My fellow Americans. This evening, at my direction, United States Marines secured the airfields and the harbour of Greenland. There was no resistance. Not one shot was fired and not one person was hurt, on either side, and I want the country to hear that first.
— Address to the nation, the Oval Office
what was actually happening
The assessment of 3 January had told him exactly what would follow: European Command compromised, base access across five countries endangered, emergency sessions of the North Atlantic Council. All of it happened inside seventy-two hours, in that order. The asset freeze landed before noon the next day.