America Moves Toward War Chapter 16, Section 4. Cash-and-Carry Law Allowed U.S. to sell weapons to...

America Moves Toward War

Chapter 16, Section 4

Cash-and-Carry Law

Allowed U.S. to sell weapons to nations who were at war as long as those nations paid cash and transported the weapons themselves

Designed to help Britain and France

FDR argued this would help Britain and France defeat Germany and would keep U.S. out of the war

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense treaty known as the Tripartite Pact

Aimed at keeping the U.S. out of the warIf U.S. joined the war, it

would face a two-ocean war in the Atlantic and Pacific

U.S. Increased Aid to British

U.S. sent rifles and machine guns to the British

U.S. traded old naval destroyers for British naval bases in the Western Hemisphere

Building U.S. Defenses

U.S. increased military spending

Congress passed first peacetime military draft

Nazi victories started to move U.S. away from isolationism

Roosevelt Elected to Third Term

FDR decided to run for an unprecedented third term as President

FDR and his opponent both supported aid to Britain and both promised to keep the nation out of war

FDR won election

Election of 1940

“The Great Arsenal of Democracy”

FDR told the nation that it was not possible to have peace with Hitler

FDR warned that if Britain fell then Hitler would try to conquer the rest of the world

FDR said that the U.S. needed to help defeat the Axis powers by being the “great arsenal of democracy”

Lend-Lease Act

By late 1940, Britain was out of cash

FDR suggested a lend-lease planU.S. would lend or lease weapons

and supplies to any nation “whose defense was vital to the United States”

Americans favored the plan, and Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941

U.S. Neutrality

Isolationist Position

U.S. should not tie its future to the eternal wars in Europe

U.S. would suffer financial and military hardships

The war was Europe’s problem

America had its own problems

Interventionist Position

The events of Europe affected the U.S. and the world

Germany was interested in worldwide conquest

America could not live peacefully in a Nazi-controlled world

The U.S. had an obligation to defend democracy

Germany Invaded the Soviet Union

Hitler and Stalin had entered into the Non-aggression Pact in 1939

Hitler violated the agreement in June 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union

Germany and the Soviet Union were at war

Supporting Stalin

FDR and the United States began sending lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union

Some Americans opposed sending aid to a communist country

Churchill: If Hitler invaded Hell, the British would be allies with the Devil

German Wolf Packs

Supply lines had to be kept open to Britain and to the Soviet Union

Germany used U-boats (submarines) to attack U.S. supply shipsWolf packs attacked U.S. ships

in coordinated attacksFDR gave U.S. Navy

permission to sink German U-boats in self-defense

Naval Attacks

Allied ships began to use sonar to locate German submarines

U.S. and Germany were essentially at war in the Atlantic by the summer of 1941

Sept. 1941: FDR gave U.S. ships the power to shoot any U-boat on sight

The Atlantic Charter

FDR and Churchill agree to a joint declaration of war goals called the Atlantic Charter

FDR told Churchill that he couldn’t ask for a declaration of war from Congress yetBut U.S. would do all it

could to help wage war on Germany

The Allies

The Atlantic Charter became the common goals of the Allies in World War IISigned by 26 nationsNations that fought against

the Axis powers

Prelude to War

FDR gave order for U.S. Navy to shoot German submarines on sight

German U-boats continued to torpedo U.S. ships

Congress allowed merchant ships to be armed

U.S. and Germany on the verge of war

Japan’s Ambitions in the Pacific

Japan invaded China in July 1937

Japan began conquering British and French islands in the Pacific

Only U.S. island territories remained as an obstacle to Japanese control of the Pacific

Japanese officers after the invasion of China

U.S. Cut Off Trade to Japan

U.S. protested Japanese aggression by halting trade with Japan

Japan could not live without oil from the U.S.

Japanese leaders warned that Japan would have to convince U.S. to stop embargo or would have to capture Dutch East Indies for oil fields

Peace Talks with Japan

Japan and U.S. entered into peace talksBut Tojo prepared for an attack on

the U.S.U.S. intercepted Japanese

message and learned Japan was preparing for an attackDid not know whereFDR warned Pacific military

commanders of an imminent strikeFDR wanted Japan to strike first

On the Verge

Peace talks continued

On Dec. 6, 1941, U.S. intercepted message telling Japanese peace negotiators to reject any American proposalsU.S. knew that this likely

meant war

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific

Japanese goals for the attack:Weaken U.S. navy to

prevent resistanceBreak U.S. moraleCost U.S. time in

rebuilding its navy

Photo of attack, taken from a Japanese plane

Attack on Pearl HarborDecember 7, 1941

180 Japanese aircraft launched from six aircraft carriers attacked Pearl HarborAttack lasted an hour

and a halfAttack launched in two

wavesU.S. antiaircraft guns

barely made an impact

Results:

Sank 4 battleships

Damaged 4 battleships

Sank or damaged 3 cruisers and 3 destroyers

Destroyed 188 aircraft

Damaged more than 100 additional aircraft

Killed 2,403

Injured 1,178

Reaction to Pearl Harbor

FDR: “a date which will live in infamy”

FDR knew that U.S. would have to absorb many losses in the war as it built up its military and rebuilt its navy

FDR requested a declaration of war the following day

President Roosevelt asks for a declaration of war on December 8, 1941

U.S. Declared War

Congress approved FDR’s request for a declaration of war against Japan

Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

U.S. faced with the prospect of a two-front war

The End of Isolationism

Americans united after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Former isolationists supported an all-out war effort

Defense spending would end the Great Depression

Pearl Harbor Memorial