1. America Moves Towards War

2. Review: What was America’s position when war broke out in Europe?
Hint: same as when WWI started in Europe!

3. Phase 1: Isolationism Q: What does it mean to be “quarantined”?
Q: How does this relate to America’s attitude at the beginning of WWII?

4. Phase 1: Isolationism A. Neutrality Act (1935) B. Munich Pact
Outlawed the sale of weapons to nations at war, including countries engaged in civil wars (ex: Spain)
B. Munich Pact
Policy of appeasement
GB and F give Hitler the Sudetenland
Neville Chamberlain (GB) declares he has achieved “peace in our time”…. Ironic?

5. Phase 2: Cautiously towards involvement
“All aid short of war” - FDR

6. Phase 2: Cautiously towards involvement
A. Cash and Carry
US will sell weapons to GB and F if they pay cash and transport them in their own ships
Theory: sell weapons to keep US out of war
B. Build up for defense
Nazi victories scare Congress into spending $$$ on defense
1st peacetime draft (conscription)
C. Election of 1940
FDR reelected for 3rd term

7. Phase 3: The Great Arsenal of Democracy
“No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it” - FDR
Q: How have American attitudes toward the war changed?

8. Phase 3: The Great Arsenal of Democracy
A. Lend-Lease Act (1941)
GB had no more money to pay for Cash and Carry
Garden Hose example
Lend weapons to countries whose “defense was vital to the US”
B. The US and Stalin
US extends Lend-Lease to USSR even though we did not like communism or Stalin
“If Hitler invaded Hell, the Brits would be prepared to work with the devil himself” - Winston Churchill

9. Phase 3: The Great Arsenal of Democracy
B. The US and Stalin
US extends Lend-Lease to USSR even though we did not like communism or Stalin
“If Hitler invaded Hell, the Brits would be prepared to work with the devil himself” - Winston Churchill (GB)
At Sea
FDR gives the US Navy permission to attack U-boats (German submarines) in self defense

10. Phase 4: Planning for War
FDR writes Churchill that he will not force Congress to declare war on Germany, but that “he would wage war and do everything to force an incident”

11. Phase 4: Planning for War
A. Four Freedoms Speech:
Freedom of speech, worship, from want, from fear
B. Atlantic Charter
US and GB agree to
Collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, freedom of the seas
NOT a military commitment, but….
Becomes founding document of UN

12. Phase 4: Planning for War
C. Allies = nations who fought the Axis powers
Ex: F, GB, USSR, US, Belgium, Poland, Netherlands… 26 total countries
D. Shoot on Sight
US merchant ships (not just Navy ships) can be armed and can fight G
Undeclared naval war with G
“When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you crush him” - FDR

13. Phase 5: WAR!
“The only thing now to do is to lick the hell out of them.” - Isolationist Senator Wheeler

14. Phase 5: WAR! A. Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)
Japanese destroy US naval base in Hawaii in surprise attack
American fleet in the Pacific in shambles
2,403 Americans killed
1,1178 Americans wounded
21 ships (including 8 battle ships) and 300 aircraft sunk/damaged/lost in the attack

15. Phase 5: WAR! Why would the Japanese attack the US?
Japan was expanding into China and then European colonies in Asia
To protest this expansion, the US cuts off trade with Japan
Japan needed American crude oil in order to fuel its military and expansion!