Google Checkout is incredible

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

AFP NOTES 2/27

LECTURE 12: FROM ISOLATION OT ENGAGEMENT, 1919-1945

Wilson suffered a stroke after a bit, his wife essentially ran the government
-he was right, though
-League of Nations failed without America
-any peace through victory would be imposed peace
A) Isolationism
who were they?
-small but vocal minority of german hitler supporters
-small italian minority
-also irish

influential senators
-Nye (ND)
-Borah (ID)
-Norris (NE)
-Johnson (CA)
-Clark (MO)
-Vandenburg (MI)
-Wheeler (MT)
-the point here is that they're all western and midwestern
-it's thought that the non-isolationists were the liberal north eastern capitalists, etc
-midwesterners are much more isolationist

America First Committee formed
-Henry Ford
-Charles Lindbergh

Nye Committee
special senate committee under Nye during 1935
-published 1400 page report on why America entered WWI
-puts most of the blame on armaments manufacturers

Hitler decided to repudiate the treaty of Versailles in 1935
-Nye said that this meant that laws had to be passed to keep America neutral
-withholding passports from Americans to travel in war zones or on belligerent ships
-prohibiting export of arms and ammunition to belligerents
-there were no exemptions

Neutrality Acts 1935, 36, 37
Lots of embargoes implemented against belligerents
-especially in arms and armaments
-still, the belligerents were receiving other war materials
-oil, cotton, iron, steel, copper
-second neutrality act fixed this
-people were saying that anyone who shipped war materiel to the belligerents were being unamerican, unpatriotic
-EVERYBODY wanted this neutrality
-for the third act, it was passed by 81-0 in senate, 404-1 in house
Quarantine Speech
compared the war to an infection
-by containing the war in europe by not fueling it, they're trying to keep it from spreading
-HOWEVER neutrality is kind of a problem
-same kind of thing as in WWI
-if you're not trading with either, one already has the money, one will clearly pull out
-another act prohibited the arming of American merchant ships
-no transportation of arms and munitions
-discretionary 'cash-and-carry' (you both pay for your own goods in cash AND supply transportation)
-close American ports to belligerents (didn't exactly get this far...)
Ludlow Amendment
proposed an amendment to the constitution, isolationist one
-would have required that a declaration of war would have to be approved by a referendum of a majority of the people, except in case of attack
-every representative from various midwestern states voted for it
-other people voted for it as well
-progressives, exemplarists

B) Engagement in Europe

Fourth Neutrality Act
Jan 1938
served to weaken the provisions of the first three neutrality acts
-cash and carry was implemented

Destroyers for Bases
September 1940
-Roosevelt swapped 50 US destroyers for rights to set up US bases on 8 UK possessions in the western hemisphere
-justified as a legitimate expression of national self-defense
Lend-Lease
Roosevelt was re-elected
-UK is america's 'first line of defense'
-wants to 'eliminate the dollar sign' from american dealings with the UK
-'lending the garden hose to your neighbor's burning house'
-if UK goes down, the axis owns EVERYTHING
-this is a MASSIVE threat to America
-america must be the 'arsenal of democracy'
-FDR made it clear that isolationists are compromising American security
-this will NO LONGER be tolerated
-FDR said it was unpatriotic
-famous '4 freedoms'
-speech, worship, from want, from fear
introduced as a bill
-passes through both House and Senate
-essentially gave the president a blank check, with this regard

Atlantic Occupation and Patrol
US occupies Greenland as a preventive security measure
-patrolled the N. Atlantic west of Iceland
-if they see any 'possible aggressor ships,' they'll broadcast the locations
June 1941
-FDR moved to freeze german/italian assets in the US
July 1941
-US occupies Iceland (another preventative measure)
-FDR extends the 'north american defense sphere' or 'security zone' all the way to iceland
-wow.
August 1941
-Roosevelt and Churchill met on a ship off the shore of canada
-signed the 'atlantic charter'
-an 8 point declaration of peace aims

The Greer and "Shoot on Sight"
September 4, 1941
-the Greer (american warship) was torpedoed by a U-boat as it was trying to broadcast the U-boat's location
-the next week, FDR announces a 'shoot on sight' policy against U-boats
-says they attack first, so we have to as well
-calls the germans pirates both legally and morally
-attempts to stir up american people's emotions over this, tells them the Greer was torpedoes, never says anything about why
-calls the Nazis the 'rattlesnakes of the atlantic'
Essentially, US is engaged in a Quasi-War with Germany on the high seas
-FDR is just looking for a smoking gun at this point
May 1940
-64% of americans felt preservation of peace was more important than defeat of Nazi Germany
December 1940
-only 32%

C) Engagement in Asia
key issue here was the preservation of the 'open door' in china

The Tripartite Pact
-Italy, Germany, Japan
-essentially said that if any one of them was attacked, then the other two will come into the war against the aggressor
-at this time, Japan moves into northern indochina
FDR has three options at this point (does them all)
-close the panama canal to Japanese shipping
-forbid the sale of scrap metal to Japan (used to make weapons of war)
-abrogate America's existing commercial treaties with Japan (loses most favored nation trade status)
By July 1941
-Japanese decided to 'strike south' after taking over a bunch of indochina
-took the rest
-in response...
Embargo
In response to the taking of Indochina
-FDR seizes the American assets of Japan
-more importantly, TOTAL OIL EMBARGO on Japan
-Japan has no real oil reserves, this is a real problem...
Japan tries to placate the americans
-even if they sign a treaty with china, they'd still occupy China for ~25 years
US rejects these terms
-demands that japan withdraw all land and naval forces from china, indochina
-demands that japan recognizes the legitimate govt of china
-no extraterritorial rights (no zone of influence)
-essentially, a pre-war status
Pearl Harbor
problem here
-Japan tried to declare war on US, because of miscommunications it doesn't work
-FDR gets US into war on Dec 7
-Germany declares war on Dec 11

No comments: