US Enters the Fight

The Road to War

• U.S. remained at peace 1939–1941

• Popular sympathy for Allies, distaste for Germany and Japan

• Roosevelt openly expressed favor for Allies, moved cautiously to avoid outcry from isolationists

From Neutrality to Undeclared War

• 1939–1941: FDR sought help for England without actually entering the war

• November, 1939: Belligerents may buy U.S. goods on “cash and carry” basis

• 1940: German occupation of France

• America First forms to protest drift toward war

• White Committee wanted to aid Britain

Neutrality Erodes…

• Neutrality Act of 1939 – allows “cash-and-carry”

• 1940 – Japan, Germany, and Italy announce alliance of Axis Powers

• $37 billion approved for military build-up

• 9/2/1940 - 50 destroyers for bases swap with UK

• 9/6/1940 - Conscription law approved

FDR v. Wendell Wilkie (1940)

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The Election of 1940

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ELECTION

OF 1940:

FDR BREAKS WITH TWO-TERM

TRADITION

A Slumbering Giant Stirs…

• 3/1941 – Lend-Lease Act passed

• 6/1941 –Germany attacks “friend” USSR,

• FDR extends Lend-Lease to USSR

• Mid-1941 - US freezes Japanese Assets

• 7/1941 – US Navy accompanies convoys to UK

• 8/1941 – Atlantic Charter (US, UK -later USSR)

G.I. Roundtable Series

From Neutrality to Undeclared War: Increased Aid to England

• U.S. greatly increased military spending and began a first-ever peacetime draft

• U.S. ships transported war supplies

• Eventual consensus that a Nazi victory in Europe would threaten western civilization

• Lend Lease

• U.S. Navy told to shoot submarines on sight

G.I. Roundtable Series

Wartime Partnerships

• U.S.-English alliance cemented by personal friendship between FDR and Churchill

• Soviet Union unsatisfied with alliance

• Soviet Union often perceives itself alone in conflict

• Wartime tensions persist after victory

Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874–1965) confer on board a ship near Newfoundland during their summit meeting of August, 1941. During the conference, they signed the Atlantic Charter. Upon his return to Great Britain, Churchill told his advisers that Roosevelt had promised to "wage war" against Germany and do "everything" to "force an incident." (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)

Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

First Blood• Fall 1941 – German U-boats sink 2 US destroyers and

several merchant ships• US arms its merchant ships• Fall 1941 – US cuts off oil to Japan after Japan invades

French Indochina• 11/1941 - Hideki Tojo prepares Japan for war with US• US knows Japan will strike, but not where• 12/7/1941 – Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor• 12/11/1941 – Italy and Germany declare war on US

WHY DID THE U.S. WAIT TO BE ATTACKED???

Showdown in the Pacific

• 1937: Japanese occupation of coastal China

• U.S. limited exports to Japan of strategic materials

• 1940: Japan allied with Germany, Italy

• Japanese invasion of Indochina prompted U.S. to end all trade

Showdown in the Pacific:Pearl Harbor

• 1941: U.S.–Japanese negotiations • Japan’s demands

– Free hand in China – Restoration of normal trade relations

• U.S. demanded Japanese troops out of China• December 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor attacked• December 8: War declared

He CAN'T Forget Pearl Harbor--Can You?

This World War II poster encourages support for the U.S. war effort by pointing to one soldier's disabilities that resulted from Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. (Library of Congress)

He CAN'T Forget Pearl Harbor--Can You?

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl HarborThe stricken U.S.S. West Virginia was one of the eight battleships caught in the surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, on December 7, 1941. In this photograph, sailors on a launch attempt to rescue a crew member from the water as oil burns around the sinking ship. (U.S. Army)

The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl Harbor

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Site: Pearl Harbor Remembered

http://www.captain-america.us/ww2-wallpaper.htm

America at War: 1941-1945

FDR’s STRATEGY:

1. Attack Germany first: save USSR and UK

2. Attack Japan second: give ground in Pacific

PROBLEM: Will America arm itself (and its Allies) in time?

CONCERN: Were totalitarian warriors better than citizen-soldiers?

Turning the Tide Against the Axis

• December, 1941: Axis on the offensive

• 1942–1943: U.S., England, Russia fought to seize the initiative

• 1944–1945: Offensive to crush Axis