Extract from a memorandum by Frank Aiken
(Secret)

During the course of my conversation with Mr. Tobin,¹ he said that he was not convinced that a shooting war would occur and that the Russians had lost their opportunity of overrunning Europe quickly. He said that at one time General Eisenhower believed that they could hold the Cherbourg peninsula against hell and the devil, but that now he felt convinced that he could hold a line farther east. I said to him that I had a different feeling about the war; that I felt it was inevitable, but that even if I had the same hopes as he had, the situation was so dangerous that we here in Ireland should do all we could to build up our military strength and economic resources, as we could not afford to take any chances on the matter.

[matter omitted]