IB History of the Americas

To what extent did the United
States adopt an isolationist policy in the 1920s and 1930s?
For what reasons did the United
States go from being isolationist to interventionist?

• As we discuss how the United States as a
Nation transformed from being isolationist to engaging in war, we will be reading, analyzing, and discussing the following speeches from
FDR:
– “I Hate War” 1936
– “Quarantine the Aggressors” 1937
– “Arsenal of Democracy” 1939
– “Infamy” December 1941
– “The Four Freedoms” January 1941

Interventionism
• Collective security
• “Wilsonianism”
• Business interests
Disarmament
• Isolationism
• Nativists
• Anti-War movement
• Conservative
Republicans

DIPLOMACY IN THE 1920S:
ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT
ENTANGLEMENTS

Failure of the League of Nations
• The US became
“unofficial observers”
• Senate voted down membership into the
League, even though it was the cornerstone of
Wilson’s 14 Points

Punch Magazine December 1919

Failure of the League of Nations
• Collective security by the League required nations to act against states they considered friends, and sometimes against national interests, to support states in which they had no interest.
Ex. Mussolini and Ethiopia
• The League depended on the Great
Powers to enforce its resolutions.
Britain and France, were reluctant to use sanctions or military action on behalf of the League.
• The League's advocacy of disarmament for members while at the same time advocating collective security unwittingly deprived it of the only forceful means by which its authority could be upheld.
Moral Suasion in Punch Magazine 1920

(1921-1922)
Long-standing Anglo-Japanese alliance (1902) obligated Britain to aid Japan in the event of a Japanese war with the United
States.
Goals  naval disarmament and the political situation in the
Far East.

A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio:
US Britain Japan France Italy
5 5 3 1.67 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, no enforcement mechanism

1923

15 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.

ENGAGEMENT to Isolationism

League of Nations condemned the action.
Japan leaves the League.
Hoover 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.
Critics argue all this did was further alienate the
Japanese

Hoover’s Foreign Policy in Latin America
– 1928, goodwill tour,
Hoover renounces the
Roosevelt Corollary of
Monroe Doctrine of 1823-
Roosevelt asserted that
European nations should not intervene in countries to the south of the US, however under certain conditions, United States intervention might be justified.

Hoover’s Foreign Policy in Latin America
– Begins formulation of Good Neighbor Policy
(nonintervention policy)
– U.S. helped negotiate the Treaty of Lima
1929, ending a 60 yr conflict between Chile and Peru

Important to have all nations in the Western
Hemisphere united in lieu of foreign aggressions.
FDR  The good neighbor respects himself and
the rights of others.
Policy of non-intervention and cooperation.

(late 1933)
FDR felt that recognizing Moscow might help the US against Japan.
Maybe trade with the
USSR would help the US economy during the
Depression.

U.S. Isolationism
• Geneva Conference- arms limitation talks
– 1933, Hitler and Mussolini withdraw
– 1935, Japan withdraws from Washington Conference naval agreements
• Reasons for U.S. isolationism:
– Failure of “internationalists” and the League to limit aggression (ex. Japan-China and Italy-Ethiopia)
– Nye Committee Report blaming munitions & banking industry for U.S. involvement in WWI.
– Public opinion against U.S. involvement in Europe, leading to the Neutrality Acts

Congress responds to voters to prevent a repeat of the events that led U.S. into WW I
.
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
 Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-andcarry” basis  pay when goods are picked up, no loans
This limited the options of the President in a crisis.
America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!

U.S. Isolationism / Neutrality Acts 1937
• Neutrality Act 1937
– Sino-Japanese War. FDR supports China's efforts to defend & did not invoke the Neutrality Acts and allowed arms shipments to China.
– This outraged the isolationists in Congress who claimed that the spirit of the law was being undermined.
Roosevelt stated that he would prohibit American ships from transporting arms to the belligerents, but he allowed British ships to transport American arms to
China.
– Extended 1939 to provide assistance to Great Britain

U.S. Isolationism / Quarantine Speech
• Chicago October 1937
– FDR warns that Japanese aggression is a threat to world peace and that aggressors should be “quarantined” by the world community to prevent the spread of the “contagion of war”
– Public reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly hostile. Most saw it as FDR’s attempt to justify and further aid to belligerent nations

December 12, 1937.
Japan bombed USS
Panay gunboat & 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, especially isolationists were satisfied with the apology.
Results  Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for further aggression against US interests.

– 1935 – compulsory military service; revives
German army
– Occupies Rhineland,
1936
– Annexes Austria
(anschluss), 1938
– September 1938, annexation of the
Sudetenland (western
Czechoslovakia)

Munich Conference
• Munich Conference- G.B., France and
Germany
– Hitler claims that his territorial claims are complete and Neville Chamberlain declares
“peace in our time”
• Six months later Germany occupies all of
Czech. And turns his attention to Poland
– GB and France pledge to defend Poland from
Nazi attack

September 1, 1939, Hitler invades Poland, GB and France declare war on Germany
In response to Germany’s invasion of Poland.
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.
America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy.”

War Begins / US Intervention
• May 1940, FDR asks Congress for 1 billion in defense funds. Gets it!
• Fight for Freedom Committee- declare war now
• America First Committee- nonintervention,
Lindberg, Sen. Gerald Nye, & Hearst
Publishing.
• FDR runs for unprecedented third term.
Beats Willkie with 55% of the popular vote

Gallup Polls: European War and World War
1938 –1940

• the first peacetime conscription in United
States
• This Selective Service Act required that men between the ages of 21 and 35 register with local draft boards.
• Later, when the U.S. entered World War II, all men aged 18 to 45 were made liable for military service, and all men aged 18 to 65 were required to register.

Charles Lindbergh

War Begins / US Intervention
• England near bankruptcy and cannot afford “cash
& carry” FDR introduces
“Lend-Lease”
– Lend or lease arms to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United
States”
– GB (and other allies -
USSR) get weapons on the “promise’ to pay later

Great Britain.........................$31 billion
Soviet Union...........................$11 billion
France......................................$ 3 billion
China.......................................$1.5 billion
Other European.................$500 million
South America...................$400 million
The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000

• British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and
U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt
• aboard warships in a secure anchorage in
Ship Harbor,
Newfoundland, and was issued as a joint declaration on 14 August
1941
• Outlines the war goals and goals of the post war world

Atlantic Charter
• In brief, the 8 points were:
– No territorial gains were to be sought by the United
States or the United Kingdom.
– Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
– All peoples had a right to self-determination.
– Trade barriers were to be lowered.
– There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
– Freedom from want and fear;
– Freedom of the seas;
– Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament

Japanese Aggression 1931-
1941

US / Japan
• Dec 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attacked
• U.S. naval force in the Pacific is greatly reduced
• 2400 killed (over 1100 on
Arizona ), 1200 wounded;
– 20 warships sunk or severely damaged; 150 planes destroyed
• Dec 8, FDR asks for a declaration of war.
• Dec 11 Germany & Italy declare war on U.S.
– U.S. reciprocates
FDR before
Congress asking for a Declaration of War against
Japan, Dec. 8,
1941

Betty Grable: Allied Pinup Girl
(She Reminded Men What They Were Fighting For)