B.) 1920- 1941 Power without obligation: The U.S. preserves its interests

Video: American Isolationism in the 30’s 0-1’35

Dawes Plan 1924an attempt for the Triple Entente to collect war

reparations debt from Germany. Allied occupation of the Ruhr industrial area

contributed to the hyperinflation crisis in Germany - disabling effect on the German economy.

provided for an end to the Allied occupation + staggered payment plan for Germany's payment of war reparations

Dawes won the Nobel Peace prize for ending an intl crisis

interim measure - proved unworkable. The Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it.

Young Plan (1930)For three generations, you’ll have

to slave away!$26,350,000,000 to be paid over a

period of 58½ years.By 1931, Hoover declared a debt

moratorium

Dollar Diplomacy

Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928Sponsored by France and the U.S. (and

signed by most nations), the Pact renounced the use of war and called for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Similar provisions were incorporated into the UN Charter and other treaties and it became a stepping stone to a more activist American policy.

Problems no means of actual enforcement and gave Americans a false sense of security.

Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1930Raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to

record levels (including 75 farm products)Hoover’s attempt, against the advice of all economists,

to protect American farmers from international competition by raising agricultural tariffs.

Record high rates of this tariff probably had little impact on domestic prices or on overseas exporters

US exports cut in half between 1930 and 1932Some view the Act, and the ensuing retaliatory tariffs by

U.S. trading partners, as responsible for reducing American exports and imports by more than half.

According to Ben Bernanke, "Economists still agree that Smoot-Hawley and the ensuing tariff wars were highly counterproductive and contributed to the depth and length of the global Depression."

Japanese Attack Manchuria (1931)

• League of Nations condemned the action.

• Japan leaves the League.• Hoover wanted no part in an American military action

in the Far East.

Hoover-Stimson Doctrine (1932)• US would not recognize any territorial

acquisitions that were achieved by force.

• Japan was infuriated because the US hadconquered new territories a few decades earlier.

• Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932 massive casualties.

Stimson Doctrine 1932also invoked by U.S. in 1940:

non-recognition of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania —and remained the official U.S. position until the Baltic states regained independence in 1991.

Not the first time the U.S. had used non-recognition as a political tool or symbolic statement. President Wilson had refused to recognize the Mexican Revolutionary governments in 1913 and Japan's 21 demands upon China in 1915

FDR’s “Good Neighbor” Policy

• Important to have all nations in the Western Hemisphere united in case of foreign aggressions.

• FDR The good neighbor respects himself and the rights of others.

• Policy of non-intervention and cooperation.

US-Soviet Relations 1917-1933Relations characterized by mutual hostilities

since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 U.S. extended its embargo of Germany to

include Russia, and orchestrated a series of covert actions against Soviet Russia, including secretly funding its enemies.

The United States sent troops to Siberia in 1918 to protect its interests

November 16, 1933 The United States and the Soviet Union established formal diplomatic relations

FDR Recognizes the Soviet Union (late 1933)

• FDR felt that recognizing Moscow might bolster the US against Japan.

• Maybe trade with the USSR would help the US economy during the Depression.

Nye Committee Hearings (1934-1936)• The Nye Committee

investigated the charge that WW I was needless and the US entered so munitions owners could make big profits [“merchants of death.”]

• The Committee did charge that bankers wanted war to protect their loans & arms manufacturers to make money.

• Claimed that Wilson had provoked Germany by sailing in to warring nations’ waters.

• Resulted in Congress passing several Neutrality Acts.

Senator Gerald P. Nye [R-ND]

“America First” Committee

Charles Lindbergh

FDR’s “I hate war” Speech (1936)

Video: 1’26

Neutrality Acts 1935-1937Aim: limit U.S. involvement in future wars. They were

based on the widespread disillusionment with World War I in the early 1930s and the belief that the United States had been drawn into the war through loans and trade with the Allies.

1935 Act banned munitions exports to belligerents and restricted American travel on belligerent ships.

1936 Act banned loans to belligerents.1937 Act extended these provisions to civil wars and

gave the president discretionary authority to restrict non-military sales to a “cash‐and‐carry” basis

Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil WarLimited the options of the president in a crisis

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

The American “Lincoln Brigade”

1939 Neutrality Act• In response to Germany’s invasion of

Poland.• FDR persuades Congress in special session

to allow the US to aid European democracies in a limited way:

The US could sell weapons to the European democracies on a “cash-and-carry” basis.

FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones which US ships and citizens could not enter.

• Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act: Aggressors could not send ships to buy

US munitions. The US economy improved as

European demands for war goods helped bring the country out of the 1937-38 recession.

• America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy.”

US Neutrality

Cash and Carry 1939policy requested by FDR at a special session of

Congress on September 21, 1939. replaced the Neutrality Acts of 1939. The revision

allowed the sale of material to belligerents, as long as the recipients arranged for the transport using their own ships and paid immediately in cash, assuming all risk in transportation.

Though "cash and carry" concepts had been introduced in the Neutrality Act of 1936, it only pertained to materials that could not be used in war efforts.

Lend-Lease 1941The “cash and carry” not an effective

measure after Germany began invading its neighbors.

After the fall of the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands) and the invasion and capitulation of France, Roosevelt lobbied for the introduction of Lend-Lease

a plan in which the European allies didn't have to pay cash or arrange transportation any longer. Instead, the U.S. would demand payment at a later time.

program under which the U.S. supplied Great Britain, the USSR, Republic of China, Free France and other Allied nations with material between 1941 and August 1945.

Ended the US pretense of neutrality in the war

“Lend-Lease” Act (1941)Great Britain.........................$31

billionSoviet Union...........................$11 billionFrance......................................$ 3 billionChina.......................................$1.5 billionOther European.................$500 millionSouth America...................$400 millionThe amount totaled: $48,601,365,000

Video: Lend-Lease Act 1’35

Total U.S. Commitment to the War EffortIndustrial and economic mobilization

Victory Program (chain production of weapons and naval ships)

Military mobilizationFight on 2 fronts (Pacific and European)

3 invasions to liberate EuropeNorth Africa 1942, Italy 1943, Normandy 1944

Fighting Japan East from the Pacific and south from

the Philippines Massive bombing of Tokyo Dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima &

NagasakiVideo: Remembering Hiroshima 1945-

2011 9’38

Reading HomeworkMastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe (2 pages)

Part IV The United States of America22.4 The impact of war and the Russian revolutions, pp. 465-466