Transcript US Neutrality Acts

 Essential Question:
 What factors led the United States to shift from isolation in
the 1920s & 1930s to an active war participant by 1941?
American Isolationism
& Foreign Policy
in the 1920s & 1930s
Foreign Policy in the 1920s & 1930s
 After WWI, the U.S. assumed a selective isolationist
foreign policy
 Americans wanted to maintain the economic boom of
the 1920s & were desperate for an answer to the
depression in the 1930s
 But, the U.S. did play an active role in attempts at
international disarmament & economic stability
Foreign Policy: Economic Policy
 In the 1920s, the most divisive international issue was war
debts:
 European nations owed the U.S. $10 billion; Attempts to
reclaim these debts led to anti-American sentiment in Europe
 The U.S. Foreign Debt Commission canceled a large portion of
these debts, but insisted that some of the money be repaid
 When Germany could not repay $33 billion in reparations, the
U.S. negotiated the Dawes Plan
 The Dawes Plan helped stabilize the German economy, allowed
Germany to repay the Allies, and helped France & England repay
their debts to the United States
European Debts to
the U.S. in
Hyper-inflation
Germany by 1923
Foreign Policy: Economic Policy
 But the Great Depression made post-war recovery in
Europe difficult in the 1930s:
 The Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930 limited European
attempts to sell their goods in the U.S.
 The U.S. was unable to provide loans, leaving Germany
unable to repay reparations & Europe unable to repay its war
debts
Foreign Policy: International Peace
 The USA never joined the League of Nations, but did play a role
in attempts to avoid future wars:
 At the Washington Disarmament Conference in 1921, world
leaders agreed to disarmament, free trade, & collective
security
 The USA, England, Japan, Italy, & France signed the Five-Power
Treaty to limit construction of battleships & aircraft carriers
 England, USA, Japan, France signed the Four-Power Treaty agreeing
to collective security
 The Nine-Power Treaty reaffirmed the Chinese Open-Door Policy
 But, neither the Nine- or Four-Power Acts had provisions to enforce
these agreements
 In 1928, almost every nation, including the USA, signed the
Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as a tool of foreign
policy
Foreign Policy: International Peace
 These agreements did not last:
 Japan needed raw materials to continue its industrial
expansion
 Japan began to create an Asian empire by attacking
Manchuria in 1931 & China in 1937
 In both occasions, the League of Nations reprimanded
Japan but chose no punitive measures
Totalitarian Regimes:
Hideki Tojo & Emperor Hirohito
Japan Invades Manchuria
Japan Invades Manchuria
The Japanese Invasion
of China, 1937
In 1937, Japanese pilots bombed the USS Panay, a U.S. gunboat
stationed in China, killing 3 Americans. The U.S. accepted Japan's
apology & promise against future attacks
Unlike the USS Maine or Lusitania, few
Americans called for war against Japan
Totalitarian Regimes: Benito Mussolini
Totalitarian Regimes: Benito Mussolini
Totalitarian Regimes: Hitler
Totalitarian Regimes: Hitler
The “Problem” of the
Sudetenland
Czechoslovakia Becomes Part of
the Third Reich: 1939
The Munich Pact
“Peace in our time”
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
Foreign Policy: International Peace
 In the 1930s, FDR & Congress were too preoccupied with
the Great Depression to adequately plan for new world
conflicts involving totalitarian dictators
 The rising threat of war in Europe & Asia strengthened
Americans’ desire to avoid involvement in another world
war
Foreign Policy: Citizen Attitudes
 In the 1920s & 1930s, most Americans wanted to avoid
another “meaningless war”
 Munitions makers & bankers were labeled “merchants of
death” & were blamed for American involvement in WWI
 Passivism swept across college campuses; Students staged
“walk-outs” & anti-war rallies
Veterans of FUTURE Wars
The Neutrality Acts
 The “merchants of death” charges were led by North
Dakota Senator Gerald Nye from 1934 to 1936:
 Reaction to the Nye Committee report led to popular support to
avoid making the same mistakes that led America to enter
WW1
 Congress passed 3 neutrality acts to avoid future wars
 The Neutrality Act of 1935 banned arms sales to nations at war &
warned citizens not to sail on belligerent ships
 The Neutrality Act of 1936 banned loans to any warring nation
 The Neutrality Act of 1937 made the 1935 & 1936 acts permanent
U. S. Neutrality Acts:
1934, 1935, 1937, 1939
The Clouds of War (3.37)
The Road Towards
American Intervention
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 As Europe headed toward war, FDR openly expressed his
favor for intervention & took steps to ready the U.S. for war
 In 1937, FDR unsuccessfully tried to convince world leaders to
“quarantine the aggressors”
 But…FDR was able to get $1 billion from Congress to
expand the U.S. navy
 Everything changed in 1939 with the Nazi-Soviet Pact & the
German invasion of Poland
The Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact, 1939
Foreign Ministers
von Ribbentrop & Molotov
Poland Attacked: Sept. 1, 1939
Blitzkrieg [“Lightening War”]
German Troops March into Warsaw
The War Comes to Europe
(9.11)
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 When WW2 began in 1939, Congress imposed a cash &
carry policy to aid the Allies:
 The U.S. would trade with the Allies but would not offer
loans (till attempting to avoid more “merchants of death”
in the banking industry)
 The U.S. would not deliver American products to Europe
(Still attempting to avoid losing American lives at sea
by German submarines)
 In addition, FDR traded 50 old destroyers with England
for 8 naval bases in Western Europe
 “The destroyer-for-bases deal is the most important action in the
reinforcement of our national defense that has been taken since the
Louisiana Purchase”
—FDR
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
Isolationists
Interventionists
 Groups like the Committee
 Were appalled by this
to Defend America by
departure from neutrality
Aiding the Allies called for
& FDR’s involvement of
unlimited aid to England
the U.S. in foreign war
 Their “fortress of
America” idea argued
that Germany was not a
threat to the U.S.
 They argued that the events
in Europe did impact the
security of U.S.
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 By 1940, “interventionists” had the majority of American
public sentiment on their side:
 in 1940, Congress appropriated $10 billion for preparedness
 FDR called for America’s first ever peacetime draft
 In the election of 1940, FDR was overwhelmingly elected for
an unprecedented 3rd term
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 By 1940, England remained the only active opposition to Hitler
but was running out of money
 FDR called for a Lend-Lease Act:
 U.S. can sell or lend war supplies to Allied nations
 Congress put $7 billion to allow England full access to U.S. arms
U.S. Cash and Carry Program
Lend-Lease Supply Totals
Lend-Lease Supply Routes
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 England desperately needed help escorting U.S.-made
supplies through the u-boat infested Atlantic
 FDR allowed for U.S. patrols in the western half of the Atlantic
 German attacks on U.S. ships in 1941 led to an undeclared
naval war between USA & Germany
U.S. Cash and Carry Program
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 In 1941, FDR & Churchill met
to secretly draft the Atlantic
Charter:
 The U.S. & Britain discussed a
military strategy if the USA
were to enter the war
 They discussed post-war goals
of free trade & disarmament
 In 1941, Germany broke the
Nazi-Soviet Pact & invaded
Russia
The Atlantic Charter
Fashioned after
Wilson’s 14 Points.
Calls for League of
Nations type
organization.
From Neutrality to Undeclared War
 FDR brought U.S. to the brink of war & opened himself
to criticism:
 In Sept 1941, polls showed 80% of Americans supported
remaining neutral in WW2
 FDR had to wait for the Axis to make a decisive
move…which Japan delivered on Dec 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor
Showdown in the Pacific
 Japan took full advantage of the European war to expand in
Asia:
 Attacked coastal China
 Seized French & Dutch colonies in East Indies & Indochina
 Signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany & Italy in 1940
 FDR retaliated against Japan with fuel, iron, & oil sanctions
The Greater East Asia-Prosperity Company
Rich in Tin, Oil, Rubber
Showdown in the Pacific
 In 1941, the U.S. & Japan were unable to diplomatically
resolve their differences (U.S. wanted the Japanese
removed from China), so the USA:
 Froze all Japanese assets in USA
 Banned all oil sales to Japan
 Tojo sent an envoy to negotiate for a resolution (Japan
wanted an end to sanctions & a free hand to China)…but
secretly ordered an attack on the U.S. naval base at
Pearl Harbor
 This was really a stall tactic intended to hide Japanese
military preparations for an attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Pearl Harbor from the Cockpit
of a Japanese Pilot
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
The U.S. Enters World War 2 (3.49)
On Dec 7, 1941, the U.S. naval fleet in the
Pacific was crippled by the attack; 8 battleships
were sunk & 2,400 Americans were killed
Showdown in the Pacific
 After Pearl Harbor:
 Congress declared war against Japan on Dec 8, 1941
 Italy & Germany declared war on the U.S. on Dec 11,
1941
 American public opinion was now fully behind the war
effort to defeat the fascist threat in Europe & to seek
revenge against Japan
 The U.S. now faced a possible 2-ocean war, but Germany
was still seen as the primary danger
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War