FDR and the Shadow of War

FDR and the Shadow of War

Chapter 34

Essential Question

• What caused WWII to develop?• What is appeasement and why did it not

work?• Why was the US not able to remain neutral in

WWII?

London Economic Conference

• 66 nation meeting in 1933• Goal: Stabilize international currencies to ease

trade, fight Great Depression• FDR does not participate; fears that by

agreeing to this he may put domestic economics in jeopardy.

• Conference a failure, leads to increased extreme nationalism internationally.

Filipinos and Soviets

• Labor Unions and sugar producers were hurt by competition from the Philippines.

• Tydings-McDuffie Act promised independence in 1946.

• US had little concern for Filipinos, no concern about land hungry Japan.

• FDR also recognized the USSR in 1933, in hopes of bolstering trade.

Good Neighbor Policy

• FDR saw that armed intervention was not working in Latin America.

• Wanted our neighbors to be on our side to help fight totalitarianism in Western Hem.

• Withdrew troops from Haiti, repealed the Platt Amendment (Cuba), reached peaceful settlement with Mexico after seizure of US oil companies.

Reciprocal Trade

• Reciprocal Trade Agreement: 1934, gave FDR power to lower tariffs as much as 50% as long as the other nation agreed to do the same.

• US foreign trade increased dramatically.• Paved way for post WWII trend of

international free trade.

Rise of Totalitarian Regimes

• Democracy struggled around the globe.• The European democracies created by

Versailles folded under the Great Depression.• Totalitarianism: individual unimportant; state

was everything.

Soviet Union• Joseph Stalin• Communism• Suppressed all internal

opposition; sent political opponents to death camps.

• Ruthless to his own people.• 5 Year Plan of

Industrialization caused famine; 5 million dead

Italy

• Benito Mussolini• Fascism• Seized control of Italy in

1922.• Wanted to restore Italy

to a world power.• Repressed poor, political

opponents• Invaded and conquered

Ethiopia in 1935.

Germany• Adolph Hitler• Fascism• Used displeasure of

Germans over Versailles and Social Darwinism to gain support.

• Rearmed Germany, allied with Italy (Berlin-Rome Axis)

• Hates Jews, Commies, and France!

Japan

• Emperor Hirohito a puppet, real power lied in military (Hideki Tojo)

• Craved land, territories.• Displeased over

Versailles, European domination of Asia.

• Allied with Italy, Germany

Isolationism

• Great Depression, failure of League of Nations, unpaid debt from WWI, and geographic position all contribute to US neutrality.

Isolationism

• Many Americans blamed banks and munitions makers for WWI.

• Congress passes Neutrality Acts (1935-1937)

• Prohibits Americans selling weapons or making loans to nations at war.

• Made no distinction between aggressors or victims.

• Shortsighted approach; US failed to recognize that our power may help shape international events.

Spanish Civil War• 1936-1939• Loyalists (Democracy, aided

by USSR) v. Fascist (aided by Germany and Italy)

• Fascist Leader Francisco Franco

• US fails to aid loyalists because of Neutrality Acts and connection to USSR.

• Franco crushes loyalists.

Appeasing Japan

• 1937 Japan invades China• US does not declare that

it is a war, therefore we sell arms to both China and Japan.

• FDR gives “Quarantine Speech” –US should use economics to stop aggressors.

• US public reacts negatively, still largely isolationist.

• Japan sinks US supply ship near China, humiliate Americans in China; US accepts apology.

• US sticks to isolationist guns.

“The last territorial claim I have to make in Europe”- Hitler

• Hitler militarizes Rhineland (1936) in direct opposition to Versailles.

• Begins Holocaust• 1938, annexes Austria• France, UK grow uneasy.• Hitler demands the

Sudetenland, in Western Czechoslovakia.

• Trying to avoid war, France and UK agree to the Munich Pact: Hitler takes Sud. In exchange for promise that he will take nothing else.

• Surprise! – Hitler lies, 6 months later takes all of Czechoslovakia.

Munich Pact

Hitler’s Game• Hitler and Stalin hated

each other• World shocked when both

sign a Nonaggression Pact• Secretly, they both agreed

to invade and divide Poland, which Versailles had created from land taken from both.

• Stalin hoped that Germany would war with UK and France, leaving the USSR as the only power in Europe.

• Sep. 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland.

• UK and France finally see appeasement not working, declare war.

US’ Uneasy Isolationism

• Americans overwhelmingly hoped democracies would win.

• Congress passed a new Neutrality Act in 1939; allowed democracies to buy weapons with cash and transport them on their own vessels.– Avoid debt and US loss of ships/lives

• Immediate boom to the US economy.

French Strength?• Initial months known as the

“Phony War”, no fighting took place.

• Hitler moved his troops to the western front for an all-out assault on France.

• 1940: Hitler quickly takes out Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

• Blitzkrieg: German attack; fast moving tanks, air support.

• UK troops in France forced back to beaches.

• Massive civilian/military evacuation of 300,000+ troops at Dunkirk/ Britain lives to fight another day.

• US responds by building up navy, enactment of the Selective Service Act (1st peacetime draft), and agreeing to protect UK, French, Dutch and Danish colonies by invoking the Monroe Doctrine.

Winston Churchill• Opposed appeasement/ Munich

Pact• Prime Minister of UK• “... we shall fight in France, we

shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Battle of Britain

• 1940: Hitler launches air raids on UK.

• Wanted to soften them up before invasion.

• UK had new invention: radar; warned of incoming invasions.

• After months, Hitler calls off the Blitz.

American Neutrality Bends

• America First Committee: Antiwar group, lead by Charles Lindbergh

• US trades 50 old ships for UK bases in Canada, Caribbean.

• Some cheer, some jeer

1940 Election

• Republicans nominate former Democrat Wendell Willkie.– “You have been a

Democrat all your life. I don’t mind the church converting a whore, but I don’t like her to lead the choir the first night.”

– Platform condemned New Deal

• FDR breaks tradition and runs for a 3rd term.

• Nation split between pro and anti-war.

• With war looming, Americans choose a proven leader: FDR.

• Electoral College = 449 v 82

1940 Election

Lend-Lease Act

• Congress finally gives real aid to the “Allies”• Lend-Lease Act: 1941, US will let Allies “borrow”

guns, tanks, planes, ships, etc. When the war ends they will “return” them.

• Geared US factories toward war production.• US no longer could claim neutrality, they were

picking a side.• US eventually lends $50 billion worth of

weapons.

Hitler’s Fatal Mistake

• 1941: Hitler ignores the Nonaggression Pact, suddenly invades USSR.

• Hoped to catch Stalin off guard, seize their oil and weapon factories.

• USSR suffers early losses, finally stops the Nazi’s near Moscow.

• Hitler had messed with the wrong dude!

Atlantic Charter

• 1941 Conference between Churchill and FDR.• Outlined plans for world peace.• Borrowed heavily from Wilson’s 14 Points.• USSR adopts agreements.

Wolf-Pack Attacks

• Hitler’s U-Boats patrolled the Atlantic.• US used Convoy System to deliver goods to

UK, USSR.• Inevitably US and German naval forces clash.• FDR issues a “shoot-on-sight” policy for

dealing with Axis ships.• One step closer to all out war.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

• Japan desperately needed oil and steel to fuel it’s war efforts.

• 1940: US imposes embargo on Japan.• Japan’s options-1. Halt war or 2. Attack the oil

and iron rich territories of US, UK, France, Netherlands in Pacific.

• US expects an attack on the Philippines, but not………

Pearl Harbor

• December 7, 1941• 3,000 US dead• Pacific fleet’s battleships wiped out.• Luckily, all aircraft carriers were not present.• Japan had hoped that Americans would continue

appeasement have no stomach for war.• They were wrong• US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

FDR Asks for War