Transcript File

Chapter 34
Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the Shadow of
War, 1933–1941
I. The London Conference
London Economic Conference
• 66 nations meet. Purpose and primary goal
• Roosevelt pulls out. Why?
• Doesn’t want to tie US in to agreement that might
limit his efforts in the US
• Results:
– World depression gets worse and everyone
pursues their own policies.
– Leads to an increase in extreme nationalism.
– Reduces chances for international cooperation
on other issues
II. Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos
and Recognition for the Russians
Freedom for the Filipinos
• 1934 - Tydings-McDuffie Act
• Provided for the independence of the
Philippines after a 12 year period of
economic & political tutelage
• US agreed to relinquish its army bases but
not naval bases
• Instead of freeing the Filipinos, Americans
were freeing themselves
• Plus, Japan is noticing….
Recognition for
the Russians
• FDR formally recognized the Soviet Union in
1933
• Against protest of anticommunist
conservatives
• FDR was hoping for trade with the Soviet
Union
• Also wanted to be friendly to Soviet Union to
help against possible German threat
p779
III. Becoming a Good Neighbor
FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy
• Goal: create good relations with Latin America
• FDR renounced armed intervention
– Formally endorsed it at the 7th Pan-American
Conference
• 1934 – Marines left Haiti
• Cuba was released from the Platt Amendment
– US naval base at Guantánamo Bay was retained
• 1936 – Grip on Panama was relaxed
Good Neighbor Policy is Tested
•
•
•
•
1938 – Problems in Mexico
Mexican gov’t seized Yankee oil properties
US investors demanded intervention
Settlement was worked out (1941) even
though the oil companies lost money
• Policy was applauded by Latin Americans
IV. Secretary Hull’s Reciprocal Trade
Agreements
Reciprocal Trade Agreements
• Headed by Sec of State Hull
• Believed trade was a 2 way street: a nation
can sell abroad only as it buys abroad
• Tariff barriers choked off foreign trade &
trade wars beget shooting wars
• Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act - 1934
– Aimed at both relief & recovery
conti
• Amended the Hawley-Smoot Law
• FDR could lower rates by as much as 50%
• However, the other country involved had to
do the same
• Effective without congressional approval
• Reversed the high-protective-tariff policy
V. Storm-Cellar Isolationism
VI. Congress Legislates Neutrality
Congress Legislates Neutrality
• 1934 - Senate committee headed
by Gerald Nye were appointed to
investigate reasons for WWI
• Blamed Americans bankers & arms
manufacturers instead of German
submarines
• Congress was eager to make legislation that
would keep the nation out of future war
Neutrality Acts
1935, 1936, 1937
• When the president proclaimed the
existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions
would go into effect
• No American on belligerent ships
• Could not sell or transport munitions to a
belligerent
• No loans to belligerents
• Goal: to keep US out of war
Isolationism: Dr. Seuss
US Neutrality
• Britain & France needed US airplanes & other
weapons but the Neutrality Act prevented this
• FDR asked Congress to revise the acts
• Neutrality Act of 1939
• European democracies could buy US war materials
on a “cash-and-carry” basis
• Use their ships, pay in cash
• FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones into
which US merchant ships were forbidden to enter
“The Only Way
We Can Save
Her,” 1939
• Even as war broke
out in Europe,
many Americans
continued to insist
on the morality of
U.S. neutrality.
X. The Fall of France
•
•
•
•
“Phony War” 1939-40 winter
Spring Offensive by Germany takes:
Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and…
France in less than two months
Aftermath of the
Fall of France
• June 1940 – France surrendered to Germany
• Successful evacuation at Dunkirk
– British saved the bulk of their army
• Winston Churchill – Great Britain’s new leader
• France’s collapse shocked the US
– Afraid that Great Britain would be next
Hitler Swaggers into Paris, 1940 The
fall of France to
German forces in June 1940 was a
galling blow to French
pride and convinced many Americans
that their country
must mobilize to defeat the Nazi
menace.
p786
German occupation
America Responds
• FDR called for build up of military
– Increase air power & navy
– $37 billion
• Sept 6,1940 - Congress passed a conscription
law
– 1st ever peace-time draft
• Havana Conference of 1940
– US agreed to join Latin America & uphold the
Monroe Doctrine (protect colonies of France etc)
XI. Refugees from the Holocaust
Shattered Jewish Storefronts in Berlin This photo was
taken after the attacks of
Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938.
p788
Albert Einstein Arriving in America, 1933 Sadly, the
United States admitted only a trickle of Jewish refugees,
while the Holocaust engulfed European Jewry.
p789
1939 - The S.S. St. Louis
The United States refused to admit over 900 Jewish refugees who had
sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on the St. Louis. The ship was forced to
return to Europe.
Problems for Britain
• Aug 1940 – Hitler launched air attacks
against Britain
• Battle of Britain lasted for months
– Royal Air Force eventually led Hitler to postpone
his invasion indefinitely
• Radio broadcasts from Great Britain
caused American sympathy
What do we do?
FDR’s Quandry
Isolationists
• “America First Committee”
• Take care of our own
defenses
• “The Yanks are not Coming”
• Charles Lindbergh
advocated
Aid Britain
• Committee do Defend
America by Aiding the Allies
• (whew!)
FDR Takes Action
• Sept 2, 1940 – FDR agreed to give Great
Britain 50 old model destroyers left over
from WWI
• In exchange, the British promised 8 valuable
defensive bases to the US for 99 years
XIII. Shattering the Two-Term
Tradition
Election of 1940
• Republican – Wendell L. Willkie
• Platform- condemned FDR’s alleged dictatorship & the costly
New Deal Programs
• Actively campaigned – 500+ speeches
• Democrat – FDR (both promised to stay out of war)
• Shattered the 2 term tradition
• Believed experience was needed in troubled times
• FDR wins again
Map 34-1 p791
p791
XIV. A Landmark Lend-Lease Law
The Lend-Lease Bill
• Lend or lease American arms to democracies
– “Send guns not sons.”
• Send a limitless supply of arms to the victims
of aggression
– In return, the war would stay across the ocean
• Accounts would be settled by returning the
weapons or their equivalents to the US at
the end of war
• Approved in March 1941
• “The Arsenal of Democracy”
Map 34.2 Main Flow of LendLease Aid (width of arrows
indicates relative amount)
The proud but desperate British
prime minister, Winston Churchill,
declared in early 1941, “Give us the
tools and we will finish the job.”
Lend-lease eventually provided the
British and other Allies with $50 billion
worth of “tools.”
Map 34-2 p792
Germany Responds
• May 21, 1941 - Germany torpedoed the
American merchant ship Robin Moor
• June 22, 1941 – Germany attacks Soviet
Union
• FDR responds by aiding Soviet Union (lendlease act). Total of $11 billion
• Hitler is stopped at the gates of Moscow
p793
Atlantic Charter
• Aug 1941 – Atlantic Charter Conference
– Winston Churchill & FDR
• Atlantic Charter:
• No territorial changes contrary to inhabitants
wishes
• People should choose their own government
• Disarmament & peace security (a new
League of Nations)
XVI. U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s Uboats Clash
Repeal of Neutrality Act
• U.S. escorts the shipments of arms to Britain
by U.S. warships in July 1941.
• In September 1941, the U.S. destroyer Greer
was attacked by U-boat
– Roosevelt a then proclaimed a shoot-on-sight
policy.
• Congress voted in November 1941 to repeal
the Neutrality Act of 1939, enabling
merchant ships to be legally armed and enter
the combat zones with munitions for Britain.
Problems for Japan
• Japan
• Depended on shipments from the US of
steel, scrap iron, oil, & aviation gasoline
• Late 1940 – Washington finally imposed an
embargo on supplies to Japan
• Mid 1941 – US froze all Japanese assets in US
• Nov & Dec 1941 - Negotiations begin
between US & Japan
• US demanded the Japan
withdraw from China
Surprise Attack on
Pearl Harbor
• US officials “cracked” the Japanese code & knew that Tokyo
had decided for war
• FDR expected an attack in the Philippines
• Attack came while negotiations were still going on
• “Black Sunday” – Dec 7, 1941
• 3000 casualties, & destruction of US naval fleet &
aircraft
• WAR for the US had begun
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFKPLxjq8c 45 mn
fromNtGeo
FDR’s address to Congress
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf7
4fsE 2.5 min
p795