Download Good Neighbors and Isolationism before World War II

World War II
Freedom of speech, freedom
of worship, freedom from
fear, freedom from want
Good Neighbors and Isolationism
before World War II
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Good Neighbor Policy
• US needs Latin American support against
European fascist dictators
• Pan-American Conferences
• End intervention in Latin America
• Nullify Platt Amendment
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However, US still supported undemocratic
governments friendly to American
business
Anastasio Somoza (Nicaragua)
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Totalitarian governments in Italy, Germany, and
Spain
Holocaust
While concerned, FDR’s main focus is dealing
with Great Depression
Nye Committee (1934)
Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937
• 1935-Prohibit arms shipments and travel to
belligerent nations
• 1936-Forbade extension of loans and credits to
belligerent nations
• 1937-forbade shipment of arms to both sides
in the Spanish Civil War
Fascist Aggression
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Ethopia-1935
Rhineland-1936
China-1937
Anschluss with Austria-1938
Sudetenland-1938
Munich Conference-1938
• Appeasement
• Chamberlain- “Peace in our time.”
• September 1, 1939-Hitler invades Poland and
WWII has started
• Blitzkrieg
• “Phony War”
Arsenal for Democracy
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Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• Change in “Cash and Carry” policy
(1939)
• Permitted Britain to obtain U.S. arms on
credit
• FDR’s “Garden Hose” analogy
Atlantic Charter (August 1941)• Secret meeting with Churchill in
Newfoundland
• Churchill and FDR promised “final
destruction of Nazi tyranny”
Pearl Harbor
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Embargo of Japan in 1937
Six months before Pearl Harbor, FDR freezes
Japanese assets including the sale of oil
A month before, intercepted Japanese
intelligence revealed an attack in the Pacific
was near
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story
.php?storyId=4206060
Did FDR intentionally allow the attack to
happen?
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Sunday December 7, 1941- “A day
that will live in infamy”
2,000 servicemen killed, 187 aircraft
18 naval vessels, 8 battleships
Next day by a vote of 477-1, FDR
receives a declaration of war
The War at Home
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Dramatic improvement in economy
Economy-war production mode
Rosie the Riveter- By 1944, women
made up 1/3 of civilian work force
and 350,000 served in non combat
military roles
Working role was only temporary
Japanese Internment
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Executive Order 9066 (February 1942)
Most Japanese interned where nisei or
American born Japanese
110,000 men, women, and children
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Internment was constitutional
Greater good of the country outweighed
individual rights
20,000 Japanese Americans served in the
armed forces during WWII
African-Americans and Military Service
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1 million blacks served in armed
forces
Segregated units
Construction, transport, and other
non combat tasks
Tuskegee Airman
Double V
President Truman in 1948 orders the
armed forces to be desegregated
War in the Pacific
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“Island Hopping”
Doolittle Raids-Battle of Tokyo-June 1942
Battle of Midway-June 1942
Battle of Iwo Jima
• February19-March 26, 1945
• 25,000 American casualties
D-Day
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June 6, 1944
Goal was to liberate France
Largest invasion by sea
What if D-Day didn’t work?
Eisenhower’s Letter
• “The fault is mine and mine alone.”
Battle of the Bulge
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December 1944-January 1945
Last major German offensive
April 30-Hitler commits suicide
May 8-VE Day-Germany surrenders
End of the War
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Dropping of the Atomic Bombs- August 6th and
August 9th
Manhattan Project (1939)
• Einstein’s famous letter to FDR about Germany
Meetings between the “Big 3” took place at Yalta and
Potsdam
Yalta (February 1945)
• Germany would be occupied (zones)
• Soviet would enter war against Japan
• A new world peace organization established at a conference in
San Francisco (United Nations)
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Potsdam (July 1945)
• Warning to Japan to unconditionally surrender
• Nazi war crimes trials (Nuremberg Trials)
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Yalta
• Soviet control of Baltic States (Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania) and a large section
of Poland
• Non communists in pro-Soviet
government of Poland
• “Free elections”
• Intent on establishing communism in
Eastern Europe
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Japan surrenders on September 2, 1945