American Response to the Looming Threat of a Second World War

Responses to the growing power of dictators

TONIGHT: •Read up through page 750 (we will discuss the entirety of the homefront effort on Monday).

•Then, fighting, atomic bomb, begin post-war discussion

What does this cartoon

suggest about American

policy towards Europe’s

problems in the early 1930’s?

Background Context

• Washington Naval Conference (1922)• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) • Good Neighbor Policy (1930-1934)

• German, Italian, and Japanese alliances• Soviet Union and Germany sign Non-

Aggression Pact

US Legislates Neutral Isolationism

• Hitler institutes universal

training and denounces

Versailles Treaty and

Mussolini invades Italy and

Somaliland

• Spanish Civil War

• Japanese invade

China

• Neutrality Act of 1935 – arms

embargo, discretionary travel

restrictions

• Neutrality Act of 1936 – ban on loans

to belligerents

• Neutrality Act of 1937 – mandates the

above, not discretionary

NOW COME BACK TO THE CAUSES OF WWI – WHY DID FDR DO THIS?

Attempts to stop German

Expansion

• Munich Conference Agreement (1938):

• Germany, Britain, Italy, and Hitler allow Hitler to take Sudetenland (was it even theirs?)

What is this cartoon saying about the Munich Conference?

Differing Viewpoints• Charles

Lindbergh was part of the “America First Movement”

• What does this cartoon say about this movement?

Differing Viewpoints Con’t

Non-Neutral Isolationism*technically still called a “neutrality act”

• Germany Invades Poland and WWII officially begins

• Neutrality Act of 1939

• Called: Cash and Carry

• It allowed European Democracies to pay cash for war goods … as long as these democracies carried the goods on their own boats

CONSIDER GW’S ADVICE REGARDING ENTANGLING ALLIANCES.

War Continues … America Changes Policy:Non-Neutral Isolationism

• Hitler’s success continues – Germany was well prepared for war

• Evacuation of Dunkirk– Allied troops flee … literally leaving equipment behind

• Manhattan Project is created

• Hitler turns his attention to Britain, Battle of Britain is running out of $

• Cash and Carry cannot continue

• FDR passes the Lend Lease Agreement

Lend Lease Agreement – US becomes the Arsenal of Democracy

• Lend Lease allowed the US to “lend” war goods to Britain in exchange for Britain “leasing” some strategic naval bases to the US

• FDR’s rhetoric gained support for this program• FDR compared Lend Lease to loaning your neighbor your

garden hose to put out a fire at his/her house• Think back to what you know about the fireside chats…• Would you ever loan someone gum?

Protecting the Arsenal of Democracy

• FDR said the US was defending the Four Democratic Freedoms without entering the war

• freedom of speech and expression

• freedom of worship• freedom of want• freedom of fear

Lend Lease in Actuality

• Lend Lease assists Allies without drawing the US into the war

• US protects ships to Iceland, no further

• Criticism that none of the loaned goods were reaching their destinations because many were sunk

Curious Non-War War MeasuresPEACETIME WAR MEASURES

• Selective Service Act (Sep 1940)• A peacetime draft? – wasn’t it peacetime still?• Why did the US need this if it was isolated and neutral?

• Atlantic Charter (Aug 1941) - Churchill and FDR • Planned strategy for WWII• Created a post-war plan

– BUT THE US WASN’T EVEN IN THE WAR YET!

WHY DID THE JAPANESE ATTACK PEARL HARBOR?

• Pearl Harbor was not the first attack on US ships

• Panay – 1937 – Japan bombs this ship

• Japan pays quick reparations…nothing else happens

• Reuben James is sunk– 1941 – US soldiers die escorting ships to Britain

• Most people paid no attention…Woodie Guthrie did

Pearl Harbor’s History

• Japan counted on US to provide necessary resources for war

• In response to Japanese invasion of China, US freezes Japanese assets and stops trading oil, scrap metal, etc

• Japan is not pleased

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor• Which some people say FDR knew about

– Having information and using it wisely are very different

PEARL

HARBOR

Pearl Harbor Statistics

• More than 2,403 die – Arizona• 19 ships sunk or damaged• 188 planes

• Dec 8, 1941 congress declares war on Japan unanimous in Senate and in House

• only one dissenting vote (Jeanette Rankin)

• Triggers US involvement in Europe as well

DON’T FORGET THE MAJOR CHANGES IN AMERICAN

FOREIGN POLICY AND WHY THEY SHIFT!!!

Look at your Economic Indicators Charts and Stats

• Explain the meaning of these 4 charts based on what you now know.