Diplomacy and World War II, 1929-1945

During World War II, American foreign policy changed from disengagement to

neutrality and finally to total involvement.

Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy

• Hoover reaffirmed the country’s belief that the U.S. should not enter into firm commitments with other nations (League of Nations)

• Isolationism• Kellogg-Briand Pact: 1928,

initiated by the U.S., most nations in the world signed, renounced the aggressive use of force to achieve national ends

Japanese Aggression in Manchuria

• Early 1930s, Japan defied the Open Door Policy and League of Nations by invading Manchuria in 1931

• League of Nations condemned the attack, but did nothing else

• Japan walked out• The League

showed its

inability to keep

peace

FDR’s Policies, 1933-1938

• Crisis at home prevented Roosevelt from focusing too much on foreign policy

• Good Neighbor Policy: tried to improve relations with Latin America

• Persuaded Congress to nullify the Platt Amendment (except Guantanamo Bay)

• Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union in 1933

Fascism and Aggressive Militarism

• Economic hardship, nationalism and bitterness over the outcome of WWI

• Italy: Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) and the Fascist Party -1922

• Germany: Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, policy of anti-Semitism – 1933

• Japan: Militarists, emperor is a puppet, invaded China and SE Asia for raw materials

American Isolationists

Lindbergh joins the America First Committee

Many Americans, disillusioned with WWI, do not want to be drawn into another conflict

Neutrality Act of 1935

Neutrality Act of 1936

Neutrality Act of 1937

America First Committee: formed by isolationists in 1940 and warned countries against the folly of getting involved in Europe’s troubles

Prelude to War

• Late 1930s, the policy of appeasement allowed Hitler to build a powerful army and use it – Rhineland, Sudetenland

• Munich Conference: 1938, country gives into Hitler to avoid war

• Italy: invaded Ethiopia in 1935• Japan: entered into a full scale

war with China in 1937• FDR argued for neutrality/arms

buildup and Congress agrees

Outbreak of War

• Sept. 1939, Hitler (and Stalin) invaded Poland

• Britain and France declared war

• Blitzkrieg: lightning war (air power and fast tanks)

• Soon most of Europe was under Nazi control/influence

• Great Britain remained free• Americans sympathetic to

Britain, but still neutral• FDR believed British survival

was crucial to U.S. security

U.S. and Neutrality

• FDR chipped away at the neutrality laws to give aid to Britain

• “Cash and Carry”: allowed the U.S. to sell aid to Britain (but transported on British ships)

• Selective Service Act: 1940, peacetime registration of males for a draft

• Destroyers for bases: U.S. gave Britain older destroyers for military bases in Caribbean

Election of 1940

• Roosevelt breaks the two term tradition

• Republicans nominated Wendell Willkie

• FDR won with 54% of popular vote

Election of 1940

Arsenal of Democracy

• Dec.1940 fireside chat: “We must be the arsenal of democracy”

• Lend-Lease Act: 1941, gave Britain arms it needed on credit (neighbor’s house on fire)

• Atlantic Charter: FDR and Churchill met to discuss post-war goals

• Japan joins Axis in 1940, relationship is strained with U.S.

• U.S. cut off trade of vital resources (oil) to Japan

• U.S. wanted Japan out of China

• Negotiations did not work

America Joins the War

• December 7, 1941• 2,400 Americans killed• FDR addressed Congress the

next day and said Dec. 7th “a date that will live in infamy”

• Congress agreed and declared war

• Three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

The Home Front

• Hitler invaded Russia in 1941• Allies: U.S., Britain and Soviet

Union• U.S. government organized a

number of agencies to mobilize the war effort

• War Production Board (WPB) was established to manage war industries

• By 1944 unemployment virtually disappeared

• U.S. output was twice that of Axis powers

The Home Front

• Govt. set production priorities and controlled raw materials

• Office of Price Administration (OPA) froze prices, wages and rents

• Rationing of meat, sugar, gasoline and auto tires

• War bonds to raise $• Shortage of goods made it

easier for Americans to save

Home Front

The War’s Impact on Society

• Like WWI, jobs were available for African-Ams. and women

• Great Migration

• Discrimination and segregation

• “Double V” – V for victory over fascism and V for victory for equality at home

• Mexican immigrants came for jobs, met resentment

• 25,000 Native Americans served

• 5 million women entered work force, Women took factory jobs – for less pay than men

• “Rosie the Riveter”

Propaganda

• Government’s war propaganda was everywhere

• Posters, songs, and news bulletins

• Maintain public morale, encourage people to sacrifice and conserve resources and increase war production

• Office of war Information controlled news about troop movements and battles

• Patriotism!

Japanese Americans

• Suspected of being potential spies/saboteurs for Japan

• Japanese invasion of West Coast?

• 1942 – U.S. government ordered +100,000 to leave their homes and reside in interment camps

• Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) the Supreme Court upheld the interment policy of the government as justified in wartime

• 1988 – financial compensation was awarded

• 20,000 Japanese –Americans did serve in WWII

Japanese-Americans

Japanese-Americans

Election of 1944

• Many felt that, in the war emergency, there should be no change in leadership

• FDR’s running mate was Harry S. Truman

• NY governor Thomas Dewey ran for the Republicans

• Roosevelt and Truman won 53% of popular vote

• 432-99 in electoral college• FDR died several months into

his fourth term

World War II: The Battlefronts

D-Day • Two fronts or “theatres of operation”

• Pacific and Europe• Europe:• Driving Germans out of North

Africa (Operation Torch)• Sicily and Italy• D Day invasion on June 6th

1944 – Nazi occupied France• U.S. troops learned of the

Holocaust as they pushed into Germany

• 6 million Jewish civilians died

World War II: The Battlefronts

• Pacific Theatre• Battle of Midway• “island hopping”• General Douglas MacArthur• kamikaze• Iwo Jima• Okinawa• Manhattan Project directed by

Robert Oppenheimer built the atomic bomb

• Truman decides to have it used on Japan – Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Germany and Japan Surrender

• Germany surrenders on May 7th 1945, Hitler committed suicide on April 30th

• Japan was still in the war• August 6th and 9th 1945 the

atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrenders

Wartime Conferences

• During the war the Big Three met several times to discuss war and post-war plans

• Casablanca in 1943• Teheran in 1943• Yalta in 1945: • Germany divided into zones • free elections in liberated

Europe• Soviets will enter into war with

Japan • United Nations to be formed

The War’s Legacy

Most destructive war in history

300,000 American dead

800,000 wounded

Excluding the Civil War, more Americans died in WWII than all other wars combined

National debt grew to $250 billion

Cities unscarred

U.S. emerges as a superpower

New rivalry emerged between communist Russia and democratic U.S.

The United Nations

• Unlike the League of Nations after WWI, Congress accepted the peacekeeping organization that was created after WWII

• In April, 1945, delegates from 50 nations met in San Francisco, where they drafted a charter for the United Nations

• The Senate quickly voted to accept U.S. involvement in the U.N.