U. S. Foreign Policy

From Peculiar Isolationism to Global War, 1920-1941

                                                        

Peculiar Isolationism

• U. S. didn’t join L. of N., but kept and observer there.

• U. S. had high tariffs, but Charles Dawes headed a Reparations Adjustment Commission.

• U. S. rejected World Court, but hosted Washington Armaments Conference (5 power treaty, 4 power treaty, and 9 power treaty)

• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

Good Neighbor Policy

• J. Reuben Clark memorandum: renounced intervention in Lat. America via Monroe Doctrine (1928)

• Roosevelt supported 1933 Pan. Am. Conference Resolution renouncing interventionism

• 1934—Marines withdrawn from Nicaragua and Haiti and Platt Amendment (protectorate) over Cuba abrogated

• Brief interregnum between TR and Cold War.

Destruction of WWI Peace Settlements

• Japan occupied Manchuria (1931)

• U. S. backing of Open Door is hollow; Japan occupied China proper in 1937

• Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935

• Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936

• Japan and Germany withdraw from League of Nations in 1933

Neutrality Acts

• Neutrality Act of 1935—no sale of weapons where state of war exists

• Neutrality Act amended in ’36—no loans to belligerents.

• Neutrality Act amended in ’37 to cover Civil Wars (Sp. Civil War)

• 2d Neutrality Act ’37—all of the above, plus no U. S. travel on belligerent’s ships, no armed U. S. merchant ships; cash-and carry on non-military goods to belligerents at President’s discretion.

Retreat from Isolation

• FDR didn’t invoke c & c in China under 2d Neutrality Act

• Ludlow Amendment—nat’l referendum to declare war—almost passed congress in 1938

• 3rd Neutrality Act (1939)—cash and carry for arms and food; U. S. ships couldn’t travel to designated war zones (real retreat from 1937 act)

Expanding Axis

• Anschluss between Germany and Austria (1938)• Sudetenland Crisis (1938)• Blitzkrieg vs. Poland, September 1, 1939—France

and Britain declare war on Germany• Phony War yields to new Blitzkrieg in 1940—

Denmark attacked (April 9); France surrendered (June 22); Miracle at Dunkirk (June); London Blitz (July 1940)

U. S. Response

• Increased defense spending ($17 billion in 1940)

• National Defense Research Committee—created OSRAD and Manhattan Project

• Burke-Wadworth Peacetime Draft • Destroyers for Bases deal• FDR wins 3rd term over America Firsters

and Wendell Willkie

Arsenal of Democracy

• Lend-Lease (January 1941)• Lend-Lease Aide extended to Russia in early days

of Barbarossa• August 1941—Atlantic Charter—war aims: self-

determination for all peoples; equal access to raw materials; economic cooperation; freedom of the seas; new system of general security.

• Shoot on Sight orders following Greer (Sept.); Merchantmen armed following Ruben James (Nov.)

Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• Japan continues conquest of China and builds airfields into Indochina.

• July 2, 1940—U. S. loans $ to China and Congress authorized FDR to restrict export of arms and strategic material to Japan

• Sept. 27, 1940, Tokyo, Berlin, Rome Axis• Jap. Signed non-Aggression Pact w/ Soviets, April

13, 1941• Japan placed Indochina under protectorate• FDR froze Japanese assets in U. S.; stopped oil

shipments; merged Philippine army w/ U. S. army.

The Coming of War in Pacific

• Militarists dominated Japan’s cabinet; gamble on getting Indonesian oil by destroying U. S. military presence in Pacific

• Operation Winds—Destroy Pacific fleet so it can’t come to aid of Philippines

• Dec. 7, 1941—three U. S. battleships sunk, one grounded, one capsized: 150 U. S. planes destroyed and 2,400 soldiers and citizens killed

• U. S. declared war on Japan on Dec. 8; Italy and Germany declare war on U. S. on Dec. 11.