Justus D. Doenecke. Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941.
Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000. xv + 551 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-07425-0784-5.
Reviewed by John E. Moser (Department of History, University of Georgia)
Published on H-Diplo (April, 2001)
Moving Beyond the
Moving Beyond the “I”-Word
examines the world-view of the most prominent critics
of Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy.
The return of Patrick J. Buchanan as a presidential
candidate in 2000 momentarily revived a debate that most
thought was long dead. On the campaign trail, and particularly in his book A Republic, Not an Empire, Buchanan
praised those who fought against American involvement
in World War II, and suggested that Nazi Germany had
not really presented a threat to U.S. national security in
1940 and 1941.
Students of pre-World War II U.S. foreign policy are
well aware of Doenecke’s work; his first book, Not to the
Swift: The Old Isolationists in the Cold War Era (Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1979) has become
the definitive work on the subject, and his later In Danger
Undaunted: The Anti-interventionist Movement of 19401941 as Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee (Stanford, Ca.: Hoover Institution Press, 1990) won
the first Arthur S. Link Prize for Documentary Editing.
There is, therefore, no one more qualified to write the
history of American anti-interventionism.
Whatever one might think of Buchanan’s politics, he
did not deserve the deluge of invective that such comments generated. The Reform party candidate was accused of being everything from an appeaser to a Nazi
sympathizer. One organization accused him of being a
fan of “the most pro-Nazi group in America funded by
Nazi Germany, and praised by Hitler himself, the America First Committee.”[1] In an age in which it has become
fashionable to criticize virtually every military intervention conducted by the United States, the Second World
War, it would appear, remains strictly off-limits.
Doenecke is clearly sympathetic to some of the antiinterventionists’ arguments, although certainly not all of
them. He notes properly that they possessed “a healthy
suspicion of executive power” (p. 323), and that they
were usually highly informed about world affairs. They
feared rightly that the United States might become the
world’s policeman, dissipating its strength in conflict after conflict that had no relevance to the national interest.
It is for this reason that Justus D. Doenecke’s new
On the other hand, Doenecke writes, they were prone
book, Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intoward hasty assumptions of moral equivalence between
tervention, 1939-1941, is so timely and important. While Nazi Germany and Great Britain, and had a tendency to
others have written about the anti-interventionists as a look for conspiracies in the making of American foreign
political phenomenon–Wayne S. Cole stands out promi- policy.
nently in this regard [2]–Storm on the Horizon is the first
full-fledged intellectual history of the movement. StartThe main theme of the book is the extreme diversity
ing with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, and end- to be found among those who opposed involvement in
ing with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Doenecke the war. In his introduction, entitled “The Many Man1
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sions of Anti-Interventionism” gives a brief overview of
the movement, including those in Congress, journalism,
the religious community, and the peace movement. This
introduction is extremely helpful in discussing the major
players, and it sets the tone for the subsequent chapters.
the early 1950s when similar abuse was being directed
at them; however, they remained silent–or in many
cases gleefully jumped onto the bandwagon–when antiinterventionists were the targets.
The book’s emphasis on the diversity of antiinterventionist opinion is one of its greatest strengths;
however, it is also the source of its only real weakness. It
is organized more or less chronologically, reporting the
noninterventionist response to world events and administration initiatives. At times this leads to a bewildering
array of views from individuals ranging from the conservative Republican Senator Robert A. Taft to American
communist Earl Browder. This reviewer, who has read
widely on the anti-interventionists, found himself from
time to time having to consult the notes or bibliography
just to keep the names and organizations straight. One
imagines that a non-specialist might tend to feel overwhelmed.
One of the most refreshing features of the book is the
author’s refusal to use the ideologically loaded and nondescriptive term “isolationist.” This was a pejorative term
used against those who objected to an interventionist foreign policy; very few used it to refer to themselves. As
Doenecke points out, most anti-interventionists did not
espouse isolation but were motivated by an honest belief that involvement in another foreign war would have
devastating consequences.
Of course, the anti-interventionists differed wildly on
what these consequences would be. Some believed that
war would bring about an end to democracy, or at least
to social reform. Others emphasized the unworthiness
of the countries at war with Hitler; intervention, they
Perhaps this is the author’s intent–to cite the vast diclaimed would only strengthen British imperialism and versity of opinion among these individuals and groups
Soviet communism. Still others feared that a postwar as evidence that the noninterventionist movement deworld government would destroy American sovereignty. fies easy characterization. But it need not be so mystifying. If one concentrates on the particular facBut this was hardly the only area of disagreement; tions within the movement–anti-Roosevelt conservathe author shows how different factions within the non- tives, western progressives, nationalists, socialists, paciinterventionist movement differed on nearly every major fists, Anglophobes, etc.–one finds considerably more coissue that surfaced in this period. Particularly divisive
herence in their views. A nationalist such as Senator
were the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to build up
Robert Rice Reynolds (D-North Carolina), for example,
the military. Many of the president’s fiercest opponents– saw no inconsistency in supporting the seizure of British
such as the members of the America First Committee, and French possessions in the Western Hemisphere while
the most prominent anti-interventionist organization– eschewing colonial commitments in Europe and Asia. A
supported such moves. On the other hand, liberals and thematic organization, dedicating a chapter to each facpacifists saw such moves as steps toward actual involvetion and its underlying ideologies, might have made the
ment in the war. In the end, Doenecke suggests, it was
book more accessible to the general reading public.
this very diversity that allowed the administration to outmaneuver its opponents and pursue its foreign policy
It is impossible to find fault with Doenecke’s reagenda almost unhindered.
search. As he points out in his acknowledgements, this
is the culmination of some twenty-five years of work,
Doenecke also gives considerable attention to the ef- and the book certainly reflects this fact. Out of a total
forts made by the administration and others to discredit of 551 pages, notes occupy a full 170, while the bibliograthe anti-interventionists. They were accused at best of
phy constitutes twenty-five more. It cites material from
being pawns of Hitler; at worst active Nazi agents.[3] The
nearly fifty manuscript collections, nearly seventy newsauthor shows how by 1941 anti-interventionist journal- papers, and as many contemporary magazines. It is hard
ists such as John T. Flynn and Oswald Garrison Villard to imagine a work on anti-interventionism that is more
had been systematically excluded from most mainstream complete.
media outlets. Universities and local governments reThanks to Doenecke’s meticulous research, Storm on
fused to allow groups such as the America First Committee and the Youth Committee Against War to use the Horizon is likely to become the standard work on
public auditoriums and other facilities. Some of the ad- the noninterventionist movement of 1939-1941. More
ministration’s more extreme critics were even arrested importantly, it is to be hoped that it will reopen scholon trumped-up charges. American liberals howled in arly discussion about a vein of American opinion that
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has been too quickly dismissed. Wrongheaded as Roosevelt’s foreign policy critics might have been on certain
issues, theirs were voices that deserved to be heard. Official repression and the force of world events conspired
to discredit them after the United States entered World
War II, and by 1945 they had been forced virtually to the
sidelines in debates over foreign policy. Had it been otherwise, it is at least conceivable that the country might
have been spared the horrors of the nuclear arms race,
the “Imperial Presidency,” and the war in Vietnam.
[2]. Of Cole’s many works on the subject, his Roosevelt and the Isolationists, 1932-1945 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983) and America First: The Battle against Intervention (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1953) stand out as particularly important.
[3]. One of the most memorable smears, unfortunately not related in Doenecke’s book, was the song
“Lindbergh,” by folk singer Arlo Guthrie. One of the lines
goes: “Hitler said to Lindy, now go and do your worst/So
he started up an outfit he called America First.” Arlo
Guthrie. “Lindbergh.” Available from the World Wide
Web <http://www.napster.org>
Notes
[1]. Ron Daniels. “The Strange Career of Dr. Lenora
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//www.jdo.org/buchanan.htm$>$
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Citation: John E. Moser. Review of Doenecke, Justus D., Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention,
1939-1941. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. April, 2001.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5082
Copyright © 2001 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for
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