The Global Crisis:
U.S. Foreign Policy
1931-1941
APUSH - Unit 7, Lecture 3
(covering Chapter 27)
Ms. Kray
Japanese Attack Manchuria
(Sept. 1931)
5 League of Nations condemned the
action.
5 Japan leaves the League.
5 Hoover wanted no part in an American military action in
the Far East.
Hoover-Stimson Doctrine, 1932
5 US would not recognize any territorial
acquisitions that were achieved by force.
5 Japan was infuriated because the US had
conquered new
territories a few
decades earlier.
5 Japan bombed
Shanghai in
1932  massive
casualties.
Hoover & Latin America
5 Pursued friendly
relations
5 1929  Goodwill
Tour
5 Ended
interventionist
policies
 Arranged U.S. troop
withdrawal from
Nicaragua in 1933
 Negotiated a treaty
with Haiti removing
all U.S. troops by
1934
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
Policies, 1933-1938
FDR to Herbert Hoover: “Just leave
them Herb. I'll do it all after March 4th. “
FDR’s “Good Neighbor” Policy
5 Important to have all nations
in the Western Hemisphere
united in lieu of foreign
aggressions.
5 FDR  The good neighbor
respects himself and the
rights of others.
5 Policy of non-intervention and
cooperation.
5 Examples:
5 Pan-American Conferences
5 Persuaded Congress to
nullify Platt Amendment
FDR’s Bombshell
5 1933  World Economic Conference held in
London
 Hoover had agreed to attend the conference
but Election of 1932 happened
5 FDR attended but repudiated the orthodox
views of most of the delegates
 Refused to agree to plan to stabilize currency
Wanted the U.S. off the gold standard
 Abandoned U.S. commitment to settle war
debts with international agreements
5 What does this show?
 FDR is an internationalist but puts the
interests of the U.S. before the world
FDR Recognizes the Soviet Union
(late 1933)
5 FDR felt that
recognizing Moscow
might bolster the
US against Japan.
5 Maybe trade with
the USSR would
help the US
economy during the
Depression.
Nye Committee Hearings
(1934-1936)
5 The Nye Committee
investigated the charge
that WWI was needless and
the US entered so munitions
owners could make big profits
[“merchants of death.”]
5 The Committee did charge
Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]
that bankers wanted war to
protect their loans & arms manufacturers to make
money.
5 Claimed that Wilson had provoked Germany by sailing
into warring nations’ waters.
5 Resulted in Congress passing several Neutrality Acts.
FDR’s “I hate war” Speech (1936)
Ludlow Amendment (1938)
5 A proposed amendment
to the Constitution
that called for a
national referendum on
any declaration of war
by Congress.
5 Introduced several
Congressman Louis Ludlow
[D-IN]
times by Congressman
Ludlow.
5 Never actually passed.
Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936, 1937
5 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].
 Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-andcarry” basis  pay when goods are picked up.
 Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
5 This limited the options of the President in a crisis.
5 America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!
US Neutrality
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
The American “Lincoln Brigade”
Fascist Aggression
5 1935: Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty &
the League of Nations [re-arming!]
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia.
5 1936: German troops sent into the Rhineland.
Fascist forces sent to fight with Franco in Spain.
5 1938: Austrian Anschluss.
Tripartite Pact between Berlin, Rome & Tokyo
[AXIS POWERS created]
Munich Agreement  APPEASEMENT!
5 1939: German troops march into the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.
5 September 1, 1939: German troops march into
Poland  blitzkrieg  WW II
begins!!!
FDR’s Quarantine Speech, 1937
5 1937 – Japan attacked China’s
five northern provinces
5 In a speech in Chicago FDR
forcefully warned of the dangers
that Japanese aggression posed
to world speech
 Aggressor
nations should be
“quarantined” by
international
community
5 Public response
was hostile, so
FDR backs down
Panay Incident (1937)
5 December 12, 1937.
5 Japan bombed USS
Panay gunboat & three
Standard Oil tankers on
the Yangtze River.
5 The river was an
international waterway.
5 Japan was testing US resolve!
5 Japan apologized, paid US an indemnity, and promised no
further attacks.
5 Most Americans were satisfied with the apology.
5 Results  Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for
further aggression against US interests.
1939 Neutrality Act
5 In response to Germany’s invasion of Poland.

Non-Aggression Pact: Germany & USSR
5 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.
5 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.
5 America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
“America First” Committee
Charles Lindbergh
Will We Go to War?
THE U.S. BECOMES
“THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY”
Destroyers-for-Bases Deal, 1940
5 Sept. 1940  Britain under constant
assault by German bombing raids
 Britain was last Allied Power left
5 FDR could not sell
U.S. destroyers to
British outright
without alarming
isolationists
5 Arranged trade
without consulting
Congress!
“Four Freedoms” Speech
5 Jan. 6, 1941
5 Proposed lending money
to Britain for the
purchase of U.S. war
materials
5 Justified policy because
it was in defense of
“four freedoms”
5 U.S. must support
nations that support the
4 freedoms
“Lend-Lease” Act, March 1941
5 Opposed by America First Committee
5 By now, however, most Americans supported aiding
Britain
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
Atlantic Charter, Aug.1941
5 Secret meeting between FDR & Winston
Churchill, P.M. of Britain
5 Affirmed what their peace objectives
would be when the war ended
 Self-determination for all people
 No territorial
expansion
 Free trade
Shoot-on-Sight, July 1941
5 FDR extended U.S. support
for Britain even further
 Ordered U.S. navy to escort
British ships carrying lendlease materials from U.S. to as
far as Iceland
 Goal: protect ships from Uboat attacks
5 Sept 4  American destroyer
Greer attacked
 FDR’s ordered the Navy to
attack all German ships on sight
 Undeclared naval war against
Germany
Pearl Harbor
Why the Japanese Attacked
5 1940-1941 – U.S. relations with Japan
increasingly strained
 Japan’s invasion of China
 Ambitions to extend conquests into Southeast
Asia
5 Sept. 1940 – Japan joined Axis Powers
 FDR responded by prohibiting the export of
steel & scrap iron to all countries except
Britain & nations of Western Hemisphere
5 July 1941 – Japan occupied French Indochina
 FDR responded by freezing all Japanese
credits in the U.S.
 Oil embargo
5 Neutrality vs. Interventionism
5 FDR’s re-election in 1940 made him feel he
was in a stronger position to end American
neutrality & give direct aid to the British.
 Four Freedoms Speech (Jan. 1941)
 Lend-Lease Act (March 1941)
 Atlantic Charter (August 1941)
 Shoot-on-Sight (July 1941)
FDR and Churchill
meet and create
Atlantic Charter
Sept. 1940 –
Japan joins
Axis Powers
FDR froze all
Japanese credits in
U.S. and cut off
Japanese access to
vital materials (oil)
U.S. prohibits the
export of steel
and scrap iron to
Japan
July 1941 –
Japan occupied
French Indochina
2,400 Americans
killed
1,200 wounded
20 warships sunk
or severely
damaged
150 airplanes
destroyed