THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1877-1945

LECTURE 8AMERICA AT THE EVE OF WORLD

WAR TWO

ABOUT THE WAR

• Wartime casualties: 17 million• 70 million served in armed services world wide• Death toll: 7,5 million Soviets, 3.5 million

Germans, 1,25 million Japanese, 400,000 Americans

• 70 countries participated• Total war, societies fighting against each other• Soldiers, war workers----victims (persecution via

occupation, bombing, mass murder)

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY BETWEEN THE WARS

• -Isolationism• Rejection of Wilsonian internationalism,

especially the League of Nations• Main tendencies:• -Reduction of military forces• -promotion of private enterprise instead of

governmental involvement• -the use of economic means, money and trade,

to achieve international stability (Dollar Diplomacy)

ISOLATIONISM BETWEEN THE WARS

• 1936: Veterans of Future Wars: 1000 USD for everyone between 18-36 to enjoy before the next war

• ”The people have had all the war, all the taxation, and all the military service they want," Calvin Coolidge (1925)

• 1935: Students’ Strike for Peace• Poll: 39% of students would refuse to serve in

a war

ISOLATIONISM IN POPULAR CULTURE

• "We didn't win a thing we set out for in the last war,“ "We merely succeeded, with tremendous loss of life, to make secure the loans of private bankers to the Allies” (Sen Gerald Nye, North Dakota)

• Merchants of Death-Book of the Month Club• Condemnation of profiteering, U.S. was drawn

into World War One by the international weapon industry

• 1935: 70% of Americans would reject American involvement in Europe

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD

• 1921-22: Nine Asian and European nations meet

• Aim: to decrease tensions in the Pacific• Result: 10 year moratorium on the

construction of battle ships• Limiting the number of battle ships—first

disarmament treaty

EFFORTS AT EASING INTERNATIONAL TENSIONS

• 1924:Dawes Plan-Charles Dawes• Providing economic assistance to Germany • Reduction of reparation from 33 billion to 2

billion USD• -200 million dollars loan and easier reparation

terms• 1928: Kellogg-Briand Pact: outlawing war as a

means of resolving disputes, 62 nations sign it• No legal force, ”an international kiss”

THE FINANCIAL MERRY-GO-ROUND

• Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 from 27% to 35%• U.S. largest creditor and debtor, loaned out 16 billion

USD after war• During war allies were given loans in the amount of 10

billion USD• France, Britain want loans to be written off• Due to high tariffs France and Britain cannot sell goods

in America• 1931: Hoover approves debt suspension for one year• U.S. never gets repaid

INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO WAR

• 1922: Mussolini’s rise in Italy• 1931: Japan invades Manchuria• 1932: Hoover condemns aggression• 1933: Change of foreign policy, open alliance

system, and nations are admitted to this system according to their compliance with the rules of the economic alliance.

• According the Trade Reciprocity Act of 1934, the President has the authority to grant most favored status to certain nations. FDR uses this as a weapon in dealing with belligerent nations

TOTALITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS

• Communism in Soviet-Russia• Formation of the Soviet Union• Formation of the Comintern• Threats from the left• All economic and social activity is controlled by

the state• Repression of individual rights, civil liberties• Governmental or common ownership of

economic resources

FASCISM IN ITALY

• Italian empire in North Africa. • In 1912 and 1913, Italy had conquered Libya.

In 1935, provoked war with Ethiopia, conquering the country in eight months.

• Two years later, Mussolini sent 70,000 Italian troops to Spain to help Francisco Franco defeat the republican government in the Spanish Civil War

FASCISM IN GERMANY

• Hitler pulls Germany out of the League of Nations

• Begins rearmament• 1935: Starts to build army and air force• 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis, reoccupation of the

Rhineland

FASCIST IDEOLOGY

• Antisemitism• Replacement of religion with worship of the

state• Totalitarian dictatorship• Racism• Extreme militant nationalism• Suppression of civil liberties

COMPARISON OF FASCISM TO AMERICAN BELIEF SYSTEM

• American values are against the elements of fascism

• Religious tolerance• Political freedom• Representative democracy• Respect of civil liberties• Respect of the individual

INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO WAR

• 1933: U.S. establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union

• 1933: Hitler assumes power in Germany• 1936: Germany reoccupies the Rhineland• 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War• 1937: Japan attacks China, armed clash at the

Marco Polo Bridge, near Peking, the beginning of World War Two in Asia

INTERNATIONAL BACKGROUND TO WAR

• 1937: Japan joins Germany, and Italy in the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

• 1938: Hitler annexes Austria, Anschluss• 1938: Munich Conference: Britain and France allow

Hitler to keep his newly occupied territories, in return for giving up on further aggression

• This policy is called appeasement, giving in to the demands of the aggressor, in return for promises of ending aggressive behavior

• 1939 Germany attacks Poland, • Britain and France declare war on Germany, World

War Two begins in Europe

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

• 1936-1939• Nationalists, led by Franco, helped by

Germany and Italy• Republican forces, helped by Russia• First aerial attack against the city: Guernica

EL VALLE LOS CAIDOS

EARLY CONFLICTS IN THE PACIFIC

• 1931: Japan invades Manchuria, Hoover refuses to recognize puppet government

• 1934: Japan terminates the Five Power Naval Act limiting the number of its warships

• 1937: Japan attacks China• Brussels conference: Action was condemned• 1937: Japanese attack against American gunboat

Panay• JAPAN APOLOGIZES, U.S. ACCEPTS APOLOGY

AMERICAN RESPONSE

• Neutrality– 1935-1937 Neutrality Acts– 1935-1938 Prohibiting sale of arms and munitions to

belligerents• 1937: highest neutrality sentiments• But Cash and Carry plans to help Allies, primarily

Britain, France, later China and Russia• Roosevelt reelected for a third term in 1940:• U.S. must become the great arsenal of

democracy

AMERICAN RESPONSE• Four Freedom Speech: In the shadow of the

threat of Fascism and totalitarianism U.S. fights for Four Freedoms

• Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear

• Lend-Lease Bill of 1940 “President can sell, transfer, exchange, lend, lease, or otherwise dispose of any arms and other equipment and supplies to any country whose defense he deems vital to the defense of the U.S”. First beneficiaries, Britain, China

AMERICAN RESPONSE TO THE CONFLICT IN THE PACIFIC

• After 1937: Deterioration of relations between Washington and Tokyo

• 1940: Japan occupies Northern Indochina (obtaining oil reserves)

• Response: embargo on oil, aviation fuel, scrap metal, Japanese bank accounts are frozen

• 1941: Hideki Tojo, leader of militants seizes power

AMERICAN RESPONSE

•-Japanese expansion in the Pacific--Militarism

• Japan’s goal: the establishment of the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• U.S response: embargo• 1941 December 7, Pearl Harbor• Kermit Tyler: ”Don’t worry about it” assumed B-17 fighter

planes were coming in, music was on radio, had no training, no staff, cleared of wrongdoing or negligence

• Following the attack U.S. declares war on Japan

PEARL HARBOR

• Tora, Tora, Tora• Attack at 7.53. AM• 2400 servicemen and civilians were killed• 19 ships sunk, disabled, 150 planes destroyed,

but Japanese could not destroy aircraft carriers and fuel depots

PEARL HARBOR SPEECH• To the Congress of the United States:•

Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

• Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

•With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounding determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

•I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uCGxk-v-Mc•

INFAMY SPEECH

PEARL HARBOR MEMORIAL USS ARIZONA

ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

USS ARIZONA

CAUSES OF U.S. ENTRY TO WORLD WAR TWO

• Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor• Freedom of the seas doctrine• Protection of allies• Protection of international trade• Protection of democracy• Rejection of totalitarianism