Transcript American Foreign Policy in the 1920s & 1930s

Foreign Policy Tensions
Interventionism
Disarmament
•
Collective security
•
Isolationism
•
“Wilsonianism”
•
Nativists
•
Business interests
•
Anti-War movement
•
Conservative
Republicans
American Isolationism
5 Isolationists like
Senator Lodge, refused
to allow the US to sign
the Versailles Treaty.
5 Security treaty with
France also rejected by
the Senate.
5 July, 1921  Congress
passed a resolution
declaring WW I
officially over!
Sen. Henry Cabot
Lodge, Sr. [R-MA]
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.
FDR’s “Good Neighbor” Policy
5 Important to have all
nations in the Western
Hemisphere united in
lieu of foreign
aggressions.
5 FDR  The good
neighbor respects
himself and the rights
of others.
5 Policy of non-
intervention and
cooperation.
FDR’s “I hate war” Speech (1936)
Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936, 1937
5 When the President proclaimed the existence of a
foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically
go into effect:
 Prohibited sales of arms to belligerent nations.
 Prohibited loans and credits to belligerent nations.
 Forbade Americans to travel on vessels of nations at
war [in contrast to WW I].
 Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-andcarry” basis  pay when goods are picked up.
 Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
5 This limited the options of the President in a crisis.
5 America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!
US Neutrality
Fascist Aggression
5 1935: Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty &
the 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 1939: German troops march into the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.
5 September 1, 1939: German troops march into
Poland  blitzkrieg  WW II
begins!!!
1939 Neutrality Act
5 In response to Germany’s invasion of Poland.
5 FDR persuades Congress in special session to allow
the US to aid European democracies in a limited way:
 The US could sell weapons to the European
democracies on a “cash-and-carry” basis.
 FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones which
US ships and citizens could not enter.
5 Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act:
 Aggressors could not send ships to buy US munitions.
 The US economy improved as European demands for
war goods helped bring the country out of the
1937-38 recession.
5 America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
“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
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
FDR Signs the War Declaration
Causes of US entering WWII
Military
Support of
Allies Neutrality Act
and LendLease allow US
to supply
Britain with
war goods
German Sub
Attacks on
US naval
destroyers
while
escorting
British ships
US Enters WWII
December 8, 1941
Japanese
Imperialism
– US
economic
sanctions
against
Japan to
protest
aggression
December 7,
1941
Japan attacks
Pearl Harbor
Allies v. Axis Powers
5 Allies
 Great Britain
 France
 Soviet Union
(after 6/1941)
 U.S. (after
12/1941)
 Plus many smaller
European nations
5 Axis Powers
 Germany
 Italy
 Japan
Paying for the War
Paying for the War
Women War Workers
5 Many women drawn into workforce during
WWII
 Replaced male workers serving military
5 Most employed in service jobs &
government bureaucracy
 concentrated in governmental jobs
5 Compared to before 1939,
 more likely to be engaged in heavy industrial
work making war weapons
5 led to the establishment of day-care
centers by the government
5 main reason the majority of women war
workers left the labor force at the end
of WWII was family obligations
“Rosie the Riveter”
5 the icon “Rosie the Riveter”
was created to satisfy the
shortage of workers in war
industries created by WWII
5 the government created the
Rosie the Riveter propaganda
campaign to overcome the
opposition by men and women
to the idea of women in the
workforce
5 The icon became a
 tribute to the more than
6 million women who
entered the work force
during World War II.
 symbol of importance of
female industrial
workers
5
The image most iconically associated
with Rosie is J. Howard Miller's famous
poster for Westinghouse, entitled We
Can Do It! (at right), which was
modeled on Michigan factory worker
Geraldine Doyle in 1942.
Minorities in Wartime
5 Blacks , Hispanics,
Asians, American
Indians joined military
and fought WWII
 Blacks largely
segregated in armed
forces
 Segregation =
discrimination
Minorities in Wartime
5 Need for labor
 migration of blacks (N)
move north and west in large numbers
because mechanical cotton pickers came
into use
 By the end of World War II ,AfricanAmerican community had shifted to
northern cities
 migration of Mexicans (W)
= Growth of minority neighborhoods
= tension , conflict
African Americans in WWII
5 significant decrease in the number willing
to accept a status of second-class
citizen
5 Congress of Racial Equality
(C.O.R.E.)formed
 slogan “Double V” (victory over
dictators abroad and racism at home)
5 leaders tried to end discrimination by
mobilizing mass popular resistance in the
form of sit-ins and demonstrations
Executive Order 8802
5Issued by FDR
5To head off a protest march
 Organized by A. Phillip Randolph
 “Negro March on Washington”
 Meant to end racial discrimination
in defense industries and
government jobs
5 Created the Fair Employment Practices
Commission
 Prevented hiring discrimination practices against
blacks seeking employment in war industries
The Interment of Japanese
Americans
1942: Executive Order 9066
FDR
5 American military leaders unjustly
regarded Japanese Americans as a
threat to the security of the West
Coast
5 Gave war department authority to declare
“military areas”
 Set curfews for Japanese Americans
 Forced thousands into internment
camps
5 limited civil rights of Japanese Americans
Japanese Internment
5 government decision to intern more than
120,000 Japanese Americans
 concentration camps= “relocation camps”=
prison camps
5 Many Japanese Americans forced to sell
homes, businesses
5 Caused by fears fed by racism
 angry emotions toward WWII enemy
country of Japan
 result of anti-Japanese prejudice and fear
5 Considered one of the worst wartime
violations of human right in United
States History
Korematsu v. United States
5 1944 Supreme Court Case
5 Fred Korematsu refused relocate to
internment camp – arrested
5 Court ruled that internment was
constitutional
 Was a national emergency, military
necessity
5 1988
 U.S. government apologized ,
 paid reparations to those who were
interned
5 The Korematsu case ranks with Dred Scott
and Plessy v. Ferguson as one of the low point
of the Supreme Court.
5 Hindsight shows the racism and expediency
behind the military’s thinking.
5 Why did a majority on the Court accept the
military’s evaluation w/out question?
5 The politics of war made questioning the
military risky business.
5 A case of the Court majority going along w/
the actions because the political energy to
stand by the Constitution in wartime was not
there AGAIN.
Yalta Conference
5 Took place February 1945 before WWII
was over
5 Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met in Yalta
in the Soviet Union to discuss post WWII
5 Set up United Nations
Yalta – “The Big 3”
April 12, 1945
5 At the beginning of his 4th Term, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt passes away
5 The U.S. went through a major grieving
period
5 Harry S. Truman, as Vice-President, takes
the role as President
V-E Day
5 May 8, 1945
5 General Eisenhower accepted a surrender by the
Third Reich
5 V-E day = Victory in Europe day
5 1st part of War was over
Potsdam
5 July – August 1945
5 Truman, (Churchill and then Clement Atlee) and
Stalin met in Potsdam, Germany
5 Drew up a blueprint to disarm Germany and
eliminate the Nazi regime
Potsdam Continued
5 Divided Germany into 4 sections (occupied
by France, Britain, U.S. and Soviet Union)
5 Berlin to be divided up in East (or Soviet
Germany)
5 Set up the Nuremberg Trials to persecute
Nazi leaders
5 Japan must “unconditionally surrender”
Nuremberg Trials
5 International tribunal court tried Nazi
officials
5 Over 23 nations tried Nazi war criminals in
Nuremberg, Germany
5 12 of the 22 defendants were sentenced to
death
5 200 other officials were found guilty, but
give lesser sentences
Manhattan Project
5 200,000 Japanese died due to the Atomic
bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
5 Hiroshima
 August 6, 1945
 “Little Boy”
 In 43 seconds, the city collapsed to dust
5 Nagasaki
 August 9, 1945
 “Fat Man”
 Leveled half of the city
U.S. Occupation of Japan
5 Similar trials held for Japanese war criminals
5 7 out of 28 leaders were found guilty and
sentenced to death (including Tojo)
5 U.S. occupied Japan for 6 years under the
direction of General Douglas MacArthur
 Called for a New Constitution (w/ free
elections and women suffrage)
 Introduced a free market economy