Transcript Ch. 25 and the Road to World War II MK

Text chapter 25
ISOLATIONISM: MYTH OR REALITY?
Critics of foreign policy in the 1920s often cite
ISOLATIONISM as the trend, since many
Americans were disillusioned as a result of
involvement in “Europe’s War”
ISOLATIONISM implies that the US is not
involved in international affairs
In reality, the US played a very active role in
world affairs during the 1920s– even if not aligned
with Wilson’s vision:
League of Nations
PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED …
The Washington Conference (1921)
Limiting the Naval race
Five-Power Pact
Nine-Power Pact
Four-Power Pact
These actions limited armament of Italy and
Japan, secured Japanese dominance in Asia,
maintained China’s Open Door, and reestablished territorial agreements among
those who signed
PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED …
The Kellogg-Briand Pact
France and US officials propose a multi-lateral treaty
WARS of AGGRESSION ARE UNACCEPTABLE
Circular Loans
Proposed by
Charles Dawes
The Road to WWII: LATIN AMERICA
Montevideo (Uruguay)Conference, 1933
US renounces (gives up) right to intervene in
the affairs of Latin American countries
GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
This might be interpreted as a retreat from the
Monroe Doctrine and Pan-Americanism
Also might be interpreted as signaling a
movement back toward the isolationism of the
1920s
LATIN AMERICA
 Cuban revolution, 1933
 Brought Fulgencio Batista to power
 US did not intervene
 Batista served as president until 1940, then left
office. He staged a coup in 1952, remained in
power until the Castro revolution of 1959
 After the revolution, US did grant Cuba a
“favorable status” involving a US pledge to
purchase Cuban sugar
 US continued to keep naval base at Guantanamo
Bay (Gitmo)
MANCHURIA, 1931
 Japan invaded Manchuria
 Immediate purpose was to obtain coal
 Violated Kellogg-Briand Pact
 Hoover refused to go along with League of
Nations sanctions
 Hoover refused to grant diplomatic recognition
to the “new” country of Manchukuo that Japan
had created out of the conquered country
London Economic Conference, 1933
 Unsuccessful attempt to stabilize the
currencies of nations undergoing
depression.
 FDR refused to let the dollar “float” in
value relative to European currencies
 Insisted on an objective gold standard.
 Conference failure was thus blamed on
Americans.
USSR Relations
 US granted diplomatic recognition to the USSR
 November 1933
Had refused to recognize the Communist
government since the 1917 Revolution
But now it was in US strategic interests to do so
to counter Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
 First US ambassador to the USSR was
Clarence Birdseye
 Birdseye tried to market his new product,
quick-frozen vegetables, to Russia
Philippines
 Tydings-McDuffie Act, 1934
 Filipinos had sought dominion status,
which would give them some level of
independence.
 US promised to give it, but not
immediately; promised they would
become independent by July 4, 1946.
Reciprocal Trade Agreement, 1934
 Pledged to lower Hawley-Smoot
Tariff rates for any country that
would lower its tariff with the USA
 By 1936, had lowered mutual tariffs
with 13 countries.
 Negotiated by Cordell Hull
Nye Committee, 1934-35
 Made public what many Americans
had suspected: That financial
considerations had played a big
part in Wilson’s decision to enter
WWI
 German “threat” overstated
 Caused even more isolationist spirit
among Americans.
Johnson Act, 1934
 Any European nation that defaulted on its
debts could not sell stock in any of its
companies to Americans, as long as the
debt was outstanding
 This affected Germany significantly, as it
owed huge debts to the US
Neutrality Act, 1935
 USA would not sell weapons to any
warring nation in Europe, regardless
of who started the war
 American ships carried no weapons
 US Citizens urged to avoid travel to
warring nations
Neutrality Act, 1935
 Gave US president authority to
decide what constitutes a state of
war
 Lets him invoke the neutrality
provisions even if the warring nations
never actually declared war
 US won’t even lend money to a
warring nation
Neutrality Act, 1937
 Extended previous neutrality acts to include
even civil wars
 No weapons sales to belligerents
 No sales of any kind (food, medicine, etc.) to
belligerents unless . . .
Nation paid cash (no loans) . . .
And carried the merchandise on their own
ships…
And no US ships were to be involved
FASCISM
 Fascism continued to grow in
Europe and Asia
 Western insistence on neutrality
convinced fascist countries that
the non-fascist world lacked the
motivation or power to stop
fascist aggression
FASCISM
 1936: Fascist Italy took advantage of
the opportunity to take over Ethiopia
 Ethiopia was rich in gold, in those days
 Emperor Haile Selassie I, (“Power of the
Trinity, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of
Judah, Lord of Lords, King of Kings of
Ethiopia and Elect of God”)
 The League of Nations failed to protest,
as did the United States.
Emperor Haile Selassie I
ROME-BERLIN AXIS, 1936
Benito Mussolini
Adolf Hitler
CHINA
 1937: Japan invaded China
 US gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese
during this attack.
 US refused to prosecute as an “attack,”
insisting instead on an apology from
Japan
 Many Americans urged FDR just to
withdraw all Americans from China
 “Don’t get involved”
US GUNBOAT, PANAY
QUARANTINE, 1937
 Chicago, 1937
 FDR advocates “quarantine of the
aggressors”
 Public reaction very unfavorable.
 FDR withdrew this idea
 But FDR still recognized that at some
point, the US would have to act.
A NEW GERMAN THREAT
A NEW GERMAN THREAT
 Hitler’s aggressive expansion of The Third
Reich across central Europe continued
 1938: Germany reunited with Austria
This had been prohibited by the 1919
Treaty of Versailles
 1938: Germany took part of
Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) with
the consent of western Europe
The Munich Pact
MUNICH FAILS
 Munich pact was hailed by Europeans and
Americans
 Many believed it had secured “peace in our
time.”
 1939: Hitler broke the pact
 Claimed the rest of Czechoslovakia as German
territory
 Britain’s policy of “appeasement” was clearly
ineffective
The Road to WWII
FDR and his cabinet were alarmed
The mood in the USA was generally “that’s not our
affair”
But FDR knew we would have to get involved sooner or
later
August 1939: Secret non-aggression pact between Hitler
and Stalin
 Pledged not to attack each other
 Each man secretly planned to break the pact
 Each man understood that the other was going to do that
eventually
Another corrupt bargain…
HITLER-STALIN PACT
The Hitler-Stalin pact also included
plans for Hitler to overtake Poland, then
divide Poland between Germany and
USSR.
Stalin agreed only because it bought
him time to get his country ready for
the inevitable war with Germany.
LIGHTNING WAR
Hitler’s army made “Blitzkrieg” (lightning-fast
war)
Invaded Poland in September 1, 1939, just days
after signing the pact with Stalin.
FDR realized the war to
come, and that it was his
task to get the USA
mentally and militarily
prepared.
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ESCALATION
October 1938 – January 1939: nearly $2
billion additional appropriated for defense
FDR created a War Resources Board to
plan an industrial response to future war
needs
Diplomatically FDR began to look for
loopholes in the Neutrality Acts
PREPARATION
First step: September 1939, FDR urged
Congress to allow sales of arms to nations
under attack by fascism, but only on a
cash-and-carry basis
Second step: FDR urged Congress to
allow loans to countries being attacked by
fascism
Officially, the US was still “neutral”
MEANWHILE IN EUROPE…
June, 1940: Hitler’s armies quickly
conquered France
France was an old ally of the US
Most Americans now saw Germany as a
threat
American attitudes began to shift
regarding involvement in the war to assist
“our old friends.”
AMERICA FIRST
The “America First” Committee ardently
opposed these new attitudes.
Recommended that the US consider
objectively whether the interests of America
were served by joining the war
Friendship with old allies not enough of a
reason.
Some anti-Semitism among “America
Firsters”
YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
HAVE SELECTED YOU…
FDR proposed the first peacetime
draft in American history in
September 1935
Passed by Congress
Called in all men between the
ages of 21 and 35
LEND-LEASE
FDR sought to aid Britain in any possible legal
way
Began “lend-lease” – literally gave warships to
Britain
Sometimes in exchange for promise of land
Sometimes in exchange for promise of
payment “someday”
Rationale: “Don’t withhold your garden hose if
your neighbor’s house is on fire”
SHIFTING IDEALS
Polls showed Americans’ opinions
gradually shifting toward involvement,
away from isolationism during this time.
Added bonus: stepped-up production of
war materials was putting Americans back
to work
Helped end the Depression once and for
all.
1940 ELECTION
1940 election
Republican Wendell Willkie vs. FDR
FDR broke with precedent to run
for a 3rd term, because of impending
war.
1940 ELECTION
Willkie basically agreed with FDR on
almost everything
But by the end of the campaign he
had begun to call FDR a “warmonger”
But by fall of 1940 many Americans
agreed with FDR regarding the war.
1941
August 1941: FDR and British PM
Winston Churchill met secretly near
Newfoundland
Issued the “Atlantic Charter”
Not a declaration of war but a vision of a
postwar world without fascism, with
freedom and democracy for all world
citizens
FDR and Churchill pledged to uphold the
Charter
1941
American warships patrolling the North
Atlantic (to guard British shipping) were
attacked by German submarines
FDR authorized all American defense
ships to “shoot on sight.”
1941: FDR urged all merchant ships to
arm themselves against possible German
attack.
MEANWHILE IN ASIA…
After conquering part of China in 1937,
Japan announced that China was part of
its “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
sphere.”
Ended “Open Door Policy” with the West.
FDR urged US loans to China for their
defense
Urged Americans not to buy Japanese
products.
RELATIONS WITH JAPAN
September 1940: The Axis powers (Italy
and Germany) invited Japan to join the
Axis via the Tripartite Pact.
July 1941: USA closed the Panama Canal
to traffic by any Axis nation
US ordered embargo of coal, oil, and all
food products to Japan.
RELATIONS WITH JAPAN
Summer of 1941: Secretary Cordell
Hull attempted negotiations with Japan
to get these trade concessions restored
IF Japan would remove forces from
China.
Japan pledged to do so, also not to
make war on the US should the US join
the war on the side of the Allies – even
though the Tripartite Pact obligated
Japan to fight the US if US entered the
war
RELATIONS WITH JAPAN
Japan offered to host a
summit meeting between
Prime Minister Hideki
and FDR
FDR said he would attend
no such meeting while
Japanese troops
were in China.
Meeting was never held.
Tojo
RELATIONS WITH JAPAN
Peace talks continued
But secretly Japan was planning to attack US
naval forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Purpose of the attack
Damage the newest ships in the US fleet
Intimidate the US by a demonstration of
Japan’s military might
Discourage US involvement to aid European
allies