Transcript American Foreign Policy in the 1920s & 1930s

American
Foreign
Policy:
1930-1941
FDR Recognizes the Soviet
Union
(late 1933)
5 FDR - bolster the
US against Japan.
5 Trade w/ USSRhelp economy
during the
Depression.
Stalin- USSR - Communism
Stalin - MiniBio
Gulag
Hyper-Inflation in
Germany: 1923
Mussolini - Italy
Fascism- nation over the individual,
dictatorship w/ an emphasis on a strong
military
mini-bio
Adolf Hitler - Germany
mini-bio
Mein Kampf, Nazi, Economy
Fascism
Similarities
Communism
Extreme nationalism
internationalism
Economic
capitalist, protect
private prop, state
can direct economy
No private prop –
state directs
economy
Military
Show superiority of
the nation
Overthrow all nations
– put system in
Social
Control all
aspects of life
totalitarianism
Fascist Aggression
5 1935: Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty &
League of Nations [re-arming!]
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia.
5 1936: German troops sent into the Rhineland.
Fascist forces sent to fight with Franco in Spain.
5 1938: Austrian Anschluss.
Rome-Berlin Tokyo Pact [AXIS]
Munich Agreement  APPEASEMENT!
5 Sudetenland
5 Neville Chamberlain
5
So much aggression it takes 2
slides
5 1939: German troops march into the rest
of Czechoslovakia.
- Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.
5 September 1, 1939: German troops march
into
begins
Poland  blitzkrieg  WW II
Blitzkrieg
5 check it out
The appeasement of Hitler continued
with the Munich Pact.
Britain and France
sacrificed the
Sudetenland to
Germany in return
for peace.
British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain and Hitler in
Munich
But peace was
not to come.
German Aggression, 1936–1941
Nye Committee Hearings
(1934-1936)
5 The Nye Committee I
investigated the charge
that WW I was needless and
the US entered so munitions
owners could make big profits
[“merchants of death.”]
5 The Committee did charge
Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]
that bankers wanted war to
protect their loans & arms manufacturers to make
money.
5 Claimed that Wilson had provoked Germany by sailing
in to warring nations’ waters.
5 Resulted in Congress passing several Neutrality Acts.
FDR’s “I hate war” Speech
(1936)
Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936,
1937
5 Learn lessons from WWI
 no sales of arms to belligerent nations.
 no loans/credits to belligerent nations.
 Forbade US cit. to travel on ships of nations at war
 “cash-and-carry”  pay in cash, pick it up
 Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
5
limited the options of the POTUS in a crisis.
5 US declined to build up its forces!
US Neutrality
Franco – Spain – Fascism
Spanish Civil War (19361939)
The American “Lincoln Brigade”
1939 Neutrality Act
5
Germany’s invasion of Poland.
5
aids European democracies in a limited way
5
Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act:
 Aggressors could not send ships to buy US munitions.
 The US economy improves
5
America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy”
1940 Election – What is the
significance?
Unneutral Neutrality
5 Selective Service Act
 1st peacetime draft in US History
5 Destroyers for Bases Agreement
 US Destroyers => GB
 GB Bases => US
“America First”
Committee
Charles Lindbergh
“Lend-Lease” Act (1941) – sell/lend war supplies to
any country that was vital to safety of US
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
Winston Churchill - GB
Mini-bio
Quotes of Winnie
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I
will be sober and you will still be ugly.”
Lady Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife
I’d put poison in your coffee.”
Winston Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your
husband I’d drink it.”
Never in the field of human conflict was
so much owed by so many to so few
Atlantic Charter
5
5
5
5
5
5
1. not pursue terr. Expansion
2.right to choose own gov’t
3.international trade
4. to raw materials
5. be disarmed
6. rid the world of fear & poverty
5 BASIS FOR THE UNITED NATIONS
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech
He highlighted
four freedoms
precious to
Americans.
• freedom of speech
• freedom of worship
• freedom from want
• freedom from fear
All of these freedoms, he argued, were threatened
by German and Japanese militarism.
Hitler’s Biggest Mistake –
Invasion of Russia
Japanese Attack
Manchuria (1931)
5 League of Nations condemned the
action.
5 Japan leaves the League.
5 Hoover wanted no part in an American military action in
the Far East.
Prime Minister Tojo
Emperor Hirohito
Japanese Expansion, 1931-1939
Japan invaded
Manchuria,
then China.
“Rape of
Nanjing”
Panay Incident (1937)
5 Japan bombed USS
Panay gunboat & three
Standard Oil tankers on
the Yangtze River.
5 Japan apologized, paid US an indemnity, and promised no
further attacks.
5 Most Americans were satisfied with the apology.
5 Results  Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for
further aggression against US interests.
French Indochina - 1941
5 FDR – froze all Japanese assets in US
5 Embargo
 Gas
 Machine tools
 Scrap iron
 steel