American

Foreign Policy:
1920-1941
IB History of the Americas

GUIDING QUESTIONS
To what extent did the United
States adopt an isolationist policy
in the 1920s and 1930s?
For what reasons did the United
States go from being isolationist to
interventionist?

Supplement to this Discussion

As we discuss how the United States as a
Nation transformed from being isolationist to
engaging in war, we will be reading, analyzing,
and discussing the following speeches from
FDR:

I Hate War 1936

Quarantine the Aggressors 1937
Arsenal of Democracy 1939
Infamy December 1941
The Four Freedoms January 1941

Foreign Policy Tensions

Interventionism

Disarmament

Collective security

Isolationism

Wilsonianism

Nativists

Business interests

Anti-War movement

Conservative
Republicans

DIPLOMACY IN THE 1920S:

ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT
ENTANGLEMENTS

Failure of the League of Nations

The US became
unofficial observers
Senate voted down
membership into the
League, even
though it was the
cornerstone of
Wilsons 14 Points

Punch Magazine December 1919

Failure of the League of Nations

Moral Suasion in Punch Magazine 1920

Collective security by the League

required nations to act against
states they considered friends, and
sometimes against national
interests, to support states in which
they had no interest.
Ex. Mussolini and Ethiopia
The League depended on the Great
Powers to enforce its resolutions.
Britain and France, were reluctant to
use sanctions or military action on
behalf of the League.
The League's advocacy of
disarmament for members while at
the same time advocating collective
security unwittingly deprived it of
the only forceful means by which its
authority could be upheld.

Washington Disarmament
Conference
(1921-1922)

Long-standing Anglo-Japanese alliance (1902) obligated Britain

to aid Japan in the event of a Japanese war with the United
States.
Goals naval disarmament and the political situation in the
Far East.

Five-Power Treaty (1922)

A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio:
US
Britain
Japan
France
Italy
5
5
3
1.67
1.67
Japan got a guarantee that the US and Britain would
stop fortifying their Far East territories [including
the Philippines].
Loophole no restrictions on small warships, no
enforcement mechanism

European Debts to the US

Hyper-Inflation in Germany:
1923

Dawes Plan (1924)

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as

tools of foreign policy.
62 nations signed.
Problems no means of actual enforcement and gave
Americans a false sense of security.

DIPLOMACY IN THE 1930S:

ENGAGEMENT to Isolationism

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 had
conquered new
territories a few
decades earlier.
Japan bombed
Shanghai in
1932 massive
casualties.
Critics argue all this did was further alienate the
Japanese

Hoovers Foreign Policy in Latin America

1928, goodwill tour,
Hoover renounces the
Roosevelt Corollary of
Monroe Doctrine of 1823Roosevelt asserted that
European nations should
not intervene in countries
to the south of the US,
however under certain
conditions, United States
intervention might be
justified.

Hoovers Foreign Policy in Latin America

Begins formulation of Good Neighbor Policy
(nonintervention policy)
U.S. helped negotiate the Treaty of Lima
1929, ending a 60 yr conflict between Chile
and Peru

FDRs Good Neighbor

Policy
Important to have all
nations in the Western
Hemisphere united in
lieu of foreign
aggressions.
FDR The good neighbor
respects himself and
the rights of others.
Policy of non-intervention
and cooperation.

FDR Recognizes the Soviet

Union
(late 1933)
FDR felt that
recognizing Moscow
might help the US
against Japan.
Maybe trade with the
USSR would help
the US economy
during the
Depression.

U.S. Isolationism
Geneva Conference- arms limitation talks
1933, Hitler and Mussolini withdraw
1935, Japan withdraws from Washington Conference
naval agreements

Reasons for U.S. isolationism:

Failure of internationalists and the League to limit
aggression (ex. Japan-China and Italy-Ethiopia)
Nye Committee Report blaming munitions & banking
industry for U.S. involvement in WWI.
Public opinion against U.S. involvement in Europe,
leading to the Neutrality Acts

FDRs I hate war Speech

(1936)

From Isolationism to War

Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936,

1937

Congress responds to voters to prevent a repeat of the

events that led U.S. into WW I. When the President
proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain
restrictions would automatically go into effect:

Prohibited sales of arms to belligerent nations.

Prohibited loans and credits to belligerent nations.
Forbade Americans to travel on vessels of nations at
war

Non-military goods must be purchased on a cash-andcarry basis pay when goods are picked up, no loans

This limited the options of the President in a crisis.

America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!

US Neutrality

U.S. Isolationism / Neutrality Acts 1937

Neutrality Act 1937
Sino-Japanese War. FDR supports China's efforts to
defend & did not invoke the Neutrality Acts and allowed
arms shipments to China.
This outraged the isolationists in Congress who claimed
that the spirit of the law was being undermined.
Roosevelt stated that he would prohibit American ships
from transporting arms to the belligerents, but he
allowed British ships to transport American arms to
China.
Extended 1939 to provide assistance to Great Britain

U.S. Isolationism / Quarantine Speech

Chicago October 1937
FDR warns that Japanese aggression is a
threat to world peace and that aggressors
should be quarantined by the world community
to prevent the spread of the contagion of war
Public reaction to the speech was
overwhelmingly hostile. Most saw it as FDRs
attempt to justify and further aid to belligerent
nations

Panay Incident (1937)

December 12, 1937.
Japan bombed USS
Panay gunboat & three
Standard Oil tankers on
the Yangtze River.
The river was an
international waterway.
Japan was testing US resolve!
Japan apologized, paid US an indemnity, and promised no
further attacks.
Most Americans, especially isolationists were satisfied with
the apology.
Results Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for
further aggression against US interests.

German Aggression
1935 compulsory
military service; revives
German army
Occupies Rhineland,
1936
Annexes Austria
(anschluss), 1938
September 1938,
annexation of the
Sudetenland (western
Czechoslovakia)

Munich Conference
Munich Conference- G.B., France and
Germany
Hitler claims that his territorial claims are
complete and Neville Chamberlain declares
peace in our time

Six months later Germany occupies all of

Czech. And turns his attention to Poland
GB and France pledge to defend Poland from
Nazi attack

1939 Neutrality Act

September 1, 1939, Hitler invades Poland, GB and France declare
war on Germany
In response to Germanys 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.

This nation shall remain a

neutral nation. But I cannot ask
that every American remain
neutral in thought as well. ~FDR

War Begins / US Intervention

May 1940, FDR asks Congress for 1
billion in defense funds. Gets it!
Fight for Freedom Committee- declare war
now
America First Committee- nonintervention,
Lindberg, Sen. Gerald Nye, & Hearst
Publishing.
FDR runs for unprecedented third term.
Beats Willkie with 55% of the popular vote

Gallup Polls: European War and World War

19381940

Selective Service Act of 1940

the first peacetime conscription in United
States
This Selective Service Act required that
men between the ages of 21 and 35
register with local draft boards.
Later, when the U.S. entered World War II,
all men aged 18 to 45 were made liable for
military service, and all men aged 18 to 65
were required to register.

America First Committee

Charles Lindbergh

War Begins / US Intervention

England near bankruptcy
and cannot afford cash
& carry FDR introduces
Lend-Lease
Lend or lease arms to any
nation deemed vital to
the defense of the United
States
GB (and other allies
-USSR) get weapons on
the promise to pay later

Lend-Lease Act (1941)

Great Britain.........................$31 billion
Soviet Union...........................$11 billion
France......................................$ 3 billion
China.......................................$1.5 billion
Other European.................$500 million
South America...................$400 million
The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000

Atlantic Charter
British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and
U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt
aboard warships in a
secure anchorage in
Ship Harbor,
Newfoundland, and was
issued as a joint
declaration on 14 August
1941
Outlines the war goals
and goals of the post war
world

Atlantic Charter
In brief, the 8 points were:
No territorial gains were to be sought by the United
States or the United Kingdom.
Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the
wishes of the peoples concerned.
All peoples had a right to self-determination.
Trade barriers were to be lowered.
There was to be global economic cooperation and
advancement of social welfare.
Freedom from want and fear;
Freedom of the seas;
Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common
disarmament

Japanese Aggression 1931-1941

US / Japan

Dec 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor

attacked
U.S. naval force in the Pacific is
greatly reduced
2400 killed (over 1100 on
Arizona), 1200 wounded;
20 warships sunk or severely
damaged; 150 planes destroyed

Dec 8, FDR asks for a declaration

of war.
Dec 11 Germany & Italy declare
war on U.S.
U.S. reciprocates

FDR before
Congress asking
for a Declaration
of War against
Japan, Dec. 8,
1941

FDR Signs the War

Declaration

Paying for the War

Betty Grable: Allied Pinup Girl

(She Reminded Men What They Were Fighting
For)