Divided Public Opinion
The United States
and the War
• To assist the democracies
• To assist the Nazis
– Smallest group
• To remain neutral
– Largest group
Chapter 10
• America First Committee
– Promoted isolationism
– Wm. Randolph Hearst
• And the Hearst papers
– Charles A. Lindbergh
• B/c of his awe of the Luftwaffe
Neutrality Acts
Neutrality Acts
• Neutrality Act of 1935
• Neutrality Act of 1937
1935, 1936, and 1937
– No selling of weapons &
munitions to belligerents
– Traveling on belligerent
ships down at own risk
– Embargo on munitions & loans
– “Cash and carry” for all other goods
• Must be pd. in cash before leaving the U.S.
• Must be transported on foreign ships
– Forbade travel on belligerent ships
• Response to the sinking of the Lusitania
– Imposed when Italy invaded Ethiopia
• No difference btw. aggressors & victims
• Neutrality Act of 1936
– Playing into the hands of the aggressors
– Prohibited all loans to belligerents
Neutrality Acts
Nat’l Defense Tax Bill
June 1940
• Declared on Sept. 5, 1939
• Neutrality Act of 1939
– Came after the fall of Poland
– Bitterly fought in Congress
• For 6 wks.
– Allowed belligerents to buy munitions
on a “cash and carry” basis
• Passed after the fall of
Denmark, Norway, Holland,
Belgium, and France in 1940
• Appropriated $37 billion for military
– Ranked 17th and well below Poland’s
– More than was spent in WWI
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FDR’s Third Term
• 1st pres. to run for a 3rd term
• Critics charged:
– FDR wanted to be pres. forever.
– FDR was dragging the country
into war.
Wendell Willkie
Election of 1940
• Had been a Democrat
• FDR won unprecedented 3rd term.
– Supported much of the New Deal
– Switched to Republican in protest to
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
– Popular vote:
• 27,307,819 for FDR
• 22,321,018 for Willkie
– Electoral vote:
• 449 for FDR
• 82 for Willkie
– Wanted to improve defenses &
prepare for war
• Not much different from FDR
Destroyers for Bases Deal
Sept. 2, 1940
• 50 overage destroyers traded to Britain.
– U-boats were taking a toll on the British
• 99-yr. leases on bases given to the U.S.
– Newfoundland, Bermuda, Bahamas, &
throughout the Caribbean
Selective Training and Service Act
Sept. 16, 1940
• 1st peacetime draft
• Was not universal conscription
• 1.2 million and 800,000 reservists
to be drafted for 1 yr.
• Assigned numbers to all men btw.
21 and 35 y/o by local draft boards
– Expanded to cover men 18 to 45 y/o
• Pulled numbers out of a bucket
– Starting ton Oct. 29, 1940
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Four Freedoms
Lend-Lease Act
Jan. 6, 1941
March 1941
• Presented by FDR in State
•
• Needed b/c Britain couldn’t afford to continue
“cash and carry.”
of the Union in 1941
Included:
• Authorized FDR to provide goods and services
to any national vital to defense of the U.S.
– Freedom of Speech
– Freedom of Worship
“Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire,
and I have a length of garden.... If he can
take my garden hose … I may help him to
put out his fire.... I don't say to him before
that operation, ‘Neighbor, my garden hose
cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.’
... I don't want $15—I want my garden hose
back after the fire is over.”
—FDR, press conference on Lend Lease,
Mar. 11, 1941
– Freedom from Want
– Freedom from Fear
• Sought to supply those fighting aggression
• Ultimately would guide the
w/o having to fight themselves.
– Becoming the “Arsenal of Democracy”
Allied war effort
S.S. Robin Moore
May 21, 1941
• Slogans of Support
• “Send guns, not sons!”
• “Billions, not bodies!”
Atlantic Conference
Aug. 9-12, 1941
• Secret meeting of FDR and Churchill.
• U.S. freighter
• Torpedoed by U-boats
• Prompted FDR to proclaim a
– Off the coast of Newfoundland from
• FDR on the Augustus
• Churchill on the battle-scarred Prince of Wales
– To discuss goals and objectives of the war
state of nat’l emergency.
– Axis ships seized in U.S. ports.
– Axis credits frozen.
– Axis consulates closed.
• Announced the Atlantic Charter
–
–
–
–
U-boat War in the Atlantic
Similar to Wilson’s 14 Points.
Promised Self-determination
Guaranteed the “Four Freedoms”
Formed a new int’l organization
– Became the United Nations
U.S.S. Greer
Sept. 4, 1941
• Britain short of naval
escorts for Lend-Lease.
• Destroyer pursuing U-boats
• Attacked by U-boat, but was
• FDR announced the U.S.
Navy would escort all
Lend-Lease shipments as
far as Iceland.
not hit or damaged
– British escorts would take
over from there.
• U.S. destroyers would
identify German U-boats
and follow until British
destroyers could arrive.
• Attacked U-boat, but missed
• Prompted FDR to announce
the “shoot-on-sight” order
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U.S.S. Kearny
U.S.S. Reuben James
• Torpedoed by U-boat
• Torpedoed and sunk by U-boat
Oct. 16, 1941
– In response to the “shoot-on-sight” order
– Damaged but not sunk
Oct. 31, 1941
– W/ loss of 115 Americans
– Outraged the U.S.
• But still not ready for war
• American Response
– Merchant ships armed and
allowed to sail into war zone.
– $1 billion in Lend Lease
extended to the Soviets.
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