Transcript THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1877-1945

THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED
STATES 1877-1945
LECTURE 8
AMERICA AT THE EVE OF WORLD
WAR TWO
ABOUT THE WAR
• Wartime casualties: 17 million
• 70 million served in armed services world wide
• Death toll: 7,5 million Soviets, 3.5 million
Germans, 1,25 million Japanese, 400,000
Americans
• 70 countries participated
• Total war, societies fighting against each other
• Soldiers, war workers----victims (persecution via
occupation, bombing, mass murder)
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY BETWEEN THE
WARS
• -Isolationism
• Rejection of Wilsonian internationalism,
especially the League of Nations
• Main tendencies:
• -Reduction of military forces
• -promotion of private enterprise instead of
governmental involvement
• -the use of economic means, money and trade, to
achieve international stability (Dollar Diplomacy)
ISOLATIONISM BETWEEN THE WARS
• 1936: Veterans of Future Wars: 1000 USD for
everyone between 18-36 to enjoy before the
next war
• ”The people have had all the war, all the
taxation, and all the military service they
want," Calvin Coolidge (1925)
• 1935: Students’ Strike for Peace
• Poll: 39% of students would refuse to serve in
a war
ISOLATIONISM IN POPULAR CULTURE
• "We didn't win a thing we set out for in the last
war,“ "We merely succeeded, with tremendous
loss of life, to make secure the loans of private
bankers to the Allies” (Sen Gerald Nye, North
Dakota)
• Merchants of Death-Book of the Month Club
• Condemnation of profiteering, U.S. was drawn
into World War One by the international weapon
industry
• 1935: 70% of Americans would reject American
involvement in Europe
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD
• 1921-22: Nine Asian and European nations
meet
• Aim: to decrease tensions in the Pacific
• Result: 10 year moratorium on the
construction of battle ships
• Limiting the number of battle ships—first
disarmament treaty
EFFORTS AT EASING INTERNATIONAL
TENSIONS
• 1924:Dawes Plan-Charles Dawes
• Providing economic assistance to Germany
• Reduction of reparation from 33 billion to 2
billion USD
• -200 million dollars loan and easier reparation
terms
• 1928: Kellogg-Briand Pact: outlawing war as a
means of resolving disputes, 62 nations sign it
• No legal force, ”an international kiss”
THE FINANCIAL MERRY-GO-ROUND
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 from 27% to 35%
• U.S. largest creditor and debtor, loaned out 16 billion
USD after war
• During war allies were given loans in the amount of 10
billion USD
• France, Britain want loans to be written off
• Due to high tariffs France and Britain cannot sell goods
in America
• 1931: Hoover approves debt suspension for one year
• U.S. never gets repaid
INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO
WAR
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1922: Mussolini’s rise in Italy
1931: Japan invades Manchuria
1932: Hoover condemns aggression
1933: Change of foreign policy, open alliance
system, and nations are admitted to this system
according to their compliance with the rules of
the economic alliance.
• According the Trade Reciprocity Act of 1934, the
President has the authority to grant most favored
status to certain nations. FDR uses this as a
weapon in dealing with belligerent nations
TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS
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Communism in Soviet-Russia
Formation of the Soviet Union
Formation of the Comintern
Threats from the left
All economic and social activity is controlled by
the state
• Repression of individual rights, civil liberties
• Governmental or common ownership of
economic resources
FASCISM IN ITALY
• Italian empire in North Africa.
• In 1912 and 1913, Italy had conquered Libya.
In 1935, provoked war with Ethiopia,
conquering the country in eight months.
• Two years later, Mussolini sent 70,000 Italian
troops to Spain to help Francisco Franco
defeat the republican government in the
Spanish Civil War
FASCISM IN GERMANY
• Hitler pulls Germany out of the League of
Nations
• Begins rearmament
• 1935: Starts to build army and air force
• 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis, reoccupation of the
Rhineland
FASCIST IDEOLOGY
• Antisemitism
• Replacement of religion with worship of the
state
• Totalitarian dictatorship
• Racism
• Extreme militant nationalism
• Suppression of civil liberties
COMPARISON OF FASCISM TO
AMERICAN BELIEF SYSTEM
• American values are against the elements of
fascism
• Religious tolerance
• Political freedom
• Representative democracy
• Respect of civil liberties
• Respect of the individual
INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO
WAR
• 1933: U.S. establishes diplomatic relations
with the Soviet Union
• 1933: Hitler assumes power in Germany
• 1936: Germany reoccupies the Rhineland
• 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War
• 1937: Japan attacks China, armed clash at the
Marco Polo Bridge, near Peking, the beginning
of World War Two in Asia
INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO
WAR
• 1937: Japan joins Germany, and Italy in the RomeBerlin-Tokyo Axis
• 1938: Hitler annexes Austria, Anschluss
• 1938: Munich Conference: Britain and France allow
Hitler to keep his newly occupied territories, in return
for giving up on further aggression
• This policy is called appeasement, giving in to the
demands of the aggressor, in return for promises of
ending aggressive behavior
• 1939 Germany attacks Poland,
• Britain and France declare war on Germany, World War
Two begins in Europe
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
• 1936-1939
• Nationalists, led by Franco, helped by
Germany and Italy
• Republican forces, helped by Russia
• First aerial attack against the city: Guernica
EL VALLE LOS CAIDOS
EARLY CONFLICTS IN THE PACIFIC
• 1931: Japan invades Manchuria, Hoover refuses
to recognize puppet government
• 1934: Japan terminates the Five Power Naval Act
limiting the number of its warships
• 1937: Japan attacks China
• Brussels conference: Action was condemned
• 1937: Japanese attack against American gunboat
Panay
• JAPAN APOLOGIZES, U.S. ACCEPTS APOLOGY
AMERICAN RESPONSE
• Neutrality
– 1935-1937 Neutrality Acts
– 1935-1938 Prohibiting sale of arms and munitions to
belligerents
• 1937: highest neutrality sentiments
• But Cash and Carry plans to help Allies, primarily
Britain, France, later China and Russia
• Roosevelt reelected for a third term in 1940:
• U.S. must become the great arsenal of democracy
AMERICAN RESPONSE
• Four Freedom Speech: In the shadow of the
threat of Fascism and totalitarianism U.S. fights
for Four Freedoms
• Freedom of speech, freedom of worship,
freedom from want, freedom from fear
• Lend-Lease Bill of 1940 “President can sell,
transfer, exchange, lend, lease, or otherwise
dispose of any arms and other equipment and
supplies to any country whose defense he deems
vital to the defense of the U.S”. First
beneficiaries, Britain, China
AMERICAN RESPONSE TO THE
CONFLICT IN THE PACIFIC
• After 1937: Deterioration of relations between
Washington and Tokyo
• 1940: Japan occupies Northern Indochina
(obtaining oil reserves)
• Response: embargo on oil, aviation fuel, scrap
metal, Japanese bank accounts are frozen
• 1941: Hideki Tojo, leader of militants seizes
power
AMERICAN RESPONSE
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Japanese expansion in the Pacific--Militarism
Japan’s goal: the establishment of the Greater
East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
U.S response: embargo
1941 December 7, Pearl Harbor
Kermit Tyler: ”Don’t worry about it” assumed
B-17 fighter planes were coming in, music was
on radio, had no training, no staff, cleared of
wrongdoing or negligence
Following the attack U.S. declares war on
Japan
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PEARL HARBOR
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Tora, Tora, Tora
Attack at 7.53. AM
2400 servicemen and civilians were killed
19 ships sunk, disabled, 150 planes destroyed,
but Japanese could not destroy aircraft
carriers and fuel depots
PEARL HARBOR SPEECH
• To the Congress of the United States:
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Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States
of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces
of the Empire of Japan.
• Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our
territory and our interests are in grave danger.
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With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination
of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.
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I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly
attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the
United States and the Japanese empire.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uCGxk-v-Mc
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INFAMY SPEECH
PEARL HARBOR MEMORIAL USS
ARIZONA
ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
USS ARIZONA
CAUSES OF U.S. ENTRY TO WORLD
WAR TWO
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Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Freedom of the seas doctrine
Protection of allies
Protection of international trade
Protection of democracy
Rejection of totalitarianism