US Neutrality
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In the 1930s Americans, led by FDR, turned
their backs on the world’s problems
- Attention was focused on ending the
depression
-The costs of foreign involvement, seemed too
great

66 nations sent delegates to London hoping to organize a
coordinated effort to combat the depression
 Stabilize the values of currencies
 revival of world trade
FDR originally agreed to send a delegation to the
conference, but he changed his mind , wanted to take us
off gold, knew they wouldn’t like it

The conference ended without accomplishing
goals,
 blaming the “bad faith” of the Americans
 Strengthens nationalism- every nation for
themselves
 The cost of maintaining a military presence in Asia
was too expensive to justify
 Organized labor demanded American companies
stay here and hire US workers.
▪ US sugar producers wanted to get rid of competition
from cheap Filipino labor

Tydings – McDuffie Act (1934): Philippines
would be granted independence after 12 years (
1946)
 No US Army bases
 US keeps Naval bases

Japanese viewed this as US abandoning power
in Pacific- motivates them to take more territory

U.S. formally recognized the Soviet Union in 1933
 Protests were voiced by
▪ conservatives
▪ Roman Catholics

FDR’s motivations:
 establishing trade
 counterweight to the possible threat of Germany and Japan

“I would dedicate this nation to the policy of
the Good Neighbor.” -1933 inaugural speech

US would not uphold Roosevelt Corollary
while FDR was in power - Seventh PanAmerican Conference in Montevideo,
Uruguay in late 1933
 Great Depression
▪ Can’t afford to maintain troops
▪ Not investing as much in foreign countries, no need to
back up our interests with troops
 Better relationship with neighbors
▪ Tensions mounting in Europe, want to make sure our
neighbors like us!
Created by Secretary of State, Cordell Hull
 President could lower tariffs by as much as 50%
without consulting Congress
▪ High tariffs choke off foreign trade
▪ Trade wars bring about shooting wars
▪ Ushers in idea of Free Trade that takes off after WWII
▪ No blanket tariffs, negotiate by region –keep tariffs low
▪ US trade increased dramatically

Isolationism is the name of the game in the 1930s
 Americans still believed that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
provided some kind of mystical immunity from attack
 Americans now regarded participation in WW I as a colossal
blunder
 Americans viewed Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, and
other European nations as ungrateful and defaulting debtors
Johnson Debt Default Act (1934) – prevented
nations who defaulted on their debts from
borrowing further in the United States
 “If attacked again they can stew in their own juices.”
Other calls for isolationism
 Some demanded a constitutional amendment to
forbid a declaration of war by Congress except in case
of invasion
 Ludlow Amendment: proposed numerous times,
never passes
▪ war could be declared by popular vote

Many Americans condemned weapons manufacturers as
“merchants of death”
 Sen. Gerald Nye was appointed to chair a subcommittee
to investigate the “blood business”
▪ Did business interests pull us into WWI?
▪ Making loans to belligerents?
▪ Selling goods to belligerents?
▪ Subcommittee never formally blamed any group for our
involvement in war

Fears of escalating tension in Europe and Pacific caused
Congress to create Neutrality Acts

The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 – when taken
together
 Stated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a
foreign war
▪ No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship (ship of a country
at war)
▪ Sell or transport war material to a belligerent (country at war), or
▪ Make loans to a belligerent (country at war)
 The Acts were tailored to keep the U.S. out of a conflict like WW I
▪ Abandoned freedom of the seas
▪ Allows us to sit back as dictators advance their plans
▪ Ethiopia, Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia…
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1933:
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1/30- Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
2/27- Burning of the Reichstag
3/20- Dachau opens
3/23- Enabling Act: Hitler declares state of emergency
to take more power
4/1- Nazi boycott of Jewish owned stores
5/10- book burning
7/14- Nazi party official party of Germany
10/14- Germany leaves League of Nations
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August 1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer
1935:
 3/16- Hitler announces the build up of the
Germany military violating the Treaty of
Versailles
 9/15- Nuremberg Laws are issued, strip Jews of
the rights of citizenship
 Deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship
 Forbid Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans
or to employ young Aryan women as household help.

10/3- Italy invades Ethiopia
(May 1936)
 One of 3 independent nations
in Africa
 Resisted an earlier attack by
Italy (1890)
▪ Italians: tanks, guns, chemical
weapons
▪ Ethiopians: spears and swords
 Ethiopia appealed to the
League of Nations to come to
their defense, they condemn
the attack but do nothing
▪ Britain: allows Italy to use Suez
Canal (they controlled it at the
time)
▪ US: doesn’t place an oil
embargo on Italy

1936:
 3/7-German Troops Occupy the Rhineland
▪ Hitler is continuing to test T.O.V.
▪ Moves troops into demilitarized zone on the German /French
border
▪ No one does anything, emboldens Hitler
▪ Britain and France follow policy of appeasement: give in to Hitler
to keep peace
France
 7/17/36- Spanish Civil War
breaks out (4/39)
▪ Fascist Franco leads revolt
against Republicans (loyalist)
government
▪ Aided by Hitler and Mussolini ;
want another Fascist on the
continent
 Money and supplies
▪ Loyalists aided by Soviets;
fearful of another fascist on
the continent
▪ Send money and supplies
▪ Britain and France remain
neutral
▪ US responds by passing the
Neutrality Acts of 1936 and 37
▪ Some Americans volunteer to
fight with the loyalists and
head to Spain
 10/21- Rome Berlin Axis created
▪ Informal alliance uniting foreign policy goals
▪ Result of working together to aid Franco in Spanish Civil War
 11/25- Japan joins Rome-Berlin Axis

1938:
 3/12 &13- Germany
announces Anschluss
(union) with Austria
▪ Hitler creates atmosphere of
chaos in Austria
▪ Murder Austrian Chancellor
1936
▪ 1937: Nazi party grows in power
▪ 1938:
 Jan: Nazi party banned in
Austria, rioting begins
 Feb: Hitler will stop violence
if Austria is annexed
 March12: Schuschnigg (new
chancellor) resigns, Germany
rolls in
 9/30-Munich Agreement
▪ Hitler wants Sudetenland b/c 3 million German speaking people live
there, begins propaganda campaign summer of 38
▪ Forbidden by T.O.V.
▪ France, Great Britain request a meeting with Germany and Italy in
hopes of avoiding war
▪ agree to allow Hitler to annex the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia) if he
promises not to expand any more
Policy of Appeasement:
Give Hitler what he wants so he
doesn't come after us
▪ Neville Chamberlin (PM of G.B.):
 “Peace in our time”
Poland
France

Why appeasement?
 Want to avoid war at all costs
▪ Concerned about poor economic
situation of their own nation
▪ Fearful of another devastating war in
less than 2 decades

Any objections?
 Winston Churchill (then member
of Parliament, future PM of G.B.)
▪ “ We are in the presence of a disaster
of the first magnitude…we have
sustained a defeat without war…and
do not suppose that this is the
end…this is only the first sip, the first
foretaste of a bitter cup which will be
proffered to us year by year unless, by
a supreme recovery of moral health
and martial vigor, we arise again and
take our stand for freedom…”
European Acts of
Aggression
11/ 9&10Kristallnacht
•Two days of violence
against Jews in
Germany ,Austria, and
the Sudetenland
•Blamed for murder of
German diplomat in Paris
•Jews made to pay for
damages… 15,000 sent
to Poland…91 killed
•Additional Laws added
•Must register all
property
•Not allowed to
participate in certain
professions or the
arts

1939:
 5/22: Nazi’s sign Pact of Steel with Italy
▪ Formal military alliance
 8/23: German –Soviet non aggression pact signed
▪ Secret agreement, if Germany invades Poland it will split
the country with USSR and they promise not to invade
each other
 9/1: Germany invades Poland
▪ Britain and France have military alliance with Poland
 9/3: British and French declare war on Germany

1937 – Japan engages in an all-out attack of China, beginning the
Sino-Japanese War

To avoid invoking the Neutrality Act, FDR wouldn’t declare this a war
 Want to help China
▪ Worried about Japanese aggression in Hawaii, Philippines, or mainland US
▪ Actually helps Japan b/c they have more $
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10/ 37 : In Chicago, FDR delivers his “Quarantine Speech”- calling for a
voluntary embargo on selling goods to Japan

The speech triggered protest from isolationists, causing FDR to retreat
from his hard line support of China

12/ 1937 – The American gunboat, Panay, sailing
in Chinese waters, is bombed and sunk by
Japanese planes, leaving two U.S. sailors dead
and thirty injured
 Unlike U.S. reactions in the past, there was little to no
U.S. outrage
▪ Japan apologized, claimed they didn’t know it was a US vessel
▪ Paid $2 million


WWII begins with German invasion of Poland
9/1/39; War declared 9/3/39 by Great Britain and
France
Isolationists try to maintain neutrality as long as
possible, but FDR sees the writing on the wall
 Americans were overwhelmingly anti-Nazi and anti-
Hitler
 They definitely wanted the “forces of righteousness”
to prevail

FDR appealed to Congress to consider changing
Neutrality Acts –debate ensues
 After six weeks of negotiations, the Neutrality
Act of 1939 was passed, which provided:
▪ European democracies could buy American war
materiel on a “cash and carry” basis
▪ Belligerents would have to move the munitions on
their own ships, after paying in cash
▪ We would take them to Iceland, but that’s as far as we would go.
▪ The president was authorized to declare danger zones American ships were forbidden to enter these zones
 The Act was designed so that America could
avoid:
▪ Making loans
▪ Accumulating war debts
▪ Torpedoing of American ships
 The Act also accomplished these goals:
▪ It favored democracies over dictators
▪ Helped to solve the decade long unemployment crisis

America is shocked out of it’s isolationist
daydream when
 France falls (June 22, 1940)
▪ if Britain falls, Hitler will have all of the peoples of
western Europe as potential slave labor
▪ if Britain falls, their naval fleet will now be controlled by
Germany – threatening America’s security

FDR and Congress reacted with incredible speed
 $37 billion is appropriated to build a huge air fleet
and a two-ocean navy (more than the entire cost of
WW I and about five times the cost of any New Deal
budget).
 Congress passes a Conscription Law on September
6, 1940 – the nation’s first peacetime draft –
▪ providing for the training of 1.2 million troops and 800,000
reserves

FDR (Democrat) vs. Wendell Willkie
(Republican)
 FDR’s bid for a third term was controversial; 78%
of newspapers endorsed Willkie because of this
 He was able to win because he had experience
and it looked as if the nation was being brought
closer to war
 Willkie didn’t help by agreeing with FDR’s foreign
policy so far. Mainly ran saying FDR’s good , but
no one should be president for more than 2 terms.
449 electoral votes
to 82

two perspectives :
 Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies
(CDAAA) was in favor of assisting Britain (William
Allen White- newspaper publisher, Bernard Baruchformer head of War production Board )
 The America First Committee argued that all of
America’s resources should be used to defend its’
own shores (Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford)

Britain was in critical need of destroyers because
German submarine attacks

September 2, 1940 – Presidential Agreement
with Great Britain, 50 WW I vintage destroyers
are transferred to the British in exchange for
eight defensive base sites stretching from
Newfoundland to South America
 the American public was in support of the transfer
 FDR couldn’t wait for Congress

By late 1940 Britain had almost exhausted its
financial credit in the U.S.
 FDR was determined to eliminate “the silly,
foolish, old dollar sign” as an obstacle to aiding
the Allies
 FDR’s solution was Lend-Lease (March 1941)
▪ leasing American arms to the democracies for their
exclusive use during the war

The Lend-Lease Bill, S-1776, “An Act Further
to Promote the Defense of the United States”
 “Send guns, not sons”
 “Billions, not bodies”
 According to FDR, America would be the “arsenal
of democracy”
 Its stated goals: support the democracies and
keep America out of the war

One of the most momentous laws ever to
pass Congress
 In effect, Lend-Lease was an economic declaration of war
 geared U.S. factories for all-out war production
 Hitler recognized Lend-Lease as a declaration of war –
▪ German submarines began to attack the U.S. merchant fleet
shortly after passage of the law
▪
▪
▪
▪
7/41 US starts to convoy
9/41 Greer
10/41 Reuben James
11/41 Merchant ships can arm

Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the
Atlantic Charter
 June 22, 1941: Hitler attacked Russia(one year after fall of
France)
▪ Operation Barbarossa
▪ Hitler wants Russian resources
▪ Russia given Lend Lease aid ($11 billion total during war)
 Atlantic Conference: August 1941,resulted in Atlantic
Charter
▪ The charter affirmed the right for people to choose their rulers
▪ It declared disarmament and a peace of security, as well as a new
League of Nations (United Nations)
▪ Some unhappy with this felt it was a new 14 points
In 1940, Japan began working with its allies to secure
a foothold in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in order to
secure important war materials such as rubber and oil.
 Japan widened the scope of its war through measures
such as:

 Securing the right to build airfields in Indochina from the
Vichy government
 Occupying French Indochina
 Signing the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy to
form the Axis alliance (Sept 1940)
 Signing a nonaggression pact with the Russians in order to
ensure the safety of its northern front in China (Aug 1941)
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The United States responded to these actions by
voicing its disapproval and pursuing economic policies
meant to discourage Japan from further aggression.
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Extended Lend –Lease to China
Refused to export arms to Japan
Froze all Japanese assets (money) in the United States
Stopped exporting oil to Japan—a significant punishment,
considering 80 percent of Japanese oil came from the
United States
Roosevelt refused to lift the embargo until Japanese
troops withdrew from China and Indochina.
Nov 1941, we know an attack is coming but think it
will be at British Malaya or the Philippines
18 months earlier FDR moves Pacific fleet from San
Diego to Pearl Harbor
 The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit
its target at 7:53 AM, the second at 8:55.
 By 9:55 it was all over.

 2,403 dead
 161 destroyed planes , 108 damaged
 a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 3 damaged and 5
sunken battleships.
▪ 2 of the 5 battleships that were sunk were salvaged. The 3 damaged
ships were repaired by Feb 1942 (only 2 months later!)

Americans united behind a declaration of war

The same day Japan was able to launch attacks
against the Philippines, Guam, Midway, Wake
Island and British Malaya
 They would continue to gain territory for the next
several months stopping just short of Australia

Thankfully our 6 aircraft carriers, 25 submarines
and, fuel oil storage facilities, and dry dock
(repair station) emerged unscathed.
 These would be the foundation for an eventual
American victory.

December 8, 1941 US Declares War!
 “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which
will live in infamy - the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately attacked by
naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. “ FDR