US HISTORY: SPICONARDI

WWII: Neutrality to War

Foreign Policy

What was America’s foreign policy in the 1920s? Isolationism

Why would this policy continue into the 1930s? Great Depression; had to focus on the economy and

domestic issues

Isolationism? Really?

THE WASHINGTON NAVAL CONFERENCE (1921-22) – U.S. hosted a naval conference in which it negotiated reductions in the navies of Britain, France, Italy, Japan, & the U.S. itself

KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT (1928) – an international agreement in which participant states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them"

Do you recognize the cartoonist?

Why did Americans

believe they could remain

neutral?

Dr. Seuss

The separate beds meant they were separated by an ocean.

Europe’s diseases wouldn’t spread

to America

How does this cartoon contradict the beliefs of the American public illustrated in the previous cartoon?

Neutrality Acts

Neutrality Act of 1935 The President of the United States was banned from

Selling arms Providing loans Giving an form of assistance to nations involved in war

All U.S. citizens traveling on warring ships, did so at their own risk

Neutrality Act of 1936 Extended the 1935 act for additional 14 months However, it exempted civil wars

What is the message of this Dr. Seuss political cartoon?

According to Dr. Seuss, why did

some Americans support neutrality?

What is Dr. Seuss’ criticism of the U.S.’s neutrality

policy?

Neutrality Acts

Neutrality Act of 1937 Forbids sale of arms to countries involved in civil wars Prohibits U.S. citizens from traveling on belligerent

ships U.S. ships could not transport passengers or articles

to belligerent nations Cash and Carry

U.S. could sell materials to belligerents if They paid cash Arranged for the transportation of those materials

Lend-Lease Act

Cash and Carry left the Allies short on cash

Lend-Lease (1941) U.S. could sell or lend

war materials to “any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States”

FDR vowed to keep the U.S. out of war, but the country would become the “arsenal of democracy”

FDR signing the Lend-Lease Act into legislation

Lend-Lease Act

If your neighbor’s house

is on fire, you don’t sell him a

hose. You lend it to him and take it back after the

fire is out.

Pearl Harbor

Japanese Aggression After the Nanjing

Massacre, the U.S. supported China through the Lend-Lease Act

Embargoes and Sanctions US froze Japan’s assets in

America US refused to trade oil,

steel and rubber to Japan• Japan needed these

resources to continue its imperial march in the Pacific

Pearl Harbor

Tripartite Pact (1940) Japan, Germany, and Italy made an agreement that if a

country not involved in WWII attacked one of the three, the others would come to that countries aid

In November 1941, U.S. intercepted Japanese messages, which revealed an assault in the Pacific was imminent

Pearl Harbor

Japan believed attacking Pearl Harbor would cripple the US Pacific Fleet for 18 months, thus allowing them to continue their plans for a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese attacked in two waves. The first wave of Japanese planes were detected on radar, but believed to be US bombers coming from California.

Pearl Harbor Stats•2,340 military killed•48 civilian killed•1,143 military wounded•35 civilian wounded

DECEMBER 7, 1941: A DATE THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY

The attack on Pearl Harbor prompted FDR to ask Congress for a declaration of war Congress votes 477 – 1 in favor of war

War

Germany & Italy declares war on the U.S. on December 11, 1941