THE ROAD FROM PEACE TO WAR (1920-1941)

Chapter 27—Part I

Was world war inevitable?

THE ROAD TO WAR

American Foreign Policy in the 1920s and 1930s

“The retreat from an active world policy in the 1920s turned into a headlong flight back to isolationism in the 1930s. Two factors were responsible. First, the Depression made foreign policy seem remote and unimportant to most Americans. . . . Second, the

danger of war abroad, when it did finally penetrate the American consciousness, served only to strengthen the desire to escape involvement. . . . The growing danger

[by the mid-1930s] of war abroad led to a rising American desire for peace and noninvolvement.”

“The United States emerged from World War I as the richest nation on earth. . . . Each year of the 1920s saw the nation increase its economic lead

as the balance of trade tipped heavily in America’s favor.”

During the 1920s, the U.S. was “careful not to make any binding commitments on behalf of world order. The result was neither isolation nor involvement but

rather an cautious middle course that managed to alienate friends and encourage foes. . . . The financial

crash of 1929 halted the flow of American dollars across the Atlantic and led to subsequent default on

debt payments, with accompanying bitterness on both sides of the ocean.”

The Scorecard

• Five-Power Treaty • Four-Power Treaty• Washington Naval Conference,

1921 • Kellogg-Briand Pact • Dawes Plan• Hawley-Smoot Act

Five-Power Treaty

This agreement banned construction of large warships for 10 years; for every 5 tons of ships the U.S. or Britain owned, Japan could have 3 tons, and France and Italy

could have 1.67 tons 27C

Four-Power Treaty

• U.S., Britain, France, and Japan agree to respect one another’s territories in the Pacific

• U.S., Britain, France, and Japan agree to respect one another’s territories in the Pacific

• Disputes would be settled by a conference

• Replaced the old Anglo-Japanese alliance with a new Pacific security pact

Implications of the Four-Power Treaty

Washington Naval Conference, 1921 27C

• Protected China from foreign powers

• Was effort to moderate the naval rivalry between Japan and the U.S.

• Agreement failed when Japan invaded China 27E

Kellogg-Briand Pact A treaty outlawing war except in cases of self-defense (1928); initially, 14 nations, including the U.S. signed the pact; eventually, 62 nations were involved 27C

On the surface of things, the U.S. and the 13 other nations that signed this Treaty of Paris appeared to be a high minded, idealistic commitment to guarantee a world without international conflict. In fact, it was the culmination of an American effort to avoid becoming entangled by obligations to its recent ally of World War I, the French Republic

On August 27, 1928, French Foreign minister Aristide Briand (above) and U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg (right) signed the Kellogg-Briand pact. This treaty outlawed war.

During the summer of 1927, Briand had approached the United States with a proposal to formally outlaw war between France and America. While the idea appeared attractive—particularly to pacifists—Briand’s true intention was to

bind the United States closely to France in the event of any future international conflict. Kellogg adroitly guided negotiations so as to broaden the terms of the agreement. Briand found himself in a somewhat awkward position where he had no choice other than to agree to Kellogg’s counter-proposal. The upshot was a diplomatic charade finally culminating “in the elaborate ceremony in Paris.” If the treaty signatories agreed to “renounce

war as an instrument of national policy in all matters except for self defense, in practical terms, the impact of the agreement was negligible. Enforcement

rested entirely on the “moral force of world opinion.” Once U.S. senator described the treaty as nothing more than “an international kiss.” The United States continued to keep itself aloof from involvement in international politics. It neither picked up the mantle of world leadership nor expended any effort to

preserve world order. Indeed, as conditions in Europe began to deteriorate during the 1930s, “the American people retreated even deeper, searching for an isolationist policy that would spare them the agony of another great war.” What Americans failed to realize was that “there was no place to hide in the modern world. The period cartoon to the left satirizes the ineffectiveness of

the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

Dawes Plan

This proposal by American Banker Charles G. Dawes (right) suggested that the U. S. loan money to Germany for payment of reparations. Such a policy would enable the Allies to repay money borrowed from the U.S. during the war (1924).

Scorecard Continued

• Hawley-Smoot Act—U. S. tariff passed in 1930; pushed tariffs to high rates to protect American manufacturers from foreign competition (1930)

• Clark Memorandum—Undersecretary of State J. Reuben Clark

Clark drew up memorandum declaring that the U. S. had no right to send troops into Latin America (1930). His declaration amounted to a formal and official repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary. At the same time, Clark also asserted America’s right under international law to American lives and property.

Scorecard Continued

• Isolationism—belief that the U. S. should avoid any entangling involvements or agreements with other nations 27D

• Internationalism—belief that as a great power, the U. S. should assume responsibility for events abroad

Events reflecting America’s willingness to participate in international events in the 1920s

•Washington Naval Conference•Kellogg-Briand Pact•Dawes Plan•League of Nations Conferences

Scorecard Continued

• Nye Commission 27D

Democratic Senator Gerald Nye (left) chaired a committee investigating why U.S. entered World War I. It concluded that America had been tricked into entering the war, that international bankers who made loans to the Allies were principally to blame. It also attacked arms manufacturers—the “merchants of death.” The committee’s conclusions stimulated isolationist sentiment in interwar America and led to the neutrality legislation of the 1930s.

Neutrality Legislation

• 1935—in August, Congress passed a law banning the sale of arms to nations at war and warned Americans not to sail on the ships of belligerent nations (an echo of the troubles of 1916-1917 preceding American entry into World War I)

• 1936—a ban on loans to belligerent nations• 1937—the ban on loans were made permanent;

moreover, all trade other than sale of munitions had to be conducted on a cash-and-carry basis

“Neutrality legislation played directly into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Bent on conquest of Europe, he could now proceed

without worrying about American interference.”

The “Good Neighbor Policy”

FDR proclamation (1933) to deal in more friendly way with U. S.’s Latin American neighbors 27A

Both presidents Coolidge and Hoover de-emphasized armed intervention. Roosevelt made dramatic changes. “With his

usual flair for the dramatic, he [FDR] proclaimed a policy of the ‘good neighbor’ and then proceeded to win good will by renouncing the imperialism of

the past.” FDR & Cuba’s Batista

Nicaragua’s Samoza (below) & FDR. Other U.S. diplomats and officials helped the president

implement his new diplomatic initiative.

U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull renounced America’s “right to intervene in Cuban affairs under the Platt Amendment loosened its grip on Panama. By 1936, American troops were no longer occupying any Latin American nation.”

Hull talks with Cuban leader Zaldivar

Batista.

How President Roosevelt strengthened relations between the U.S. and Latin

America

• Institution of the Good Neighbor Policy

• Withdrawal of U.S. marines from Haiti

• Rejection of the Platt Amendment (that restricted Cuban independence

• Personal visit to South America

Rise of World Dictators 27E

Mussolini became dictator of Italy in 1922. He exercised tight fascist

control over entire nation.

He was Hitler’s role model

during the early years of Hitler’s administration.

How Mussolini Gained Power in Italy

• Murdered or imprisoned his political opponents

• Suspended elections

• Supervised the economy

• Modernized Italy’s armed forces

• Supported active campaign of territorial expansion (e.g., invasion of Ethiopia)

With respect to Mussolini’s Italian

conquest of Ethiopia, “the League’s

halfhearted measures utterly failed to halt”

the invasion. “Collective security had failed its most important test.”

Adolf Hitler –Leader of Germany’s National Socialist (Nazi) party

In 1932, Hitler was elected as German

chancellor (right). He was fiercely anti-communist, anti-

Semitic, and against the provisions of the Versailles Treaty.

Hitler enlisted the support of war heroes like Herman Goering whom he placed in charge of the

revived German air force or Luftwaffe. In his book, Mein Kampf (right), published while in jail for the

infamous Beer Hall putsch of 1923, laid out his plans for reassertion of German power and

establishment of a thousand year German Reich.

Issues Giving Hitler Popularity in Germany

• Treaty of Versailles

• Communism

• Charismatic speaking style

The notorious peace settlement crafted at Versailles in France (left) sewed the seeds of a

second and even greater worldwide conflict. By laying impossible reparation payments, all but exclusive war guilt on Germany, and ignoring Wilson’s principle of self-determination in the

restructuring of postwar Europe, the diplomats at Versailles all but guaranteed a future conflict.

Moreover, by stripping Germany of critical territory and resources, they rendered the new

German republic incapable of meeting the reparation payments that they demanded.

Totalitarian State

Devalue

The government controlling every aspect of a person’s life; state considered to be supreme;

few rights extended to individuals; all political opposition forbidden

To reduce the value of a currency (e.g., the dollar) in relation to other nations’ currencies; aim was to stimulate sale of American products on world

markets

How neutrality Acts Became Progressively Restrictive 27D

• Neutrality Act of 1935—forbid loans to nations at war and joint resolution banning aid to either side

• Neutrality Act of 1937—banned shipments of non-military goods to warring nations

• Stimson Doctrine—Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared the U.S. would not recognize Japanese territorial gains in China (but without any plan for action)

Stimson’s failed to change Japan’s flouting of the treaties aimed at

preserving peace.

In 1937, Japanese bomber planes sank U.S. gunboat Panay on patrol in Yangtze river, killing 2 crew members; government accepted official Japanese apology and $2 million in damages

(reflected American desire to avoid war at any cost).

U.S Response to Japanese Attack on China, 1937 27D & E

• Japan lacked raw materials to sustain a developing industrial economy

• Japan sought to expand onto Asian mainland (right)

• 1905—took Korea

• 1931—invaded Manchuria

• 1937—invaded China

A Collision Course

Although technologically able, Japan found itself

without a wealth of resources. This deficiency

led to imperialist behavior.

Deterioration of Events in Europe

Munich Pact 27F

A conference in 1938 in which the British and French agreed to allow Hitler to take Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland (which had a majority of German population)

Munich—a Monument to Failed Foreign PolicyAt left, Hitler, Mussolini and others descend steps

in the midst of the Munich Conference of 1938. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (right and below) fell under Hitler’s charismatic spell (as

had many others including famous American aviator Charles Lindberg).

Upon debarking from the airplane that brought Chamberlain home from Munich, he triumphantly waved treaty papers in the air and (like Benjamin

Disraeli in an earlier generation) proclaimed that he had brought Great Britain “peace in our time.” The

subsequent flow of events revealed the folly of appeasement when applied to unscrupulous leaders

whose word could not be trusted.

Neville Chamberlain—prime minister of Britain who proclaimed “peace in our time” after his return from the Munich Conference

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

A non-aggression pact signed between Germany and Russia in 1939. The agreement spared

Germany a two-front war.

Unlikely Bedfellows

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pace shocked the world. Heretofore, official Nazi policy was decidedly anti-Soviet.

Moreover, Mein Kampf revealed Hitler’s dismissive evaluation of both the communist system and the Slavic peoples. As the

cartoons of the period reveal, the German-Russian alliance was a cynical undertaking. Hitler would turn on Stalin in 1941

when the Wehrmacht invaded Russia.

As for America, while the U.S. government largely ignored the Soviet Union during the 1920s, President Roosevelt finally extended

official recognition to the Bolshevik government in 1933.

“The successful aggression by Nazi Germany brought into question the isolationist assumption that American well-being did not depend on the European balance of power. . . . The long retreat

from responsibility was about to end as Americans came to realize their own democracy and security were at stake in the European war. . . . Americans

were stunned [at Hitler’s conquest of France]. Hitler had taken only six weeks to achieve what

Germany had failed to do in four years of fighting in World War I. Suddenly they realized they did

have a stake in the outcome; if England fell, Hitler might well gain control of the British navy.”

Munich—A Cynical Bargain

Notions that the situation in Europe would work out were "destroyed on August 23, 1939, by the news of a Nazi-Soviet pact. Fascism and communism were political philosophies supposedly in deadly opposition. Many Americans had secretly hoped that Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia would fight it out, neutralizing each other."

Cynicism of Pact exhibited pre-pact quotes by: " It is

quite possible to course that there are madmen in

Germany who dream of annexing the Soviet Ukraine.

If there really are such lunatics in Ger., rest assured

we shall find enough straitjackets for them in our

country" Stalin

"The ideas by which we are governed are diametrically opposite to those of Soviet Russia....our task is to destroy Marxism.

We will fight it to the death...Bolshevism is the most malignant poison that can be given

to a people. Any treaty with the present Russian government would be completely worthless" Hitler. One is reminded of the old adage, “’Tis time to fear when tyrants

seem to kiss.”

Winston ChurchillChurchill became British prime minister after

Chamberlain’s resignation when policy of appeasement (see definition below, 11.) became

discredited. In fact, Churchill’s political career had been largely in decline. As a younger man, he had

held many important government posts before becoming persona no grata. During his “wilderness years,” he was virtually a lone voice warning of the dangers that Nazi Germany posed to the peace of

Europe and the world. It was only under the extraordinary circumstances of the late-1930s that his popularity revived and he became acceptable as

the national leader.

Appeasement

The policy adopted by Allies in dealing with Hitler’s Germany; give in to

Hitler’s demands for territorial gains hoping Hitler would eventually be satisfied (or, as Churchill put it,

“feeding your neighbors to the tiger, hoping that he would eat you last”)

27F

Blitzkrieg

“Lightening war” introduced by Hitler in 1939; involved sudden, fast moving attacks with

planes and tanks 27G

The combination of Panzer tanks and planes proved unstoppable.

Nations Conquered by Germany by 1940

• Czechoslovakia• Poland• Denmark• Norway • Belgium• The Netherlands• France

Moving From Neutrality Toward Undeclared War 27D

Election of 1940

Wendell Wilkie was the Republican candidate for president in 1940. He supported much of FDR’s foreign policy, e.g., helping Britain, the Selective Service Act of 1940 (the 1st peacetime draft in America).

Lend-Lease Act of 1941

President given authority to sell, exchange, lend, or lease war material to any country whose

security/defense he considered vital to America’s defense 27G

“The growing danger of war abroad led to a rising American desire for peace and noninvolvement. The United States

deliberately abstained from assuming this role of leadership until it was nearly too

late.”

Depression Diplomacy

FDR "was at heart an internationalist but like most world leaders in the 1930s, he

placed revival of his own country's limping economy

ahead of general world recover."

FDR and Neutrality

During the 1930s, FDR played an essentially passive role regarding preparing America for

war. While he anticipated the eventual entry of the U.S. into the war, he publicly “bowed to the

prevailing isolationism.” At Chautauqua in 1936, New York (left), FDR delivered an

impassioned speech denouncing war. A year later in Chicago, the president “denounced ‘the

epidemic of world lawlessness’ and called for an international effort to ‘quarantine’ this disease. . . . The president had no intention of challenging

the prevailing public mood of the 1930s.

As with his domestic policy, "Roosevelt had no master plan in foreign policy. . . . He gave conflicting signals as he groped to

respond to the international situation."

"Roosevelt had no carefully planned strategy to deal with the rising tide of war in Europe in the late 1930s. He was by no means an isolationist, but he wanted to keep the United

States out of the European conflagration. When he announced, 'I hate war,' he was expressing a deep personal

belief that wars solve few problems. Unlike his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt, he did not view war as a test of

one's manhood. In foreign policy, just as in domestic affairs, he responded to events, but he moved reluctantly (and with agonizing slowness, from the point of view of many of his critics) toward more and more American

involvement in the war."

Lend-Lease ended the fiction of American neutrality. Congress authorized FDR to "sell, transfer title to, exchange,

lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of" was supplies to "any country the president deems vital to the defense of the United

States." The cartoon to the right shows the American eagle carrying much-needed weaponry across the Atlantic to the

British.

Along with this came $7 billion in appropriations ending the "cash" aspect of the cash-and-carry program to the Allies.

Britain now had full access to U. S. war supplies. The president could sell, lend, lease, exchange or transfer

materials to any country whose welfare/defense was vital to that of that U. S.

Churchill apprised FDR that cash-and-carry would no longer compensate for Britain's rapidly exhausting

financial recourses. This led to the lend-lease program, one of FDR's "most ingenious and imaginative creations."

FDR presented the idea to Americans in a fireside chat in which he stressed the evil intentions of the Nazis and the

dangers that a German victory would create. He called for America to become "the great arsenal of democracy."

He compared the program to loaning a neighbor a hose to put out a fire ravaging his house (a somewhat faulty

analogy).

Atlantic Charter 27H

The Atlantic Charter of 1941 was an agreement between U.S. and Britain to seek no territorial gain; support right of “all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live;” urging all nations to cooperate economically to raise general

standard of living through the world; support of disarmament of all aggressor nations after defeat of Nazism; and establishment of wide/permanent

system of general security

American Entry into World War II

The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese galvanized pro-war sentiment in the U.S. It gave FDR the pretext that he needed to do what he had known for a long time that he would have to: lead America into the fray and militarily

support the Allied cause.27I

Contrasts with World War I — It Differed in Origins and Major Events

• World War II was far more a world war, involving more territory in Asia, China, Africa, and Europe

• World War I had been largely a war for position; WW II was in almost constant movement

• Weapons that were chiefly new were responsible for greater speed and mobility in WW II.– the airplane revolutionized war on land and sea– almost 25% of the casualties in WW II were

airmen, e.g., those caught in "Flack Alley" amounted to 70,000

– bomb targets were the manufacturing backbone of the 3rd Reich, the industrial centers

Contrasts Continued

• The use of air warfare against civilian targets eradicated the distinction between the fighting and home fronts. . . World War II was more of a total war than World War I.

• The production of planes, ships, munitions, weapons, food, and clothing drew in civilians.

• World War I was in part a clash of ideologies and systems of rule; World War II was a more acute clash in a doctrinaire fashion, a kind of worldwide civil war to decide not so much the kind of power that would henceforth rule the world as the kind of morality

Comparisons with World War I

• Both wars were tied to the follies of Versailles• Both were tied to the Great Depression

– World War I was a cause of the Depression– World War II was in part the result of it

• The desire for German hegemony was a key motive in both wars In this, Hitler becomes representative of a general German imperialistic drive as remote as the Bismarckian period; that drive culminated in Hitler who radicalized "flight from fears of the socialist menace" into expansionist ideas

Comparisons Continued

• Eastern Lebensraum had long been a part of German ideology; the big question was whether hegemony would fall to the Teuton or Slav.

• The concept of English neutrality to wage successful war against France with simultaneous conquest in the East—this had roots in the Wilhelmian period

Six Causes for World War II

1. Versailles Treaty—planted the seeds of a new and greater war. One historian calls World War II the "war over the settlement of Versailles”—The peace left many national and international problems unsolved—they all contributed to the coming of war in 1939

2. Struggle between the Right and Left in Europe—both were against democracy

– Rioting and the threat of communist revolution scared those on the Right

– Communism and Fascism were alternative solutions to cope with dissatisfaction over inefficient government

– In times of crisis, people turn or lean to extremist solutions and powerful leadership

Causes Continued

• Economic ills – post-war inflation, especially in Germany and

Italy– the Great Depression which followed inflation

• Fatigue—a lack of desire to become involved with international problems This led the main democracies to bury their heads in the sand, to respond with appeasement, i.e., the giving of the aggressor what he wanted

Causes Continued

• Failure of the League of Nations to preserve peace– 1931—Japanese invasion of Manchuria– 1935—Italian invasion of Ethiopia– The League was powerless to prevent war—it had no

armed forces and had to depend on the military support of France and England who were unprepared for war, and lacked large armies

– The League wouldn't render unified support to check the actions of the aggressor states

• Rise of Aggressor Nations which Tested the Strength of the Democracies—intense nationalism was given purpose by a drive for conquest and a hatred of minority groups

Mussolini—"We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty. . .

war alone sets the stamp of nobility on the peoples who have

the courage to face it."

FDR—the security and peace of 90% of the world

is being jeopardized by the remaining 10%.