Download The Shadow of War

THE SHADOW
OF WAR
From Isolationism to
Intervention
IB History of the
Americas
GUIDING QUESTION
● To what extent did the
United States adopt an
isolationist policy in the
1920s and 1930s?
Diplomacy Defined
● Diplomacy is the practice of
conducting negotiations between
nations and involves having skill in
handling affairs without arousing
hostility
Isolationism Defined
● Isolationism is the twentieth-century term
used for America's traditional
noninvolvement in European wars and
avoidance of "entangling alliances.“
● It assumed the United States' interests
and values were different from and
superior to those of Europe and held that
America could lead the world toward
freedom and democracy more effectively
through example than through military
action.
Dr. Seuss and Isolationism
The Diplomacy of the New Era / 1920-1929
● League of Nations was an international organization founded as a
result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. From 1934-1935, it
had 58 members.
● “Unofficial Observers” League goals included: disarmament,
preventing war through collective security, settling disputes
between countries through negotiation, diplomacy and improving
global quality of life.
● The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on the
Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to economic
sanctions which the League ordered, or provide an army, when
needed, for the League to use.
Diplomacy of the New Era:
Failure of the League of Nations
● "League of Victors” Created by the winners of WWI.
● The League required a unanimous vote of its Council to enact a
resolution; conclusive and effective action was difficult, if not
impossible.
● Member states. Most notably missing was the position that the
United States of America was supposed to play in the League, not
only in terms of helping to ensure world peace and security but
also in financing the League. The League was the cornerstone of
Wilson’s Fourteen Points, yet the US Senate vetoed US
membership.
Punch Magazine December 1919
DIPLOMACY IN THE 1920S:
ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT ENTANGLEMENTS
● Peace with Germany, 1921 (The Locarno
Era)
● Washington Naval Conference (1921)
● Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris) (1928)
● Dawes Plan (1924)
Washington Naval Conference
1921
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Scrap 2 million tons of existing shipping. OK. What?
U.S. goal to negotiate an end to the global naval arms race.
Five-Power Pact 1922 limited naval tonnage and
armaments, US & GB-5 tons, Japan- 3 tons, France & Italy1.75
In effect, Pact gives Japan control of the Pacific. How and
to what ends?
Nine Power Pact continue Open Door Policy on China
Four Power Pact US, GB, France, and Japan promise to
respect each other’s Pacific Territories and cooperate to
prevent aggression
Significance: battleships and aircraft carriers only; no
enforcement mechanism
Kellogg-Briand Pact 1928
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Also known as the “Pact of
Paris”
US & France alliance aimed
at Germany banning war as
a instrument of foreign
policy. Eventually 48
nations sign on
Enforced by “moral force”
of world opinion
Problems: what
about “defensive
wars”, no
enforcement
mechanism
Debt and Diplomacy
● US leaders assume that US
economic expansion abroad
will create a stable world
● By 1920s, US is a prominent
world creditor, manufacturer,
exporter, and investor
● US products, including movies,
saturate globe; foreign
reaction to Americanization is
mixed
● US Government assists cultural
and economic expansion (Pan
American Airlines including
Latin America)
Dawes Plan 1924
● U.S. primary overseas market
was Europe (still recovering
from the Great War)
 Great Britain and France
owed the U.S. creditors 11
billion dollars
 Germany was strapped
with 32 billion in
reparations to Allied
Powers
● Dawes Plan 1924
 U.S. make loans to
Germany so that it could
pay reparations to GB and
France. GB and FR would
reduce the payment
amounts.
 Reparations payments to
GB and France were used
to pay its debt to U.S.
banks
THE TRIUMPH OF
ISOLATIONISM
● Nye Commission investigation of arms industry
concluded that bankers and munitions makers had
dragged the United States into WWI

DuPont’s earnings had increased from $5 million in
1914 to $82 million in 1916
THE TRIUMPH OF
ISOLATIONISM
● Walter Millis, Road to War: America,
1914-1917 (1935): advanced thesis that
British propaganda, heavy purchases of
American supplies by the Allies, and
Wilson’s differing reactions to
violations of neutral rights had drawn
U.S. into war
● March 1935: Hitler instituted universal
military training and denounced
settlement of Versailles
● May 1935: Mussolini threatened
Ethiopia
THE TRIUMPH OF
ISOLATIONISM
● Neutrality Act of 1935: forbade the
sale of munitions to all belligerents
whenever president declared a state of
war existed

Americans could travel on belligerent
ships but at their own risk
● October 1935: Italy invaded Ethiopia
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FDR invoked the neutrality law
Secretary of State Cordell Hull asked
American businesses for a “moral
embargo” on goods (oil especially) not
covered by the act
Ignored, and oil shipments to Italy
tripled between October and January
● Italy annexed Ethiopia
EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE of Ethiopia, with his pet
dog, Bull
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
FSA-OWI Collection [reproduction number LC-USE6D-008743 DLC (b&w film nitrate neg.)]
THE TRIUMPH OF
ISOLATIONISM
● February 1936: second Neutrality Act:
forbade loans to belligerents
● Summer 1936: civil war broke out in
Spain

Reactionary General Francisco Franco,
backed by Hitler and Mussolini, sought to
overthrow the government
● FDR had Congress extend arms embargo
to include civil wars

March 1937 poll showed 94 percent of
Americans thought U.S. should keep out of
foreign wars
THE TRIUMPH OF
ISOLATIONISM
● April 1937: Congress passed third Neutrality
Act that continued embargo on munitions and
loans, forbade Americans to travel on
belligerent ships, and gave the president
discretionary authority to place the sale of
other goods to belligerents on a cash-andcarry basis
● In 1938: Congress defeated the Ludlow
amendment, which would have required
voter approval for a declaration of war
WAR AGAIN
● July 1937: Japan resumed conquest of
China
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FDR did not declare it a war, thereby
allowing arms shipments to continue
● October: FDR, in a speech in Chicago,
condemned nations that were creating
international instability
Suggested only solution was to quarantine
the aggressors
 Isolationist response from Americans
forced him to back down

Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman
© 2008
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR
● Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact (August 1939)
● Invasion of Poland (Sept 1, 1939)
● blitzkrieg
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Denmark
Norway
France
Dunkirk
● Battle of
Britain
(Aug. 1940 –
June 1941)
● Invasion
of Soviet
Union
(June 1941)
●
● Soviet Aggression
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Eastern Poland (Sept 1939)
Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania (1940)
● “moral embargo”
against USSR
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR
● FDR’s “Quarantine” speech
(1937, after Japanese invasion of China)
● “Preparedness”
● Change in US Policy
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Most alarmed by German conquests, but wanted no
part in war
FDR: Britain essential to US defense; began chipping
away at neutrality legislation any way he could to
assist GB
● cash-and-carry policy (1939)
● Selective Service Act (Sept 1940)
● Destroyers for Bases Deal
(Sept 1940)
● Election of 1940
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Wendall Willkie
Anti-Third Term Buttons, 1940
Gallup Polls: European War and World War 1938–1940
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR
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“Arsenal of Democracy”
Lend-Lease Act (March 1941)
America First Committee
“shoot on sight” (July 1941)
Atlantic Charter (Aug 1941)
Roosevelt and Churchill at Atlantic Charter
Meeting, 1941 (Franklin D. Roosevelt Library)
America First bumper sticker: "Keep Our Boys at Home"
(Herbert Hoover Presidential Library)
Japanese Aggression 1931-1941
Japanese Aggression through 1941
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO WAR
DISPUTES WITH JAPAN
● economic pressure on Japan (steel, oil)
● Pearl Harbor (Dec 7 1941)
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2400 killed (over 1100 on Arizona), 1200 wounded;
20 warships sunk or severely damaged; 150 planes destroyed
FDR before
Congress asking
for a Declaration
of War against
Japan, Dec. 8,
1941
The U.S.S. West Virginia, Pearl Harbor
(U.S. Army)
Japanese
Expansion and
Early Battles in
the Pacific