Download Kelly Bisi

Kelly Bisi
February 2nd, 2010
U.S History
Ch. 32 Essay Question
(500 word min.)
What do you think the U.S learned from the events that led up to World War II? What
effect, if any, do you think this has on American foreign policy today?
Prior to World War II the American foreign policy was isolationist. We felt that
other nations problems, particularly their wars, were their own business and we strongly
avoided getting involved unless we felt directly threatened. On October 1934, Italy
invaded our ally, Ethiopia, and the League of Nations denounced Italy. May 1935, Italy
conquered Ethiopia and the League of Nations lost its “prestige and effectiveness”
because they refused to take action to aid our allies.
March 1936 Germany violates the international treaties and reoccupies Rhineland,
four months later the civil war began in Spain. Germany and Italy then pledged
friendship and mutual aid in October 1936, and continued brutally claiming territory with
no regards of the non aggression pact with the Soviet Union, signed in August 1939. The
U.S continued taking no action and after France’s surrender to Germany in June 1940,
most of Europe was claimed by the Germans.
As a result the U.S set up a joint board of defense with Canada in August 1940,
and we began a military draft in September 1940. On June 7th, 1941 U.S forces landed in
Iceland to aid the British in defense against the Germans. Six months after, Japan
attacked Peal Harbor and the U.S declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy within the
month of December 1941. The U.S also helped form the UN in 1945, and NATO in April
1949 to help eliminate future warfare. The U.S slowly began its transition from neutral
isolationist to the internationalist country we are today.
One of the largest changes that occurred to America after World War II was that
we were one of the only western allies that didn’t have a destroyed economy from the
war. The U.S had a “monopoly” of exports and this raised the standard of living in the
U.S. By the 1960’s it also caused labor wags of unionized industries to grow so large that
the U.S was in a non-competitive position, eventually bringing the standard of living
down again. We learned not to ignore our allies’ problems because it would affect us to.
As a result of WWII the U.S learned that threats to peace and freedom elsewhere
in the world did affect us, and that if we ignored serious trouble in the world it would
eventually include us also. After the war we became internationalist using our “power
and prestige” to help and protect our allies and acting to prevent wars wherever possible
or to minimize them when they did break out. It wasn’t until March 1941 when the lend
lease act passed that the U.S allowed any country that was “deemed necessary for the
defense of the U.S” supplies and arms by loan, lease, or sale. In all $50 billion dollars
was spent to back the lend lease act, which allowed European countries to rebuild without
repeating the mistakes made at the end of WWI.