US RESPONSE TO WWII Mr. Connor| Honors US History

AMERICA WANTED PEACE

• A poll in 1939 and 1940 showed more than 70% of Americans wanted to stay out of another war

CHARLES LINDBERGH SPEAKS FOR ISOLATIONISM

AND WE NEEDED TO STOP OUR OWN INTERVENTION IN OUR NEIGHBORS

THE GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY (1934)

• US Marines leave Nicaragua

• Marines leave Haiti• Cuba granted greater

independence• Mexico’s sovereignty is

guaranteed in exchange for reparations over oil seizures

• Dominica handles its own $

THE WORLD IS AT WAR - ASIA

• Japan has invaded China (1931)

• “Kwantung Army” Officers claim bandits blew up railway line

• Violated Kellogg-Briand pact and League of nations

• US does nothing

THE WORLD IS AT WAR - ASIA

• Japan Invades Jehol 1933

• Japan Renounces Washington Naval Treaty (1934)

• Japan promotes “autonomy” for Northern China

• US Does Nothing

THE NYE COMMITTEE

• Many Americans felt that arms dealers and munitions manufacturers “tricked” US into going to war in 1917.

• Congress forms a committee to investigate cause of WWI

• The Committee concluded the US went to war for profit and backed UK so they wouldn’t lose $

THE NEUTRALITY ACTS

• 1935 - imposed a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war.

• It also declared that American citizens travelling on warring ships travelled at their own risk.

• Expired in 6 months

FDR USES FIRST NEUTRALITY ACT AGAINST ITALY

• Mussolini orders invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.

• FDR cuts off military aid to both countries

• Includes “moral embargo” asking companies to not trade with belligerents.

NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1936 PASSED

• Same provisions of 1935 Act. Does not cover “Civil Wars” or trucks, oil, or other non-lethal war items.

• Germany helps General Franco overthrow government in Spain starting civil war.

• Germany tests its “Blitzkrieg” tactics in Spain.

CASH AND CARRY (1937)

• Seeing loopholes in 36’ Neutrality Act, Congress makes total embargo and includes civil wars

• FDR gets concession for anyone who can pay cash and transport goods themselves

JAPANESE AGGRESSION CONTINUES 1937

• Japanese invade China again and commit atrocities in Shanghai and Nanking.

• Almost 500,000 civilians killed by Japanese Army

• FDR bans arms going to either side on US ships

THEN IT WAS HITLER’S TURN…

• In 1939, Hitler invades Czechoslovakia.

• Congress refuses to allow “cash and carry”.

• Hitler invades Poland and WWII begins.

• FDR presses for aid and gets “cash and carry” for Britain and France.

THE DEBATE OVER NEUTRALITY

THE END OF NEUTRALITY

• In March 1941, Congress voted to allow “Lend-Lease” policy.

• President free to sell, lend or give war materials to nations the administration wanted to support.

THE DESTROYERS FOR BASES DEAL

• Great Britain gets 50 older U.S. destroyers’

• Allows them to better protect the convoys and fight Italians in Mediterranean

• U.S. gets 9 pieces of British empire to make permanent bases

• End of favored trade status for British colonies

• British empire is effectively over

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

• Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Nova Scotia (Canada) in August 1941.

• Despite the US not being at war, the two agree on what the war result should be and that the U.S. supported Britain.

BACK TO JAPAN…• Japan attacks and sinks USS Panay – U.S. gets an

apology and some money as compensation for dead and injured. (1937)

• “Shoot on Sight” (1937)• Japan continues to take parts of China (1938)• Japan invades Indochina (Vietnam and Laos today

– 1940)• In response, U.S. embargos oil and iron as well as

froze Japanese assets. Japan could only fight for four more months without U.S. oil.

THE FOUR FREEDOMS SPEECH (1941)

• In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

• The first is freedom of speech and expression.

• The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way.

• The third is freedom from want.

• The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

WAS THE U.S. REALLY “NEUTRAL”?

• The U.S. had broken the Japanese diplomatic code.• We knew that they were desperate and had two

choices: war or dishonorable submission to American will.

• On November 25, 1941, Secretary of the War Stimson said, “The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves”