US Neutrality and Actions As Hitler swallowed Europe, the US was officially neutral, but the quick fall of France scared the Americans. Unofficially, we supported Great Britain and other European countries.
Examples of US aid to Europe: 1. $30 million to Finland to oppose Russian aggression (Russia takes Finland).
2. Congress allowed $37 billion(!) for the construction of a huge air fleet and a two ocean navy. (That’s more than it cost to fight WWI!) The USS Missouri was built with this money.
3. Congress passed a conscription law in This was America’s first peacetime draft.
4. Havana Conference: the US told the other 21 countries of the Western Hemisphere to help enforce the Monroe Doctrine so that Hitler wouldn’t take them too!
5. FDR traded 50 old WWI era destroyers to England for 8 bases in the Western Hemisphere (that they couldn’t use).
6. The Lend-Lease Act (#1776) Allowed the US to “loan” England a variety of war materials: $50 Billion worth of arms (Was viewed by Germany as an unofficial declaration of war: sank the unarmed US merchant ship the S. S. Robin Moore 21 st May 1941.
In a surprise move, Hitler invaded Russia in June of This made the US, England and Russia into allies.
7. The US extended $1 Billion to the USSR under the Lend-Lease Act. (Eventually reached $11 Billion)
8. FDR, Churchill, and Stalin all meet to sign the Atlantic Charter. This officially says that they’ll all work together to beat Germany.
Pearl Harbor and Reactions Since 1940, Japan and Germany had been formal allies. Once America began the Lend-Lease Program, why wouldn’t Japan see us as enemies too?
Why did Japan attack the US? Japan’s problem was that they couldn’t win quickly in China. They depended on scrap metal from the US to continue the war. But the US was now militarily opposed to Japan’s ally, Germany.
The US stopped shipping metal and gasoline to Japan. The Japanese then attacked the oil-rich East Indies oil fields.
The Japanese believed that the US had forced them into war. The US just didn’t want to support the Japanese war effort against China.
Washington had ‘cracked’ the top-secret Japanese code and knew that they would choose war against the US, but as a democracy committed to public debate and peace, we could not strike first.
On 7 th December 1941 a Japanese fleet sent bombers in a surprise attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
FDR told Congress that this was “a day which will live in infamy.” Japan was negotiating with Washington even as they attacked.
The entire Pacific fleet of Battleships (8) was destroyed.
Luckily, all 3 priceless aircraft carriers were out of the harbor.
About 3000 men died in this attack. In Congress, only one member voted not to go to war. Only 4 days after Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the US. Congress voted to accept this war unanimously.
The US would have stayed “un- neutral” but out of war had others left us alone, but our “un- neutrality” angered Japan and Germany so that they saw no other alternative. Non- aggression was no longer possible.
The cost would be huge, but not fighting the war would have cost more.
It would be the industrial might of the United States that would eventually break the back of fascist nations.
“The Freedom from Fear” by Norman Rockwell. He made four paintings showing what America was fighting for.
“Freedom From Want” These are the only paintings he made about the war.
“Freedom of Worship” FDR inspired Norman Rockwell in a speech to Congress about these.
“Freedom of Speech” Are these paintings propaganda?