Chapter Twenty-Five

Diplomacy and World War II

1929-1945
Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy
Japanese Aggression in Manchuria
• Japan took over Manchuria in September
1931, and renamed it Manchukuo
• League of Nations condemned Japan, but
nothing else
• Stimson Doctrine
– The US refused to recognize the regime of
Manchukuo
 Latin America
• Hoover stopped interventional policies
– Troops left Nicaragua and Haiti
 Franklin Roosevelt’s Policies
1933-1938
• Good-Neighbor Policy
– Pan-American Conferences
• Roosevelt promised to give later problems to the
arbitration
• Promised help against anyone who was aggressive
– Cuba
• Removed the Platt Amendment
– Mexico
• Mexican President Cardenas took over oil properties
• Roosevelt convinced Americans to settle
 Economic Diplomacy
• Recognition of the Soviet Union
• Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934)
– Independence for Philippines
• Reciprocal Trade Agreements
– Roosevelt reduced tariffs on foreign imports
Events Abroad: Fascism and Aggressive
Militarism
• Dictators rose up in Italy, Japan, and Germany
• Italy
– Mussolini
– Fascist
• Germany
– Hitler
– Nazi
– Anti-Semitic
• Japan
– Nationalist, Militarist
 American Isolationists
• Revisionist history of WW1
– People continued to preach that the US entrance
into the War was a dire mistake
 Neutrality Acts
• Neutrality Act of 1935
– Forbid travel and trade with aggressive nations
• Neutrality Act of 1936
– Forbid loans to aggressive nations
• Neutrality Act of 1937
– Forbid arms trade with nations involved with the
Spanish Civil War
 The Spanish Civil War
• Fascists, with General Franco, were fighting
with the Loyalists
• US remained neutral
• Franco won, and established a dictatorship
 Prelude to War
• Appeasement
– Ethiopia, 1935
• Mussolini took over Ethiopia. LON gave in.
– Rhineland, 1936
• German troops militarized the Rhineland.
– China, 1937
• Japan invaded china. US ship Panay sunk.
– Sudetenland, 1938
• Hitler takes over Czechoslovakia. Conference at Munich
ensues.
 Results
• Finally, the US decides to help quarantine the
Axis powers
• Arms buildup ensued.
From Neutrality to War, 1939-1941
 Outbreak of War in Europe
• Appeasement failed
• Invasion of Poland
– Germany invaded Poland
– Britain and France declare war
• Blitzkrieg
– ‘Lightning War’
– Germany took over Scandinavia, Denmark, and
Norway, then France
 Changing US Policy
• Cash and Carry Policy
– Allowed Britain to buy arms with cash
• Selective Service Act (1940)
– Drafted men between 21 and 35
• Destroyers For Bases deal
– Britain gave the US permission to build bases on
British soil, and the US gave Britain 50 ships
 The Election of 1940
• Republican
– Wendell Willkie
• Democrat
– Franklin Roosevelt (3rd term)
• Roosevelt won (Again)
 Arsenal of Democracy
• Four Freedoms
– Justified lending money to Britain
• Lend-Lease Act
– Arms were given to Britain on credit
• Atlantic Charter
– Defined US and Britain peace objectives
• Shoot On Sight
– Protect Britain ships from German submarines
 Dispute With Japan
• Economic Action
– Roosevelt stopped trade with Japan, and later
froze it’s assets in the US and cut off their access
to oil
 Pearl Harbor
• On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, Japanese
planes bombed Pearl Harbor, killing thousands
• The US declared war on Japan, one day later
World War II: The Home Front
 Industrial Production
• The War Production Board was set up to manage
war industries
• The Office of War Mobilization was set up to
control raw materials
• The Office of Price Administration regulated all
aspects of civilian life (How is that different from
fascism? *shakes head*)
• Smith Connally Anti-Strike Act of 1943
– The government could take over strike-ridden
businesses
 Impact on Society
• African Americans
– Joined the war effort
– Discrimination abounded
– Congregation of Racial Equality
• Smith vs. Allwright
– Ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny membership in
political parties to blacks
 Impact on Society
• Mexicans
– Worked in wartime industries and the military
– Braceros (farmers) were allowed to enter the
nation without papers
– Zoot Suit Riots in 1943
• Whites and Mexicans fought over the streets
 Native Americans
• Worked in the military and wartime industries.
 Japanese Americans
• Suspected as spies
• 100,000 Japanese put into camps
• Korematsu vs. US
– Upheld relocation based on wartime crisis
 Women
• Many women served in the military, and the
others fell in to replace the men in the
working class
 The Election of 1994
• Democrats
– FDR nominated (4th term)
• Republicans
– Thomas Dewey
• FDR won again :)
World War II: The Battlefronts
 Fighting in Germany
• Defense at sea, Attacks by air
– Focused on
• Defeating the submarines
• Bombing the German cities
• From North Africa to Italy
– Allies had to retake Africa (Operation Torch)
– Took over Sicily, and Mussolini fell
• From D Day to Victory in Europe
– British, Canadian, and US forces invaded France
• German Surrender and Discovery of the Holocaust
– Hitler commits suicide, Nazi armies surrender
– 6 million Jews were systemically murdered
 Fighting Japan
• Turning Point, 1942
– Battle of the Coral Sea
• US stopped a Japanese invasionary force
– Battle of Midway
• Japanese messages were decoded and four Japanese
carriers were destroyed (And 300 planes)
• Island Hopping
– Took over Japanese islands one by one
• Major Battles
– Battle of Leyte Gulf (1944)
– Battle of Okinawa (1945)
 The Atomic Bomb
• Directed by Oppenheimer
• Tested in Alamogordo in New Mexico
• Bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Japan surrendered aboard the Missouri
 Wartime Conferences
• Casablanca
– Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to invade Sicily
• Teheran
– Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed to invade France
• Yalta
– Germany would be divided
– Free elections
– Soviets would declare war against Japan
– Soviets would control the Sakhalin island
– The United Nations would be founded
• Soon after Yalta, Roosevelt died, and Churchill was
replaced.
 The War’s Legacy
• Costs
– 300,000 American's died
– 320 billion spent
• United Nations founded on October 24th, 1945