From Bystander to Belligerent

1
From Bystander to Belligerent

• A Timeline of the USA and the Coming of WWII

2
1931

• Japan invades Manchuria
• League of Nations investigates, then censures
  Japan
• Japan withdraws from the League
• Concept of collective security threatened

"With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo,
the world can be in peace."
3
1932

• Hoover administration responds with Stimson
  Doctrine
• USA would not recognize any territorial
  acquisitions achieved by force
• FDR elected President

4
1933

• FDR pulls plug on London Economic Conference
• FDR recognizes USSR possibly ally?
• Good Neighbor Policy declared toward Latin
  America
• Hitler becomes German Chancellor

5
1934

• Tydings-McDuffie Act (Philippines Ind. Act
  Japan?)
• Johnson Debt Default Act more isolationism!
• Nye Committee report more isolationism!
• Japan leaves Washington Naval Treaty

6
1935

• Italy invades Ethiopia
• Hitler begins compulsory military service, and
  rebuilding army, navy, and Luftwaffe (TV?)
• First Neutrality Act avoiding circumstances (?)
  that led to involvement in WWI

7
1936

• Spanish Civil War begins
• Second Neutrality Act applied to both sides
• Rome-Berlin Axis alliance formed
• Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland (TV?)
• Nuremberg Laws - German Jews denaturalized

Guernica
Chart used to explain The Nuremberg Laws
8
1937

• Japan invades China
• FDRs quarantine speech alarms isolationists
  (?)
• Third Neutrality Act (FDRs response re China ?)
• Panay incident remember the Maine?

USS Panay on the Yangtze River, China
9
1938

• Austrian Anschluss (TV?)
• Hitler demands Sudentenland (German-speaking
  region of Czechoslovakia)
• Munich Conference peace in our time ??

10
1939

• Hitler takes all of Czechoslovakia
• Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Blitzkrieg on Poland
• cash-and-carry Neutrality Act
• So-called phony war begins

11
1940

• German spring offense against western Europe
  begins
• France surrenders (June)
• Selective service and Training Act (September)
• Havana Conference
• Battle of Britain (summer)
• Bases for destroyers deal
• Tripartite Pact

12
1940 contin

• Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies
  versus America First Committee (all aid short of
  war)
• FDR wins unprecedented 3rd term
• Your boys are not going to be sent into any
  foreign wars.

13
1941

• Lend-Lease Act (March) economic declaration of
  war (?)
• Robin Moor (May)
• Germany invades USSR (June)
• FDR orders convoying of lend-lease supplies to
  Iceland (July)
• Japan invades Indochina USA embargoes oil
• Atlantic Charter (August)

1776!
14
1941 contin

• Greer, Kearny, Ruben James (Sept/Oct)
• Diplomatic negotiations - Japan to leave China in
  return for renewed trade relations (Nov/Dec)
• Black Sunday a day that will live in infamy
  (Dec 7)
• USA declares war on Japan (Dec 8)
• Germany and Italy declare war on USA (Dec 11)