“What is important to understand is that we viewed this as a preemptive action. Hardly even preemptive, really, more a reaction against the USSR and Germany. We had seen how these two countries collaborated to divide Poland in September of 1939, and we saw the invasion of Finland as the beginning of a partition of all of Scandinavia. I quietly met with representatives from Denmark, Norway, and Finland to create a plan of action. Denmark refused, of course, but we started integrating a northern defense plan. Estonia also approached us, offering intelligence information. The multinational effort was groundbreaking for its secrecy. When, on December 27th, we received the letter from the United Kingdom we already knew what our response would be.”