Transcript Peace in Peril

Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
US: Age of Global Crisis
 Section 1: Peace in Peril (1933-1950)
 Section 2: Peace with Problems (1945-1960)
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Peace in Peril
 In the 1930s, great changes were happening in
Europe and Asia.
 Totalitarian regimes rose to power in Germany,
Italy, and Japan, threatening the freedom of
nations on their borders.
 In 1939, the German invasion of Poland
launched World War II, which quickly engulfed
Europe and much of Asia.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Peace in Peril
 The United States, still embracing isolationism,
tried to maintain neutrality, but the 1941
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor drew the
nation into the conflict.
 Four more years of bloody fighting in Europe
and Asia left millions of soldiers and civilians
dead and hundreds of cities damaged or
destroyed. The United States suffered relatively
light losses in comparison to other nations, and it
emerged as a world leader with a growing
commitment to international involvement.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Peace in Peril
 n the 1920s and 1930s, the United States
pursued a policy of neutrality and isolationism.
 In order to understand the reasons for this
policy, we must examine the lingering impact of
World War I.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 The United States had been reluctant to enter
World War I.
 Fighting had begun in Europe in 1914, and the
United States stayed out of the war until 1917.
 Between April 1917, when the United States
formally declared war, and Germany's surrender
in November 1918, some 48,000 American
soldiers were killed in battle, 2,900 were
declared missing in action, and 56,000 soldiers
died of disease.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 These losses were far less than those of the
European nations, some of which had lost
millions of soldiers and civilians.
 Nevertheless, the American losses were great
enough to cause Americans to take a close
look at the reasons for the entry of the United
States into the war and at the nation's foreign
policy.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 Isolationism and neutrality are similar foreign
policies, but an important difference exists
between them.
 Isolationism is a national foreign policy of
remaining apart from political or economic
entanglements with other countries.
 Strict isolationists do not support any type of
contact with other countries, including
economic ties of trade activities.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 When a country chooses a policy of neutrality, it
deliberately takes no side in a dispute or
controversy.
 Countries following this path are often referred
to as being nonaligned or noninvolved.
 Neutral nations do not limit their trading
activities with other nations, unless a trading
partnership would limit that country's ability to
stay politically noninvolved.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 The roots of isolationist and neutralistic
sentiments in the United States can be traced to
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 In his years as President, George Washington
set the important precedent of an American
foreign policy of neutrality—but not isolationism.
 He knew that trade was necessary for the new
nation to prosper, but that foreign alliances
might force it into war.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 In 1793, Washington issued his Proclamation of
Neutrality, making it clear that the United States
would not respond to requests for aid during the
French Revolution.
 In his farewell address of 1796, Washington
warned the United States to steer clear of
"entangling alliances," or political commitments
to other nations, although he supported
economic ties to foreign countries. These basic
ideas guided American foreign policy into the
twentieth century.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 The policy that became known as the Monroe
Doctrine reinforced the neutral position of the
United States toward Europe. In 1823, President
Monroe proclaimed that the United States would
not interfere in European affairs. He also warned
European powers to remain out of the affairs of
nations in the Western Hemisphere. This
doctrine formed the backbone of American
foreign policy for many years.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 In 1934, when the United States was trying to
recover from the worst economic depression in
its history, Senator Gerald Nye led an
investigation into the reasons the United States
entered World War I.
 The committee concluded that the United States
had gone to war at the encouragement of
financiers and armament makers, eager for
profits.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 As a result of this investigation, many Americans
supported a return to isolationism. They believed
that the country would be secure without
worrying about the actions of the rest of the
world.
 The refusal of the United States to join the
League of Nations was reinforced by the
Senate's move in 1935 to forbid the United
States to join the World Court.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 That same year, Congress also passed the first
of a series of neutrality acts, intended to
prevent Americans from making loans to
nations at war.
 Any sales of goods to such nations were to be
strictly on a "cash and carry" basis.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Isolationism
 In 1937, President Roosevelt made his famous
quarantine speech, in which he likened the
spreading world lawlessness to a disease.
 He stated that the United States would attempt
to quarantine the "patients" in order to protect
the rest of the community of nations.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 The rise of totalitarian governments in Germany
and Italy in the 1930s set the stage for World
War II.
 In totalitarian governments, one political party
has complete control over the government and
bans all other parties. Totalitarian governments
rely on terror to suppress individual rights and
silence opposition. In other words, totalitarian
governments are the opposite of all that the
United States considers its tradition of political
freedom and liberty.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 In Germany and Italy, totalitarian governments
were established based on the philosophy of
fascism. Fascism places the importance of the
nation above all else, and individual rights and
freedoms are lost as everyone works for the
benefit of the nation. Nazi Germany (led by Adolf
Hitler) and Fascist Italy (led by Benito Mussolini)
were two fascist governments characterized by
extreme nationalism, racism, and militarism
(desire to go to war).
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 Hitler and Mussolini provided military assistance
to Francisco Franco, a Fascist leader in Spain
who was attempting to overthrow the republican
government there and establish a totalitarian
one. The devastating Spanish civil war that
erupted in 1936 would become a "dress
rehearsal" for World War 11. The war in Spain
was a testing ground for new weapons and
military strategies that would later be used in
World War II.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 In the United States, opinions about support for
the Spanish civil war were divided. Some
Americans traveled to Spain to fight for the
republican cause. The United States
government, however, continued to pursue a
policy of neutrality. Congress passed a
resolution forbidding the export of arms to either
side in 1937. Franco won the Spanish civil war in
1939, established a fascist government, and
remained leader of Spain until his death in 1975.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 In the Munich Agreement (1938), Great Britain
and France allowed Germany to annex the
Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a
large German-speaking population. Hitler
convinced the British prime minister Neville
Chamberlain and the French premier Edouard
Daladier that Germany would make no further
territorial demands in Czechoslovakia after
annexing the Sudetenland.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Events Leading To WWII
 When Chamberlain returned to Britain with this
agreement, he told the world that he had
achieved "peace for our time." Six months later,
however, Hitler seized the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
 Great Britain and France had resorted to the
policy of appeasement, which means to agree to
the demands of a potential enemy in order to
keep the peace. Hitler demonstrated by his
action that he could not be permanently
appeased, and the world learned a costly less.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Lend-Lease Act
 Although the United States was officially
committed to a policy of neutrality, President
Roosevelt soon found around the Neutrality Acts
to provide aid, including warships in the
Destroyer Deal, to Great Britain.
 In 1941, Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass
the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the United
States to sell or lend war materials to "any
country whose defense the President deems
vital to the defense of the United States.”
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Lend-Lease Act
 Roosevelt intended to keep the United States
out of the war, but he said the nation would
become the "arsenal of democracy," supplying
arms to those who were fighting for freedom.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Pearl Harbor
 The United States did not enter World War II
until 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had
promised that the United States would not fight
in a war in which the country was not directly
involved.
 However, on December 1941, Japanese war
planes attacked the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii. Roosevelt called the attack a
day that would “live in infamy," a day that
Americans would never forget.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Pearl Harbor
 This surprise attack shattered the American
belief that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
would safely isolate the United States from
fighting in Europe and Asia.
 The attack on Pearl Harbor fueled American
nationalism and patriotism. Suddenly the war
was no longer oceans away. The day after the
attack, Congress agreed to President
Roosevelt's request to declare war on Japan.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Why?
 Roosevelt's goal between August 1939 and
December 1941 was to help Britain and its
allies defeat Germany.
 Much of the British navy had been moved from
Asia so the Atlantic to defend against Germany.
 As a result, Roosevelt introduced policies to
discourage the Japanese from attacking the
British Empire.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Why?
 In July 1940, Congress passed the Export
Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to
restrict the sale of strategic materials to other
nations. Roosevelt blocked the sale of airplane
fuel and scrap iron to Japan. This angered the
Japanese, who had signed an alliance with
Germany and Italy and became a member of the
Axis Powers.
 By July 1941, Japan had sent troops to southern
Indochina.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Why?
 This was a threat to the British Empire. Japan
was now in a position to bomb Hong Kong and
Singapore.
 Roosevelt responded by freezing Japanese
assets in the United States. He reduced the
amount of oil being shipped to Japan, and sent
General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines to
build up American defenses there. Roosevelt
said the ban on oil would be lifted if Japan would
leave Indochina and make peace with China.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 World War II began in 1939, when German
forces invaded Poland. The United States
entered the war two years later, after the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. War in Europe
ended in May 1945, and fighting in the Pacific
ended on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese
surrender brought World War II to a conclusion.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 The war pitted 26 nations united together as the
Allies against eight Axis Powers. The major
powers among the Allies were Great Britain. the
Soviet Union, and the United States. Germany,
Italy, and Japan were the major Axis nations
 World War II was fought primarily in two major
regions: Europe and North Africa, and in the
Pacific.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 During the war, leaders of the Allied nations met
in a series of conferences to discuss wartime
strategies and plans for the postwar world. Key
meetings are described below.
 In 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met on
battleships in the North Atlantic to agree on
certain principles for building a lasting peace
and establishing free governments in the world.
 The document containing these agreements was
called the Atlantic Charter.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Casablanca, Morocco 1943 Roosevelt met with
Churchill to plan "victory on all fronts." They
used the term "unconditional surrender" to
describe the anticipated victory.
 Cairo, Egypt 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill, and
Chiang Kai-shek of China planned the
Normandy invasion.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Tehran Conference, 1943 Roosevelt and
Churchill met with Stalin to discuss war strategy
and plans for the postwar world.
 Yalta, Ukraine 1945 Roosevelt, Churchill, and
Stalin outlined the division of postwar
Germany into spheres of influence and planned
for the trials of war criminals.
 The Soviet Union promised to enter the war
against Japan.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Potsdam, Germany 1945 Allied leaders (with
Truman now replacing Roosevelt) warned
Japan to surrender to prevent utter destruction.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 In an effort to bring the war to a speedy
conclusion and to prevent further destruction
and loss of life, Allied leaders decided to embark
on an atomic research project.
 In the spring of 1943, a group of scientists from
the United States, Canada, Britain, and other
European countries began work on the topsecret atomic research program known as the
Manhattan Project. The research was done
primarily at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the
direction of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Many of the scientists involved in the projects
were refugees from Hitler's Germany.
 By July 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested
in New Mexico. The success of this project left
the United States in the position of determining
the ultimate use of the new weapon.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Within days after the first atomic test, Allied
leaders warned Japan to surrender or face
"prompt and utter destruction."
 Since no surrender occurred. President
Truman made the decision to drop atomic
bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 The bombs killed more than 100,000 Japanese
instantly, and thousands more died later from
radiation sickness.
 For a time after World War II, the United States
held a monopoly on atomic weapons. The world
had entered the atomic age.
 Little Boy and Fat Man
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
WWII Review
 Within days of the devastating bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan formally
surrendered, and World War II came to an end.
 Following Japan's surrender, the United States
occupied Japan under the leadership of
General Douglas MacArthur.
 A new constitutional monarchy went into effect
introducing democratic reforms to Japan.
 Emperor Hirohito retained his throne, but only as
a figurehead.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, he
did so by finding a scapegoat, someone to
blame for Germany's problems after World War
I.
 By appealing to anti-Semitism, feelings of hatred
against Jewish people, Hitler encouraged the
Germans to turn viciously on all Jewish citizens.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Nazi Propaganda
Jewish Worm
Wandering Jew
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 Early in his rise to power, Hitler had seized
Jewish property, homes, and businesses and
barred Jews from many jobs. At the Wannsee
Conference of 1942, the Nazis set as a primary
goal the total extermination, or genocide, of all
Jews under their domination.
 This effort was to be kept secret from the
German people and from the rest of the world.
Hitler's plan to eliminate the Jews was known to
the Nazis as the Final Solution.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 In the 1930s, the Nazis began to build
concentration camps to isolate Jews and other
groups from society and provide slave labor for
industry. As Hitler's conquest of Europe
continued, the camps became factories of death.
 More than six million Jews were killed in the
camps as were another four million people—
dissenters, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally
and physically handicapped, Protestant
ministers, and Catholic priests.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 Today, concentration camp names such as
Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Dachau stand as
memorials to the incredible human suffering and
death of this time, a period now called the
Holocaust.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 The United States and other nations failed to
take strong action to rescue Jews from Nazi
Germany before World War II. In 1939, the St.
Louis, a passenger ship carrying more than 900
Jewish refugees, left Europe for Cuba, but when
they arrived, most of the refugees were denied
permission to land there.
 The refugees were also denied permission to
enter the United States, and the ship was forced
to return to Europe. Most of the ship's
passengers eventually were killed in the
Holocaust.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 After war broke out, the Allies still failed to speak
out forcefully against the treatment of Jews or to
make direct attempts to stop the genocide. Only
toward the end of the war did the United States
create the War Refugee Board to provide aid for
Holocaust survivors.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 A final chapter to the Holocaust occurred in
Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945 and 1946. At that
time an international military court tried 24 highlevel Nazis for atrocities committed during World
War II.
 By finding former Nazis guilty of "crimes against
humanity," a precedent was established that
soldiers, officers, and national leaders could be
held responsible for such brutal actions.
Escaped Nazis who were found after the end of
the war—even decades later—were also
brought to trial for war-related crimes.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 Among the most infamous Nazis who were tried
and convicted was Adolf Eichmann. He was
captured in Argentina in 1960 and tried in Israel
for the torture and deaths of millions of Jews.
Eichmann was convicted of crimes against
humanity and was hanged in 1962.
 Klaus Barbie, known as the "Butcher of Lyon"
(France), was also apprehended and tried in
1987 for his wartime brutality to Jews.
Mr. Rizzo
US: Peace in Peril
Holocaust
 War crime trials also occurred in Japan. These
trials led to the execution of former premier Tojo
and six other war leaders. About 4,000 other
Japanese war criminals were also convicted and
received less severe sentences.