America Moves Toward War
World War Looms #4
I. The United States Musters its Forces
• A. Moving cautiously away from
neutrality.
• 1. The cash-carry policy allowed the U.S.
to provide arms and supplies to countries
that paid them cash.
• B. The Axis Threat
• 1. The Tripartite Pact between Germany,
Italy, and Japan, a mutual defense treaty
was designed to prevent the U.S. from
joining the war.
• 2. They became known as the Axis
Powers.
• C. Building U.S. Defenses
• 1. The Selective Training and Service
drafted 16 million men between the ages
of 21 to 35 to join the army in case of a
war.
• 2. Roosevelt ran and won an
unprecedented 3rd term as president by
defeating Wendell Wilkie.
II. “The Great Arsenal of Democracy”
• A. The Lend-Lease Plan
• 1. The U.S. would lend or lease arms and
supplies to “any country whose defense
was vital to the United States.”
• 2. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in
March 1941.
• 3. FDR even sent arms and supplies to
Stalin because Hitler had invaded the
Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill
• “If Hitler invaded
Hell,” the British
would be prepared
to work with the
devil himself.
• B. German Wolf Packs
• 1. Groups of German U-boats or
submarines sank as much as 350,000 tons
of U.S. shipping a month.
• 2. However, by 1943 submarines attacks
were contained because of the use of
radar and sonar.
• 3. U-Boats were known as the
“rattlesnakes of the Atlantic.”
III. FDR Plans For War
• A. The Atlantic Charter
• 1. With Great Britain, FDR signed a joint
declaration of war aims and declared the
following: collective security, disarmament, selfdetermination, economic cooperation, and
freedom of the seas.
• 2. The declaration was signed by 26 nations and
they became known as the Allies.
• 3. FDR then ordered U.S. ships to shoot on sight
if they saw a German U-Boat.
• 4. Became the basis of the United Nations.
•
B. The Four Freedoms Speech
•
1. FDR proposed four points as fundamental
freedoms humans "everywhere in the world"
ought to enjoy.
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
Freedom
of Speech and Expression.
of Religion
from Want
from Fear
2. Set out a vision for a world in which war would be less
likely.
3. The Atlantic Charter was built on the ideas in the Four
Freedoms speech.
Four Freedoms
IV. Japan Attacks the United States
• A. Japan’s ambitions in the Pacific.
• 1. General Hideki Tojo Chief of Staff led Japan’s
army in conquering all of Eastern Asia.
• 2. After Japan had conquered French Indochina
the U.S. stopped selling Japan oil.
• 3. After breaking Japan’s secret code th U.S.
learned that Japan would attack and on
December 6, FDR got a decoded message that
Japan was “to reject all American peace
proposals”
• B. The Attack on Pearl Harbor
• 1. On the morning of Dec, 7, 1941 Japan
launched a surprise attack.
• 2. 2,403 Americans were killed, 1,178
were wounded, sunk or damaged 21 ships
including 8 battleships, and more than 300
aircraft were damaged.
• 3. “A day that will live in infamy.”
• 4. Even isolationists wanted war.
Burton Wheeler
• “The only thing now
to do is to lick the
hell out of them.”