7. The wording of this telegram reflected Halifax’s often convoluted and cautious phraseology. It suggested that Roosevelt address Hitler directly: “If you … say to Hitler that, while you recognize his right to obtain terms that must necessarily be difficult and distasteful to those whom he defeated, nevertheless terms which intended to destroy the independence of Great Britain and France would at once touch the vital interests of the U.S., and that if such insisted upon, you thought it inevitable that the attempt would encounter U.S. resistance, the effect might well be to make him think again. If you felt it in the event contemplated to go further and say that, if he insisted on terms destructive of British independence and therefore prejudicial to position of U.S., U.S.A. would at once give full support to G.B., effect would of course be all the more valuable” (Halifax Papers, A. 410.4.1, cited in Roberts, The Holy Fox, 212).