In Many Ways Franklin D

8/3/2019 In Many Ways Franklin D

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John R. West

HIST 4330

Exam I, Question 1

In many ways Franklin D. Roosevelt did not have much choice in the matter on

how to deal with Germany, Italy, and Japan. To bring the U.S. into the war Roosevelt

would need at least the agreement of the people, or the Senate and House of

Representatives. With Japan there were many things that could cause the U.S.

concern, but Germany threatened the U.S. economy, way of life and even the shores of

the main land.

The war was coming to the shores of the United States but Roosevelt thought it

was coming from Germany, and yes Japan did hit Hawaii, but really there was no real

threat that the west coast was ever in danger. The Atlantic ocean is a small area and

travel across it by sea was rather quickly, not to mention that Charles Lindbergh had

shown that air travel could be done easily no stop from Europe to the U.S. The Pacific

ocean was much larger, and to control the Pacific ocean, a government would need to

control specific areas: the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Japan, Solomons, and many

other Islands. Japan would need to control at least Midway or Hawaii to be able to

strike at the west coast of the U.S. Japan never got close enough to land troops on

either place.

Provoking Germany into going to war with the U.S. looked to be the only way

Roosevelt was could fully back Britain and France with troops on the ground. Using the

destroyer deal, Lend-Lease, a revision of the Neutrality Act, and last the shoot on sight

order, which referred to German subs, were all ways to force Germanys hand.


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Roosevelt knew that the U.S. would only go to war if we had someone else declare war

on us first. Roosevelt did not see as well as everyone else that Japan was very

desperate.

These ways were all stages like the destroyer deal was a way to slow down or

discourage the German wolf pack from striking at British convoys by giving away fifty

old destroyers we no longer were using. A destroyer is a ship designed to seek out and

sink submarines, which is what the wolf pack was made up of - around three to five

German submarines in a wolf pack.

The Neutrality Act stated that the United States is neutral and cannot help out

any country at war. Roosevelt saw this as an obstacle that needed to be crossed, so

late in 1939 he proposed a revision to allow support to be sent to Britain and France to

fight against the Nazi control of Europe. When this passed it opened the door to the

Lend-Lease deal and it also made it easier for the shoot on sight policy to get passed.

But it was not until late 1940 when the U.S. peoples attitude to Germany and the

European Front changed when France fell quickly to the Nazi Blitzkrieg.

Now more than ever Roosevelt believed that the only way to get the U.S. people

on his side he would have to bolster the British, and later Russia with the Lend-Lease

program. This was a way for the U.S. to sell arms to the allies to help them fight the

German and Italian armies. The United States sent over Liberty ships, tanks (mainly M3

Stuart, M3 Lee, and M4 Sharman), guns and supplies. This was a way for Roosevelt to

strengthen Britain, and not make them pay for the supplies until after the war was over.

Of course, this would only really work if the United States would get into the war at

some time.


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With all the Wolf pack attacks on the United States supply lines to Britain, the

U.S. would soon adopt a shoot on sight policy which gave all U.S. warships the right to

sink any German U-boat they come across without being at war with Germany. This

was only U-boats, though, so any German surface ship was off limits.

After everything that Roosevelt went though attempting to provoke Germany into

action against the U.S. from 1939 to 1941, all he really ever needed was to support

China and put and oil embargo on Japan. On December 7, 1941 Japan launch an

attack on Pearl Harbor with more than one hundred planes. Germany and Italy soon

declared war on the U.S., believing that Japan would then join the war against Russia,

which never happened. So in conclusion it is well believed that Franklin D. Roosevelt

believed that the U.S. needed to join the war, but could not until he had a popular

agreement from the people or Congress that we needed to go to war. So Roosevelt did

almost anything in his power to steer the U.S. in that direction.

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In Many Ways Franklin D