AMERICAN ISOLATIONISM AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR

Pre-WWII Isolationism & after WWII began, the U.S. attempted to continue its prewar policy of neutrality…UNTIL PEARL HARBOR

AMERICA TURNS TO NEUTRALITY• Sacrifices for democracy made by US during WWI

seemed pointless with rise of dictatorships isolationism

• Growing isolationism in early 1930s – 1. Nye Committee: documented huge profits

that arms factories had made during WWI – 2. European refusal to repay their loans/war

debts• the Neutrality Act of 1935 = made it illegal for

Americans to sell arms to any country at war

• the Neutrality Act of 1937 = continued the ban of selling arms to countries at war and required warring countries to buy nonmilitary supplies from the United States on a “cash and carry” basis.

– Pick up with own ships & pay cash – no loans & no attacks on American ships

ROOSEVELT & INTERNATIONALISM

• President FDR supported internationalism.• Internationalists believe that trade between

nations creates prosperity & helps to prevent war.

• After Japan launched a full-scale attack on China (1937), FDR authorized the sale of weapons to China, saying that the Neutrality Act of 1937 did not apply, since neither China nor Japan had actually declared war.– Roosevelt warned that the nation should

not stand by and let an “epidemic of lawlessness” infect the world. “There is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.”

FDR SUPPORTS ENGLAND

• FDR + CHURCHILL = BROS

• NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1939 = allowed warring countries to buy weapons from the U.S. as long as they paid cash & carried the arms away on their own ships.

• DESTROYERS-FOR-BASES DEAL: President Roosevelt used a loophole in the Neutrality Act of 1939 and sent 50 old American destroyers to Britain in exchange for the right to build American bases on British-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Caribbean islands.

EDGING TOWARD WAR

• FOUR FREEDOMS: U.S. & GB both stand for freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.

• THE LEND-LEASE ACT = the U.S. could lend or lease arms to any country considered “vital to the defense of the United States.”

• THE HEMISPHERIC DEFENSE ZONE: declared the entire western half of the Atlantic as part of the Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral. This allowed Roosevelt to order the U.S. Navy to patrol the western Atlantic Ocean and reveal the location of German submarines to the British.

• THE ATLANTIC CHARTER: Agreed to in Aug. 1941 by President Roosevelt & Prime Minister Winston Churchill. This agreement committed the two leaders to a postwar world of democracy, nonaggression, free trade, economic advancement, and freedom of the seas.

THE ISOLATIONIST DEBATE• After the German invasion of France and the rescue of

Allied forces at Dunkirk, American public opinion changed to favor limited aid to the Allies.

• The America First Committee opposed any American intervention or aid to the Allies.

• FDR ran for an unprecedented 3rd term as president in the election of 1940 & won by a large margin• Both FDR & the Republican candidate, Wendell

Willkie, said they would keep the U.S. neutral but assist the Allied forces.

GERMAN AGGRESSION

• (1941) In violation of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler began a massive invasion of the Soviet Union.

• GERMANY IS ATTACKING US VIA SUBMARINE WARFARE (AGAIN)• After a German U-boat fired on the American destroyer Greer,

Roosevelt ordered Am. ships to follow a “shoot-on-sight” policy toward Ger. submarines.

• Germans torpedoed & sank the American destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic.

JAPAN V. THE UNITED STATES

• AMERICA EMBARGOS JAPAN: July 1940, Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials–materials important for fighting a war–to other countries. – Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of airplane

fuel & scrap iron to Japan.

• Japanese aircraft threaten British Empire. FDR responded to the threat by freezing all Japanese assets in the U.S. & reducing the amount of oil shipped to Japan.

– He also sent General MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defenses there.

JAPAN ATTACKS PEARL HARBOR U.S. ENTERS WWII

• Japanese decided to attack resource-rich British & Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, seize the Philippines, & attack Pearl Harbor

• “Date which will live in infamy”: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, sinking/damaging 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, killing 2,403 Americans, & injuring hundreds more. (*KNOW THIS DATE OR YOU’RE UN-AMERICAN!)

• The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan Dec. 11, 1941, Japan’s allies–Germany & Italy–declared war on the U.S.

• “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of Japan…I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but we will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again…No matter how long it may take us…the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” - FDR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt13c3olXkU

America’s Response to Hostilities in Europe - Part I

Isolationism- The belief that the US should avoid international conflict and commitments that might drag the nation into another war. America was isolationist because:1.Potential mass number of war casualties.2.Financial costs of a world war.3.Distance between Europe and America.4.The Nye Committee was a government investigation that found that arms factories had made huge profits during the war and had, as a result, manipulated (pamphlets, propaganda, lobbying) the US into war.

– Fearing the rise of aggression in Italy and Germany Congress passed Neutrality Act of 1935. It made it illegal for the US to sell arms to any country at war. The Neutrality Act of 1937 added that warring countries had to buy nonmilitary supplies. One stipulation of this act was the “cash and carry” policy, meaning that countries buying supplies had to pay cash (to avoid debt dependency) and they had to transport the goods themselves. This was to prevent another Lusitania or Sussex sinking, like had been done in WWI.

America’s Response to Hostilities in Europe – Part II

• In July of 1937 Japan launched a full attack of China. FDR, an internationalist, or one who did want to get involved in world affairs, claimed that since neither side had declared war, that the US could sell China weapons. FDR sold the Chinese weapons and angered the Japanese; one of the precursors of the Pearl Harbor attack.

• FDR, realizing that only Great Britain stood in the way of Hitler having complete control of Europe, and also having established a close relationship with Winston Churchill, wanted to get involved in the war effort. The Neutrality Laws still stood in his way.

• The Neutrality Act of 1939 – the US can sell arms to warring nations, but only on cash and carry basis.

• But there was opposition to American involvement. • The America First Committee was a powerful isolationist group that firmly opposed any

American intervention or aid to the Allied powers. • Finally, after FDR was re-elected, he passed a new bill called the Lend-Lease Act, which

allowed the US to provide arms to “any country vital to the defense of the US.” This basically meant the US could send weapons to Britain, China, and the USSR, as long as they promised to return or pay rent for them after the war.

• FDR argued that the US, if not fully involved in the war, should at least be “the great arsenal of democracy” for the rest of the world.

Why Japan attacked?

• Great Britain had many territories and bases in the Pacific, an area vulnerable to Japanese attacks.

• FDR then sought to discourage (and weaken) the Japanese from attacking British territories and bases by putting economic pressures on Japan.

• To the US’s advantage, Japan depended on the US for 80% of key war materials such as steel, iron, fuel, and especially oil.

• In July of 1940 Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving the President the ability to restrict the export and sale of strategic materials. He immediately blocked the sale of fuel and scrap iron to Japan. (80% of Japans oil came from the US). This infuriated the Japanese who signed an alliance with Germany and Italy.

• In 1941 FDR began sending lend-lease arms to China, this was supposed to aid the Chinese in defeating or at least holding Japan. This also angered the Japanese.

• Early Sunday morning on December 7, 1941 the Japanese launched a massive attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. 21 ships were damaged or destroyed, 188 airplanes were destroyed, and 2403 Americans were killed.

• By the next morning Congress had declared war on Japan.• On December 11th Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.