space, since it can be presumed that they will need all that for their own war with Japan.’309
From a propaganda point of view, the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor was most timely for Hitler. Given the crisis on the eastern front, he had little of a positive nature to include in a progress-report to the German people. No further mention had, in fact, been made of a speech to the Reichstag since he had himself originally raised the prospect weeks earlier. With nothing but setbacks and a prolonged war, contrary to all promises, to account for, he would almost certainly have wished to avoid a speech. But now the Japanese attack gave him a positive angle. On 8 December, Ribbentrop told Ambassador Oshima that the Führer was contemplating the best way, from the psychological point of view, of declaring war on the United States.310 Since he wanted time to prepare carefully such an important speech, Hitler had the assembling of the Reichstag postponed from 10 December, the date he had originally stipulated, to the next day, despite Japanese pressure for an earlier date.311 At least, Goebbels remarked, the time of the speech, three o’clock in the afternoon, though scarcely good for the German public, would allow the Japanese and Americans to hear it.312
On the morning of 9 December, Hitler’s train pulled in at the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin.313 He told Goebbels, who saw him at midday, of his suprise and initial incredulity at the attack on Pearl Harbor, though he had always expected that Japan would be forced to act before long if she did not want to give up her claim to world-power status.314 ‘The Führer is beaming again with optimism and confidence in victory,’ Goebbels remarked. ‘It is good, after so many days when we’ve had to digest unpleasant news, to come into direct contact with him again.’315 Hitler still had to prepare his speech. He gave Goebbels a résumé of what he intended to say.316 But when Goebbels saw him again the following lunchtime, 10 December, Hitler had still found no time, he said, to begin work on the speech.317
