Transcript America Moves Toward War

Ordered Sharing
• “Today we did what we had to do. They counted on
America to be passive. They counted wrong”
– Ronald Reagan
• "I must study politics and war that my sons may have
liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”
– John Adams
• “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for
war.”
– Albert Einstein
• “The purpose of all wars...is peace.”
– Saint Augustine
• “Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about
because the U.S. was too strong”
– Ronald Reagan
•
“Naturally the common people don't want war;
neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America,
nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it
is the leaders of the country who determine policy,
and it is always a simple matter to drag the people
along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they
are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for
lack of patriotism and exposing the country to
danger. It works the same in any country.”
America Moves Toward War
16.4 Notes
The United States Musters Its
Forces
• The US stayed neutral at
the beginning of the war
• Roosevelt wanted the US
to revise the Neutrality
Acts.
– “Cash-and-Carry” program:
Permitted nations to buy
American arms as long as
they paid cash and carried
the goods on their ships.
The United States Musters Its
Forces
• France fell quickly to
Germany
• Britain was being
bombarded by the
German Luftwaffe
• Germany, Japan, and
Italy signed a treaty
making themselves the
Axis Powers
• US remains neutral,
fearing a “two ocean war”
The United States Musters Its
Forces
• America starts building its military, just in
case.
– Before the war there were 18 countries with
stronger militaries than the US
– In 1940, the US initiated a peacetime draft
• 16 Million Men: 21-35 years of age
– Roosevelt was elected for a 3rd term
• Promising to keep America out of war
“The Great Arsenal of Democracy”
• Roosevelt argued that the US was a
weapon for Democracy
• In a fireside chat, Roosevelt describing
Hitler stated, “No man can tame a tiger
into a kitten by stroking it.”
• FDR established the Lend-Lease plan.
The US would lease weapons to “any
country who defense was vital to the US.”
German Wolf Packs
• German Submarines, in
groups of 15 to 20
patrolled the North
Atlantic, sinking transport
ships.
• Sunk ships faster than
the British could build
them
• Roosevelt gave the US
Navy permission to
protect Lend-Lease ships
up to Iceland
Planning for War
• Secretly, Churchill and FDR sign the
Atlantic Charter.
– Expresses the common purpose of the
Allies
• Allies
– US, Great Britain, France, Russia, China
• German U-boats sank 2 US Cargo
Ships and 1 US Destroyer
– Roosevelt said, “America has been
attacked, the shooting has started. And
history has recorded who fire the first
shot”
– US still did not go to war
• 100+ American deaths was not enough to
convince Congress to declare war on
Germany.
Japan
•
•
Japan was an expansionist nation, seeking to
control all of the Atlantic, including the
American controlled Philippines and Hawaii /
Guam islands
Japan attacked French controlled Indochina
– US retaliated by putting an embargo on Japan
• Oil embargo
•
•
Nov. 5, 1941 Hideki Tojo sent a set of
ambassadors to negotiate peace with the US.
On that same day he ordered the Japanese
Navy to prepare for War with the US
Dec 6, 1941 Roosevelt intercepted a decoded
message that was sent to Japanese
ambassadors saying to reject all American
peace proposals.
– Roosevelt told Henry Hopkins, “This means
war,” Hopkins said, It’s too bad we can’t strike
first and prevent a surprise,” Roosevelt replied.
“no, we can’t do that . . . We are a democracy of
peaceful people. We have a good record. We
must stand on it.”
Attack on Pearl Harbor
• “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping
giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Isoroku Yamamoto
• Dec. 7, 1941 – “A Date which will live in Infamy”
• Japan sent 180 warplanes launched from 6 aircraft
carriers to bomb the US military base of Pearl Harbor
–
–
–
–
18 American ships were sunk or badly damaged
2,400 people died
350 Planes were destroyed
1,178 were wounded
• Isolationism was done, it was time for war.