Download Chapter 34.2

Chapter 34.2
FDR and the Shadows of War
The US gets “involved”
Essential Questions
• Despite all of the Neutrality Acts, how was
the United States not 100% neutral?
• Why did Japan attack the United States on
Pearl Harbor?
Terms to know
• War Resources Board
• Office of Emergency
Management
• Cash and Carry
• America First Committee
• Council of National Defense
• Selective Service and Training
Act
• Battle of Britain
• Wendel Willkie
• Lend-Lease Act
• Greenland and Iceland
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Atlantic Charter
Four Freedoms
Shoot on Sight
Vichy French government
Tripartite Pact
Hideki Tojo
“A date which will live in
infamy”
Preparedness
• Even though he preached neutrality, FDR
began preparing to improve US defenses
• May 1938 he requested and received a
naval construction appropriation of
$1Billion/ Oct. ’38 Congress provided $300
million for defense/ Jan. 39 a regular
defense appropriation of $1.3 billion with
an added $525 million for equipment,
especially airplanes
Preparedness
• Defense spending increased after the
outbreak of war in September 1939
• War Resources Board was created to
develop a plan for industrial mobilization in
the event of war
• Office of Emergency Managementcentralized mobilization activities
Neutrality Act of 1939
• On September 5, 1939, FDR officially
proclaimed neutrality
• September 21 he urged Congress to allow Cash
and Carry sale of arms (as long as the
recipients arranged for the transport using their
own ships and paid immediately in cash,
assuming all risk in transportation)
• Despite opposition from isolationists, it passed
and helped the Allies because they controlled
the Atlantic.
Changing Attitudes
• Hitler’s armies invaded and quickly conquered
Denmark and Norway in April 1940
• In May, German forces took Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg, and France
• British were driven from the continent, and
France surrendered June 22
• People new Germany was a threat
– Divided on whether to aid Britain or just protect
defense of US
– America First Committee, opposed all involvement
Defense Mobilization
• In May of 1940 FDR appointed a Council
of National Defense chaired by William S.
Knudson, the president of General Motors,
to direct defense production and especially
to build 50,000 planes.
• The council was soon awarding defense
contracts at a rate of $1.5 billion a month
Selective Service
• Congress approved the nation’s first
peacetime draft, the Selective Service
and training Act. Men 21 to 35 were
registered, and many were called for one
year of military training. September 1940.
Destroyers for Bases (Britain)
• FDR had determined that to aid Britain in every way
possible was the best way to avoid war with Germany
– Britain was begin bombed by the Nazis to gain control of the air,
but as a result Britain’s air force fought back and the first all air
war called the Battle of Britain.
• FDR ordered the army and navy to turn over all available
weapons and munitions to private dealers for resale to
Britain.
• In Sept. 1940 he signed an agreement to give Britain 50
American Destroyers in return for a 99-year lease on air
and naval bases in British territories in Newfoundland,
Bermuda, and the Caribbean
FDR Shatters the 2 Term Limit
• In 1940 was another election year and Franklin
D. Roosevelt was nominated to run for his third
term as President against Wendell L. Willkie.
• He broke tradition by accepting a 3rd nomination
• One thing that he promised if elected was to not
send Americans to a foreign war, this promise
ended up back firing against him.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt won 449-82
– Socialist Norman Thomas had 100,264 votes, and
Communist Earl Browder received 48,579
Lend-Lease Act
• Britain were rapidly exhausting their cash
reserves with which to buy American goods.
• In January 1941 Roosevelt proposed that the
US provide supplies to be paid for in goods and
service after the war. (avoid debt from WWI)
• The Lend-Lease Act was passed and in little
time America had sent over $50 billion dollars
worth of supplies to the Allied troops.
• Officially the US went from neutral to
nonbelligerent status
Greenland/ Iceland
• In April of 1940, FDR declared Greenland, a
possession of conquered Denmark, was
covered under the Monroe Doctrine.
– He supplied military assistance to set up a coastal
patrol there
– By 1941, the US occupied Greenland and in May
FDR declared a state of unlimited national emergency
• American marines occupied Iceland, a Danish
possession, in July 1941 to protect it from
seizure by Germany. American navy began to
convoy American and Icelandic ships between
the US and Icelan
Chartering a New World
• On August 9, 1941 FDR and Winston Churchill
met for the first time on a British battleship off
Newfoundland.
• This meeting resulted in the Atlantic Charter.
– Signed on board the U.S. cruiser Augusta, which
described a postwar world based on selfdetermination of all nations
– Endorsed the principles of free speech and religion
and freedom from want and fear, which FDR had
proposed as the Four Freedoms earlier that year.
Aid to Russia
• In 1941 Germany broke the nonaggression pact and invaded Russia
• The US extended the Lend-Lease
assistance to Russia
– Get Germany on a two front war again
The Shoot on Sight Order/ The
Clash with U-Boats
• The US destroyer Greer was attacked by a
German submarine near Iceland on September
4, 1941.
• FDR ordered the US military forces to shoot on
sight at any German and Italian vessel in the
patrol zone
• The US began also using the convoy system
and arming merchant ships
• An undeclared naval war had begun
– The Kearny was attacked by a sub and the Reuban
James was sunk on October 30, with 115 lives lost.
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• Following their invasion of China in 1937, Japan
began to speak of an undefined empire in east
Asia and the western Pacific
• They forced American and other business
interests from occupied China declaring an end
to the “Open Door”
• FDR responded by lending money to China and
requesting American aircraft manufacturers not
to sell to Japan
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• Following the fall of France, a new and more
militant Japanese government obtained from the
German-controlled Vichy French government
the right to build air bases and to station troops
in northern French Indochina
• The US, fearing that the step would lead to
further expansion, responded with an embargo
on the export of aviation gasoline, lubricants,
and scrap iron and steel to Japan
• BY December of 1940, the embargo extended to
iron ore and pig iron, chemicals, machine tools,
and other products.
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• Japan joined with Germany and Italy to form the
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis on September 27, 1940
when it signed the Tripartite Pact or Triple
Alliance with the other Axis Powers
• In July of ’41, Japan extracted a new concession
from Vichy France by obtaining military control of
Southern Indochina
• Roosevelt reacted by freezing Japanese funds
in the United States, closing the Panama canal
to Japan, activating the Philippine militia, and
placing an embargo on the export of oil and
other vital products to Japan
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• Negotiations to end the impasse between the US and
Japan were conducted in Washington.
• Secretary Hull demanded Japan withdraw from
Indochina and China, promise not to attack any other
area in the western Pacific, and withdraw from the
Tripartite Pact in return for the reopening of US trade
• Japan offered to withdraw from Indochina when the
Chinese war was satisfactorily settled, to promise no
further expansion, and to agree to ignore any obligation
under the Tripartite Pact to go to war if the United States
entered a defensive war with Germany.
• Hull refused to compromise.
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• Japan proposed in August of 1941, that
FDR personally meet with the Japanese
prime minister, Prince Konoye, in an effort
to resolve their differences
• Such an action might have strengthened
the position of Japanese moderates, but
FDR replied that he would do so only if
Japan agreed to leave China.
• NO MEETING HELD
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• In October, 1941, a new military cabinet headed by
General Hideki Tojo took control of Japan.
• The Japanese secretly decided to make a final effort to
negotiate, and to go to war if no solution was found by
November 25.
• A new round of talks followed in Washington, but neither
side would make a substantive change in its position and
on November 26, Hull repeated the American demand
that the Japanese remove all of their forces from China
and Indochina immediately
• The Japanese gave their final approval on December 1
for an attack on the United States
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• The Japanese planned a major offensive
to take the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, and
the Philippines in order to obtain oil,
metals, and other raw materials they
needed
• At the same time, they would attack Pearl
Harbor to destroy the American Pacific
fleet to keep it from interfering with their
plans
The Road to Pearl Harbor
• The United States had broken the Japanese diplomatic
codes, and new that trouble was imminent.
• Between December 1 and December 6, 1941, it became
clear to administration leaders that Japanese task forces
were being ordered into battle
• US commanders in the Pacific were warned of possible
aggressive action there, but not forcefully
• Apparently, most US leaders thought Japan would attack
the Dutch East Indies and Malaya, but would avoid US
territory as to not provoke the US
• Some argue that FDR wanted to let Japan attack the US
so that the American people would be squarely behind
the war.
The Pearl Harbor Attack
• At 7:55 a.m. on
Sunday, December 7,
1941 the first wave of
Japanese carrierbased planes
attacked the
American fleet at
Pearl Harbor.
The Pearl Harbor Attack
• At 8:50 a.m. a second
wave followed.
• American defensive
actions was almost nil,
but by the 2nd wave a few
antiaircraft batteries were
operating and a few Army
planes from another base
in Hawaii engaged the
enemy.
The Pearl Harbor Attack
• The US suffered the
loss of 2 battleships
sunk, six damaged
and out of action, 3
cruisers and 3
destroyers sunk or
damaged, and a
number of lesser
vessels destroyed or
damaged
The Pearl Harbor Attack
• All of the 150 aircraft at
Pearl Harbor were
destroyed on the ground
• 2,323 American
servicemen were killed
and about 1,100 were
wounded
• The Japanese lost 29
planes, five midget subs,
and one fleet sub
The Declaration of War
• On December 8, 1941
FDR told a joint session
of Congress that the day
before had been a “date
which will live in infamy.”
Congress declared war
on Japan with one
dissenting vote. On
Dec. 11, Germany and
Italy declared war on the
United States.
Be able to identify
• War Resources Board
• Office of Emergency
Management
• Cash and Carry
• America First Committee
• Council of National Defense
• Selective Service and Training
Act
• Battle of Britain
• Wendel Willkie
• Lend-Lease Act
• Greenland and Iceland
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Atlantic Charter
Four Freedoms
Shoot on Sight
Vichy French government
Tripartite Pact
Hideki Tojo
“A date which will live in
infamy”
Review Questions
Question 1
In the Munich Conference
a) Hitler agreed to form an alliance with Italy
b) The Big Three agreed to demand
unconditional surrender from the Germans and
Japanese
c) Britain and France gave in to Hitler’s territorial
demands
d) The US promised Germany neutrality
e) The Nazis worked out the details of the Final
Solution
Question 2
• The America First Committee
– A) was strongly in favor of providing economic
assistance to Britain, but opposed military aid
– B) believed the US should enter the war only if its
ships were attacked by German Subs
– C) was strongly in favor of the assistance President
Roosevelt gave to the British
– D) believed “Cash and Carry” would not jeopardize
American neutrality
– E) strongly opposed US intervention in the War
Question 3
When President Roosevelt stated that this event was
“a date which will live in infamy,” he was referring
to:
a) the D-Day landing
b) the dropping of the atomic bombs on
Japan
c) the beginning of the holocaust
d) the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
e) Germany’s invasion of Poland
Question 4
• The purpose of FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech
was to
– A) obtain a congressional declaration of war against
Germany
– B) gain support for his Lend-Lease program
– C) obtain a congressional declaration of war against
Japan
– D) assert complete American neutrality in the war in
Europe
– E) set forth the terms under which Germany’s
surrender would be accepted
Question 5
• At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, the US found itself
– A) partially prepared by over a year of the nation’s
first peacetime draft
– B) fully prepared through complete mobilization and
training beginning at the outbreak of the war in
Europe
– C) almost completely prepared, with one of the
smallest armies in the world
– D) with a large and modern navy but an army of
under 100,000 men
– E) with a large but untrained army of conscripts called
up within the past six weeks
Question 6
• All of the following were steps taken by the US
to aid Britain prior to US entry into World War II
EXCEPT
A) the sale of 50 destroyers to the British in exchange for 99year leases on certain overseas naval bases
B) gradual assumption by the US Navy of an increasing
role in patrolling the Atlantic against German submarines
C) institution of the Lend-Lease program for providing
war supplies to Britain beyond its ability to pay
D) the stationing of US marines in Scotland to protect it
against possible German
E) the institution of the cash and carry system, allowing Britain
to purchase war supplies in the United States provided they
were paid for in cash