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Chapter 33
Franklin D.
Roosevelt and the
Shadow of War
1933–1941
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
• FOCUS QUESTIONS
• 1. What were the main characteristics of
Roosevelt’s foreign policy and why was the
American public bent on isolationism during
the 1930s?
• 2. What were the steps that America took to
try and remain neutral as Europe headed
into World War II?
• 3. What steps did Germany and Japan take
to lead America into the European conflict?
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives (Part 1)
• Examine America's key international policies
of the early 1930s
• Analyze the roots and early outcomes of the
United States’ decision to adopt a policy of
neutrality
• Explain the forces that led the U.S. to begin to
turn away from neutrality
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives (Part 2)
• Outline the politics and policies surrounding
and immediately following the 1940 election
• Summarize the events that led the U.S. to
formally join the war
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
• CHAPTER THEME
• 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 destroyersfor-bases deal and in lend-lease. Still-powerful
isolationists protested these measures, but
Wendell 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.
• Over-arching Themes of CH-33
• Dictatorships overseas forced FDR to stray
from American issues and look outside of the
U.S. FDR wanted peace, but events slowly
drew the U.S. closer and then into WWII.
• When it became evident that both Japan and
Germany were marching toward militarism,
FDR (and Europe) made it clear they wanted
peace. This effectively gave the dictators a
“go-ahead” sign.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Over-arching Themes of CH-33
• Events showed war as inevitable. Japan attacked
China. Spain became a dictatorship, and Italy and
Germany did as well.
• After watching Hitler go on the move, he finally
broke a pledge to not attack Poland. England and
France went to war. The U.S. still wanted to stay
out.
• As the situation overseas deteriorated, the U.S.
began to support England and France more openly
with words and supplies. Finally, when Pearl
Harbor was attacked, the U.S. entered WWII.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning.
All Rights Reserved.
Chronology (Part 1)
WHEN
EVENT
1933
 FDR torpedoes London
Economic Conference
 United States recognizes
Soviet Union
 FDR declares Good Neighbor
policy toward Latin America
 Hitler becomes German
chancellor
 Germany quits League of
Nations
 Tydings-McDuffie Act provides
for Philippine independence on
July 4, 1946
 U.S. Marines vacate Haiti
 Mussolini invades Ethiopia
 U.S. Neutrality Act of 1935
 Japan quits League of Nations
1934
1935
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Chronology (Part 2)
WHEN
1936
1936–1939
1937
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
EVENT
 U.S. Neutrality Act of 1936
 Mussolini and Hitler form
Rome-Berlin Axis
 Stalin begins Great Purge
 German troops invade
Rhineland
 Spanish Civil War
 U.S. Neutrality Act of 1937
 Panay incident
 Japan invades China
Chronology (Part 3)
WHEN
1938
1939
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
EVENT
 Hitler seizes Austria
 Munich Conference
 Kristallnacht in Germany
 Hitler seizes all of
Czechoslovakia
 Nazi-Soviet pact
 World War II begins in
Europe with Hitler’s
invasion of Poland
 U.S. Neutrality Act of 1939
Chronology (Part 4)
WHEN
1940
1941
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
EVENT
 Hitler invades Denmark,
Norway, Netherlands, and
Belgium
 Fall of France
 United States institutes first
peacetime draft
 Battle of Britain
 Bases-for-destroyers deal
with Britain
 FDR defeats Willkie for
presidency
 Lend-Lease Act
 Hitler attacks Soviet Union
 Atlantic Charter
 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Roosevelt’s Early Foreign Policies
(Part 1)

1933: London Economic Conference


Goal was to stabilize national currencies and
exchange rates
Roosevelt was unwilling to an agreement
that might tie his hands



Withdrew America from the negotiations
Roosevelt’s attitude plunged the planet even
deeper into economic crisis
Collapse of the conference strengthened the
global trend toward extreme nationalism
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Roosevelt’s Early Foreign Policies
(Part 2)

Withdrawal from Asia


1934: Tydings-McDuffie Act provided for
independence of the Philippines in 1946
Good Neighbor policy


Renounced further armed intervention in
Latin America
Sought a new attitude of friendliness and
consultation with America’s southern
neighbors
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Turning Toward Isolationism
(Part 1)

Totalitarianism

The individual nothing; the state everything






1936: Joseph Stalin began to purge all dissidents
1922: Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy
1933: Adolf Hitler controlled Germany
1936: Rome-Berlin Axis formed
1940: Japan joined with Germany and Italy in the
Tripartite Pact
1935: Mussolini attacked Ethiopia

League of Nations failed to act
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Wages of Despair
Disillusioned and desperate,
millions of Germans in the 1930s
looked to Adolf Hitler as their savior
from the harsh terms of the Treaty
of Versailles, which had concluded
World War I. This Nazi poster reads,
“Our Last Hope: Hitler.”
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Turning Toward Isolationism
(Part 2)

Isolationism


Americans believed that their encircling seas
conferred immunity
1934: Johnson Debt Default Act


Prevented debt-dodging nations from borrowing
Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

When the president proclaimed the existence of a
foreign war, certain restrictions go into effect: No
American could legally sail on a belligerent ship,
sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or
make loans to a belligerent
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Turning Toward Isolationism
(Part 3)

Neutrality proved to be shortsighted – no
distinction between aggressors and
victims

Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939



Spanish rebels led by General Francisco
Franco undertook to overthrow the established
Loyalist regime
Some Americans joined the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade – helped defend against Franco’s coup
Washington amended neutrality legislation to
apply an embargo to both Loyalists and rebels
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Appeasing Japan and Germany
(Part 1)

1937: Japanese militarists

An all-out invasion of China



Roosevelt declined to call the incident war
He would have cut off munitions to the Chinese
Quarantine Speech in the autumn of 1937



“Positive endeavors” to “quarantine” the
aggressors
Triggered protest from isolationists and other
foes of involvement
Feared a moral quarantine would lead to
shooting
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Appeasing Japan and Germany
(Part 2)

Adolf Hitler louder and bolder

1935: Compulsory military service




1938: Occupied Austria; made demands for
the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia


Marched into the German Rhineland
Undertook to exterminate the Jewish population
Developed new air force and mechanized ground
divisions
British and French leaders consented
Appeasement was merely surrender on the
installment plan
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S.
Neutrality (Part 1)

Joseph Stalin a key to peace



1939: A mutual defense treaty with Britain
and France fell through
August 23, 1939: Hitler-Stalin pact signed
Hitler sent mechanized divisions into Poland
on September 1, 1939


Britain and France promptly declared war; they
were powerless to aid Poland, which was quickly
divided between Hitler and Stalin
World War II was now fully launched
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S.
Neutrality (Part 2)

Neutrality a heated issue

Neutrality Act of 1939: European
democracies might buy American war
materials on a “cash-and-carry” basis



They were required to pay for munitions in cash
and transport them in their own ships
Policy favored the European democracies
against the dictators; the British and French
navies controlled the Atlantic
United States improved its moral position;
simultaneously helped its economic position
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Fall of France (Part 1)

“Phony war” in months following Poland’s
collapse –ominous silence fell on Europe

Hitler shifted his divisions from Poland





April 1940: Overran Denmark and Norway
May: Attacked the Netherlands and Belgium
Late June: Forced France to surrender
British managed to salvage their army in an
evacuation from Dunkirk
The crisis brought forth a leader in Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Fall of France (Part 2)

France’s collapse shocked Americans

Britons all that stood between Hitler and the
death of constitutional government in Europe


If Britain fell, Hitler would have Western Europe,
including the British fleet
Roosevelt moved to build huge airfleets and
a two-ocean navy


Congress appropriated $37 billion
September 6, 1940: Congress passed a
conscription law, America’s first peacetime draft
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Refugees from the Holocaust

Anti-Semitism

November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht


Many Jews attempted to escape



Mobs ransacked Jewish shops synagogues;
thirty thousand Jews sent to concentration camps
Lack of visas; restrictive immigration laws
After Nazi genocide verified in 1942,
Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board
By the end of the war, some 6 million Jews
had been murdered in the Holocaust
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Bolstering Britain (Part 1)

Britain between Hitler and his dream


August 1940: Battle of Britain raged in the air
Debate intensified in the United States over
what foreign policy to embrace

Whether to hunker down in “Fortress America” or
bolster Britain by all means short of war itself –
both sides had their advocates
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Bolstering Britain (Part 2)

Britain’s critical need of destroyers





German submarines attacked shipping
September 2, 1940, Roosevelt agreed to
transfer to Great Britain fifty old destroyers
In return, the British promised to hand over
eight defensive bases
U.S. stance was a flagrant violation of
neutral obligations
American majority determined to provide the
British “all aid short of war”
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Shattering the Two-Term Tradition

Presidential election of 1940

Republican convention swept off its feet by
Wendell L. Willkie


Roosevelt challenged the two-term tradition



Opposed New Deal extravagances/inefficiencies
So grave a crisis, he owed his experienced hand
Willkie was against “dictatorship”; third term
Roosevelt triumphed, although Willkie ran a
strong race

Democratic Congress remained the same
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
A Landmark Lend-Lease Law

1941: Lend-Lease Bill

It would provide a limitless supply of arms





Intent was to keep the war on their side of the
Atlantic
U.S. sent about $50 billion worth of arms and
equipment
The bill marked the abandonment of any
pretense of neutrality
U.S. factories geared for war production
Hitler recognized lend-lease as an unofficial
declaration of war
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Main Flow of Lend-Lease Aid
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Charting a New World (Part 1)

Two globe-shaking events


The fall of France in 1940
Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941


Hitler’s attack seemed a stroke of good fortune
for the democratic world
American strategy was aid to Moscow while it
was still afloat – an ultimate total of $11 billion
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Charting a New World (Part 2)

Atlantic Charter



Outlined the aspirations of the democracies
for a better world at war’s end
Laid the groundwork for advocacy of
universal human rights
Included key features of:



Self-determination for all peoples
Disarmament
A “permanent system of general security”
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Charting a New World (Part 3)

Hope of isolating America slipping away





Lendlease shipments of arms to Britain sunk
by German submarines
July 1941: U.S. Navy escorted lend-lease
shipments as far as Iceland
Inevitable clashes with submarines ensued
Roosevelt proclaimed a shoot-on-sight policy
November 1941: Merchant ships allowed to
be legally armed
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Surprise Assault on Pearl Harbor
(Part 1)

Japan mired in the “China incident”

Dependent on steel, scrap iron, oil, and
aviation gasoline from the United States




Such assistance was highly unpopular in America
1940: Washington imposed the first of its
embargoes on Japan-bound supplies
Mid-1941: Japanese assets were frozen and all
shipments of gasoline ceased
Japanese leaders were faced with two
alternatives: capitulation or continued
conquest; they chose the sword
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Surprise Assault on Pearl Harbor
(Part 2)

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941: Japanese bombers
attacked without warning



Three thousand casualties; many aircraft
destroyed; the battleship fleet virtually wiped out
The next day, Congress officially recognized that
war had been “thrust” upon the United States
Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, also declared
war on December 11, 1941; the challenge
accepted by Congress; unofficial war was now
official
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Battleship West Virginia
The shocking Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, propelled the
United States into World War II.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Surprise Assault on Pearl Harbor
(Part 3)

America aroused and united


Pearl Harbor was the last explosion in a long
chain reaction
Americans were confronted with a dilemma



Desired above all to stay out of the conflict
Did not want Britain knocked out of the war
Rather than let democracy die and
dictatorship rule, most citizens determined to
support a policy that might lead to war; it did
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
• CHAPTER THEME
• 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 destroyersfor-bases deal and in lend-lease. Still-powerful
isolationists protested these measures, but
Wendell 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.