America Moves Toward War
An isolationist or neutral
America no longer seems
possible
U.S.’ Isolationist Policy
• 1920s, U.S. is isolationist
• “U.S. was dragged into war by greedy bankers
& arms dealers”
• Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
– 62 countries declare that war would not be used
“as an instrument of national policy”
1912, Blue
1914, Khaki
1924-Present, Green
FDR Not-So Isolationist!
• 1933: Good Neighbor Policy pulls troops out of Lat.
Amer.
• 1934: Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act lowered
trade barriers, reduced tariffs
• 1935: Neutrality Acts
– Outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at war
– Ban on arms sales & loans to nations engaged in civil
war (Spain)
• Continues selling arms to China when Japan attacks
them b/c no “formal” declaration of war by Japan
– Pearl Harbor = revenge?
Neutrality?
●
Cash-and-Carry, 1939: allowed warring nations to buy
U.S. weapons as long as they paid cash for them &
transported the weapons themselves
●
Selective Training & Service Act, 1940:
U.S.’ 1st peacetime draft
- 16 mill. registered, 1 mill. drafted
●
Lend-Lease Act (1941): lend or lease
weapons & supplies to “any country whose defense
was vital (necessary) to the U.S.”
Lend-Lease Routes
Wolf Pack Attacks
• Large groups of German u-boats
patrol the N. Atlantic, sinking
lend-lease ships
●
●
September, 1941: FDR gives U.S. Navy permission
to attack U-boats in self-defense.
By 1943, Radio Detection
and Ranging (RADAR) used
Atlantic Charter: declaration of war goals
• FDR and Churchill meet
secretly in 1941 on USS Augusta
• Precursor to United Nations
-Both countries pledge:
- collective security
- disarmament
- self-determination
- economic cooperation
- freedom of the seas
Shoot on Sight, 1941
• Escalating German U-boat attacks on
American ships (military and merchant)
• FDR tells Navy to shoot U-boats on sight
When you see a
• Declaration of a full-scale
rattlesnake poised to
strike, you crush him.
war seemed inevitable...
Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941
“… a date that will live in
infamy”, FDR
- 2,403 Americans
killed
- 21 ships sunk (no AC)
-300 planes severely damaged or destroyed
- 1/10 Pacific Fleet!
- Congress
declares war on Japan
- Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
- Former American
isolationists are now
ready to go on the offensive and enter the War.
What do you think?
- Which was the most threatening act the U.S.
did prior to going to war? Explain your answer.
-If you knew the U.S. was helping the British
before the war, would you have reacted the way
the Germans did?