The attack shocked the nation—and thrust the U.S. into a war it had managed to sidestep for years. The day after the attack, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. Calling December 7 a “date which shall live in infamy,” he told the U.S. Congress that the nation was in grave danger. Only one member of Congress, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, voted against the declaration. Rankin, a pacifist and the first woman in Congress, had also voted against the U.S. entering into World War I.