American
Foreign Policy
and The World
goes to War:
1920-1941
Foreign Policy TensionsPOST WWI
Interventionism
Disarmament
•
Collective security
•
Isolationism
•
“Wilsonianism”
•
Anti-War movement
•
Democrats
•
Republicans
Causes of WWII
#1-Treaty of Versailles
- Germany lost land to
surrounding nations
-War Reparations
-Allies collect $ to pay back war
debt to the US.
-Germany must pay $32
billion($442 billion today).
-Bankrupted the German
economy & embarrassed
the German people.
3
Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson
during negotiations for the Treaty
#2-Economic hardships
caused by WWI lead to the
rise of dictators.
Hyper-Inflation in Germany:
1923
#3-The Ineffectiveness of the
League of Nations
World-wide Depression-Begins 1929
-Desperate people search
for hope and answers….
•Hitler seemed to
provide solutions to
Germany’s problems
•Hitler sought
lebensraum-living
space & the return of
German speaking lands.
23 - Wallpapering with German Deutchmarks
Rise of Totalitarian Regimes
In a Totalitarian country, individual rights are nonexistent and the dictator requires complete
subservience to the state.
Communist
Dictatorship
(USSR)
Communism- political
theory of Karl Marx:
government or State
owns all means of
production ---- citizens are paid
according to abilities
and needs.
-citizens are required to
obey the dictator.
Totalitarianism
Military
Dictatorship
(Japan)
Fascist
Dictatorships
(Germany, Italy &
Spain)
Fascism:
government
based on
racism &
nationalism
with a demand
for obedience
to the leader
Major Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Germany
1933
Benito Mussolini
Italy 1921
10
Major Leaders
Hideki Tojo
Japanese Prime Minister
-Military Commander 1930
Joseph Stalin
Russian Leader-1924
International Agreements-pre Hitler
Locarno Pact – 1925
France, Germany, Great Britain & Italy

Guarantee existing frontiers

Obey the DMZ 30 miles deep on the
banks of Rhine River-the Rhineland

Refrain from aggression against each
other
Kellogg-Briand Pact-the World Peace Act
1928
Made war illegal as a tool of diplomacy
61 Nations signed-inc. US, Germany &
Japan
 No enforcement provisions

Japanese Attack Manchuria
(1931)
League of Nations condemned the
action.
Japan leaves the League.
Hoover wanted no part in an American military action in the
Far East.
Japan Invades Manchuria, 1931
Isolationism of THE US
Why was the U.S. Isolationist?
-Great Depression
-Perceptions of WWI
- WWI did not seem to solve much
- People began to believe that the US joined
WWI for the wrong reasons
(greedy American businessmen!)
Isolationism
- led to European policies of “Appeasement”
* to pacify by giving in to demands
(give dictators what they want and hope they are
satisfied)
It began with the Japanese invasion of
Manchuria, Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and
continued with Hitler . . .
Hoover-Stimson Doctrine
(1932)
US would not recognize any territorial acquisitions
that were achieved by force.
US supplies to China and Japan continue….
Japan bombed
Shanghai in
1932  massive
casualties.
Nye Committee Hearings
(1934-1936)
The Nye Committee investigated
-WW I was needless
& the US entered so munitions
owners could make big profits
[“merchants of death.”]
Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]
- bankers wanted war to
protect their loans & arms manufacturers to make money.
Resulted in Congress passing several Neutrality Acts.
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 WW I].
 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!
Italy Attacks Ethiopia, 1935
Emperor
Haile
Selassie
Germany
Invades the
Rhineland
March 7, 1936
World-wide Depression continues…
- Hitler became
chancellor of Germany
in1933.
-he provided
scapegoats for
Germany’s problems
(Jews, foreigners,
communists, Romanian
(Gypsies), mentally ill,
capitalists homosexuals,
mixed race,
dark skinned etc..)
-NON ARIAN
Nuremburg Laws 1935
reclassified Jews –non citizens & removed
their basic civil rights.
Defined the Jewish race
–three or four Jewish grandparents.
--one or two Jewish grandparents you
were considered to be mixed race.
-- eventually anyone with at least one
Jewish grandparent was at risk in Nazi
Germany
-Jews could only marry Jews
Kristallnacht
PM November 9 and 10, 1938, gangs of Nazi
youth roamed through Jewish
neighborhoods breaking windows of Jewish
businesses and homes, burning synagogues
and looting.
* 101 synagogues were destroyed
* 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed
* 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to
concentration camps.
Jews were physically attacked and beaten and
91 died in the attack.
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
The Spanish Civil War: 1936 - 1939
Francisco Franco
Panay Incident (1937)
December 12, 1937.
Japan bombed USS
Panay gunboat killing two
Americans & destroying 3
Standard Oil tankers on
the Yangtze River.
Japan apologized, paid US $2 million 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.
The Sino-Japanese War 1937
• Japan invades China & tightens control over
Korea.
• Goal-Eliminate Korea & Chinese culture :
control all citizens & resources.
• Culture Destroyed
– Forced worship Japanese, Shinto, shrines
– Banned -Korean language, newspapers, Korean
history. Thousands of cultural artifacts destroyed.
– Men forced in Japanese Army WWII/Women &
girls forced to be sex slaves.
The Japanese Invasion
of China, 1937
The Rape of Nanking
The Austrian Anschluss, 1938
Ludlow Amendment (1938)
A proposed amendment to
the Constitution that
called for a national
referendum on any
declaration of war by
Congress.
Introduced several times
Never passed…….
Congressman Louis Ludlow
[D-IN]
Good idea?
What Was Hitler Asking For?
Return of German Speaking Lands-Living Space “Lebensraum”
Sudetenland –
(part of
Czechoslovakia)
German Troops Parade in Streets of Czechoslovakian Town, ca. 1938
Sudetenland
Appeasement: The Munich
Agreement, 1938
The Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia is given to Hitler
British P M Neville Chamberlain
French P M Edouard Daladier
• “ My good friends, this is the second time
in our history that there has come back
from Germany to Downing Street peace
with honour. I believe it is peace for our
time [emphasis added]. We thank you
from the bottom of our hearts. And
now I recommend you to go home
and sleep quietly in your beds.”
Czechoslovakia Becomes Part of
the Third Reich: 1939
The Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact, 1939
Foreign Ministers
von Ribbentrop & Molotov
Poland Attacked: Sept. 1, 1939
Blitzkrieg [“Lightening War”]
German Troops March into Warsaw
September 3, 1939
• France and Great Britain declare war on
Germany
Hitler's triumphal entry into Danzig, Poland 1939
1939 Neutrality Act
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 increased.
America became the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, 1940
Allies
(major powers)
The
Big
Three
Axis
(major powers)
Great Britain
Germany
USSR
Italy
United States
Japan
France
(note: France surrendered
to Germany in 1940 (after
6 weeks of fighting)
The “Phoney War” Ends:
April 9, 1940
Blitzkrieg “Lightning War”
1940 Hitler invades:
– Belgium
– Northern France (Italy invades from
the South)
– Denmark
– Norway
– The Netherlands
– Luxembourg
– Britain-Air Raids
Dunkirk Evacuated
June 4, 1940
France Surrenders
June 25, 1940
France Surrenders
June 25, 1940
A Divided France
Henri Petain
The French Resistance
The Free French
General Charles
DeGaulle
Now Britain Is All Alone!
British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill May 1940
Battle of Britain:
The “Blitz”
July-Oct. 1940
Battle of Britain:
The “Blitz”
The Royal Air Force-RAF
German Targets: airfields,
Aircraft, oil supplies, cities.
The London “Tube”:
Air Raid Shelters during the Blitz
U. S. Lend-Lease Act 1941
US would lend or lease (RENT) arms to any
country whose defense was vital to the US
staying out of war (first applied to Britain).
Early Loans
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 by 1945
Lend-Lease
Operation Barbarossa:
Hitler’s Biggest Mistake
Operation Barbarossa:
June 22, 1941
- 3,000,000 German soldiers.
- 3,400 tanks.
The Atlantic Charter
- Post War Planning.
Roosevelt and
Churchill signed a
treaty of friendship
in August 1941.
- Solidifies alliance.
- Calls for League of
Nations type
organization.
Europe 1941 & FDR Elected for a
3rd term
Pearl Harbor
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Pearl Harbor from the Cockpit
of a Japanese Pilot
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War
Japan-Dec. 8, 1941
Germany & Italy
Dec. 11, 1941
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War
Japan-Dec. 8, 1941
Germany & Italy
Declared war on
The United StatesDec. 11, 1941
Pearl Harbor Memorial
2,887 Americans Dead!
DOUBLE V CAMPAIGN
•
•
•
* VICTORY OVER Fascism
ABROAD
* VICTORY OVER Racism IN
AMERICA