America Moves Toward WAr

Isolationism

War Moves Closer

01

Neutrality breaks down

02

German Agression begins

03

World War II Begins"Blitzkrieg"

Quarantine Speech

Quarantine Speech

Anti-War sentiments

ISOLATIONISM The United States followed a policy of Isolationism since the end of World War I. This foreign policy was a step to keep America out of foreign entanglements. President Wilson, in 1928 signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, denouncing war as a form of diplomacy. When Roosevelt took office he took steps to practice isolationism. He felt comfortable reaching out to the world in several ways. He officially recognized the Soviet Union in 1933 and agreed to exchange ambassadors with Moscow. He continued the policy of nonintervention in Latin American calling it the Good Neighbor Policy and withdrew armed forces stationed there. In 1934, Roosevelt pushed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act through Congress. This act lowered trade barriers by giving the president the power to make trade agreements with other nations and was aimed at reducing tariffs. President Roosevelt later signs the Neutrality Acts in 1935 and 1937, forbidding the exportation of war goods to those nations at war. These measures would soon be challenged at the outbreak of World War II.

Anti-War Sentiments During the 1930s books circulated that America was dragged into World War I by greedy bankers and arms dealers. A special committee called The Nye committee, document large profits banks and manufacturers made during the war. Americans became more determined than ever to avoid war. Antiwar feeling was so strong that the Girl Scouts of America changed the color of its uniforms from khaki to green to appear less militaristic.

Neutrality Breaks Down Despite congressional efforts to legislate neutrality, Roosevelt found it impossible to remain neutral. When Japan launched a new attack on China in July 1937, Roosevelt found a way around the Neutrality Acts. Because Japan had not formally declared war against China, the president claimed there was no need to enforce the Neutrality Acts. The United States continued sending arms and supplies to China. A few months later, Roosevelt spoke out strongly against isolationism in a speech delivered in Chicago. He called on peace-loving nations to “quarantine,” or isolate, aggressor nations in order to stop the spread of war.

Quarantine Speech Innocent peoples, innocent nations, are being cruelly sacrificed to a greed for power and supremacy which is devoid of all sense of justice and humane considerations.To paraphrase a recent author "perhaps we foresee a time when men, exultant in the technique of homicide, will rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing will be in danger, every book and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate, the defenseless —all will be lost or wrecked or utterly destroyed."If those things come to pass in other parts of the world, let no one imagine that America will escape, that America may expect mercy, that this Western Hemisphere will not be attacked and that it will continue tranquilly and peacefully to carry on the ethics and the arts of civilization.If those days come "there will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. The storm will rage till every flower of culture is trampled and all human beings are leveled in a vast chaos."If those days are not to come to pass— if we are to have a world in which we can breathe freely and live in amity without fear-the peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort to uphold laws and principles on which alone peace can rest secure.The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality. Franklin Roosevelt October 5, 1937

World War II Begins In the spring of 1939, Hitler began charging that Germans in Poland were mistreated by the Poles and needed his protection. An attack on Poland might bring Germany into conflict with the Soviet Union, Poland’s eastern neighbor. At the same time, such an attack would most likely provoke a declaration of war from France and Britain—both of whom had promised military aid to Poland. The result would be a two-front war. As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact in August 1939 with Hitler. Fascist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them.

Invasion of Poland As day broke on September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe, or German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force. On September 3, two days following the terror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The blitzkrieg tactics worked perfectly. Major fighting was over in three weeks, long before France, Britain, and their allies could mount a defense. In the last week of fighting, the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, grabbing some of its territory. The portion Germany annexed in western Poland contained almost two-thirds of Poland’s population. By the end of the month, Poland had ceased to exist—and World War II had begun. Later in June 1940, France would fall to German control.

Moving Towads War

War Moves Closer

04

PLANS for war

05

Japanese AGression

06

Pearl Harbor

Defense

Undeclared War

New Alliance

Lend-Lease Act

Moving Towards War In September of 1939, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass a “cash-and-carry” provision to add to the Neutrality Acts that allowed warring nations to buy U.S. arms as long as they paid cash and transported them in their own ships. Providing the arms, Roosevelt argued, would help France and Britain defeat Hitler and keep the United States out of the war. The United States cash-and-carry policy began to look like too little too late. By summer 1940, France had fallen and Britain was under siege. Roosevelt scrambled to provide the British with “all aid short of war.” By June he had sent Britain 500,000 rifles and 80,000 machine guns, and in early September the United States traded 50 old destroyers for leases on British military bases in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. British prime minister Winston Churchill would later recall this move with affection as “a decidedly unneutral act.”

New Alliance On September 27 1940 Americans were jolted by the news that Germany, Italy, and Japan had signed a mutual defense treaty, the Tripartite Pact. The three nations became known as the Axis Powers. The Tripartite Pact was aimed at keeping the United States out of the war. Under the treaty, each Axis nation agreed to come to the defense of the others in case of attack. This meant that if the United States were to declare war on any one of the Axis powers, it would face its worst military nightmare—a two-ocean war, with fighting in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The Atlantic Charter August 1941 Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly at a summit aboard the battleship USS Augusta. Together they agreed to a joint declaration of war aims, called the Atlantic Charter. Both countries pledged the following: collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas. Roosevelt disclosed to Churchill that he couldn’t ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, but “he would wage war” and do “everything” to “force an incident.” The Atlantic Charter became the basis of a new document called “A Declaration of the United Nations.”

Japanese Aggression Germany’s European victories created new opportunities for Japanese expansionists. As French, Dutch, and British colonies lay unprotected in Asia, Japanese leaders leaped at the opportunity to unite East Asia under Japanese control by seizing the colonial lands. The Japanese began their southward push in July 1941 by taking over French military bases in Indochina (now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). The United States protested this new act of aggression by cutting off trade with Japan. The embargoed goods included one Japan could not live without—oil to fuel its war machine. Japanese military leaders warned that without oil, Japan could be defeated without its enemies ever striking a blow. The leaders declared that Japan must either persuade the United States to end its oil embargo or seize the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. This would mean war

Pearl Harbor On November 5, 1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese navy to prepare for an attack on the United States. Peace talks between the U.S. and Japan went on for a month. Then on December 6, 1941, Roosevelt received a decoded message that instructed Japan’s peace envoy to reject all American peace proposals. “This means war,” Roosevelt declared. Early the next morning, a Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii— the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The bomber was followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers. In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. More than 300 aircraft were severely damaged or destroyed. The next day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” he said, “[the Japanese launched] an unprovoked and dastardly attack.” Congress quickly approved Roosevelt’s request for a declaration of war against Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

Lend-Lease Act Not long after the election, President Roosevelt told his radio audience during a fireside chat that it would be impossible to negotiate a peace with Hitler. “No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” He warned that if Britain fell, the Axis powers would be left unchallenged to conquer the world, at which point, he said, “all of us in all the Americas would be living at the point of a gun.” To prevent such a situation, the United States had to help defeat the Axis threat by turning itself into what Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.” By late 1940, however, Britain had no more cash to spend in the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt tried to help by suggesting a new plan that he called a lend-lease policy. Under this plan, the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” Congress passed the Lend Lease Act in March 1941. Britain was not the only nation to receive lend-lease aid. In June 1941, Hitler broke the agreement he had made in 1939 with Stalin not to go to war and invaded the Soviet Union. Acting on the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Roosevelt began sending lend-lease supplies to the Soviet Union.

"Arsenal of Democracy"