Road to World War II
1920-1941
Objective How and for what reasons did United States
foreign policy between 1920 and 1941 move from
disengagement to neutrality to intervention?
Intro
 Depression was world-wide and this led to feelings of
nationalism and militarism globally
 In certain countries it took on fascist movements
 ASIA – Japan threatening China
 EUROPE – Germany forming Nazi party under Hitler and
Italy Fascists under Mussolini
 Americans also nationalistic but manifests differently than
militarism. Disillusioned with WWI Americans became
Isolationists – vows not to be drawn into another world
war
 Watch for evidence of the following: Movement of the US
from disengagement to neutrality to involvement
Intro
The American Dream as it was known in the era of Big Business died
with Henry Ford. His was the last “rags-to-riches” story for decades.
When the reality of the Great Depression sank in, the Roaring Twenties
were immediately rejected as frivolous and wasteful, a national
embarrassment. The hedonism of the flapper youth looked doubly
vulgar. Since the unlimited escalator of prosperity disappeared, the
United States experienced an identity crisis. Would American democracy
lead to bankruptcy? An ancient Greek’s criticism of democracy seemed
about to come true in America, that the people would always vote into
power those who promised them the most money. And then the money
would run out. Whatever one thinks of FDR and the New Deal, the
social responsibility of Progressive reform unmanned rugged
individualism, the uniquely American notion that had built the country
from a few colonies to a world power. – Ken Senter
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
Main Idea A. Disengagement – the
1920s
Sen. Henry Cabot
Lodge, Sr. [R-MA]
•
US does not join the League
•
Isolationists like Senator Lodge,
refused to allow the US to sign
the Versailles Treaty.
•
Build safeguards against future
wars but not hamper US freedom
of action in the world
•
July, 1921 Congress (Charles
Evans Hughs) passed a
resolution declaring WW I
officially over
•
Then Harding administration
began to create separate treaties
with each of the central powers
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
1. Washington
Disarmament
Conference
(1921-1922)
 Safeguard US freedom - Diplomacy used to ensure free overseas trade thru
reducing war and making financial arrangements w/ other nations
 Goals  naval disarmament and the political situation in the Far East.
 Sought to deal w/ naval arms race between US, GB, Japan:
 Five-Power Pact limited armaments
 Nine-Power Act continued Chinese Open Door policy
 Four-Power Act acknowledged Pacific territories
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
2. Five-Power Treaty (1922)
 A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio:
US
5
Britain
5
Japan
3
France
1.67
Italy
1.67
 Japan got a guarantee that the US and Britain would
stop fortifying their Far East territories [including the
Philippines].
 Loophole - no restrictions on small warships
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
3. KelloggBriand Pact
(1928)
 14 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as tools of
foreign policy.
 62 nations signed.
 Problems  no means of actual enforcement and gave
Americans a false sense of security.
 Example of New Era effort to protect peace w/o active international
duties
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
4. European Debt
 US prosperity depended on
European economy, which was
suffering from
 war destruction
 Allied debt on US loans
 Central Powers reparations: US
acted to head off collapse thru
1924 Dawes Plan that created
circular loan system where US
loaned Germany money to pay
GB + French debt who used $ to
pay US debt
 System led to increase in
European debt
 US banks and corporations took
•
advantage of collapsed industries
to assert themselves
European Debts to the
US
High US tariffs under
Republicans prevented
European export of goods to
earn money to repay loans
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
Main Idea B. Hoover and Foreign Diplomacy
 Stock market crash of 1929 and worsening global economic problems
after 1931
1. Growing nationalism and new hostile governments in Europe
(Italy, Germany) was faced by Hoover administration
 Benito Mussolini’s nationalistic Fascist Party in Italy
 Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)
 In efforts to restore European economic stability Hoover placed a
moratorium on debts in 1931 that eventually failed to produce an
upturn
 Economists implored Hoover to cancel European debts to the US Hoover refused - and many nations defaulted
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
Secretary of State
J. Reuben Clark
2. Latin America
• During the 1920s American military forces maintained a
presence in numerous Latin Am countries.
• US investments in the region more than doubled between
1924-29.
• American corporations built RR, roads and infrastructure
in part to weaken rebellions but also to increase access
to natural resources
• Am. Banks offered large loans to Latin Am governments
(like we offered in Europe) and like Europe they had
trouble repaying in the face of US tariffs
• Resentment of “Yankee imperialism” grew
 Clark Memorandum – 1928 - pledged
that the US would not intervene in
Latin American affairs in order to
protect US property rights.
 This was a complete rebuke of the
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine
 Isolationism
 Hoover went on a good will
tour to maintain friendly
relations before his inaug
 Hoover ended interventionist
policies
 Hoover decides to withdraw
from Nicaragua and Haiti
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
3. Crisis in Asia - Japanese Attack Manchuria 1931- Japanese military
1931 staged coup against its liberal government because it had allowed
China’s leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, to expand his power in Manchuria
(which had been economically dominated by Japan)
 Japan invaded Manchuria + then China itself - defied Open Door
Policy
 League of Nations condemned the action and Japan leaves the
League.
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
4. US Response: Hoover-Stimpson Doctrine 1932 –
no recognition of anything that defied Open Door
 Hoover refused to issue sanctions - wanted no part in an
American military action in the Far East
 US would not recognize any territorial acquisitions that
were achieved by force.
 Japan was infuriated because the US had
conquered new
territories a few
decades earlier.
 Japan bombed
Shanghai in
1932  massive
casualties.
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
Main Idea C and D. FDR and Depression Diplomacy 1932
 Early Roosevelt’s foreign policy concerned mainly with
pressing economic issues
1. FDR ended the circular loan system (Dawes Act),
but this did little to stabilize international currencies
2. Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act of 1934 advanced
principles of free trade by negotiating treaties to lower
tariffs by as much as 50% in return for reciprocal
reductions from other countries.
By 1939 treaties were signed by 21 nations
increasing American exports by 40%
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
3. FDR Recognizes the Soviet Union late 1933
 FDR felt that recognizing Moscow might bolster the US against
Japan.
 Maybe trade with the USSR would help the US economy during
the Depression.
4. Philippines
 FDR felt that governing cost too much money
 Persuaded Congress to give independence
5. The Good Neighbor Policy - toward Latin America focused on
trade reciprocity (free trade); Important to have all nations in the
Western Hemisphere united in lieu of foreign aggressions.
 1933 (Pan) Inter-American Conference in Montevideo
 administration officially pledged to not intervene in affairs of
Latin nations. Closer economic ties emerged
 FDR attends himself and pledges to resolve disputes through
arbitration and encourages cooperation among the Americas
against foreign aggressors
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
 In essence we replace military
presence with economic presence,
easing tensions with Latin America
 WHY?
 Dollar Diplomacy no longer made
sense in a depression due to lack
of resources to invest in foreign
operations
 Rise of militarism and nationalism
in Asia and Europe
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
6. Generally, agreements of 1920s collapsed during 1930s
 (World) Geneva Disarmament Conference 1932 – 33 on
disarmament disbanded when negotiations stalled. Hitler and
Mussolini withdrew
 Japan withdrew from 1921 Washington Conference Treaties
 Many Americans supported isolationism b/c
 internationalism of League of Nations failed to restrain
Japanese Asian aggression - 1931 Japan’s invasion of
Manchuria
 rise of fascism increased American resolve to be isolationists
 1935 Italy invades Ethiopia
 1936---Hitler invades the Rhineland
 belief US business interests had led to WWI involvement
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
7. The Nye Committee Hearings 1934-36
investigated the charge
that WWI was needless and
the US entered so munitions
owners could make big profits
[“merchants of death.”]
 The Committee did charge
that bankers wanted war to
Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]
protect their loans & arms manufacturers to make money.
 DuPont Co. earning went from 5M 1914 to 82M 1918
 Claimed that Wilson had provoked Germany by sailing in to
warring nations’ waters.
 Resulted in Congress passing several Neutrality Acts.
15. American Isolationist Diplomacy
8. Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936, 1937
 When the President proclaimed the existence of a foreign
war, certain restrictions would automatically go into
effect:
 Prohibited sales of arms to belligerent nations.
 Prohibited loans and credits to belligerent nations.
 Forbade Americans to travel on vessels of nations at war [in
contrast to WWI].
 Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-andcarry” basis  pay when goods are picked up.
 Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
 This limited the options of the President in a crisis.
 America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Main Idea A. Japanese
Aggression
1.


2.

1937 2nd Sino-Japanese
War begins w/ China
U.S. refuses trade with
Japan until they
w/draw from China
FDR and US are alarmed
over Japan’s 1937 new
assaults into China (after
1931 Manchuria invasion)
and led FDR to question
isolationism
FDR delivered
“Quarantine speech”
saying aggressors
should be prevented
from spreading war
speech unpopular
16. Struggle for Neutrality
3. Panay Incident – 12/12 1937
 Japan bombed US gunboat
Panay & three
Standard Oil tankers on
the Yangtze River.
 The river was an
international waterway.
 Japan was testing US resolve
 Japan apologized, paid US an indemnity, and promised no
further attacks.
 Most Americans were satisfied with the apology.
 Results  Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for
further aggression against US interests.
16. Struggle for Neutrality
U.S Under FDR
4. 1940 Japan moves
into Fr. Indochina
 US froze Japanese
assets, refused to
trade oil, gasoline
and steel.
 Big Picture - FDR
is getting tougher
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Main Idea B. Germany
Violates the Treaty of
Versailles
1. In 1936 Hitler moved
army into demilitarized
Rhineland
2. 1938 invaded Austria
 to create union
(anschluss )
Hitler demanded that
Czechoslovakia (created by Treaty
of Versailles) cede Sudetenland to
increase lands for Germans to live
(lebensraum)
Sudetenland - Part of Germany
before WWI.
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Audio
3. 1938 Munich Conference (appeasement) – Hitler gets Sudentenland
 GB (Neville Chamberlain) + France (Edouard Deladier) appeased Hitler for
promise would be last expansion
 German demands for the Sudetenland are met = “All I want, is a Germany
for Germans”
 All Chamberlain (Great Britain) wanted was peace at any cost and gives
into Hitler
 Chamberlain believed that by sacrificing Czechoslovakia he had
satisfied Hitler and he would stop being aggressive; he promised “a
peace with honor… peace in our time.”
1939 “appeasement” collapsed w/ German invasion of whole
Czechoslovakia
16. Struggle for Neutrality
4. After the Czechoslovakia,
Hitler wanted Poland. Why?
Danzig, a seaport city
that was 90% German
Germany lost this after
WWI so that Poland
would have access to the
sea.
 If Hitler invaded Poland,
Great Britain and France
would declare war on
Germany.
 Hitler prepared to invade and
started to negotiate with
the USSR – non
aggression pact
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Main Idea C. US and Europe’s Response to German
Aggression
1. US will pass the 1939 Neutrality Act – America becomes the
“Arsenal of Democracy”
 FDR persuades Congress in special session to allow the US to aid
European democracies in a limited way:
 The US could sell weapons to the European democracies on a
“cash-and-carry” basis.
 FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones which US ships
and citizens could not enter.
 Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act:
 Aggressors could not send ships to buy US munitions.
 The US economy improved as European demands for war
goods helped bring the country out of the 1937-38 recession.
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Audio
2. August 1939 - Hitler and Stalin sign a Non-Aggression Pact
and divide Poland.
• If Hitler had to fight the British and French he did not want to fight
the Soviets, too.
•
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact – named after the Russian and German Foreign Ministers
16. Struggle for Neutrality
September 1, 1939 Hitler
invades Poland
3. Great Britain and France
(Allied Powers) declare war on
Germany (Axis Power) 1939

Quiet “phony war” ensued after
Germany subdued Poland.
 There was little fighting
between the Allies and the
Axis powers which lasted
through the winter and spring
of 1939-40.
4. USSR takes Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania and Finland – which
they lost in the Brest Litovsk
Treaty in WWI
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Main Idea D. German Aggression in
1940 WWII
1.
2.
3.
Phony War shattered by spring 1940
with the German blitzkrieg invasion
of Western Europe including
Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and
Belgium
France Falls - Mussolini attacks
France from the south as Hitler
attacks from the north
 by June 22, 1940 France became
Vichy France under Philippe Petain
(1940-44)
 GB retreated at Dunkirk
Roosevelt increased aid to Allies +
monies for US self-defense
 “scraped bottom of the barrel” to
give GB’s Churchill war materials
 FDR able to take steps b/c public
opinion shift after fall of France
16. Struggle for Neutrality
Charles
Lindbergh
4. Election of 1940 (FDR 3rd
term) and Republican
isolationist resistance
•
Germany now seen as threat
to US by majority
•
debate still between
“interventionists” who wanted
increased US war involvement
and “isolationist”
•
America First Committee
supported by many Repubs
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
Main Idea A. Americans alarmed by the fall of France but still
hoped to remain out of WWII
1. FDR not so sure - felt that GB was key to Am. security from Hitler
so FDR begins to chip away at the restrictive Neutrality Act policies
2. Cash and Carry extended to supply particularly the British “lendlease” agreement 1941
 allowed sale but also lending of armaments, began ensuring
shipments reached GB by Navy patrolling Atlantic for subs
3. Selective Service Act 1940 – draft
4. Destroyer for Bases Deal
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
FIRST, freedom of speech and
expression, everywhere in the world.
SECOND, freedom of every person to
worship God in his own way,everywhere
in the world.
THIRD, freedom from want, which
translated into world terms, economic
and healthy peace time life, everywhere
in the world.
FOURTH, freedom from fear, worldwide
reduction of armaments, everywhere in
the world.
Other things FDR stated:
•The world order is to seek cooperation
of free countries, in a friendly civilized
society.
•Freedom means the supremacy of
human rights everywhere.
Main Idea B.
Four
Freedoms
Speech
•FDR’s speech
to Congress in
Jan. 1941
describing the
threat of the
Axis Powers.
•FDR believed
American
security was
seriously
threatened and
believed the
struggle was
over American
democracy.
atlantic1
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
Main Idea C. Submarine Warfare Germany issues a Shoot-On-Sight
Policy
1. FDR further sided with the allies by
instituting a policy of escorting British
ships carrying the lend-lease materials
from the US shores
2. After Germany broke Nazi-Soviet
Non-aggression Pact in June 1941 by
invading the USSR – Operation
Barbarossa – Hitler’s 1st major
defeat




Scorched earth policy
Moscow – Red Army surprise attack a starved
German army in 12/6/41
South – 1942second major push ended with the
Battle of Stalingrad
North – Leningrad ended in German defeat in 1944
after 900 days of starvation 1M died
US extended “lend-lease” to Russians
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
3. Nazi subs began attacking US ships,
Congress voted to allow arming of
merchants + US attacks on subs
4. August 1941 - Churchill and
Roosevelt released Atlantic
Charter tying two nations
together to war aims to destroy
“Nazi tyranny”
•
With the US actively aiding the
British, FDR could see how US
could be drawn into the war
FDR meets with Churchill on board the USS Augusta off the coast of
Newfoundland in the North Atlantic and they discussed their objectives
in a post WWII world:
self determination
no territorial expansion
free trade
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
Main Idea D. Road to Pearl Harbor
1. 1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact allying itself w/
Germany and Italy
2. In spite of Roosevelt denouncing Japanese aggression
in 1941 it invaded and captured Indochina
 US froze Japanese assets and placed trade embargo preventing
Japan from buying important supplies (including oil, steel and
scrap metal).
3. Tokyo attempted to negotiate with US to
continue flow of supplies, but Japanese
Prime Minister Konoye forced out of
office by Gen Hideki Tojo
• Tojo government refused to recognize US
calls to guarantee Chinese territorial
rights so negotiations broke down
• by November war imminent
17. US MOVES TO INVOLVEMENT
4. On December 7, 1941 Japanese aircraft
carriers attacked US Pacific Navy HQ at Pearl
Harbor
• US lost 8 battleships, 2,000 soldiers dead
• US Pacific forces weakened
• resulted in unifying American people into
commitment to war
• December 8, 1941 US declared war on Japan
• December 11 Germany and Italy declared war
on US
• likewise on the same day US declared war on
them
17. US MOVES
TO
INVOLVEMENT
Audio
Pearl Harbor
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Pearl Harbor from the
Cockpit of a Japanese Plane
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
FDR Signs the War Declaration
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor Memorial
2,887 Americans Dead!
Pacific Theater of Operations