My friends:

This is not a fireside chat on war. It is a talk on national security; because the nub of the whole purpose of your President is to keep you now, and your children later, and your grandchildren much later, out of a last-ditch war for the preservation of American independence, and all of the things that American independence means to you and to me and to ours. (1-2)

Take a peek at the opening lines of FDR's "Great Arsenal of Democracy," and it's super-obvious how worried Americans were about potentially going to war.

FDR started his speech by assuring the American people he wasn't going to talk to them about war. (Um, really? Really, Franklin?)

His focus was on the national security of the United States, which was his number one priority as the president. His job was to create and preserve a safe place for all people, as well as future generations, to live freely and independently. That was FDR's priority, even as Germany was wreaking havoc all over Europe, and he wanted to be sure the American people knew that.

Ahh. So by "not a chat on war," FDR means "not a chat on a war we're currently involved in." Semantics are everything.