Download Mussolini introduced fascism to Italy in 1922 *Hitler followed suit

The Threat of Totalitarianism
America Confronts Dictatorship
in the 1930s
The Rise of Fascism
*Mussolini introduced fascism to Italy in 1922
*Hitler followed suit with the rise to power of the
National Socialist Workers (Nazi) Party; elected
chancellor in January 1933
*Fascists embraced the power of the state over the
individual and the concept of “race warfare” –
contributed to anti-Semitism
*Fascists rebuilt Germany and Italy through public
works and a military build-up made possible by
close cooperation with industry and labor (as in the
New Deal?)
*Both leaders flaunted the League of Nations and
aggressively sought to expand their power:
1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia
1936 – Germany reoccupies the Rhineland, both
countries support Franco in Spain’s civil war
1938 – Germany occupies Austria
1939 – Germany invades Czechoslovakia after
being appeased by Britain/France at Munich
Soviet “State Socialism”
• After a brutal civil war (1918-22), the Bolsheviks
emerged victorious over czarist forces and established
the first communist dictatorship
• Soviet leaders (Lenin, Stalin) embraced Marxism in
theory but also created a strong state to encourage the
growth of communism worldwide
• Under Stalin (1924-1953), the USSR engaged in a
crash program of industrialization (through Five-Year
plans) and collectivization of agriculture
• Private property ownership was effectively ended and
the Soviet state dictated economic activity
• Stalin’s purges of the 1930s targeted the middle class,
the military, and even the Communist Party itself – an
estimated 10 million dead by 1940
• Hitler modeled his concentration camp system after
Stalin’s gulag labor camps; Stalin and Hitler hated
each other but were willing to sign a temporary NonAggression Pact in 1939
Japan: Empire of the Rising Sun
• After building an industrialized, Westernized state in
the late 1800s, Japan built an empire for itself by
defeating China (1890s) and Russia (1904-05)
• Growing demand for raw materials to feed its factories
led Japan to build up a powerful army and navy, the
leaders of which effectively controlled the Imperial
Cabinet; Emperor Hirohito was a revered “puppet”
• Japan’s militaristic culture shared much in common
with Nazi Germany – both were based on cultural
superiority and glorification of the state
• The warrior code of bushido still prevailed in Japanese
military culture – honor valued above all
• Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931 and invaded China
proper in 1937; Japan’s aggression and brutal
treatment of the Chinese raised growing fears among
the Western powers
• Japan joined Germany and Italy in the Axis (1940)
Dictatorship in America?
• As threats mounted overseas, demagogues arose in
the United States who promised to take America in a
new (and better?) direction
• Father Charles Coughlin, a popular weekly radio
commentator from Detroit, called for a “social
justice” program to redistribute wealth; he blamed
Jews for America’s social-economic ills
• Huey Long of Louisiana emerged as a populist
leader; his “Share Our Wealth” program proposed a
massive transfer of money from rich to poor; many
feared he would challenge FDR for the presidency in
1936; his assassination ended that threat
• Upton Sinclair (author of The Jungle) ran for
governor of California in 1934 promising to “End
Poverty in California” (EPIC)
• These men represented a clear move to the Left and
raised the specter of a socialist-style dictatorship
emerging in the United States
The Biggest Threat of All?
FDR: Dictator in Waiting?
• FDR’s landslide re-election victory in 1936
reflected the birth of a “New Deal” coalition of
labor, minorities, and women that prefigured
long-term Democratic majority status in
American politics
• FDR used his new clout to strike back at the
Supreme Court in 1937 by proposing his
infamous “court-packing” scheme
• FDR’s critics assailed him for threatening
constitutional separation of powers; FDR backed
down but got what he wanted – a more liberal
Supreme Court
• Conservative critics accused FDR of being a
“traitor to his class” and moving America toward
socialism (sound familiar?)
• FDR ultimately respected limits on his power and
the will of Congress, but faced a new challenge
from external threats by the late 30s
American Isolationism
• Americans remained predominantly isolationist in the
face of growing external threats
• The Nye Committee (1935) blamed America’s entry
into World War I on U.S. industry’s greed for war
profits
• Congress passed the Neutrality Acts (1935-39) to
restrict any assistance to belligerents (even to nations
that were victims of aggression)
• The America First Committee organized a grass-roots
movement to pressure Congress and the President to
keep America out of war no matter what – Charles
Lindbergh emerged as its primary spokesman – he
personally admired Hitler and the Nazi government
and spoke openly against the “Jewish influence” in
Western civilization
Preparing the Nation for War
• 1937 – FDR’s called for a “quarantine” of aggressor nations in
the wake of Japan’s invasion of China
• 1939 – Congress amended the Neutrality Acts to allow for
“cash and carry” aid for Britain and France after World War II
started in Europe
• 1940 – Congress passed legislation authorizing the first peacetime draft in American history, as FDR called on America to
become the great “arsenal of democracy”; the U.S. offered
Britain “destroyers for bases”; FDR was also re-elected for a
precedent-shattering third term
• 1941 – Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act at FDR’s urging,
authorizing military assistance to Britain and (as of June 1941)
the USSR; FDR and British PM Churchill signed the Atlantic
Charter committing the U.S. and UK to shared war aims based
on democratic principles