Chapter 34 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War 1933-1941.

Chapter 34

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War

1933-1941

London Economic Conference

• Summer 1933 London Economic Conference– Stabilize currency, exchange rates,

international trade– FDR changed his mind because of

goals for inflation– Conference collapsed turned toward

extreme nationalism, no international cooperation

Good Neighbor Policy

• Interventionism and imperialism too much during Depression- no business to protect!

• Good Neighbor Policy: renounce Roosevelt Corollary and create partnerships

• Left Haiti 1934, Cuba released 1936, lift controls on Panama 1936, diplomatic solutions with Mexico in 1938

Totalitarianism

• Post WWI +depression= totalitarianism– USSR: Joseph Stalin– Italy: Benito Mussolini– Germany: Adolf Hitler– Japan: militarists wanting Pacific empire

• Hitler= humiliating Treaty of Versailles!• Rome-Berlin Axis treaty 1936

Adolf Hitler Reviewing Troops, Berlin, 1939Egging his people on with theatrical displays of pomp and ceremony, Hitler had created a vast military machine by 1939, when he started World War II with a brutal attack against Poland.

The Wages of DespairDisillusioned and desperate, millions of Germans in the 1930s looked to Adolf Hitler as their savior from the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had concluded World War I. This Nazi poster reads, “Our Last Hope: Hitler.”

Totalitarianism

• Japan began naval buildup 1935

• 1935 Italy attacked Ethiopia League of Nations did nothing

• US focused on isolationism no more foreign entanglements

Neutrality

• Nye Committee 1934 blame WWI on business and banks!

• Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937– All warring nations= belligerents– Avoid war at all costs!

Spanish Civil War

• Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 between Second Spanish Republic (Loyalists) and Nationalists (General Francisco Franco, fascists)

• Civil war, but still used to Neutrality Acts!

• Democracy destroyed with lack of help

Aggression

• 1937: Japan staged attacked on their railroad in Manchuria, reason to attack China

• Quarantine speech by FDR massive opposition

• 1935: Rhineland

• March 1938: seized Austria part of 3rd Reich, center of Europe

Aggression

• 1938 wanted Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia Munich Conference (appeasement)

• Soon seized all of Czechoslovakia without buffer zone 1939

• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

• September 1, 1939: blitzkrieg across Poland, USSR attacked from east

• War declared by France and GB

Fall of France

• Phony War

• April 1940: Germany seized Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and Belgium

• Pushed toward France and surrounded at Dunkirk (evacuation!)

• Fall of France only left GB

• Havana Conference 1940

Great Britain and US

• Battle of Britain August 1940: air raids by the Luftwaffe

• Growing US sympathy, but still neutral!

• Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

• America First Committee• FDR= deal with GB for 50 WWI

destroyers for 8 defensive bases

Lend Lease

• Cash and carry not adequate for war needs

• Lend Lease Act proposed 1941– “the arsenal of democracy”– Opponents= “blank check”?

• Lend Lease= no more hint of neutrality

• Got factories running for war effort

• Materiel to be convoyed by destroyers- some sunk by U Boats

Operation Barbarossa

• June 22, 1941: blitzkrieg attack against Soviet Union– Territorial disputes, Slavs=inferior, oil!

• US= Lend Lease to USSR

• Scorched earth, Red Army, Russian winter= Nazis stalled outside of Moscow end of 1941

Atlantic Charter

• Plan created by FDR and Churchill in the middle of the Atlantic Aug. 1941– Post war plan, plan for common

problems

• Reminiscent of the 14 Points!– No territorial gains, self determination,

lower trade barriers, international economic/social welfare cooperation, freedom from want/fear, freedom of seas, disarmament, permanent system of general security

Pearl Harbor

• September 1940: Tripartite Pact• Japan= Pacific Empire, needed oil,

scrap metal and steel– US= embargo on aggressor– Negotiations up to December 1941

• December 7, 1941- Pearl Harbor attack– December 8th: declaration of war– US= instant unity and patriotism for war