Download The Coming of World War II. 1937-1939

The following is an excerpt from “Depression and War 1932-1945”
The Restless Centuries-A History of the American People
(covers information in Chapters 12, and 13 in American Voices)
The Coming of World War II. 1937-1939
(1) Fearful that another major war was about to begin, WASP political, economic, and cultural leaders began to focus their attention
on Europe in 1937. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland, leading Britain and France, allies of Poland, to declare war on Germany. Hitler
had decided that the key to German economic recovery was the expansion of German power and trade throughout Europe and the
world. His plan was to create a unified Europe under German leadership and to increase German trade with Latin America and Africa.
1. What was Hitler’s plan—and what was his rationale behind the plan? In your estimation, did the
outcome of World War I cause Germany and Hitler to take these actions? Explain.
(2) President Roosevelt also had reversed his isolationistic position of 1933 and had concluded by 1935 that the expansion of
American overseas trade was crucial to recovery from the depression. Secretary of State Cordell Hull made reciprocal trade treaties
with twelve countries and inaugurated a Good Neighbor policy with Latin America. To discourage German and Japanese influence
in South America, Roosevelt withdrew the marines from Central American and Caribbean nations and promised at the InterAmerican Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1936), that the United States would never again send troops into another
American (Western Hemisphere) country. The increasing aggressiveness of Germany was matched by Japan. In 1937, Japan rejected
the Open Door policy completely and attacked and captured all the major coastal cities in China.
2. What were FDR’s reasons for creating a Good Neighbor policy with Latin America?
(3) In his famous "Quarantine" speech delivered in Chicago in 1937, Roosevelt warned against German and Japanese aggression
and indicated that he wanted to defend American interests in Asia and Europe: But public opinion in 1937 was overwhelmingly
opposed to the use of force to protect those interests. Most Protestant ministers who had been enthusiastic supporters of World War I
in 1937 declared themselves opposed to American participation in another war. Many Americans declared themselves to be pacifists.
More than 100,000 college students participated in demonstrations against war in 1934 and 1935.
Neutrality Legislation, 1934-1939
(4) In 1934, a special Senate committee, chaired by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota, began to study the role of munitions makers
in World War I and concluded that these business people had played a major role in getting the United States into the war. The
committee's findings agreed with the position taken in Walter Millis's best-selling book Road to War (1934). Charles Beard and other
revisionist historians of the 1920s called for government policies that would keep the nation from being tricked into another war.
Beard's book Open Door at Home (1934), which called for a non-interventionistic policy, was well received by college teachers.
And, in 1936, Robert Sherwood won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Idiot's Delight, which attacked war profiteers.
(5) Congress responded to this strong public demand for nonintervention by passing neutrality legislation. In 1935, sales of arms
and ammunition to warring nations were banned. In 1936, loans to warring nations also were banned. And, in 1937, Congress forbade
American ships to enter war zones. [see pages 524, 525 of your textbook]
3. Prior to the start of WWII, what actions were taken by Congress to keep the U.S. from getting involved
in another war such as WWI?
(6) But, in 1937, Hitler absorbed Austria into Germany and, in 1938, took control of Czechoslovakia. When war in Europe seemed
inevitable, Roosevelt asked Congress for large appropriations to build up the American armed forces. Congress agreed and also
repealed the embargo on arms sales (1939). When Germany successfully defeated France (1940) and took control of all of western
Europe, except the British Isles, Roosevelt named a Republican, Henry Stimson, as secretary of war. Stimson represented the wing of
the Republican party that wanted to go to war to support Great Britain. He helped Roosevelt create a coalition of Republicans and
Democrats in Congress that voted to begin the first peacetime conscription of young men into the armed forces. And, in September
1940, Roosevelt gave fifty destroyers to Britain in return for leases on British bases in North America. After his reelection to an
unprecedented third term in November 1940, Roosevelt moved further to repeal the neutrality legislation by asking Congress to create
the Lend-Lease Act, which gave the president the power to lend supplies to Britain, which was too poor to pay for them.
4. Why did FDR appoint a republican to serve as the Secretary of War in 1940? And, what did this man
do to support FDR’s desire to help the British in their fight against Germany?
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(7) Even before Congress passed the lend-lease legislation in the spring of 1941, Roosevelt and his military advisers had begun talks
with British military leaders in anticipation of America's entry into the war. Roosevelt was determined to save Britain and defeat
Germany. He ordered the navy to escort British merchant ships across the Atlantic to Iceland, which the United States then occupied.
Fighting between German submarines and American destroyers began in the fall of 1941. On October 16, the destroyer the U.S.S.
Kearney was damaged by a torpedo, and, on October 20, the U.S.S. Reuben James was sunk. The undeclared war became official in
December 1941 when Japan attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. When the United States declared war against
Japan After the attack, Germany and Italy, which had mutual defense treaties with Japan, declared war on the United States.
5. What was the 1941 “undeclared war”—and what were the results of it—and what did it say about
FDR?
Roosevelt and the Coming of the War
(8) In his campaign speeches of 1940, Roosevelt had promised that, if reelected, he would see that no young Americans were sent
overseas to fight. Unlike Wilson in 1916, however, Roosevelt anticipated America's entry into the war. He was not as concerned as
Wilson had been that the war result in a new and better world. Roosevelt was part of the eastern, upper-class culture that identified
very closely with England. Like many other Ivy Leaguers, Roosevelt admired England and despised Germany. He wanted to save the
existing democratic nations and those with constitutions upholding individual liberties from being overwhelmed by the totalitarianism
represented by Nazi Germany. He wanted, therefore, to keep England, which he saw as the mother of constitutional tradition
throughout the world, from being defeated by Hitler's dictatorship. Beyond his desire to fight to defend an old cultural friend,
Roosevelt also was motivated by the German threat to American trade with Europe and Latin America. In 1940, he also anticipated
war with Japan. Again, he was prepared to resist the Japanese effort to dominate China and to force American economic interests out
of the Far East.
6. How were FDR’s ideas about going to war different from those of President Wilson? Why did he favor
entering WWII?
(9) Public opinion polls indicated that the majority of Americans did not want to go to war in 1940. This was especially true of
Americans of German, Italian, Scandinavian, and Irish descent. But cultural leadership in 1940 tended to be in the hands of upperclass Anglo-Americans from the east coast, and they were able to direct American opinion toward support of England. Midwestern
WASPs tended to be more isolationistic than those in the East, but again the easterners were able to control national identity and
define the Midwesterners as people who were limited by their regional outlook and unable to provide national leadership. In moving
from the neutrality legislation of 1939 to active fighting in the fall of 1941, Roosevelt used the opinion polls that showed that many
people wanted to help England but not to the extent of actual fighting. He had defined each step in 1939, 1940, and 1941 as help for
England, not as war against Germany.
7. How could the public opinion polls of 1940 give FDR reason to believe that the American people would
support the U.S. entering WWII should he make the decision to do so?
(10) Roosevelt also used the threat of war as the reason for breaking the two-term tradition. As a strong leader, he argued, he could
guide the nation through the troubled times ahead, as he had guided the nation through the troubled years of the Great Depression. In
1940, the more internationalistic Republicans from the eastern cities were able to win the nomination for Wendell Willkie, a Wall
Street lawyer originally from Indiana. Willkie was ready to accept much of the New Deal legislation, and he shared Roosevelt's
foreign policy views. However, he criticized Roosevelt for his ambition to become the first third-term president. Willkie reduced
Roosevelt's huge margin of victory in 1936 and attracted 5 million more votes than Landon had. But the Democratic majority still
gave Roosevelt an easy victory.
8. On what grounds did FDR’s political opponent in the 1940 election oppose FDR’s campaign for
reelection?
(11) Roosevelt had ordered trade restrictions against Japan in an effort to force the Japanese to withdraw from China. Limits on sales
of oil and iron were imposed in 1940, and, in the spring of 1941, a total embargo of American goods to Japan was announced. A
conflict had developed in Japan between moderates, who believed that they could expand Japanese economic control throughout Asia
without war with the United States, and militants, who insisted that American leaders would make no concessions to Japan without
war. In the fall of 1941, the moderates were given a last chance to win concessions from the United States, while war plans were put
into motion in case they failed. American intelligence had broken Japanese secret codes, and Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull
knew that war would come if they refused to negotiate. When they refused the Japanese offers, they knew that the Japanese would
wage attacks throughout the Far East, including the Philippines but American leaders were unprepared for the devastating attack on
Pearl Harbor, which destroyed much of the Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941.
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9. What actions did FDR take that angered the Japanese government?
Organizing the Economy for War
(12) While the New Deal of 1933 had been dominated by corporate progressives concerned with stability, farmers and workers had
pushed the New Deal toward reform in 1935 and 1936. But these reformers lost strength by 1938, and corporate progressives were
able to regain control by 1940. Concerned about American participation in the war by 1939, Roosevelt wanted to gain the support of
the large corporations that controlled most of the nation's production. Therefore, he appointed a top executive of United States Steel,
Edward Stettinius, as head of the War Resources Board. In Roosevelt's opinion, there was a chain of continuity that linked the
government boards that planned the economy during World War I to the NRA in 1933 and then to the War Resources Board in 1939.
In every situation, the corporations were to be exempt from price competition and would be able to work together to determine their
share of the market. Once the United States had entered the war in 1941, the War Production Board took the place of the War
Resources Board and other agencies similar to those of World War I were established: the War Manpower Commission, the Office of
Price Administration, and the Food Administration. As in World War I, this "military-industrial complex" was headed by major
corporation leaders. More of the nation's manpower and resources had to be mobilized than in World War I, and the government, for
the first time, engaged in the rationing of food and other scarce resources.
(13) The 200 largest corporations received most of the government contracts to turn out the guns, tanks, airplanes, and other supplies
needed for the war, and their share of national production increased to more than two-thirds. The government provided the money for
the companies to build new plants and install new machinery and to retool old plants. There was no bidding on the contracts received
from the government, and the contracts were open-ended on costs. Whatever the cost of fulfilling the contracts, the businesses were
guaranteed their profits. The business leaders who had objected to the $24-billion deficit that was added to the national debt between
1933 and 1940 to pay for relief for the poor and the unemployed had little objection to the almost $200 billion of deficit spending from
1940 to 1945 because much of this money went directly to the business community.
(14) Industrial production doubled during the war, while 14 million men and women were taken out of the job market and put into the
armed services. The unemployment of 11 million workers in 1940 was replaced by a shortage of workers in 1943. While corporation
profits doubled, wages increased about 50 percent during the war, in spite of wage and price controls. As during World War I, unions
were supported by the government as a reward for their loyalty to the war effort. Union membership increased rapidly, from 9 million
in 1940 to 15 million in 1945.
10. How was the U.S. economy mobilized to fight World War II?
Ideals and Power in World War II
(15) A major effort had been made to pay for World War I through taxes. Although there was some deficit spending that needed to be
financed through the selling of bonds for World War I, that was a tiny amount compared to deficit spending necessary for World War
II for which taxes paid no significant part of the expenses. Roosevelt's willingness not to worry about the means to be used to reach his
ends in 1933 became even more obvious during the war. During World War I, the American government expected its allies to repay
wartime loans that came from the United States, but Roosevelt gave $50 billion to Britain and Russia under the Lend-Lease Act with
no real expectation that the money would he repaid.
11. How did America’s entrance into World War II help to put an end to the Depression? What was the
cost of going to war (ending the Depression) to the nation’s budget?
(16) Hitler had invaded Russia in June 1941. Although American policy since 1917 had been very hostile toward the existence of a
communist government there, Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill were willing to send money and supplies to
Soviet Russia to keep German troops tied down on the eastern front, while the United States and Britain prepared to invade western
Europe.
12. Why did the U.S. and Great Britain initially find it difficult to assist the Soviet Union in fighting
Germany—what did they eventually do to help the Soviets?
Most male college students during World War II were members of army or navy
programs. (Courtesy of University of Minnesota Archives.)
(17) Unlike American generals who accepted the strategy developed by British and
French generals in World War I, American military leaders in World War II assumed
leadership in Europe and the Pacific. General Dwight Eisenhower made the final
decisions for troops from England and the British Empire, as well as for American troops,
in Europe, and General Douglas Macarthur commanded Australian and New Zealand
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soldiers, as well as Americans, in the Pacific. In the spring of 1941, before the official American entry into the war, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and their military advisers had decided to concentrate on defeating Germany first and then turn to the defeat of Japan.
While much of the Germany army was fighting in Russia, the American-British allies planned to drive the Germans and their Italian
allies out of North Africa and then invade Italy. Finally, when the German armies and air force had been weakened in these battles, a
major invasion from England into France would take place.
13. What country was put in charge of fighting the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific?
(18) Although Roosevelt and Churchill were willing to support Soviet Russia as a means of defeating Germany and Japan, they were
concerned with containing the spread of communism from Russia once victory had been gained. Already in 1942, the United States
had cooperated with the French right-wing political leader Admiral Jean Darlan and other conservative leaders in the Balkans,
although most of the underground groups fighting against the Germans throughout Europe were associated with the left wing.
(19) When the United States and Britain invaded France in June of 1944, the Allied political and military leaders, therefore, had
conflicting attitudes because the invasion would help the Russians crush the Germans. Fearful of their Russian allies, it was necessary
to rush Allied troops to western Germany to keep the Russians from overrunning the entire continent to the North Sea.
(20) In February 1945, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Stalin at the Russian resort city of Yalta (Yalta Conference) to
discuss the peace settlement in Europe that would come after the Germans were defeated. They also discussed the continued conduct
of the war against Japan. Agreement was reached to divide Germany into four zones, separately occupied by Russia, the United States,
Britain, and France. It was assumed that a permanently divided, disarmed, and de-industrialized Germany could never again wage
aggressive war.
(21) Stalin also agreed to allow anticommunist Polish leaders in London to become part of the communist government the Russians
had established in that country when they liberated it from the Germans. Roosevelt hoped that the Russians would not choose to keep
complete control of the areas of Eastern Europe, such as Poland, that had been overrun by Soviet armies.
(22) Roosevelt also won agreement from Stalin on disputed details about the shape of the United Nations. Roosevelt's experience of
the 1930s was that Hoover's concept of the Open Door Empire had failed and that the economic objections to political participation in
the League of Nations had been proved false. For Roosevelt, American participation in World War II proved that ongoing political and
military power was necessary to supplement economic power and that a vigorous international agency was essential to providing the
stable and peaceful environment needed for economic growth.
(23)Roosevelt and his advisers were influenced by the current attack of intellectuals and Protestant theologians on the American
tradition of innocence that had insisted that the United States must never engage in the sinful use of political power. Dismissing the
idealism of Wilson, Roosevelt wanted a United Nations divided between those nations that had great power and those that had little
power. Although only the United States, Russia, and Britain had significant power, Roosevelt was willing to include France and China
as permanent members of a United Nations Security Council, which would have six other members elected for two-year terms by less
powerful nations. The council would have the power to apply economic and military sanctions against aggressive nations who
challenged the world status quo. Each of the five permanent members, however, would have an absolute veto over any decision the
council made. Thus, the United States could retain its national freedom of action while becoming a member of an international
organization. All the little nations were to be members of a General Assembly, in which world issues could be discussed but where no
policy decisions could be made.
(24) When President Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was succeeded by Vice-President Harry S. Truman, the traditional American
fear of communist Russia began to become the dominant attitude among American foreign policy leaders.
(25) In 1945. Stalin was not supporting any communist groups he could not control directly. He refused to aid communist forces in
Greece, Italy, and France because they insisted on their independence. He refused to aid the communists in China or Ho Chi Minh in
Vietnam for the same reason. But American leaders could not escape the tradition of dividing the world into two geographic parts, one
evil and contaminated by wicked conspirators, the other pure and virtuous and characterized by liberty and goodness. This tradition,
by which the founding fathers had defined the meaning of the American Revolution and which justified the Monroe Doctrine of
1823, became dominant again in the American political imagination of 1945. Instead of the forces of enlightenment of 1917 lighting
to liberate the entire world from the conspiracy of medieval darkness, the free world forces of 1945 were fighting to preserve half of
the world from the threat of communist conspiracy.
(26) American strategy, therefore, shifted from persuading Russia to play a major role in the war against Japan to planning ways to
have the United States monopolize victory in the Far East. The development of the atomic bomb made this strategy possible. This
development had been a top-priority program from the beginning of the war, when scientists had warned President Roosevelt that the
Germans were working on a nuclear weapon. The completion of the bomb followed the surrender of Germany in May 1945, and in
August atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with almost complete destruction of
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buildings and population. Fearing heavy American casualties in an invasion of Japan, Truman and his advisers seemed to feel little
anguish in making the decision to obliterate these cities. Although American policy had called for the unconditional surrender of
Japan, American leaders allowed the Japanese to surrender with the understanding that the United States would not depose the
emperor.
(27) The abruptness of the Japanese defeat under the threat of more atomic bombing allowed the United States to monopolize the
control of Japanese reconstruction without sharing power with Russia, and General Douglas Macarthur was given absolute authority to
remake Japan into a political democracy and a friend of the United States.
14. Describe and characterize the uneasy relationship the U.S. had with the Soviet Union before—during- and after World War II. (use information in applicable paragraphs—not just the one immediately above this question)
As Americans tried to retreat to isolation in the 1920s and 1930s, they returned to symbols of
the nineteenth century. Even art critics in New York City applauded artists like John Stewart
Curry for refusing to abandon a realistic style of painting and refusing, therefore, to be corrupted by the
increasing use of abstract symbolism by European painters. Eastern intellectuals committed to isolation in
the 1930s could celebrate this painting by Curry, "Baptism in Kansas, "for keeping America free from
European style. (Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.)
Nowhere is the dramatic revolution of American intellectuals from isolation to internationalism in the
1940s more clearly demonstrated than in the movement of the art critics to reject their loyalty to realism
in the 1930s to embrace the abstract expressionism of painters like Jackson Pollock (here in "Autumn
Rhythm") in the 1940s. For the first time, American painters like Pollock were accepted by Europeans
in the 1940s and 1950s as the leaders of international painting. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
George A. Hearn Fund, 1957.)
(28) In the fall of 1945, the United States returned to peace. President Roosevelt had been successful in defeating Germany and Japan
and in protecting American overseas interests in Europe and Asia. Massive deficit spending and the mobilization of production for war
had restored prosperity. The new president, Harry Truman, had to find ways of preserving this wartime prosperity and of defending
America's overseas economic frontiers from competition with communist Russia.
---------------------------------------WWII partial timeline of events
1931:
-Japan invades Manchuria (northern China) in order to acquire land and natural resources to improve Japan’s economy.
1933:
-Hitler attains power in Germany
1936:
-*Hitler begins to move military forces into the Rhineland (a part of Germany bordering France which was to remain free of
military units according to the Treaty of Versailles).
-*Germany begins to build up its military beyond what had been proscribed by the Treaty of Versailles
-Italy invades and takes over control of Ethiopia (northeast Africa)—the League of Nations sanctions Italy for its actions but
does not take any action to force Italy out of Ethiopia.
-Germany and Italy side with General Francisco Franco in Spain’s civil war in which Franco’s fascists overthrew the
democratically elected republican government. The western democracies of Great Britain, France, and the U.S. do nothing.
1938:
-*Hitler invades and annexes Austria to complete his plans of “Anschluss”—the union of German speaking peoples
-Hitler announces his intention of taking the Sudentenland from
Czechoslovakia—an area that included many German speaking people.
British, French, German and Italian leaders met in Munich, Germany to discuss
Germany’s the Czech situation. The British and French agreed to the surrender
of the Sudentenland to Germany in exchange for Germany’s promise to seek
not further territorial expansion. Czech officials were not invited to the
conference. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain upon returning to
London proclaimed that he had achieved “peace in our time.”
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1939
March 23—Hitler demanded that Danzig (Poland) be given to Germany and that the Nazis be allowed to occupy a narrow
corridor connecting Germany with East Prussia (Germany)— see map below.
* All of these actions were in violation of the Versailles Peace Treaty ending WWI. Why didn’t Great Britain or France protest these
actions? Many people believed that Germany had been wronged by the strict terms of the treaty—the terms made it virtually
impossible for Germany to solve its economic problems. Also—British and French officials at this time—were more worried about
the spread of communism (out of the Soviet Union) than they were about Hitler. A third reason was that the British and French
underestimated Hitler’s abilities and misinterpreted his intentions. They believed that letting Hitler win several small victories would
satisfy—or appease him—hoping that with each gain by Germany, Hitler would be satisfied and want nothing more. This policy has
become to be known as: appeasement.
1939
August 23—Hitler and Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact—though each side did not trust the other—this pact
was regarded as a temporary measure that would delay war between the two nations until they were more prepared to do so.
Hitler was able to secure and protect its eastern flank from Soviet attack and Stalin was given extra time to build up his army.
Both sides agree to “peacefully” split up Poland between themselves.
1939
September 1—Germany army invaded Poland without a declaration of war.
1939
-September 3—Great Britain demanded that the invasion be halted immediately (Hitler ignores ultimatum).
-Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
1940
April 9—Germany invades Denmark and Norway (Germany obtained new air bases, additional food supplies and valuable
natural resources with these conquests)
1940
May 10—Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands—then the Germans attacked France through the Ardennes Forest
skirting France’s Maginot Line . Belgium and the Netherlands surrender to Germany. British and French forces become
trapped at Dunkirk.
1940
June 4—335,000 British and French troops were evacuated by this date—using small boats and yachts that ferried the men to
Great Britain. The French army that remained in France collapsed.
1940
June 10—Italy declared war on Great Britain and France
1940
-June 14—Paris surrendered to Germany.
-France was cut in two—the northern part, which included Paris, became known as Occupied France—which was controlled
by the Germans. The southern part became known as Unoccupied France or Vichy France with the capital at Vichy.
Marshall Petain who was under the control of the Nazis administered Vichy France.
1941
December 7—Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor…U.S. enters World War II
1942
-Battle of Coral Sea
-Battle of Midway
-U.S. Marines invade Japanese controlled island of Guadalcanal
1943
-Casablanca conference
-Allies invade Italy
1944
-June 6—Allies invade France (D-Day)
-Battle of the Bulge
1945
-April—FDR dies and Truman becomes president
-April—Germany surrenders
-August: U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japan—Japan surrenders
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FDR’s Latin American Good Neighbor Policy: The efforts made by the administration of U.S. president
Franklin D. Roosevelt to improve relations with Latin America were known as the Good Neighbor Policy.
Roosevelt pledged to be a "good neighbor" in his inaugural address in 1933, and the phrase was soon linked to
American policy in the Western Hemisphere. At the Pan American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in
December 1933, the United States signed a convention forbidding intervention by one state in another's affairs.
The following year Roosevelt ended the 19-year occupation of Haiti by U.S. Marines and abrogated the Platt
Amendment, which had made Cuba a virtual U.S. dependent. The United States continued to adhere to the
policy of nonintervention when Bolivia and Mexico expropriated American property in 1937-38. The Good
Neighbor approach and cultural exchange programs improved hemispheric relations and paved the way for
cooperation on security during World War II. However, relations deteriorated again, despite the creation of the
Organization of American States (1948) and the Alliance for Progress (1961).
Open Door Policy: By the late 19th century, Japan and the European powers had carved much of China into
separate spheres of influence, inside of which each held economic dominance. The U.S., coming late to
imperialism, held no sphere of influence in China. In 1899 U.S. Secretary of State John Hay proposed an
"Open Door" policy in China in which all nations would have equal trading and development rights throughout
all of China. Such a policy would put all the imperialist powers on equal footing in China and would limit the
advantages of having ones own sphere of influence.
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