Chapter 34 Outline
I. The London
Conference
1.
The 1933 London Conference
composed 66 nations that came together to hopefully develop a worldwide
solution to the Great Depression.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt at first agreed to send Secretary of State Cordell Hull, but then withdrew from
that agreement and scolded the other
nations for trying to stabilize currencies.
2.
As a result, the conference
adjourned accomplishing nothing, and furthermore strengthening American
isolationism.
II. Freedom for
(from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
1.
With hard times, Americans
were eager to do away with their
liabilities in the Philippine Islands. And, American sugar
producers wanted to get rid of the
Filipino sugar producers due to the
competition they created.
2.
In 1934, Congress passed
the Tydings-McDuffie Act, stating that the Philippines would receive their
independence after 12 years of economic and political tutelage, in 1946.
3.
Army bases were
relinquished, but naval bases were kept. Americans were freeing themselves of a
liability and creeping into further
isolationism Meanwhile, militarists in Japan began to see that they could take
over the Pacific easily without U.S. interference or resistance
4.
In 1933, FDR finally
formally recognized the Soviet Union, hoping that the U.S. could trade with the
U.S.S.R., and that the Soviets would
discourage German and Japanese aggression.
III. Becoming a
Good Neighbor
1.
In terms of its relations
with Latin America, the U.S. wanted to be
a “good neighbor,” showing that it was content as a regional power, not a world one.
2.
In 1933, FDR renounced
armed intervention in Latin America at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in
Montevideo, Uruguay, and the following
year, U.S. marines left Haiti.
3.
The U.S. also lifted troops
from Panama, but when Mexican forces seized Yankee oil properties, FDR found
himself urged to take drastic action. However, he resisted and worked out a peaceful
deal. His “good neighbor” policy was a great success, improving the U.S. image
in Latin American eyes.
IV. Secretary
Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
1.
Secretary of State Hull
believed that trade was a two-way street, and he had a part in Congress’s
passing of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934 which activated
low-tariff policies while aiming at
relief and recovery by boosting American trade.
2.
This act whittled down the
most objectionable schedules of the Hawley-Smoot law by amending them, lowering
rates by as much as half, provided that
the other country would do the same toward the United States.
3.
The Reciprocal Trade
Agreements Act reversed the traditional high-tariff policy that had damaged
America before and paved the way for the
American-led free-trade international economic system that was implemented after World War II.
V. Storm-Cellar
Isolationism
1. After World
War I, many dictatorships sprang up, including Joseph Stalin of the Soviet
Union, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Adolph Hitler of Germany.
2. Of the
three, Hitler was the most dangerous, because he was a great orator and persuader who led the German people
to believe his “big lie,” making them
think that he could lead the country back to greatness and out of this time of
poverty and depression.
4.
In 1936, Nazi Hitler and
Fascist Mussolini allied themselves in the Rome-Berlin Axis. Japan slowly began
gaining strength, refusing to cooperate with the world and quickly arming itself by ending the
Washington Naval Treaty in 1934 and
walking out of the London Conference.
5.
In 1935, Mussolini attacked
Ethiopia, conquering it, but the League of Nations failed to take effective action
against the aggressors. America continued to hide behind the shell of
isolationism, believing that everything would stay good if the U.S. wasn’t drawn
into any international embroilments.
6.
The 1934 Johnson Debt
Default Act forbade any countries that still owed the U.S. money from borrowing
any more cash.
7.
In 1936, a group of
Princeton University students began to agitate for a bonus to be paid to the Veterans of Foreign
Wars (VFWs) while the prospective
front-liners were still alive.
VI. Congress
Legislates Neutrality
1.
The 1934 Nye Committee was
formed to investigate whether or not munitions manufacturers were pro-war, existing
for the sole purpose of making more
money and profits, as the press blamed such producers for dragging America into
the First World War.
2.
To prevent America from
being sucked into war, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts in 1935-37, acts
which stated that when the president proclaimed
the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect: no American
could legally sail on a belligerent ship
or sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent.
3.
The flaw with these acts
was that they were designed to prevent America from being pulled into a war
like World War I, but World War II would
prove to be different.
VII. America
Dooms Loyalist Spain
1.
During the Spanish Civil
War (1936-39), Spanish rebels led by the fascist General Francisco Franco rose
up against the leftist-leaning republican government.
2.
In order to stay out of the
war, the U.S. put an embargo on both the loyalist government, which was
supported by the USSR, and the rebels, which were aided by Hitler and
Mussolini.
3.
During the Civil War, the U.S. just stood by
while Franco smothered the democratic
government. America also failed to build up its fleet, since most people believed that huge fleets
led to huge wars.
4.
It was not until 1938 that
Congress passed a billion-dollar naval construction act, but then it was too
little, too late.
VIII. Appeasing
Japan and Germany
1.
In 1937, Japan essentially
invaded China, but FDR didn’t call this combat “a war,” thus allowing the
Chinese to still get arms from the U.S.,
and in Chicago of that year, he merely verbally chastised the aggressors,
calling for “a quarantine” of Japan
(through economic embargoes, perhaps); this was his famous “Quarantine Speech.”
2.
The Quarantine Speech asked
for America to stay neutral but to morally side against the fascist nations.
3.
However, this speech
angered many isolationists, and FDR backed down a bit from any more direct
actions.
4.
In December 1937, the
Japanese bombed and sank the American gunboat, the Panay, but then made the
necessary apologies, “saving” America
from entering war.
5.
To vent their frustration,
the Japanese resorted to humiliating white civilians in China through slappings
and strippings. The Panay incident further supports America’s determination to
stay neutral.
6.
Meanwhile, Hitler was
growing bolder and bolder after being allowed to introduce mandatory military
service in Germany, take over the German
Rhineland, persecute and exterminate about six million Jews, and occupy Austria—all because the European powers
were appeasing him.
7.
They naively hoped that
each conquest of Germany would be the last. However, Hitler didn’t stop, and at
the September 1938 Munich Conference,
the Allies agreed to let Hitler have the Sudentenland of neighboring
Czechoslovakia, but six months later, in 1939, Hitlerc pulled the last straw
and took over all of Czechoslovakia. British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England and gave his infamous
claim that he’d achieved “peace in our time”—true, but it proved to be a short time.
IX. Hitler’s
Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
1.
On August 23, 1939, the
U.S.S.R. shocked the world by signing a nonaggression treaty with Germany. Now, it seemed that Germany could engulf all
of Europe, especially without having to worry about fighting a two-front war in
case Russia fought back.
2.
In essence, the
nonaggression pact opened the door to Poland. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland,
and France and Britain finally declared
war against Germany, but America refused to enter the war, its citizens not wanting
to be “suckers” again.
3.
Americans were anti-Hitler
and anti-Nazi and wanted Britain and France to win, but they would not permit
themselves to be dragged into fighting
and bloodshed.
4.
European powers needed
American supplies, but the previous Neutrality Acts forbade the sale of arms to
nations in war, so a new Neutrality Act
of 1939 allowed European nations to buy war materials, but only on a “cash-and-carry” basis, which
meant Europeans had to provide their own
ships and pay for the arms in cash.
5.
Since the British and
French controlled the seas, the Germans couldn’t buy arms from America, as it
was intended.
X. The Fall of
France
1. After the
fall of Poland, Hitler positioned his forces to attack France which led to a
lull in the war (so that men could move) that was pierced only by the Soviet Union’s attack and
conquering of Finland, despite $30
million from the U.S. (for nonmilitary reasons).
2. Then, in
1940, the “phony war” ended when Hitler overran Denmark and Norway, and then took over
the Netherlands and Belgium.
3. Blitzing
without mercy, he then struck a paralyzing blow toward France, which was forced
to surrender by late June of that year. The fall of France was shocking,
because now, all that stood between Hitler and the world was Britain: if the
English lost, Hitler would have all of Europe in which to operate, and he might
take over the Americas as well.
4.
Finally, Roosevelt moved
and called for the nation to massively build up its armed forces, with expenses
totaling more than $37 million. He also
had Congress pass the first peacetime draft in U.S.
history on September 6, 1940.
5.
1.2 million troops and
800,000 reserves would be trained. At the Havana Conference, the U.S. warned
Germany that it could not take over
orphan colonies in the Americas, as such action wouldn’t be tolerated.
XI. Bolstering
Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
1.
Now, with Britain the only
power fighting against Germany, FDR had to decide whether to remain totally
neutral or to help Britain.
2.
Hitler launched air attacks
against the British in August 1940 and prepared an invasion scheduled to start
a month later, but the tenacious defense
of the British Royal Air Force stopped him in the aerial Battle of Britain.
3.
Those who supported helping
Britain formed the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, while
those for isolationism (including Charles A. Lindbergh) were in the America
First Committee, and both groups
campaigned and advertised for their respective positions.
4.
Britain was in dire need
for destroyers, and on September 2, 1940, FDR boldly moved to transfer 50
old-model, four-funnel destroyers left over from WWI, and in return, the British
promised to give the U.S. eight valuable defensive base sites stretching from
Newfoundland to South America.
5.
These would stay in
American ownership for 99 years. Obviously, this caused controversy, but FDR
had begun to stop playing the silly old
games of isolationism and was slowly starting to step out into the spotlight.
XII. FDR
Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
1.
In 1940, it was thought
that Robert A. Taft of Ohio or Thomas E. Dewey would be the Republican
candidate, but a colorful and magnetic newcomer went from a nobody to a candidate in
a matter of weeks.
2.
Wendell L. Willkie, became the Republican
against Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, who waited until the last
moment to challenge the two-term
tradition. Democrats felt that FDR was the only man qualified to be president,
especially in so grave of a situation as was going on. Willkie and FDR weren’t
really different in the realm of foreign
affairs, but Willkie hit hard with his attacks on the third term.
3.
Still, FDR won because
voters felt that, should war come, FDR was the best man to lead America.
XIII. Congress
Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
1.
Britain was running out of
money, but Roosevelt didn’t want all the hassles that came with calling back
debts, so he came up with the idea of a lend-lease program in which the arms
and ships, etc. that the U.S. lent to the nations that needed them would be
returned when they were no longer needed.
2.
Senator Taft retorted that
in this case the U.S. wouldn’t want them back because it would be like lending
chewing gum then taking it back after it’d been chewed.
3.
The lend-lease bill was
argued over heatedly in Congress, but it passed, and by war’s end, America had
sent about $50 billion worth of arms and equipment.
4.
The lend-lease act was
basically the abandonment of the neutrality policy, and Hitler recognized this.
Before, German submarines had avoided attacking U.S. ships, but after the
passage, they started to fire upon U.S. ships as well, such as the May 21, 1941
torpedoing of the Robin Moor.
XIV. Hitler’s
Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
1.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler
attacked Russia, because ever since the signing of the nonaggression pact,
neither Stalin nor Hitler had trusted each other, and both had been plotting to
double-cross each other.
2.
Hitler assumed his
invincible troops would crush the inferior Soviet soldiers, but the valor of
the Red army, U.S. aid to the U.S.S.R. (through lend-lease), and an early and
bitter winter stranded the German force at Moscow and shifted the tide against
Germany.
3.
The Atlantic Conference was
held in August 1941, and the result was the eight-point Atlantic Charter, which
was suggestive of Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Main points included…
4.
There would be no
territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the natives. The charter also
affirmed the right for people to choose their rulers (self-determination).
5.
It declared disarmament and
a peace of security, as well as a new League of Nations. Critics charged that
“neutral America” was interfering, ignoring that America was no longer neutral.
XV. U.S.
Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
1.
To ensure that arms sent to
Britain would reach there, FDR finally agreed that a convoy would have to
escort them, but only as far as Iceland, as Britain would take over from there.
2.
There were clashes, as U.S.
destroyers like the Greer, the Kearny, and the Reuben James were attacked by
the Germans.
3.
By mid-November 1941,
Congress annulled the now-useless Neutrality Act of 1939.
XVI. Surprise
Assault at Pearl Harbor
1.
Japan was still embroiled
in war with China, but when America suddenly imposed embargoes on key supplies
on Japan in 1940, the imperialistic nation had now no choice but to either back
off of China or attack the U.S.; they chose the latter.
2.
The Americans had broken
the Japanese code and knew that they would declare war soon, but the U.S. could
not attack, so based on what the Japanese supposedly planned, most Americans
thought that the Japanese would attack British Malaya or the Philippines.
3.
However, the paralyzing
blow struck Pearl Harbor, as on December 7,1941, Japanese air bombers suddenly
attacked the naval base located there (where almost the entire U.S. fleet was
located), wiping out many ships and killing or wounding 3,000 men.
4.
The next day, the one after
“a date which will live in infamy” (FDR), the U.S. declared war on Japan, and
on December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
XVII. America’s
Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
1.
Up until the day of the
Pearl Harbor attack, most Americans still wanted to stay out of war, but
afterwards the event sparked such passion that it completely infuriated
Americans into wanting to go to war.
2.
This had been long in
coming, as the U.S. had wanted to stay out of war, but had still supported
Britain more and more, and the U.S. had been against the Japanese aggression
but had failed to take a firm stand on either side.
3.
Finally, people decided
that appeasement didn’t work against “iron wolves,” and that only full war was
needed to keep the world safe for democracy and against anarchy and
dictatorship.The 1933 London Conference composed 66 nations that came together to
hopefully develop a worldwide solution to the Great Depression.
4.
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt at first agreed to send Secretary of State Cordell Hull, but then
withdrew from that agreement and scolded the other nations for trying to
stabilize currencies.
5.
As a result, the conference
adjourned accomplishing nothing, and furthermore strengthening American
isolationism.
II. Freedom for
(from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
1.
With hard times, Americans
were eager to do away with their liabilities in the Philippine Islands. And,
American sugar producers wanted to get
rid of the Filipino sugar producers due to the competition they created.
2.
In 1934, Congress passed
the Tydings-McDuffie Act, stating that the Philippines would receive their
independence after 12 years of economic and political tutelage, in 1946.
3.
Army bases were
relinquished, but naval bases were kept. Americans were freeing themselves of a
liability and creeping into further isolationism Meanwhile, militarists in
Japan began to see that they could take over the Pacific easily without U.S.
interference or resistance.
4.
In 1933, FDR finally
formally recognized the Soviet Union, hoping that the U.S. could trade with the
U.S.S.R., and that the Soviets would discourage German and Japanese aggression.
III. Becoming a
Good Neighbor
1.
In terms of its relations
with Latin America, the U.S. wanted to be a “good neighbor,” showing that it
was content as a regional power, not a world one.
2.
In 1933, FDR renounced
armed intervention in Latin America at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in
Montevideo, Uruguay, and the following year, U.S. marines left Haiti.
3.
The U.S. also lifted troops
from Panama, but when Mexican forces seized Yankee oil properties, FDR found
himself urged to take drastic action.
4.
However, he resisted and
worked out a peaceful deal. His “good neighbor” policy was a great success,
improving the U.S. image in Latin American eyes.
IV. Secretary
Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
1.
Secretary of State Hull
believed that trade was a two-way street, and he had a part in Congress’s
passing of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934 which activated
low-tariff policies while aiming at relief and recovery by boosting American
trade.
2.
This act whittled down the
most objectionable schedules of the Hawley-Smoot law by amending them, lowering
rates by as much as half, provided that
the other country would do the same toward the United States.
3.
The Reciprocal Trade
Agreements Act reversed the traditional high-tariff policy that had damaged
America before and paved the way for the American-led free-trade international
economic system that was implemented
after World War II.
V. Storm-Cellar
Isolationism
1.
. After World War I, many
dictatorships sprang up, including Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, Benito
Mussolini of Italy, and Adolph Hitler of Germany.
2.
. Of the three, Hitler was
the most dangerous, because he was a great orator and persuader who led the
German people to believe his “big lie,” making them think that he could lead
the country back to greatness and out of this time of poverty and depression.
3.
In 1936, Nazi Hitler and
Fascist Mussolini allied themselves in the Rome-Berlin Axis. Japan slowly began
gaining strength, refusing to cooperate with the world and quickly arming
itself by ending the Washington Naval Treaty in 1934 and walking out of the
London Conference.
4.
In 1935, Mussolini attacked
Ethiopia, conquering it, but the League of
Nations failed to take effective action against the aggressors. America
continued to hide behind the shell of isolationism, believing that everything would stay good if
the U.S. wasn’t drawn into any international embroilments.
5.
The 1934 Johnson Debt
Default Act forbade any countries that still owed the U.S. money from borrowing
any more cash.
6.
In 1936, a group of
Princeton University students began to agitate for a bonus to be paid to the Veterans
of Foreign Wars (VFWs) while the prospective front-liners were still alive.
VI. Congress
Legislates Neutrality
1.
The 1934 Nye Committee was
formed to investigate whether or not munitions manufacturers were pro-war,
existing for the sole purpose of making more money and profits, as the press
blamed such producers for dragging America into the First World War.
2.
To prevent America from
being sucked into war, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts in 1935-37, acts
which stated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war,
certain restrictions would automatically
go into effect: no American could legally sail on a belligerent ship or sell or
transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent.
3.
The flaw with these acts was
that they were designed to prevent America from being pulled into a war like
World War I, but World War II would
prove to be different.
VII. America
Dooms Loyalist Spain
1.
During the Spanish Civil
War (1936-39), Spanish rebels led by the fascist General Francisco Franco rose
up against the leftist-leaning republican government.
2.
In order to stay out of the
war, the U.S. put an embargo on both the loyalist government, which was
supported by the USSR, and the rebels, which were aided by Hitler and Mussolini.
3.
During the Civil War, the
U.S. just stood by while Franco smothered the democratic government. America
also failed to build up its fleet, since
most people believed that huge fleets led to huge wars.
4.
It was not until 1938 that
Congress passed a billion-dollar naval construction act, but then it was too
little, too late.
VIII. Appeasing
Japan and Germany
1.
In 1937, Japan essentially
invaded China, but FDR didn’t call this combat “a war,” thus allowing the
Chinese to still get arms from the U.S., and in Chicago of that year, he merely
verbally chastised the aggressors,
calling for “a quarantine” of Japan
(through economic embargoes, perhaps); this was his famous “Quarantine Speech.”
2.
The Quarantine Speech asked
for America to stay neutral but to morally side against the fascist nations.
3.
However, this speech
angered many isolationists, and FDR backed down a bit from any more direct actions.
4.
In December 1937, the
Japanese bombed and sank the American gunboat, the Panay, but then made the
necessary apologies, “saving” America from entering war.
5.
To vent their frustration,
the Japanese resorted to humiliating white civilians in China through slappings
and strippings.
6.
The Panay incident further
supports America’s determination to stay neutral. Meanwhile, Hitler was growing
bolder and bolder after being allowed to
introduce mandatory military service in Germany, take over the German Rhineland, persecute and exterminate
about six million Jews, and occupy
Austria—all because the European powers were appeasing him. They naively hoped
that each conquest of Germany would be the last.
7.
However, Hitler didn’t
stop, and at the September 1938 Munich Conference, the Allies agreed to let
Hitler have the Sudentenland of neighboring Czechoslovakia, but six months
later, in 1939, Hitler pulled the last straw and took over all of
Czechoslovakia. British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain returned to England and gave his infamous claim that he’d achieved
“peace in our time”—true, but it proved
to be a short time.
IX. Hitler’s
Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
1.
On August 23, 1939, the
U.S.S.R. shocked the world by signing a nonaggression treaty with Germany.
2.
Now, it seemed that Germany
could engulf all of Europe, especially without having to worry about fighting a
two-front war in case Russia fought
back.
3.
In essence, the
nonaggression pact opened the door to Poland.
4.
In 1939, Hitler invaded
Poland, and France and Britain finally declared war against Germany, but
America refused to enter the war, its citizens not wanting to be “suckers” again.
5.
Americans were anti-Hitler
and anti-Nazi and wanted Britain and France to win, but they would not permit
themselves to be dragged into fighting and bloodshed.
6.
European powers needed American
supplies, but the previous Neutrality
Acts forbade the sale of arms to nations in war, so a new Neutrality Act of
1939 allowed European nations to buy war materials, but only on a
“cash-and-carry” basis, which meant Europeans had to provide their own ships and pay for the
arms in cash.
7.
Since the British and
French controlled the seas, the Germans couldn’t buy arms from America, as it was
intended.
X. The Fall of
France
1.
After the fall of Poland,
Hitler positioned his forces to attack France which led to a lull in the war
(so that men could move) that was pierced only by the Soviet Union’s attack and
conquering of
2.
Finland, despite $30 million from the U.S.
(for nonmilitary reasons).
3.
Then, in 1940, the “phony
war” ended when Hitler overran Denmark and Norway, and then took over the
Netherlands and Belgium.
4.
Blitzing without mercy, he
then struck a paralyzing blow toward France, which was forced to surrender by
late June of that year.
5.
The fall of France was
shocking, because now, all that stood between Hitler and the world was Britain:
if the English lost, Hitler would have
all of Europe in which to operate, and he might take over the Americas as well.
6.
Finally, Roosevelt moved
and called for the nation to massively build up its armed forces, with expenses
totaling more than $37 million. He also had Congress pass the first peacetime
draft in U.S. history on September 6,
1940.
7.
1.2 million troops and
800,000 reserves would be trained. At the Havana Conference, the U.S. warned
Germany that it could not take over
orphan colonies in the Americas, as such action wouldn’t be tolerated.
XI. Bolstering
Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
1.
Now, with Britain the only
power fighting against Germany, FDR had to decide whether to remain totally
neutral or to help Britain.
2.
Hitler launched air attacks
against the British in August 1940 and prepared an invasion scheduled to start
a month later, but the tenacious defense
of the British Royal Air Force stopped him in the aerial Battle of Britain.
3.
Those who supported helping
Britain formed the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, while
those for isolationism (including Charles A. Lindbergh) were in the America
First Committee, and both groups
campaigned and advertised for their respective positions.
4.
Britain was in dire need
for destroyers, and on September 2, 1940, FDR boldly moved to transfer 50
old-model, four-funnel destroyers left over from WWI, and in return, the British
promised to give the U.S. eight valuable
defensive base sites stretching from Newfoundland to South America.
5.
These would stay in
American ownership for 99 years. Obviously, this caused controversy, but FDR
had begun to stop playing the silly old
games of isolationism and was slowly starting to step out into the spotlight.
XII. FDR
Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
1.
In 1940, it was thought
that Robert A. Taft of Ohio or Thomas E. Dewey would be the Republican
candidate, but a colorful and magnetic newcomer went from a nobody to a candidate in
a matter of weeks. Wendell L. Willkie,
became the Republican against Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt, who
waited until the last moment to challenge the two-term tradition.
2.
Democrats felt that FDR was
the only man qualified to be president, especially in so grave of a situation
as was going on. Willkie and FDR weren’t really different in the realm of foreign affairs, but Willkie hit hard with his
attacks on the third term. Still, FDR won because voters felt that, should war
come, FDR was the best man to lead America.
XIII. Congress
Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
1.
Britain was running out of
money, but Roosevelt didn’t want all the hassles that came with calling back
debts, so he came up with the idea of a
lend-lease program in which the arms and ships, etc. that the U.S. lent to the nations that needed them
would be returned when they were no
longer needed.
2.
Senator Taft retorted that
in this case the U.S. wouldn’t want them
back because it would be like lending chewing gum then taking it back after it’d been chewed. The lend-lease
bill was argued over heatedly in Congress, but it passed, and by war’s end, America had sent
about $50 billion worth of arms and
equipment.
3.
The lend-lease act was
basically the abandonment of the neutrality policy, and Hitler recognized this.
4.
Before, German submarines
had avoided attacking U.S. ships, but after the passage, they started to fire
upon U.S. ships as well, such as the May
21, 1941 torpedoing of the Robin Moor.
XIV. Hitler’s
Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
1.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler
attacked Russia, because ever since the signing of the nonaggression pact,
neither Stalin nor Hitler had trusted
each other, and both had been plotting to double-cross each other.
2.
Hitler assumed his
invincible troops would crush the inferior Soviet soldiers, but the valor of the Red
army, U.S. aid to the U.S.S.R. (through lend-lease), and an early and bitter
winter stranded the German force at Moscow and shifted the tide against
Germany.
3.
The Atlantic Conference was
held in August 1941, and the result was the eight-point Atlantic Charter, which
was suggestive of Woodrow Wilson’s
Fourteen Points. Main points included…
4.
There would be no
territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the natives. The charter also affirmed
the right for people to choose their rulers (self-determination).
5.
It declared disarmament and
a peace of security, as well as a new League of Nations. Critics charged that
“neutral America” was interfering, ignoring that America was no longer neutral.
XV. U.S.
Destroyers and Hitler’s U-Boats Clash
1.
To ensure that arms sent to
Britain would reach there, FDR finally agreed that a convoy would have to
escort them, but only as far as Iceland,
as Britain would take over from there.
2.
There were clashes, as U.S.
destroyers like the Greer, the Kearny, and the Reuben James were attacked by
the Germans.
3.
By mid-November 1941,
Congress annulled the now-useless Neutrality Act of 1939.
XVI. Surprise
Assault at Pearl Harbor
1.
Japan was still embroiled
in war with China, but when America suddenly imposed embargoes on key supplies
on Japan in 1940, the imperialistic
nation had now no choice but to either back off of China or attack the U.S.; they chose the latter.
2.
The Americans had broken
the Japanese code and knew that they would declare war soon, but the U.S. could
not attack, so based on what the Japanese supposedly planned, most Americans
thought that the Japanese would attack
British Malaya or the Philippines.
3.
However, the paralyzing
blow struck Pearl Harbor, as on December 7, 1941, Japanese air bombers suddenly
attacked the naval base located there
(where almost the entire U.S. fleet was located), wiping out many ships and killing or wounding 3,000 men.
4.
The next day, the one after
“a date which will live in infamy” (FDR), the U.S. declared war on Japan, and
on December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy
declared war on the U.S.
XVII. America’s
Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
1.
Up until the day of the
Pearl Harbor attack, most Americans still wanted to stay out of war, but
afterwards the event sparked such passion that it completely infuriated
Americans into wanting to go to war.
2.
This had been long in
coming, as the U.S. had wanted to stay out of war, but had still supported
Britain more and more, and the U.S. had been against the Japanese aggression but had
failed to take a firm stand on either
side.
3.
Finally, people decided
that appeasement didn’t work against “iron wolves,” and that only full war was
needed to keep the world safe for
democracy and against anarchy and dictatorship.
