T6 International Flashcards
1
Q
The ‘Good Neighbor’ policy
A
- When Roosevelt became president in 1933, the majority of members of Congress were
isolationists. - Roosevelt did not intend becoming involved in European affairs.
- He wanted the USA to follow a policy of friendship towards other countries and thought the USA
could act as a ‘moral force’ for good in the world, especially to his American neighbours.
2
Q
The introduction of the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy
A
- Overcoming the economic crisis facing the USA was President Roosevelt’s foremost task.
- He encouraged economic and diplomatic co-operation through the idea of the ‘Good Neighbor’
policy, which was in a sense a continuation of Hoover’s policies of persuasion and economic
pressure to exert influence on Latin America. - Roosevelt saw his policy as transforming the Monroe Doctrine into arrangements for mutual
hemispheric action against aggressors.
3
Q
FDR Relations between the USA and Latin America
A
- In accordance with the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy, US troops left Haiti, the Dominican Republic and
Nicaragua. - In 1934, Congress signed a treaty with Cuba that nullified the Platt Amendment, which had
authorised the US occupation of Cuba. - The USA did retain one naval base at Guantánamo.
- By 1938, the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy had led to ten treaties with Latin American countries,
resulting in huge trade increases for the USA. - Hull’s policies of low tariffs improved the economies of the Latin American countries, especially
in Cuba when the tariff on Cuban sugar was reduced and trade increased accordingly. - To show continued goodwill to his neighbours, Roosevelt passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreement
Act in 1934. - This repealed several of the 1920s isolationist trade policies so the USA could compete better in
foreign trade. - The 1934 Act began the historic move towards lower trade barriers and greater global
engagement.
4
Q
The US’s 1930s Policy of Neutrality
A
- The widespread feeling that involvement in the First World War had been a mistake continued in
the USA throughout the 1930s. - It was made evident when Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts, which intended to keep
the USA out of future wars. - It was felt that the USA had unnecessarily lost men and military equipment, and that Europe was
drifting towards further conflict as a result of the growth of totalitarianism.
5
Q
The Neutrality Acts
A
- The First Neutrality Act of 1935 gave the president the power to prohibit US ships from carrying
US-made munitions to countries at war. The Neutrality Act could also prevent US citizens from
travelling on ships of those countries at war except at their own risk. This was to avoid situations
like the Lusitania incident, 1915. - The Second Neutrality Act of 1936 banned loans or credits to countries at war. The Act set no
limits on trade in materials useful for war and US companies such as Texaco, Standard Oil and
Ford were thus able to sell such items on credit to General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. - A Third Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade the export of munitions for use by either of the opposing
forces in Spain. It did, however, permit nations involved in a war to buy goods other than
munitions from the USA, provided they paid cash and used their own ships. This became known
as ‘cash and carry’. - The fourth Neutrality Act of 1937, authorised the US president to determine what could and could
not be bought, other than munitions, to be paid for on delivery, and made travel on ships of
countries at war unlawful.
6
Q
Roosevelt and Neutrality
A
- In the 1930s, the totalitarian and militaristic states of Germany, Italy and Japan openly built up
large armed forces. - Roosevelt despised the spread of totalitarianism in Germany and Italy and, by 1937, began to see
that the USA might need to become involved in European affairs. - Roosevelt’s views differed from those of Congress and, most importantly, the majority of the
American people. - For some, the idea of US involvement in others’ problems was completely abhorrent. For others,
going to war would end the reforms of the New Deal. - In 1937, a Gallup Poll indicated that almost 70 per cent of Americans thought that US involvement
in the First World War had been a mistake and 95 per cent opposed any future involvement in
war. - Although Roosevelt was aware of public opinion, in October of that year he made a speech in
Chicago, warning the people of the USA about the situation in Europe and the Far East and the
consequent dangers of war. It became known as the ‘Quarantine Speech’. - He had been appalled by the Nationalist bombing of civilians in Spain and the aggressive nature
of Japan in declaring war on China in 1937. - He had to tread a delicate path, and his speech warned the USA not only of the horrors of war but
also the problems with neutrality. - Roosevelt suggested a quarantine of the aggressors but was careful not to mention specific
countries. - The USA then made further amendments to the Fifth Neutrality Act of 1939. The fifth Neutrality
Act meant that the president could authorise the ‘cash and carry’ export of arms and munitions
to countries at war, but they had to be transported in the countries’ own ships. In addition, the president could specify which areas were theatres of war in time of war, through which US citizens
and ships were forbidden to travel, and proclaimed the North Atlantic a combat zone. - He did this because German U-boats were attacking British ships and bringing the war close to the
USA. Roosevelt ordered the US Navy to patrol the western Atlantic and reveal the location of the
German submarines to the British.
7
Q
The US response to the European War (1939–1941)
A
- Roosevelt began to express his strong support for the Western democratic states.
- After the Munich Agreement Hitler announced further rearmament and so did Roosevelt with a
further $300 million granted to the defence budget. - In October 1938, Roosevelt opened secret talks with the French on how to bypass US neutrality
laws and allow the French to buy US aircraft. - After tortuous negotiations in 1939, the French government placed large orders with the US
aircraft industry. - The USA censured Germany in March 1939, and recalled its ambassador for breaking the Munich
Agreement and seizing parts of Czechoslovakia. - As tensions heightened in Europe, Roosevelt called on Germany and Italy to give assurances that
they would not attack any European country over a period of ten years.
8
Q
The changing situation in Europe
A
- When Britain and France went to war with Germany in September 1939, Roosevelt summoned
Congress into special session to repeal the arms embargo terms of the Neutrality Acts. - Most Americans sympathised with the Allied cause and wanted to see Germany defeated.
- This was because they disliked the aggression of Nazi Germany.
- Many feared that if it conquered the European continent it would threaten the USA next.
- In November 1939, in a vote on party lines, Congress agreed to sell arms on a strictly cash-and
carry basis. - No American ships would carry weapons. However, it was felt the sales would benefit the Allies
rather than Germany as British warships could protect their own vessels and destroy German
carriers. - Clearly Congress had not anticipated the threat to British shipping from German U-boats.
- Most Americans wanted Britain and France to win, but as German successes mounted, this
seemed decreasingly likely. - The problem was compounded in the summer of 1940 when France was defeated and Britain
stood alone against Germany. Britain had placed orders for 14,000 aircraft and 25,000 aero
engines, but was increasingly unable to pay. Roosevelt had overestimated Britain’s wealth and
began to realise that the USA would have to help more if Britain was to stay in the war. - In 1940, Roosevelt ‘traded’ Britain 50 destroyers for six Caribbean bases. British bases on Bermuda
and Newfoundland were also leased to the USA. This was good business for Roosevelt. He had
swapped some elderly destroyers for valuable bases. Nevertheless, it marked a shift to active
support for Britain in the war that allowed her to continue to defend her merchant ships.
9
Q
The America First Campaign
A
- This was set up by isolationists meanwhile to keep USA out of the conflict.
- Among its leaders was the aviator Charles Lindbergh. Much of the campaign’s finance came from
the German Embassy. - An American Nazi Party, the Volksbund, upset many Americans by its paramilitary style and
attacks on Jews. - Increasingly, out-and-out isolationists were seen, fairly or otherwise, as supporters of Germany.
This diminished their support.
10
Q
The 1940 Presidential election
A
- Although the Republicans and their candidate, Wendell Willkie, were seen as the party of non
involvement, support for neutrality did cross party lines. - Roosevelt decided to stand for a third term partly because there seemed no suitable successor
within the Democratic Party. - He repeated to audiences how much he hated war. Indeed, in Boston in September, Roosevelt
made a famous speech in which he assured listeners that American ‘boys were not going to be
sent into any foreign wars’. - However, Roosevelt was beginning to appeal more to businessmen who would do well out of war
and less to his more traditional supporters whose boys would be fighting in one. - Despite what he said, the USA was moving ever closer to war. Although his victory was smaller
than in 1936, by 27 to 22 million votes, Roosevelt decided to act more boldly after winning. - In a fireside chat of 29 December 1940, he called the USA ‘the arsenal of democracy’, meaning
the provider of arms to Britain.
11
Q
Lend-Lease and the Atlantic Charter
A
- Lend-Lease was introduced with Congressional approval in May 1941. Britain would be ‘loaned’
the means to keep fighting. - Roosevelt likened it to lending a neighbour a garden hose to fight a fire that might otherwise have
spread to his own property, but everyone knew you did not lend weapons. - The USA was effectively giving Britain the means to remain in the war. This too showed a switch
in policy. - Roosevelt had been reluctant to give Britain weapons in 1940 in case she was defeated, and
Germany subsequently used America’s own weapons against her. - In the meantime, in August, Roosevelt had met with the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
on the British battleship Prince of Wales, anchored off the Newfoundland coast of Canada. - After three days of talks, they issued the Atlantic Charter.
- This was a powerful expression of a vision of what the world should be like after ‘the final
destruction of Nazi tyranny’, with international peace, national self-determination and freedom
of the seas. - Roosevelt agreed to send aid to the USSR, which had been invaded by Germany in June 1941.
- In November 1941, Lend-Lease was extended to the USSR.
- Roosevelt was clearly giving Britain ‘all aid short of war’ but he still was not prepared to formally
go to war with Germany. He had no wish to be a president who took his country into war. - He had made great play throughout his career of how much he hated war.
- He realised that, while the majority of Americans supported Britain, they still wished to keep out
of the conflict, although a Gallup Poll in May 1941 showed only nineteen per cent of respondents
thought he had gone too far in helping Britain.
12
Q
Deteriorating US – Japanese Relations (1933 – 1941)
A
- In the late 1930s, Japan edged closer to alliances with the fascist dictators in Europe.
- The US government became alarmed as it watched Japan’s military encroachments into
Indochina. - Roosevelt showed his displeasure by pressuring Japan economically in the hope that such actions
would end Japanese activities. - The Japanese military held such power in government that it dictated foreign policy.
- Its key aim was to destroy any chance of the USA interfering with imperial and economic
expansion.
13
Q
Worsening Relations
A
- Japan and US relations had deteriorated since the Japanese invasion of China, which had begun
in 1937. - Japan declared the open-door policy obsolete.
- Roosevelt retaliated by lending funds to China to buy weapons and by asking US manufacturers
not to sell planes to Japan. - Japan was dependent on supplies of industrial goods from the USA and if these dried up it realised
it needed to find new suppliers, by force if necessary. - In July 1940, Congress limited supplies of oil and scrap iron to Japan.
- After the signing of the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo axis, Roosevelt banned the sale of machine tools to
Japan. In spring 1941, Secretary of State Cordell Hull met with the Japanese Ambassador
Kichisaburo Nomura to resolve differences between the two countries. - Hull demanded Japan withdraw from China and promise not to attack Dutch and French colonies
in South-east Asia. - Japan did not respond because the USA offered them nothing in return.
- The European powers were involved in the war in their own continent and could not defend their
Asian possessions, for example, in the Dutch East Indies. - When France was defeated by Germany, the Japanese marched into the French colonies in
Indochina. - Japan subsequently announced the setting up of the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
- This was effectively a means by which Japan could economically exploit countries under its
control. - In July 1941, the USA responded by freezing Japanese assets in the USA and an embargo on oil.
- Japan was almost wholly dependent on US oil.
- As the military increasingly took over in Japan, the new Japanese Ambassador in Washington,
Kichisaburo Nomura, told Hull that Japan would halt any further expansion if the USA and Britain
cut off aid to China and lifted the economic blockade on Japan. - Japan, indeed, promised to pull out of Indochina if a ‘just peace’ was made with China.
- Some historians believe today that Japan, bogged down in its Chinese war, was genuinely seeking
a face-saving way out. - However, few feel that Japan would actually have honoured any agreement it made with China.
14
Q
Operation Magic
A
- Roosevelt and his advisers felt some security because they were able to decipher Japanese radio
traffic because of Operation Magic, established in the 1920s to break military and diplomatic
codes. - Operation Magic also gave information about Japanese ship movements, but did not allow them
to find their destinations. - US intelligence knew that the Japanese had set 25 November as a deadline for making diplomatic
progress. - When Hull addressed the US Cabinet on 7 November, he informed them that the USA should
anticipate a military attack by Japan ‘anywhere, anytime’.
15
Q
The Attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)
A
- Few in the USA at the time trusted Japan.
- The USA did not respond to the Japanese offers and so the Japanese made preparations to attack
the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. - The objective of this attack was to immobilise the US Navy so it could not stop Japan’s expansion
into East Asia, to areas such as the Dutch East Indies with their supplies of oil. Japan had not told
its European allies of its intentions. - In the early morning of Sunday 7th December 1941, when most of the garrison were asleep, the
Japanese launched a ferocious attack on Pearl Harbor. - Catching the defenders by surprise, their fighter planes and bombers destroyed 180 American
aircraft, and sank seven battleships and ten other vessels. - Over 2,400 American servicemen were killed. However, the American aircraft carriers were out at
sea and avoided being attacked. - Further, the Japanese had missed the American fuel stores, which if hit would have meant the
entire naval base would have had to return to the USA, thus leaving the region entirely
undefended against further Japanese aggression. - On 8th December 1941, the USA declared war on Japan.
- On 11th December 1941, honouring his treaty obligations, Hitler declared war on the USA, as did
his ally, Italy. - The stunning surprise of the attack on Pearl Harbor has raised questions about how it was
possible.
