Transcript WORLD WAR II IN THE USA - Father Michael McGivney Catholic

WORLD WAR II IN THE USA
AN INTRODUCTION TO WARTIME FOREIGN POLCIES
1920-1941
QUICK FACTS
WAR COSTS
 US Debt 1940 - $9 billion
 US Debt 1945 - $98 billion
 The war cost $330 billion -- 10 times the
cost of WWI & as much as all previous
federal spending since 1776
QUICK FACTS
WHEN?
•1939-1945
•US involvement 1941-1945
1939
Sept.1 -
Sept. 3 -
Germany
invades
Poland
(official
start to the
war)
Britain &
France
declare
war on
Germany
1941
1945
Dec. 7 –
May -
Japan bombs
Pearl Harbor;
US enters the
War
Germans
Surrender
Sept. Atomic
Bombing
Japanese
Surrender
THE AFTERMATH OF THE GREAT WAR
In the aftermath of the Great War,
as American troops came home
from Europe, the United States
became permeated by a sense of
disillusionment as people observed
the turmoil continuing in Europe in
the years following that terrible
conflict.
WASHINGTON NAVAL CONFERENCE 1921
 Convened in November 1921
 Secretary Charles Hughes declared that
“the way to disarm is to disarm,” and
that the time to begin was immediately.
Japan attended the
Washington
Conference (1921-22)
with both hope and
concern. Global
reduction of naval
capacity was welcome
for Japan which was
facing a fiscal crisis.
WASHINGTON NAVAL CONFERENCE 1921
 The
agreement that was finally reached would
limit the ratio of capital ship tonnage among
the five major powers:
 United States (5)
 Great Britain (5)
 Japan (3)
 France (1.67)
 Italy (1.67)
FIVE-POWER NAVAL TREATY
 Signed
in February, 1922, and was to remain
in effect until 1936.
 The treaty placed a limitation on the numbers
and sizes of major warships
 It did not affect smaller vessels such as
destroyers, submarines and cruisers
 It called for a construction “holiday” of ten
years.
CONTINUED …
 The
conference also agreed on a four-power
treaty in which Great Britain, the United
States, Japan, and France agreed to respect
each other's interests in the Pacific.
 Finally, a Nine Power Treaty endorsed the
Open Door policy in China.
Kellogg-Briand Pact

1927 France approached the United States with a
proposal that the two nations enter into a defensive
alliance

an obvious attempt to provide protection in advance in
case of German retaliation.
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Secretary of State Kellogg,
not wanting to become
snarled in an alliance,
suggested a wider pact that
would “outlaw” war.
 The resulting Kellogg-Briand
Pact was signed in 1928,
though many realized that its
goals were illusory, since its
intent was indeed to make
war illegal.

AMERICAN INTEREST IN EUROPE
 Interest
in the German situation resulted
from the fact that the allies owed large
sums of money to the United States.
 It was clear that if Germany could not
indemnify the allies, they would not be in
a position to repay the United States.
 But by the 1930s with the world
depression affecting everyone, all debts
were eventually defaulted or cancelled.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
The U.S. had a history of
intervention in Latin America
 By the 1920s Presidents Hoover
and Roosevelt and many others
slowly began to recognize the
basic unfairness of America’s
Latin American policy.
 President Hoover rejected
Wilson’s interventionist policies
and went on a goodwill tour after
the 1928 election.

THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
 The
gradual removal of all American occupying
forces began and was completed by 1934.
 The United States also renounced its right to
intervene in Cuban affairs by terminating the
Platt Amendment.
 Many problem areas still existed, and the U.S.
had to resolve with various individual nations
 The Good Neighbor policy improved relations
enormously, so that by World War II the
Western Hemisphere was reasonably unified
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
 The
United States
was still seen as the
“colossus of the
North.”
 In 1936 President
Franklin Roosevelt
attended the Buenos
Aires Inter-American
Conference.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
 FDR’s
address to the delegates was well
received—he called himself a “traveling
salesman for peace” and preached “mutual
safety.”
 The Lima Declaration of 1938 reinforced interAmerican solidarity.
THE TRIUMPH OF ISOLATIONISM
 During
the crisis years of 1931-1939
Americans found themselves in the depths of
the Great Depression
 did not want to think of further war, so the
country retreated into a deeper position of
isolationism.
 Americans saw themselves as “innocent
bystanders” in world affairs and began to feel
as trouble arose in Europe that America’s
participation in the First World War may have
been a waste.
THE TRIUMPH OF ISOLATIONISM
 In
1933 the U.S. finally recognized the
Soviet government and established
formal relations with the USSR—primarily
for business reasons.
 By 1936, as Hitler was beginning to
menace Europe,
 Americans wanted to stay out of it, but
how?
THE TRIUMPH OF ISOLATIONISM
 Secretary
of State Henry
Stimson claimed:
“The only sure way to stay out of
war is to prevent it.”
 But how was the United
States, which had refused
even to join the League of
Nations and had reduced its
armaments to a dangerously
low level, supposed to
accomplish that?
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT AKA FDR



Democratic President from 19331945, after Herbert Hoover, and
followed through till the end of
WWII (died three weeks before
Nazis’ surrender)
Very focused on the domestic
front in the beginning, and
preferred neutrality (Neutrality
Acts 1935-39)
His consent to give US aid to the
Allies (‘destroyers-for-bases’,
Lend-Lease, technological
advancements, convoy) secured
the turn of the tide in their favor,
and America’s entry to war
brought about the loss of
Germany
HISTORIOGRAPHY

Conrad Black – Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion
of Freedom, 2003
 FDR understood that the war wasn’t just a struggle
between nations but it was a fight for democracy
 FDR’s deep belief in the ideals of democracy united
the American peoples to this realization as well
HISTORIOGRAPHY

Waldo Heinrichs – Threshold of War: Franklin D.
Roosevelt and American Entry into WWII, 1990
 Goes against the popular portrayal of a hesitant
and impulsive man
 Portrays FDR as a great leader who acted with
extreme caution and deliberation
HISTORIOGRAPHY

Bryce Wood – The Making of the Good neighbor
Policy, 1961
 FDR advocated for isolationism from the rest of the
world and had “no desire for conquest, or need for
defense”
 America felt that is it aided its neighboring nations
and was indeed a good neighbor it would receive
the same aid from other nations
THE NYE COMMITTEE HEARINGS
 In
1934 Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota
began a series of hearings that tried to show
that munitions makers had made “huge”
profits during World War I
 Therefore they were somehow responsible for
America’s involvement in the conflict.
 They were called the “Merchants of Death.”
 The results of the Nye Committee investigation
were inconclusive
THE NYE COMMITTEE HEARINGS
 However
the isolationists won the day and
several Neutrality Acts were the result.
 The Committee concluded that American
freedom of the seas doctrine had become
unreasonable because of the submarine.
 Neutrals, they concluded, should keep out of
war zones.
THE NEUTRALITY ACTS
 As
the hearings went forward, the isolationists
were in control.
 Reading the political winds, FDR asked the
Nye Committee to prepare legislation.
THE NEUTRALITY ACTS 1935
 Forbade
sale of arms
to belligerents.
 Civilians would enter
war zones on
belligerent ships at
their own risk.
 FDR signed the bill in
August 1935.
THE NEUTRALITY ACTS 1935
The Arms embargo on all nations portion of the bill
was opposed by FDR because it made it impossible for
the U.S. to influence the action.
 The Act was non-specific on trade.
 Cordell Hull called it a “moral embargo,” but there
were problems in execution of the Act.

THE NEUTRALITY ACTS 1935
The Neutrality Act
was invoked in 1935
when Italy invaded
Ethiopia.
 No neutrals were
allowed on
belligerent ships.


Italy was insulted.
THE NEUTRALITY ACTS 1935
 Lesson
learned: Don't go around insulting
belligerents when trying to stay out of war.
 Half-hearted sanctions made things worse.
 Historian A.J.P. Taylor said, “Fifty two nations
opposed Italian aggression, and all they
accomplished was that Haile Selassie lost all
of his country [Ethiopia] instead of only half.”
THE NEUTRALITY ACTS
Further neutrality acts were passed in 1936 and 1937
 The net result of those laws was to handcuff the
United States
 Even if it had a legitimate desire to assist nations that
were victims of international aggression.
 President Roosevelt made no attempt to block this
legislation, but refused to invoke the laws when Japan
invaded China, thereby allowing China to buy arms
from the United States.

SUMMARY OF NEUTRALITY ACTS
1935
 General embargo on arms and war materials with all parties in
war
 “Moral” embargo against belligerents (decided by FDR whether
they were good or bad), called after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia,
covered other trade
 1936
 Renewed 1935 act
 Forbade loans to belligerents
 1937
 US ships forbidden from transporting passengers or items
belonging to belligerents
 US citizens could not travel on belligerent nations’ ships
 1939
 Allowed for arms sales on a cash and carry basis
 1935 and 1937 acts repealed

CASH AND CARRY SEPTEMBER 1939
Allowed sale of material to belligerents as
long as they used their own ships to
transport and paid up front with cash

DESTROYERS FOR BASES SEPTEMBER 1940
Exchanged 50 US Navy destroyers for
rent-free leases on British bases such as
in Newfoundland, and in the Caribbean

LEND-LEASE MARCH 1941
Allowed for the sale of
war goods to the Allies
(including China)
Provided aid for Allies
without actually
entering the war
**Decisive step away
from American
isolationism to
European intervention

LEND-LEASE MARCH 1941
End of the Neutrality Acts
Allowed the sale or lend or leasing of
defense materials (war goods) to any
country’s government which FDR deemed
would be vital to US’s defense as well

THE LURE PACIFISM
Looking back at World War I as a meaningless effort,
many Americans sought security in pacifism as well as
in legal neutrality.
 They wanted a way to ensure that the United States
would not be drawn into another European conflict.
 Most Americans suspected that they had been duped
by the politicians, munitions makers and bankers into
going to war in 1917 and resolved never again to fight
a meaningless war.

THE LURE PACIFISM
Romantic notions of pacifism were not exclusive to the
United States: in Great Britain college students
pledged that they would never again fight in any kind
of war.
 Many of those same young men would die during
World War II
 A gradual breakdown of attempts at international
cooperation developed as militaristic nations asserted
their will with no regard for consequences or for
maintaining the peace—conquest and revenge were
their motives.

THE LURE PACIFISM
The concept of collective security was, in effect, the
same idea as the old “Concert of Europe,” but a
toothless League of Nations brought nothing but headin-the-sand optimism, not action.
 Aggressor nations ignored the League.

REASONS FOR ISOLATIONISM
 Belief
that the depression had been caused by
World War I
 Belief that Europe was unworthy of our support
 Belief in Pacifism—people hated and abhorred war
 Belief that arms manufacturers, bankers had
caused World War I
 Belief that World War I had been a tragic mistake
for the U.S.