Transcript Chapter 34, part-4 - apush

Congress Passes the Landmark
Lend-Lease Law
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Britain was running out of
money, but Roosevelt didn’t
want all the hassles that came
with calling back debts, so he
came up with the idea of a lendlease program in which the
arms and ships, etc. that the
U.S. lent to the nations that
needed them would be returned
when they were no longer
needed.
 Senator Taft retorted that in this
case the U.S. wouldn’t want
them back because it would be
like lending chewing gum then
taking it back after it’d been
chewed!
U. S. Lend-Lease Act,1941
Great Britain.........................$31 billion
Soviet Union...........................$11 billion
France......................................$ 3 billion
China.......................................$1.5 billion
Other European.................$500 million
South America...................$400 million
The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000
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The 1941 lend-lease bill was:
A focus of intense debate between internationalists and isolationists.
A direct challenge to the Axis dictators.
The point when all pretense of American neutrality was abandoned.
The catalyst that caused American factories to prepare for all-out war
production.
Though it was argued over heatedly in Congress, it passed, and by war’s
end, America had sent about $50 billion worth of arms and equipment.

The lend-lease program was basically the abandonment of the neutrality
policy, and Hitler recognized this.

Before, German submarines had avoided attacking U.S. ships, but after
the passage, they started to fire upon U.S. ships as well, such as the
May 21, 1941 torpedoing of the Robin Moor.
Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union
Spawns the Atlantic Charter
►
On June 22, 1941, Hitler shockingly
attacked Russia, breaking the agreement
of the nonaggression pact!
► Neither Stalin nor Hitler had ever actually
trusted each other, and both had been
expecting a double-cross from the
beginning of the arrangement.
 Hitler assumed his invincible troops
would crush the inferior Soviet
soldiers, but the valor of the Red
army, U.S. aid to the U.S.S.R.
(through lend-lease), and an early and
bitter winter, stranded the German
forces at Moscow and shifted the tide
against Germany.
Now Hitler was forced to
divide his forces and fight a
war on 2 fronts. He had
made his greatest
mistake….
Operation Barbarossa:
Hitler’s Biggest Mistake
Unexpected
Guest, 1941
Stalin joins the
democracies,
Britain and
America.
►
FDR and new British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill met on a ship in the Atlantic
Ocean to discuss the war.
►
What became known as the Atlantic
Conference was held in August 1941 and
the result was the eight-point Atlantic
Charter (similar to Wilson’s earlier Fourteen
Points). Main points included…..
 There would be no territorial changes
contrary to the wishes of native peoples.
 The charter also affirmed the right for native
people to choose their rulers (selfdetermination).
 It declared disarmament and a peace of
security, as well as a new League of Nations.
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Isolationists charged that FDR was
interfering with official neutrality policy,
while ignoring the fact that the U.S. was
already in an undeclared war since Hitler’s
submarines were already blatantly attacking
American ships.
British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
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To ensure that arms sent to Britain would reach there, FDR
agreed that a U.S. convoy would have to escort them, but
only as far as Iceland, and Britain would take over from
there.
►
There were clashes, as U.S. destroyers like the Greer, the
Kearny, and the Reuben James were attacked by the German
u-boats.
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By mid-November 1941, Congress annulled the now useless
Neutrality Act of 1939.
Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
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Japan was still embroiled in war with China, but when America
suddenly imposed embargoes on key supplies on Japan in 1940, the
imperialistic nation believed it had no choice but to either back off of
China or attack the U.S. They chose the latter.
►
The Americans had broken the Japanese code and knew that they
would declare war soon, but the U.S. thought that the Japanese
would attack British Malaysia or the Philippines since it was so much
closer to Japan. Wrong.
Before
After
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Instead, the paralyzing blow struck Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941 (“a date
which will live in infamy” as FDR famously declared the next day in his
declaration of war speech).
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Japanese air bombers suddenly attacked the naval base located there (where a
vast majority of the Pacific U.S. fleet was located), wiping out many ships and
planes and killing or wounding over 3,000 men.
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The next day FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan, and on December
11, 1941, Germany and Italy reciprocated by declaring war on the U.S.
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The United States had once again found itself in world war…..
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle:
First U. S. Raids on Tokyo, 1942
Pearl Harbor Memorial
America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
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Up until the day of the Pearl Harbor
attack, most Americans still wanted to
stay out of war, but afterwards the event
sparked such passion that it completely
infuriated Americans into supporting the
war effort.
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This had been long in coming, as the
U.S. had wanted to stay out of war, but
had still supported Britain more and
more as the Axis Powers had become
continuously aggressive.
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Plus, the U.S. had been against the
Japanese aggression in Asia all along
but had failed to take a firm stand on
either side.
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Finally, America had realized that
appeasement would not work against
“iron wolves,” and that only total war
against dictatorship and anarchy could
make the world safe for democracy.
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And Remember……