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AP United States History
Unit 11: Boom and Bust (1933 – 1945)
Chapter 35
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933–1941
CHAPTER THEMES
Theme: In the early and mid-1930s, the United States attempted to isolate itself from foreign involvements and wars. But
by the end of the decade, the spread of totalitarianism and war in Europe forced Roosevelt to provide more and more
assistance to desperate Britain, despite strong isolationist opposition.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Roosevelt’s early foreign policies, such as wrecking the London economic conference and establishing the Good
Neighbor policy in Latin America, were governed by concern for domestic recovery and reflected America’s desire for a
less active role in the world. America virtually withdrew from all European affairs, and promised independence to the
Philippines as an attempt to avoid Asian commitments.
Depression-spawned chaos in Europe and Asia strengthened the isolationist impulse, as Congress passed a series of
Neutrality Acts designed to prevent America from being drawn into foreign wars. The United States adhered to the policy
for a time, despite the aggression of Italy, Germany, and Japan. But after the outbreak of World War II in Europe,
Roosevelt began to provide some aid to the Allies.
After the fall of France, Roosevelt gave greater assistance to desperate Britain in the destroyers-for-bases deal and in lendlease. Still-powerful isolationists protested these measures, but Wendall Willkie refrained from attacking Roosevelt’s
foreign policy in the 1940 campaign.
Roosevelt and Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, and by the summer of 1941, the United States was fighting
an undeclared naval war with Germany in the North Atlantic. After negotiations with Japan failed, the surprise attack on
Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II.
Extra Credit Opportunities: : 1) Note Cards: Analyze the following terms; include historical context,
chronology, drawing conclusions, and cause/effect where appropriate. Each note card you complete is worth
one extra credit point; pick the terms you need the most help with to understand. . 2) Answer questions in
bulleted format (1 pt per question/& Notecard to equal 100).
1. London Economic
Conference
2. Tydings-McDuffie Act in
1934
3. Good Neighbor Policy
4. Cordell Hull
5. Reciprocal Trade
Agreements Act in 1934
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Joseph Stalin
Benito Mussolini
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Party
Rome-Berlin Axis
Washington Naval Treaty
Tripartite Pact
Ethiopia in 1935
Johnson Debt Default Act
Senator Gerald Nye
Neutrality Acts of 1935,
1936, 1937
17. Spanish Civil War
18. Francisco Franco
19. Loyalist Regime
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
Arms embargo
“Quarantine Speech”
The Panay
Rhineland
Austria
Sudetenland
Munich
Appeasement
nonaggression treaty
September 1, 1939
“cash and carry basis”
Dunkirk
Winston Churchill
Conscription law
Battle of Britain
35. Committee to Defend
America by Aiding the
Allies
36. America First Committee
37. Destroyers for Bases
38. Wendell L. Wilkie
39. Lend-Lease Bill
40. Robin Moor
41. Atlantic Charter
42. Greer
43. Kearny
44. Reuben James
45. Pearl Harbor
Homework Directions: Read the chapter and complete the following:
1. Complete American Pageant Study Guide.
2. Complete the Five Minute Drill for one Analysis Question
Chapter 35 Study Guide
The London Conference
1.
What were the results of Roosevelt's decision not to help stabilize currencies?
Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
2.
What was the reason for America's decision to free the Philippines?
Becoming a Good Neighbor
3.
Was the United States serious about the Good Neighbor policy? Explain.
Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements
4.
Were reciprocal trade agreements a good idea? Explain.
Storm-Cellar Isolationism
5.
What were the reasons for American isolationism?
Congress Legislates Neutrality
6.
How did the Neutrality Acts attempt to keep the U.S. out of war?
America Dooms Loyalist Spain
7.
How did the Spanish Civil War contribute to WWII?
Appeasing Japan and Germany
8.
What actions were taken by fascist governments that showed that they were a threat?
Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
9.
How did the United States respond to the start of WWII in Europe?
The Fall of France
10.
What further steps did the United States take after the fall of France?
Makers of America: Refugees from the Holocaust
11.
Why did America not make more room for European Jews in the 1930's? Why did America have difficulty
recognizing the reality of the Holocaust? Explain.
Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
12.
Describe the conflict between interventionists and isolationists in America in 1940.
FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
13.
Write the story of the 1940 election.
Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
14.
What was so controversial about Lend-Lease?
Hitler's Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
15.
What was the reaction in America to the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union?
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler's U-Boats Clash
16.
How did America's implementation of the Lend-Lease policy bring us closer to war?
Surprise Assault at Pearl Harbor
17.
How did American actions contribute to Japan's decision to attack Pearl Harbor?
America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
18.
Was United States entry into WWII sudden or gradual? Explain.
GREAT DEBATES IN AMERICAN HISTORY: GREAT DEBATE (1939–1941)
19. Isolationism versus internationalism. Should the United States move away from isolationist neutrality
and toward aiding the Allies in the fight against Hitler? Explain.
Yes: The internationalists, led by President Roosevelt
and the administration; most big-business leaders and
cosmopolitan city-dwellers; the Committee to Defend
America by Aiding the Allies, led by William Allen
White.
No: The isolationists, led by the America First
Committee and Charles A. Lindbergh; some
senators and representatives, led by William Borah,
Robert Taft, and Hamilton Fish; some writers, like
Charles Beard and Harry Elmer Barnes; some smallbusiness and ethnic groups, especially in the
Midwest; some leftists and socialists, led by
Norman Thomas.
20. ISSUE #1: Isolation. Should the United States have any interest in events overseas? Explain.
Yes: Internationalist Roosevelt: “It becomes clearer
and clearer that the world will be a shabby and
dangerous place to live in—yes, even for Americans
to live in—if it is ruled by force in the hands of a
few.…I hope that we shall have fewer American
ostriches in our midst. It is not good for the ultimate
health of ostriches to bury their heads in the sand.”
No: Isolationist poet Oliver Allstrom:
“Over there,” there’s mud and shedding of blood
And tongues confusing and strange.
So why lend a hand to an alien band
Whose dreams we can never change?
“No, no,” comes the cry from the U.S. sky,
“We’ll never be Allied tools.
Nor again parade in a foreign brigade
Like saps in a squad of fools.”
“And Europe may strut through its bloody rut
And scheme with her Babel-snares.
But we’ll stay home, this side of the foam
And mind our own affairs!”
21. ISSUE #2: Democracy. Are the Allies fighting for the democratic principles America believes in?
Explain.
Yes: Internationalist Congressman Jerry Voorhis: “I
have an interest in the way of life wherein free men
can freely struggle to better their conditions, freely
worship and believe according to their own
conscience.…I know that this is not possible in a
Nazi- or Communist-dominated nation. So…to aid
Great Britain and the other nations attempting to
resist the totalitarians has become part of American
policy.”
No: Isolationist Congressman Hamilton Fish: “The
cause for which Hitler has thrown the German
masses into war is damnably unholy. But the war of
Chamberlain and Reynaud is not thereby rendered
holy. The fact that Hitler is the opponent does not
make the Allied war a fight for democracy.…The
Allied governments have no idealism in the conflict,
no war aims worthy of the sacrifice…of their
peoples.…”
22. ISSUE #3: War. Will aiding the Allies inevitably lead the United States into war? Explain.
No: Internationalist Roosevelt: “There is a far less
chance of the United States getting into war if we do
all we can now to support the nations defending
themselves against attack by the Axis than if we
acquiesce in their defeat, submit tamely to an Axis
victory, and wait our turn to be the object of attack in
Yes: Isolationist Senator Arthur Vandenberg:
“When H.R. 1776 [lend-lease] passed the
Senate…we did vastly more than ‘aid Britain.’ We
have thrown ourselves squarely into the power
politics and the power wars of Europe, Asia, and
Africa.…We have said to Britain, ‘We will see you
another war later on.…There is no demand for
sending an American Expeditionary Force outside
our own borders. There is no intention by any
member of your government to send such a force.
You can, therefore, nail any talk about sending
armies to Europe as deliberate untruth.”
through to victory.’ And it would be unbelievably
dishonorable for us to stop short of full participation
in the war if that be necessary to a victory.…But I
fear this means we must actively engage in the war
ourselves.”
23. ISSUE #4: War and democracy. Would another war require dictatorial methods and destroy
democracy within the United States? Explain.
No: Internationalist Roosevelt: “I reject the idea that
only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way
of life, can we build our defenses adequately, can we
match the strength of the aggressors.…I do not share
these fears.”
Yes: Isolationist socialist Norman Thomas: “The
method of modern totalitarian warfare is selfdefeating in terms of ideal ends. War itself is the
only victor. Each particular war begets its more
deadly successors. Intolerance, dictatorship,
brutality, are its inevitable accompaniments.…”
REFERENCES: William Langer and S. Everett Gleason, The Challenge to Isolation, 1937–1940 (1952); Kenneth Davis,
FDR: Into the Storm, 1937–1940 (1993); Wayne Cole, Charles Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention
in World War II (1974).
Analysis Questions
“Man has become great through struggle.…Whatever goal man has reached is due to his originality plus his
brutality.…Through all the centuries force and power are the determining factors.…” Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) (Mein
Kampf, 1924)
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the fields and streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never
surrender.” Winston Churchill (1874–1965) (Speech, 1940)
“It may be asked how could the Soviet government have consented to conclude a non-aggression pact with such
perfidious…fiends as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was this not an error on the part of the Soviet government? No.…We
secured to our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces.” Joseph Stalin (1879–
1953) (1941)
1.
Why did the neutrality laws fail to prevent America’s growing involvement with the military conflicts in Europe and
Asia?
2.
How did the process of American entry into World War II compare with the entry into World War I?
3.
Would it have been more straightforward of Roosevelt to have openly called for a declaration of war against Hitler
rather than increasing involvement gradually while claiming that he did not want war?
4.
Would the United States have entered World War II even if the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor?
5 President Franklin Roosevelt was naïve and ineffective in his conduct of foreign policy from 1933 and 1941. To what
extent and in what ways do you agree or disagree with this statement. (71)
6 The term “isolationism “ does not adequately describe the reality of either United States foreign policy or America’s
relationships with other nations during the period from Washington’s Farewell Address 1796 to 1940. Assess the validity
of this generalization. (76)
7 War has frequently had unexpected consequences for the United States foreign policy but has seldom resulted in major
reorientations of policy. Discuss with reference to the First and Second world wars giving about equal attention to each.
(78)
8 Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the United States adopted an official policy
of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modifications during the period 1914-17 to the policy and its modifications
during 1939-41. (82)
9 To what extent and why did the United States adopt an isolationist policy in the 1920’s and 1930’s? (98)
HISTORIC NOTES

The US withdrawal from the London Economic conference illustrates FDR’s determination not to associate his New
Deal (inflationary) agenda with an international attempt to combat the effects of global depression by stabilizing
international currencies.

The Spanish Civil War is a prelude to WWII in that the two major fascist powers, Germany and Italy, provide
economic and military aid to help General Franco defeat Spain’s Loyalists. The Loyalists get assistance from the
Soviet Union and volunteers from many countries. Western governments, however, remains aloof to the plight of
the antifascist forces.

To forestall another bloodbath like WWI, Britain and France adopt a policy of appeasement in dealing with German,
Italian, and Japanese aggression and territorial expansion. In the summer of 1939, the world is stunned to learn the
ideological archenemies Germany and USSR have signed a nonaggression pact.

To assist Britain, which stood alone against Germany after the fall of France in 1940, FDR circumvents the
neutrality acts, giving the British destroyers in return for British military bases. The next step in providing much
needed aid to Britain is the Lend-lease Act.

Six months after the German invasion of the USSR, Japan launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor bringing the
US into the war.

Many historians maintain that the US adopted an isolationist policy or, at the very least, a policy of neutrality in the
interwar years, pointing to the refusal to join the League of Nations and to support the Loyalist forces in the Spanish
Civil War. Other historians challenge this interpretation and cite the numerous cases of US intervention in the postWWI era as well as the economic and political agreements and treaties made with foreign governments.

In 1940, FDR sought an unprecedented thirds term as president. The Constitution placed no limits on how many
terms one could serve, but George Washington had, set a tradition that had been followed ever since.
Chapter 36
America in World War II, 1941–1945
CHAPTER THEMES
Theme: Unified by Pearl Harbor, America effectively carried out a war mobilization effort that produced vast social and
economic changes within American society.
Theme: Following its “get Hitler first” strategy, the United States and its Allies invaded and liberated conquered Europe
from Fascist rule. The slower strategy of “island-hopping” against Japan also proceeded successfully until the atomic
bomb brought a sudden end to World War II.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
America was wounded but roused to national unity by Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt settled on a fundamental strategy of
dealing with Hitler first, while doing just enough in the Pacific to block the Japanese advance.
With the ugly exception of the Japanese-American concentration camps, World War II proceeded in the United States
without the fanaticism and violations of civil liberties that occurred in World War I. The economy was effectively
mobilized, using new sources of labor such as women and Mexican braceros. Numerous African Americans and Indians
also left their traditional rural homelands and migrated to war-industry jobs in the cities of the North and West. The war
brought full employment and prosperity, as well as enduring social changes, as millions of Americans were uprooted and
thrown together in the military and in new communities across the country. Unlike European and Asian nations, however,
the United States experienced relatively little economic and social devastation from the war.
The tide of Japanese conquest was stemmed at the Battles of Midway and the Coral Sea, and American forces then began
a slow strategy of “island hopping” toward Tokyo. Allied troops first invaded North Africa and Italy in 1942–1943,
providing a small, compromise “second front” that attempted to appease the badly weakened Soviet Union as well as the
anxious British. The real second front came in June 1944 with the D-Day invasion of France. The Allies moved rapidly
across France, but faced a setback in the Battle of the Bulge in the Low Countries.
Meanwhile, American capture of the Marianas Islands established the basis for extensive bombing of the Japanese home
islands. Roosevelt won a fourth term as Allied troops entered Germany and finally met the Russians, bringing an end to
Hitler’s rule in May 1945. After a last round of brutal warfare on Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the dropping of two atomic
bombs ended the war against Japan in August 1945.
Extra Credit Opportunities: : 1) Note Cards: Analyze the following terms; include historical context,
chronology, drawing conclusions, and cause/effect where appropriate. Each note card you complete is worth
one extra credit point; pick the terms you need the most help with to understand. . 2) Answer questions in
bulleted format (1 pt per question/& Notecard to equal 100).
1. Korematsu v. US
2. War Production Board
3. Office of Price
Administration
4. War Labor Board
5. Smith-Connally AntiStrike Act
6. WAACS
7. WAVES
8. SPARS
9. GI
10. Braceros
11. Rosie the Riveter
12. Fair Employment Practices
Commission
13. code talkers
14. rationing
15. Office of Scientific
Research and
Development
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
Douglas MacArthur
Bataan Death March
Coral Sea
Midway Island
Chester W. Nimitz
Raymond A. Spruance
Guadalcanal
leapfrogging
Marianas
B-29
wolf packs
Enigma
Erwin Rommel
Bernard Montgomery
El Alamein
Stalingrad
Dwight D. “Ike”
Eisenhower
33. unconditional surrender
34. Teheran
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
D-Day
George S. Patton
Thomas E. Dewey
Harry S. Truman
Battle of the Bulge
Holocaust
VE Day
fire bomb raid
Leyte Island
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
kamikazes
Potsdam Conference
Manhattan Project
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
VJ Day
Homework Directions: Read the chapter and complete the following:
1. Complete American Pageant Study Guide.
2. Complete the Five Minute Drill for one Analysis Question
Chapter 36 Study Guide
The Allies Trade Space for Time
1.
"America's task was far more complex and back-breaking [in World War II] than in World War I." Explain.
The Shock of War
2.
How did the war affect liberal ideals and goals at home?
Building the War Machine
3.
What effects did the war have on manufacturing, agriculture and labor?
Makers of America: The Japanese
4.
In what way can it be said that the reason's for Japanese immigrants' success also caused them trouble?
Manpower and Womanpower
5.
What opportunities were opened to women as a result of the war?
Wartime Migrations
6.
What effect did the war have on the nation's minorities?
Holding the Homefront
7.
What economic effects resulted from American participation in the war on the homefront?
The Rising Sun in the Pacific
8.
Describe Japanese victories in the Pacific in the months following Pearl Harbor.
Japan's High Tide at Midway
9.
Why was Midway an important battle?
American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
10.
Describe the strategy the United States use to defeat the Japanese?
The Allied Halting of Hitler
11.
"The war against Hitler looked much better at the end of 1942 than it had in the beginning." Explain.
A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
12.
Describe the purpose and outcome of the Invasion of North Africa.
D-Day: June 6, 1944
13.
Why could June 6, 1944 be considered THE turning point of the war?
FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944
14.
Why was the choice of a vice-presidential candidate important and difficult for the democrats in 1944?
Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
15.
What factors led to Roosevelt's victory over Dewey?
The Last Days of Hitler
16.
Describe the last six months of war in Europe.
Japan Dies Hard
17.
Explain the meaning of the title of this section.
The Atomic Bombs
18.
What was the military impact of the atomic bomb?
The Allies Triumphant
19.
"This complex conflict was the best fought war in America's history." Explain
Varying Viewpoints: The Atomic Bombs: Were They Justified?
20.
In light of the discussion in this section, evaluate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki and the fire-bombing
of Dresden & Tokyo.
EXPANDING THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”

Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy (rev. ed., 1985).
A view of the atomic bomb as aimed at Russia rather than Japan:
“The decision to use the weapon did not derive from overriding military considerations.…Before the atomic bomb
was dropped each of the Joint Chiefs of Staff advised that it was highly likely that Japan could be forced to
surrender ‘unconditionally,’ without use of the bomb and without an invasion.…Unquestionably, political
considerations related to Russia played a major role in the decision; from at least mid-May American policy makers
hoped to end the hostilities before the Red Army entered Manchuria.…A combat demonstration was needed to
convince the Russians to accept the American plan for a stable peace.”

Martin Sherwin, A World Destroyed (1975).
A view of the atomic bomb as primarily aimed at Japan:
“Caught between the remnants of war and the uncertainties of peace, policymakers and scientists were trapped by
their own unquestioned assumptions.…The secret development of this terrible weapon, during a war fought for a
total victory, created a logic of its own: a quest for a total solution of a set of related problems that appeared
incapable of being resolved incrementally.…As Szilard first suggested in January 1944, the bomb might provide its
own solution.…The decision to use the bomb to end the war could no longer be distinguished from the desire to use
it to stabilize the peace.”
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”
21. Assess the validity of the claim that the dropping of the bombs on Japan was not so much an attempt to end the war
against the Japanese, as it was “the first salvos in the emerging Cold War.”
22. What does each of these historians see as American officials’ thinking about the relationship between the bomb and
the ending of the war against Japan? What does each regard as the primary reason for the use of the bomb?
23. What conclusions might be drawn from each of these views about the political and moral justifications for dropping
the bomb? Could the use of the atomic bombs have been avoided?
Analysis Questions
“This is an hour of crisis.…To American Negroes, it is the denial of jobs in government defense projects. It is racial
discrimination in government departments. It is widespread Jim-Crowism in the armed forces of the Nation.…What a
runaround! What a disgrace! What a blow below the belt!” A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) (Call for March on
Washington, 1941)
“When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams.…I
still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day, which proclaimed, most proudly, that
‘Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.’ And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and
just fade away.” Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) (Speech to Congress, 1951)
“Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. America loves a winner.
America will not tolerate a loser.” George Patton (1885–1945) (Speech to his troops before D-Day, 1944)
1.
2.
3.
4.
How did America’s domestic response to World War II differ from its reaction to World War I?
What was the wisest strategic decision in World War II, and what was the most questionable?
How were the European and Pacific wars similar and how were they different?
What was the significance of the dropping of the atomic bomb, then and now?
5 Account for the increased urbanization of Black Americans in the period 1914 to 1945. (72)
HISTORIC NOTES

Early in the war, Germany, Japan, and Italy have considerable military success. The Allies, except for France,
which had surrendered in 1940, are fortunate not to be overwhelmed completely.

Fearing that they will be disloyal, FDR orders the detention of Japanese Americans, a serious violation of basic
American civil rights.

Millions die in the Holocaust, a systematic attempt by the Nazis to destroy those they consider to be inferior – Slavs,
the mentally ill, homosexuals, political prisoners, and, especially, Jews.

The war occasions extensive demographic changes. Urban areas expand to meet the demand for labor in war-related
industries. Rural and less-developed areas in the West and Southwest grow as well, a result of receiving government
military contracts.

As in every American war, blacks contribute significantly in WWII despite the obstacles placed before them. But
the military will not be desegregated until 1948.

The considerable financial resources needed to wage war drive up the national debt. In fact, New Deal spending
pales in comparison with wartime military expenditures.

The success of the D-Day landing in the summer of 1944 affords the Allies a bridgehead in France from which they
can move inland and ultimately invade Germany itself. With the USSR counterattacking from the east and the
British and Americans closing in from the west, Hitler’s Third Reich is doomed. In April, 1945, shortly after Hitler
killed himself, Germany surrenders, a victory FDR does not see, having died suddenly the month before.

With the war in Europe over, the Allies turn all of their attention to defeating Japan. After bloody battles in the
Pacific, Truman orders atomic bombs cropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, inflicting enormous civilian casualties.
Japan soon surrenders.

Women play an important role in the war effort; they replace male workers who were in the military and fill
supporting roles in the military.

In 1944 FDR won reelection for a 4th term, in large part because of military success and grassroots support from the
CIO and other organized labor political action groups.
Advanced Placement United States History Topic Outline
21. The Second World War
A. The rise of fascism and militarism in Japan, Italy, and Germany
B. Prelude to war: policy of neutrality
C. The attack on Pearl Harbor and United States declaration of war
D. Fighting a multifront war
E. Diplomacy, war aims, and wartime conferences
F. The United States as a global power in the Atomic Age
22. The Home Front During the War
A. Wartime mobilization of the economy
B. Urban migration and demographic changes
C. Women, work, and family during the war
D. Civil liberties and civil rights during wartime
E. War and regional development
F. Expansion of government power