THE SHADOW

OF WAR

International Affairs

1921-1941

A26q 7.3.20

GUIDING QUESTION

● How and for what reasons did

U.S. foreign policy change

between 1920 and 1941?

(To what extent did the United States

adopt an isolationist policy in the 1920s

and 1930s?)

U.S. Foreign Policy to WWI

● isolationism

● nationalism

● internationalism

DIPLOMACY IN THE 1920S:

ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT ENTANGLEMENTS

● Peace with Germany, 1921

● League of Nations - “unofficial observers”

● Washington Conference (1922)

Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922

Four-Power Treaty

Nine-Power Treaty – “Open Door” in China

Significance: battleships and aircraft carriers only; no enforcement mechanism

● Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris) (1928) Problems: “defensive wars”, no enforcement mechanism

● Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922)

● Dawes Plan (1924)

DIPLOMACY IN THE 1930s:

FROM ENGAGEMENT TO ISOLATIONISM

● Manchuria (1931) - “Stimson Doctrine” (1932)

Non-recognition of acquisition of territory by force (against the

League of Nations)

● Hoover – troops out of Haiti (1932), Nicaragua (1933)

● “Good Neighbor Policy” 1933 – US renounced intervention (Roosevelt Corollary)

1934 - Marines pulled out of Haiti

1934 – Cuba released from terms of Platt Amendment

1938 – Mexico nationalized oil cos.; money settlement instead

armed intervention

● U.S. recognized the Soviet Union (1933)

● World Economic (London) Conference (1933)

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR

● Nye Committee (1934)

● Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936 and 1937

● German aggression 1935 – compulsory

military service; air force and armored divisions

Rhineland, 1936

Austria, 1938

● Munich Conference (Sept 1938)

appeasement

● March 1939 – Germany took remainder of Czechoslovakia

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR

● Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939)

● Invasion of Poland (Sept 1, 1939)

● blitzkrieg Denmark

Norway

France

Dunkirk

● Battle of Britain (Aug. 1940 – June 1941)

● Invasion of Soviet Union (June 1941)

●

● Soviet Aggression Eastern Poland (Sept 1939)

Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania (1940)

● “moral embargo” against USSR

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR

● FDR’s “Quarantine” speech (1937, after Japanese invasion of China) of all AGGRESSOR NATIONS

● “Preparedness”

● Change in US Policy Most alarmed by German conquests, but wanted no

part in war

FDR: Britain essential to US defense; began chipping away at neutrality legislation any way he could to assist GB

● cash-and-carry policy (1939)

● Selective Service Act (Sept 1940)

● Destroyers for Bases Deal (Sept 1940)

● Election of 1940 Wendall Willkie

Anti-Third Term Buttons, 1940

Gallup Polls: European War and World War 1938–1940

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR

● “Arsenal of Democracy”

● Lend-Lease Act (March 1941)

● America First Committee

● “shoot on sight” (July 1941)

● Atlantic Charter (Aug 1941)

America First bumper sticker: "Keep Our Boys at Home" (Herbert Hoover Presidential Library)

Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter

Meeting, 1941 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)

Japanese Aggression 1931-1941

Japanese Aggression through 1941

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR

DISPUTES WITH JAPAN

● economic pressure on Japan (steel, oil)

● Pearl Harbor (Dec 7 1941) 2400 killed (over 1100 on Arizona), 1200 wounded;

20 warships sunk or severely damaged; 150 planes destroyed

The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl Harbor (U.S. Army)

FDR before

Congress asking

for a Declaration

of War against

Japan, Dec. 8,

1941

Japanese

Expansion and

Early Battles in

the Pacific