History 121
United States Since 1877
Week 10a
Chapter 26
The United States in a Troubled World
1920-1941
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26 | 1
US Foreign Policy Between the Wars
• US wished to pursue a stable world order
via independent internationalism, not
withdraw from world
- Isolationist only in that USA wanted to avoid
war/entanglements, esp. in Europe
- Try non-military methods to shape world
- Depression & foreign aggression undermine
US efforts to build stable world
• FDR & others argue German/Japanese
expansion threatens USA
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26 | 2
Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22
• Attempt to slow arms race & stabilize
Asia
- 5-Power Treaty (on capital ships)
• slows arms race between USA, England, and
Japan
- 9-Power Treaty
• affirms Open Door in China
- 4-Power Treaty
• USA, England, Japan, & France respect each
other’s Pacific possessions
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26 | 3
•French foreign minister Aristide Briand and U.S. secretary of state Charles
Evans Hughes at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–1922. Years later,
Briand helped craft the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war.
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National Archives
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Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
• Agreement between France and US
denouncing war
- 62 nations sign, agreeing to outlaw war
• Lacks enforcement provisions
• Reflects popular disillusionment with war
• Along with Locarno Pact of 1925, lauded
by peace advocates
- Women’s Peace Union, YMCA, Quakers, &
others
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26 | 5
The Women’s Peace Union WPU
distributed this flier in the 1920s to
remind Americans of the human
costs of the First World War.
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Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection, Freida Langer Lazarus Papers.
The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
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Economic & Cultural Expansion
• US leaders assume US economic
expansion abroad will create stable world
- By 1920s, USA = prominent world creditor,
manufacturer, exporter, investor
- US products, including movies, saturate
globe
- Foreign reaction to “Americanization” mixed
- USGov’t assists cultural & economic
expansion
• ITT, RCA, AP, Pan American
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War Debts & German Reparations
• Allies owe $9.6 billion to US Gov’t
- Want USA to forgive debt; US leaders refuse
• German reparations to Allies = $33 billion
- USA fear German default, then radicalism
• Triangle:
- US banks make loans to Germany
- Germans pay Allies
- Allies pay US Gov’t
• US banks began to prefer stocks to loans
and system weakened
- Collapses with onset of Depression
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Decline in Trade
• In response to high US tariffs, other
nations hike tariffs; global trade declines
- Hull (FDR’s SOS) insists lower tariffs will help
US economy
• Prevent wars caused by economic competition
• Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (1934)
institutes most-favored-nation principle
• US Export-Import Bank help trade with
loans
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26 | 9
The United States in the World Economy
•In the 1920s and 1930s, global depression and war scuttled the United States’
hope for a stable economic order. This graph suggests, moreover, that high
American tariffs meant lower exports, further impeding world trade. The Reciprocal
Trade Agreements program initiated in the early 1930s was designed to ease tariff
wars with other nations.
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U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics ofthe United States,
Colonial Times to 1970 [Washington, D.C.,1975].
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US Recognition of the USSR
• During 1920s, US Gov’t refused to
recognize USSR
• Late 1920s, US businesses start to trade
with USSR
• FDR hopes to increase trade and
relations with Soviet Union
• Grants diplomatic recognition in 1933
- Also hopes to deter Japanese
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26 | 11
Cover Story on Russia,
1932 (L); Joseph Stalin,
2nd USSR Dictator (24-53)
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The Michael Barson Collection/Past Perfect
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US Dominance in Latin America
• US dominance (economic, military,
political) grew after 1920
- In response to growing nationalist protests,
USA use less overt means to keep control
• FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy
- Withdrew troops (Haiti, Nicaragua)
- Endorsed non-interventionism, consultation
- USA backs local dictators (Trujillo, Batista)
• Use dictators to protect/promote US interests
- FDR reduced anti-Americanism without
loss of US power/influence
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26 | 13
The United States
and Latin America
Between the Wars
•The United States
often intervened in
other nations to
maintain its hegemonic
power in Latin America,
where nationalists
resented outside
meddling in their
sovereign affairs. The
Good Neighbor policy
decreased U.S. military
interventions, but U.S.
economic interests
remained strong in the
hemisphere.
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US-Mexico Tensions
• Mexico offers most serious challenge to USA
• By 1934, US-Mexico trade accounted for
majority of all imports/exports
• Cardenas implemented reforms from
Mexican Constitution in 1937
- Expropriated & nationalized foreign oil holdings
• Fearing Mexican-Axis trade, FDR
compromised
- Mexico compensated companies for property
- US did not intervene or allow others to intervene
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US Ambassador Josephus Daniels and Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas
When Cárdenas attempted to regain control of his nation’s oil resources through
expropriation, Daniels defended him as a “New Dealer” seeking to improve his
country’s living standards. Accepting Daniels’s description and calling Cárdenas “one
of the few Latin leaders who was actually preaching and trying to practice
democracy,” President Roosevelt compromised with Mexico in 1941.
Library of Congress
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26 | 16
German Aggression under Hitler
• During Depression, Germans turn to Hitler
& fascism (supremacy of state)
- Nazis revive economy/military for expansion
- Reject Versailles Treaty; ally with Italy,
Japan, ‘36
• England & France respond with appeasement
• Hitler continues to expand in central
Europe
• Hitler & Mussolini help Franco win
Spanish Civil War, 1936–39
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“Die Führer” Adolf Hitler and “Il Duce” Benito Mussolini in Venice
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26 | 18
Isolationist Views in the USA
• Americans oppose another war
- Nye Committee (1934–36) reflects suspicions
about WWI & animosity to war industries
- Neutrality acts try to avoid repeat of WWI
•
•
•
•
1935 Act bans arms sales to belligerents
1936 Act bans loans to belligerents
1937 Act bans US travel on belligerent ships
1937 Act also mandates cash-&-carry trade
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Roosevelt’s Evolving Views
• Prior to WWI, FDR was an
interventionist
• After WWI, FDR shares isolationist
views
• However, FDR worries that German,
Italian, & Japanese aggression
threatens USA
- Begins rearmament
- Cautious in response to Hitler’s antiSemitism
• Voyage of St. Louis (1939)
– US denied Jewish refugees entry, sent back to
Europe
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26 | 20
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
•President Franklin D. Roosevelt relaxes with his favorite hobby, stamp collecting,
from which he said he learned history and geography. During World War II he once
showed British prime minister Winston Churchill a stamp from “one of your colonies.”
Churchill asked, “Which one?” Roosevelt replied, “One of your last. . . . You won’t
have them much longer, you know.”
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Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
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Outbreak of World War II
• After Munich agreement fails in 1939,
France & England warn Hitler not to invade
Poland
- FDR agrees appeasement dead with fall of
Czech
- Hitler & Stalin agree to divide East Europe
• Hitler attacks Poland (Sept. 1939)
- England & France declare war on Germany
- USA repeals ‘35 Act to allow arms sales (1939)
- FDR wants to aid Allies with methods short of
war
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26 | 22
Japan, China, & New Order in Asia
• US interests: possessions, missionaries,
trade, Open Door, & “friend” to China
• Like Japanese, Chinese resist westerners
- Anticommunist Jiang (Chiang) gains US support
but this threatens Japan
- Japan wants to secure control of raw materials
- Also push white imperialists out of Asia
• Japan/USA conflict over immigration & trade
• Japan’s conquest of Manchuria (1931)
upsets USA
- No power to stop it; use nonrecognition
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26 | 23
•John D. Rockefeller Jr. traveled to China in 1921 for the dedication
of the Peking Union Medical College. At the center of this
photograph is Xu Shi Chang, China’s president. Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center
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26 | 24
Manchurian Crisis;
FDR’s Quarantine Speech
• Sino-Japanese tensions result in war (1937)
- FDR allows China to buy arms
- does not invoke Neutrality Acts
• Denounces aggressors in “Quarantine
Speech”
• Late 1930s, USA helps China with loans
• Hesitate on economic sanctions against
Japan
- Fear provoking war when Hitler greater threat
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26 | 25
"China Incident" Postcard,
Japan, 1937
•After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese
War termed the “China Incident” by Japan
in 1937, Japanese postcard publishers
churned out large numbers of postcards
showing the newly conquered territories,
or weaponry, or scenes of army life.
Soldiers would send the postcards back to
family members in Japan. This image
appeared on the cover of a packet of eight
postcards in the late 1930s. The text reads,
“China Incident Postcard—Fourth Set.”
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Eric Politzer/Curt Teich Postcard Archives, Lake County Museum
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Foreign Policy Debate, 1939–1941
• Public opinion ambiguous
- Oppose aggression, aid Allies, but stay out of
war
• Debate escalates after dramatic German
victories (Fall of France, May/June, 1940)
- Many Americans fear that if England falls,
Germany could threaten USA
• FDR gradually moves USA from neutrality
to undeclared war against Germany
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Aid to Allies
• Fall 1940
- USA swaps 50 destroyers for bases
- Institutes first peacetime draft
• Spring 1941
- Pass Lend Lease
• loan materials to Allies w/out US entry into war
- FDR orders Navy to patrol ½ of Atlantic
- Offers Lend Lease to USSR after June
1941
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Atlantic Charter & Greer Incident
• August 1941~Atlantic Charter
- FDR & Churchill agree on war aims
- FDR tells Churchill he will “force an incident”
• Sept 1941
- FDR uses German attack on Greer to enter
into undeclared war with Germany
- Announces Navy will escort ships to England
and will “shoot on sight”
- Congress scrap cash-&-carry completely
- Allow armed US merchant ships to transport
munitions to England
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Japan, 1940–41
• FDR does not want war with Japan but
opposes Japanese expansion
- Impose embargo on aviation fuel & scrap
metal after Japan signs Tripartite Pact with
Germany and Italy to form Axis (Sept. 1940)
- When Japan takes French Indochina (July
‘41), USA embargos oil
- Rejects Konoye-FDR summit
• Before any summit, insists Japan honor Open
Door and withdraw from China
• FDR accepts Hull’s hard-line policy on Japan
• Risks war to thwart further aggression
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Poster celebrating Japan’s
signing the Tripartite Pact
with Germany and Italy (L)
Japanese Prime Minister
Hideki Tojo (below)
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26 | 31
Japanese Expansion Before Pearl Harbor
•The Japanese quest for predominance began at the turn of the century and
intensified in the 1930s. China suffered the most at the hands of Tokyo’s military.
Vulnerable U.S. possessions in Asia and the Pacific proved no obstacle to Japan’s
ambitions for a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
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Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941, “a date which will live
in infamy”
- Japan launches surprise air attack on US
naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i
•
•
•
•
Kills 2403; wounds 1178
Sink/damage 8 battleships
destroy 160 aircraft
US carriers escape damage
• December 8, 1941, US declares war on
Japan
- Three days later, Germany and Italy declare
war against US
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•
Japanese Zeroes taking off to attack Pearl Harbor
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USS Arizona under attack
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USS Arizona Memorial
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Lt. John W Finn~1909-2010
1st WWII Medal of Honor Recipient
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Explaining Pearl Harbor
• Mistakes & lack of information explain
tragedy
- There was no “back door” conspiracy by FDR
- Intercepts tell USA war imminent, but no
military plans & no mention of Pearl Harbor
• Assumed Hawaii safe because it’s so far
from Japan
- US leaders expected attack in Southeast
Asia
- Warning message to put Pearl Harbor on red
alert mistakenly sent by slow method
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Clash of Systems
• Germany & Japan wanted to divide world
into closed spheres of influence (autarky)
• USA sought liberal capitalist world with
free trade
- Want to expand democracy
• Axis embraced authoritarianism &
militarism
- Charged USA with double standard
• USA claimed its expansion/empire
mutually beneficial
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