The Diplomacy of the New Era

1
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes secured
  legislation from Congress in 1921 declaring the
  war with Germany to be at an end, negotiated with
  separate peace treaties with the former Central
  Powers, these separate treaties the lawmakers
  believed gave the US all the advantages of the
  Versailles Treaty with none of the burdensome
  responsibilities, Hughes then embarked on a
  series of efforts to build safeguards against
  future wars

2
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Washington Conference of 1921 was an attempt
  to prevent a naval arms race between America,
  Japan and Britain, proposed reductions in the
  fleets of all 3 nations, 10-year moratorium on
  construction of large warships, called for the
  actual scrapping of 2 million tons of existing
  shipping, the conference ultimately agreed to
  accept most of the terms

3
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Five- Power Pact (1922) established both
  limits for total naval tonnage and a ratio of
  armaments among the signatories, for every 5 tons
  of American and British warships, Japan would
  maintain 3 tons, and France and Italy 1.75 tons
  each, this in fact confirmed Japanese superiority
  in East Asia, Britain and the US had to spread
  their fleets around the globe while Japan was
  only concerned with the Pacific

4
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Nine-Power Pact pledged a continuation of the
  Open Door policy in China, and in the Four-Power
  Pact the US, Britain, France, and Japan promised
  to respect one anothers Pacific territories and
  cooperate to prevent aggression

5
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Kellog-Briand Pact (1928) was a multilateral
  treaty outlawing war as an instrument of national
  policy, 14 nations signed the agreement,
  eventually 48 other nations would join the pact,
  it contained no instruments of enforcement but
  rested on the moral force of world opinion

6
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The first responsibility of American diplomacy
  was to ensure that American overseas trade faced
  no obstacles to expansion, and that, once
  established, it would remain free of
  interference, preventing a dangerous armaments
  race and reducing the possibility of war were
  steps to that end

7
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The US was most concerned about Europe on whose
  economic health American prosperity in large part
  depended on, Allied powers were struggling to
  repay 11 billion in loans they had contracted
  with the US during and shortly after the war,
  loans that the Republican administrations were
  unwilling to reduce or forgive, They hired the
  money, didnt they?, with Germany also
  struggling to pay its reparations, the financial
  structure of Europe was on the brink of collapse

8
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Charles G. Dawes an American banker and diplomat,
  negotiated an agreement among France, Britain,
  Germany and the United States under which
  American banks would provide enormous loans to
  the Germans, enabling them to meet their
  reparations payments, in return, Britain and
  France would agree to reduce the amount of those
  payments, Dawes won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
  efforts

9
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Dawes Plan was responsible for the growing
  American economic presence in Germany, created
  circular pattern America would lend money to
  Germany, which Germany would use to pay
  reparations to France and England, who would in
  turn use those funds to repay war debts to the US

10
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• American automobile manufacturers were opening
  European factories, capturing a large share of
  the overseas market, other industries were
  establishing subsidiaries worth more than 10
  billion throughout the Continent, taking
  advantage of the devastation of European industry
  and the inability of domestic corporations to
  recover

11
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Some in the American government warned that the
  reckless expansion of overseas loans and
  investments threatened disaster that the US was
  becoming too dependent on unstable European
  economies, the high Republican tariffs of the
  1920s made it difficult for European nations to
  export their goods to the US making it difficult
  to find the money necessary to repay their loans,
  these warnings fell on deaf ears and US economic
  expansion in Europe continued until 1931

12
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• During the 1920s the American military maintained
  a presence in many Latin American countries, US
  investments in Latin America more than doubled
  between 1924 and 1929, American corporations
  built roads and other facilities in many areas,
  American banks offered loans to Latin American
  governments who were also having difficultly
  earning the money to repay them in the face of
  American high tariffs, resentment of Yankee
  Imperialism was rapidly growing in the late
  1920s

13
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The world financial crisis that began in 1929 and
  greatly intensified after 1931 was not only
  creating economic distress, it was producing a
  dangerous nationalism that threatened the weak
  international agreements established during the
  previous decade, the Depression was toppling some
  existing political leaders and replacing them
  with powerful, belligerent governments bent on
  expansion as a solution to their economic
  problems

14
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• In Latin America, Hoover worked diligently to
  repair some of the damage created by earlier
  American policies, he made a 10-week goodwill
  tour of the region before his inauguration, he
  tried to abstain from intervening in the internal
  affairs of Latin American countries, and moved to
  withdraw troops from Haiti.

15
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• America would grant diplomatic recognition to any
  sitting government without questioning the means
  it had used to obtain power, Hoover even
  repudiated the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
  Doctrine by refusing to permit American
  intervention when several Latin American
  countries defaulted on their debt obligations to
  the US in 1931

16
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Hoover proposed a moratorium on debts in Europe
  in 1931, but this failed to attract broad support
  or produce financial stability, many economists
  and political leaders appealed to Hoover to
  cancel all war debts owed to the US, but Hoover
  refused to cancel war debts in Europe, and
  several European nations promptly went into
  default

17
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• At the World Disarmament Conference (1932) France
  rejected idea of disarmament, called for the
  creation of an international army to counter the
  growing power of Germany, Hoover continued to
  urge major reductions in armaments including an
  immediate abolition of all offensive weapons and
  a 30 reduction in all land and naval forces, the
  conference ended in failure

18
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party had been
  in power in Italy since the early 1920s and by
  the 1930s it was increasingly nationalistic and
  militaristic, its leaders were threatening an
  active campaign of imperial expansion

19
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Hitler and the National Socialist Party (Nazis)
  would be in power in Germany by 1933, led by a
  belief in the racial superiority of the Aryan
  people, his commitment to providing Lebensraum
  (living space) for his master race, his
  pathological anti-Semitism and his passionate
  militarism all threatened European peace in the
  1930s

20
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• The Japanese, reeling from an economic depression
  of their own, were concerned about the increasing
  strength of the Soviet Union and of Chiang
  Kai-Sheks nationalist China, the were alarmed at
  Chiangs insistence on expanding his governments
  power in Manchuria, Japan had maintained
  effective economic control of Manchuria since
  1905.

21
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Japans military leaders staged a coup in 1931,
  seized control of foreign policy from the
  weakened liberals and launched a major invasion
  of northern Manchuria and by early 1932 the
  conquest of Manchuria was complete

22
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• Secretary of State Henry Stimson issued stern
  warnings to Japan and tried to use moral suasion
  to end the crisis, Hoover forbade him from
  cooperating with the League of Nations in
  imposing economic sanctions against the Japanese,
  the US refused to grant diplomatic recognition of
  new Japanese territories, Japan was unconcerned
  and in early 1932 expanded its aggression farther
  into China, attacking the city of Shanghai and
  killing thousands of civilians

23
The Diplomacy of the New Era

• By the time Hoover left office in early 1933 it
  was clear that the international system that the
  US had attempted to create in the 1920s, a system
  based on voluntary cooperation among nations and
  on an American refusal to commit itself to the
  interests of other countries, had collapsed

24
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Hoover had argued that only by resolving the
  question of war debt and reinforcing the gold
  standard could the American economy hope to
  recover, Roosevelt agreed to participate in the
  World Economic Conference (1933) in order to
  resolve these issues, FDR allowed the gold value
  of the dollar to fall in order to enable American
  goods to compete in the world markets, at the
  conference FDRs Bombshell was announced in which
  he rejected any agreement on currency
  stabilization

25
Isolationism and Internationalism

• FDR singed a bill in 1934 forbidding American
  banks from making loans to any nation in default
  on its debts, the result was to stop the old,
  circular system by which debt payments continued
  only by virtue of increasing American loans,
  within months war-debt payments from every nation
  except Finland stopped for good

26
Isolationism and Internationalism

• The Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act (1934)
  authorized administration to negotiate treaties
  lowering tariffs by as much as 50 for reciprocal
  reduction by other nations, Secretary of State
  Cordell Hull negotiated new treaties with 21
  countries resulting in an increase in American
  exports of nearly 40.

27
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Most of the agreements admitted only products not
  competitive with American industry and
  agriculture, so imports into the US continued to
  lag, therefore other countries were not obtaining
  the US currency needed to buy American products
  or pay off debts to US banks

28
Isolationism and Internationalism

• America was eager for a new relationship with the
  Soviet Union as a possible source of trade, the
  Soviets also wanted a new relationship with the
  US in order to help contain the growing influence
  of Japan who were viewed as a threat, in 1933 the
  US and Soviet Union reached an agreement in which
  the Soviets would cease their propaganda efforts
  in the US and protect American citizens in
  Russia, in return the US would recognize the
  communist regime, both countries still viewed
  each other with considerable mistrust

29
Isolationism and Internationalism

• During the 1930s the US increased imports/exports
  with the other nations in the Western Hemisphere
  by 100, at the Inter-American Conference (1933)
  Secretary of State Hull signed a policy statement
  stating no state has the right to intervene in
  the internal or external affairs of another.

30
Isolationism and Internationalism

• The Good Neighbor Policy did not mean that the US
  had abandoned its influence in Latin America, it
  meant that instead of military force the US would
  use economic influence in Latin America, it did
  nothing to stem the growing American domination
  of Latin American economies

31
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Support for isolationism emerged after
  disarmament failures at conferences in Geneva and
  London (Germany, Italy, and Japan walked out of
  them) Americans were faced with a choice between
  more active efforts to stabilize the world or
  more energetic attempts to isolate the nation
  from it, most Americans unhesitatingly chose the
  later

32
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Internationalists (old Wilsonians) were
  disillusioned with the League of Nations and its
  inability to stop Japan in East Asia, Populists
  were arguing that powerful business interests
  (Wall Street, munitions manufacturers, and
  others) had tricked the US into entering WWI.

33
Isolationism and Internationalism

• An investigation by Senator Gerald Nye (ND)
  revealed exorbitant profiteering and blatant tax
  evasion by many corporations during the war, and
  it suggested that bankers had pressured Wilson to
  intervene in the war in order to protect their
  loans abroad

34
Isolationism and Internationalism

• In 1935 FDR asked the Senate to ratify a treaty
  to make the US a member of the World Court,
  isolationists (led by Hearst newspapers and
  Father Charles Coughlin) opposed the treaty,
  which resulted in the defeat of the treaty, this
  was political blow to FDR and he did not
  challenge the isolationist tide any time soon

35
Isolationism and Internationalism

• The Neutrality Act of 1935 was designed to
  prevent a recurrence of the events many Americans
  now believed had pressured the US into WWI, this
  law established a mandatory arms embargo against
  both victim and aggressor.

36
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Empowered the President to warn American citizens
  that they might travel on the ships of warring
  nations only at their own risk, thus protection
  of neutral rights could not be used as an excuse
  for American intervention in a European war,
  these provisions were easily renewed in 1936

37
Isolationism and Internationalism

• The Neutrality Act of 1937 established a
  cash-and-carry policy in which belligerents could
  purchase only nonmilitary goods from the US, had
  to pay cash, and had to carry the goods away on
  their own vessels

38
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Mussolini launched attack on Ethiopia in October
  1935, the League of Nations protested, Italy
  simply resigned from the organization, completed
  its conquest of Ethiopia and formed an alliance
  with Nazi Germany (the Axis), this action on the
  part of Italy renewed American determination to
  isolate themselves

39
Isolationism and Internationalism

• General Francisco Franco (1937), leader of the
  Falangists (similar to the Fascists in Italy),
  fought the Spanish Civil War supported militarily
  and economically by Hitler and Mussolini, some
  individual Americans traveled to Spain to fight
  the fascists (Abraham Lincoln Brigade) but the US
  government joined with France and Britain in an
  agreement to offer no assistance to either side

40
Isolationism and Internationalism

• In 1937 Tokyo attacked Chinas five northern
  provinces, in response FDR gave the Quarantine
  Speech, aggressors should be quarantined by the
  international community to prevent the contagion
  of war from spreading, American public response
  to the speech was hostile and FDR drew back from
  taking a stand

41
Isolationism and Internationalism

• On December 12, 1937 the US gunboat Panay was
  bombed and sunk by Japanese aviators on the
  Yangtze Rover in China, the attack occurred in
  broad daylight with clear visibility, a large
  American flag had been painted on the deck of the
  Panay, isolationists argued bombing had been an
  accident and pressured FDR to accept Japans
  apology

42
Isolationism and Internationalism

• In 1936 Hitler marched the German army into the
  Rhineland violating the Treaty of Versailles, in
  March 1938 German forces marched into Austria to
  complete the Anschluss making a union of all
  German-speaking people under one flag, in
  September 1938 Hitler demanded that
  Czechoslovakia cede to him the Sudetenland.

43
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Most Western nations were appalled at the
  prospect of another war and were willing to pay
  almost any price to settle the crisis peacefully
  (it was in October 1937 that the famous War of
  the Worlds radio broadcast was made setting off a
  panic)

44
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Munich Conference on September 29, 1937 Hitler
  met with the leaders of Britain and France in an
  effort to resolve crisis, the French and the
  British agreed to accept the German demands in
  Czechoslovakia in return for Hitler s promise to
  expand no further This is the last territorial
  claim I have to make in Europe.

45
Isolationism and Internationalism

• Chamberlain returned to Britain a hero assuring
  the British that the agreement meant peace on
  our time, this policy became known as
  appeasement, Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia in
  March of 1939 and in April Hitler began making
  threats against Poland, Britain and France
  assured Poland that they would come to its
  defense in the event of an invasion

46
Isolationism and Internationalism

• The British and French attempted to draw the
  Soviet Union into a mutual defense agreement, but
  Stalin had already decided that he could expect
  no protection from the West, Stalin had not even
  been invited to the Munich Conference, Stalin
  signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in
  August 1939

47
Isolationism and Internationalism

• September 1, 1939 Poland was invaded by Germany,
  Britain and France declared war on Germany, and
  WWII had begun

48
From Neutrality to Intervention

• This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I
  cannot ask that every American remain neutral in
  thought as well FDR 1939, there was never any
  question that FDR and the majority of the
  American people favored Britain, France, and the
  other Allied nations in WWII

49
From Neutrality to Intervention

• At the very least Roosevelt believed the US
  should make armaments available to the Allied
  armies to help them counter the highly productive
  German munitions industry, in September 1939 FDR
  asked Congress for a revision of the Neutrality
  Acts, specifically the provisions prohibiting the
  sale of US weapons to any nation engaged in war.

50
From Neutrality to Intervention

• FDR wanted the arms embargo lifted, powerful
  isolationist opposition forced him to accept a
  weaker revision that still prohibited American
  ships from sailing into war zones but did allow
  the belligerents to buy arms on the same
  cash-and-carry basis as nonmilitary materials

51
From Neutrality to Intervention

• After the occupation of Poland the war settled
  into a quiet lull (the phony war) that lasted
  through the winter and spring of 1939 and 1940,
  the only real fighting occurred as the Soviets
  advanced on their neighbors and occupied Latvia,
  Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland, most Americans
  were outraged but neither FDR nor Congress were
  willing to do more than impose a moral embargo
  on the shipment of armaments to the Soviet Union

52
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In the spring of 1940 Germany attacked Denmark,
  Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and into
  France, the blitzkrieg was revolutionary in the
  history of warfare, on June 22, 1940 France fell
  to the Germans

53
From Neutrality to Intervention

• On May 16, 1940 FDR asked Congress for 1 billion
  for defense purposes, most of this was spent on
  the new fleet of warplanes, Churchill quickly
  sent a lengthy list of requests for ships and
  armaments without which England could not long
  survive.

54
From Neutrality to Intervention

• Many Americans thought that the British plight
  was already hopeless (including the US ambassador
  to London Joseph P. Kennedy) and that any aid to
  the British was wasted effort, FDR made the
  politically dangerous decision to scrape the
  bottom of the barrel to make war materials
  available to Churchill

55
From Neutrality to Intervention

• FDR traded 50 US destroyers left over from WWI to
  England in return for the right to build American
  bases on British territory in the Western
  Hemisphere, FDR also returned to the factories a
  number of new airplanes purchased by the American
  government so that the British could buy them
  instead, FDR could do this because of a major
  change in American public opinion, after the
  invasion of France 66 of the American people
  believed Germany posed a direct threat to the US

56
From Neutrality to Intervention

• Congress was aware of the change and was becoming
  more willing to permit expanded American
  assistance to the Allies, the Burke-Wadsworth Act
  created the first peacetime draft in American
  history in September 1940

57
From Neutrality to Intervention

• A spirited and vicious debate broke out in the US
  in the Spring of 1940 between the
  Interventionists who advocated expanded American
  involvement in the war and the Isolationists who
  continued to insist on neutrality, the Committee
  To Defend America (William Al1en White) advocated
  increased American assistance to the Allies but
  opposed actual intervention, the Fight for
  Freedom Committee urged an immediate declaration
  of war

58
From Neutrality to Intervention

• The America First Committee (Robert E. Wood,
  Charles Lindbergh, Gerald Nye, Hearst newspapers,
  most of the Republican Party) were opposed to any
  American intervention in Europe

59
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In the middle of this debate was the Presidential
  Election of 1940, the Democrats re-nominated
  Roosevelt and Harry Wal1ace for vice-president,
  the Republicans nominated political1y
  inexperienced Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt won
  decisively 55 to 45 in the popular vote and 449
  to 82 in the Electoral College

60
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In December 1940, FDR announced a new policy,
  Lend-Lease would al1ow the government not only
  to sel1 but to lend or lease armaments to any
  nation deemed vital to the defense of the United
  States, this allowed FDR to funnel weapons to
  Britain on the basis of no more than Britains
  promise to return or pay for them after the war,
  isolationists attacked this bill but it passed
  Congress easily

61
From Neutrality to Intervention

• German submarines were sinking 500,000 tons of
  shipping each month and Britain was losing ships
  more rapidly than they could replace them, it was
  getting very difficult for the British to get the
  vital supplies they needed from the US, FDR
  decided that the US would practice hemispheric
  defense which would allow the US navy to defend
  ships in the western Atlantic.

62
From Neutrality to Intervention

• By July 1941 US navy ships were patrolling as far
  east as Iceland escorting convoys of merchant
  ships and radioing information to British vessels
  about the location of German submarines

63
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In June of 1941 Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet pact
  and attacked the Soviet Union , FDR persuaded
  Congress to America extended its lend lease
  policy to the Soviet Union.

64
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In September of 1941 a German submarine fired on
  the American destroyer Greer (which was radioing
  the position of the sub at the time), FDR
  responded by ordering American ships to fire on
  German submarines on sight, in October of 1941
  the Reuben James was sunk by a German submarine
  and Congress voted approval of a measure allowing
  the US to arm its merchant vessels and to sail
  all the way into belligerent ports, the US had in
  effect launched a naval war against Germany

65
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In August 1941, FDR and Churchill met onboard a
  British vessel off the coast of Newfoundland and
  released the Atlantic Charter which set out
  certain common principles on which to base a
  better future for the world, it was basically a
  statement of war that cal1ed for the final
  destruction of the Nazi tyranny, FDR remained
  convinced that public opinion would support a
  declaration of war only in the event of an actual
  enemy attack

66
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In September 1940 Japan signed the Tripartite
  Pact with Germany and Italy which was a loose
  defensive alliance that seemed to extended the
  Axis into Asia

67
From Neutrality to Intervention

• In July 1941 Japan moved into Indochina and
  seized the capital of Vietnam, the US had broken
  all of Japans codes and knew that the next
  target of Japan was the Dutch East Indies, when
  Japan failed to heed FDRs stern warnings the
  president froze all Japanese assets in the US and
  established a complete trade embargo that
  severely limited Japans ability to purchase
  essential supplies (especially oil)

68
From Neutrality to Intervention

• Japan now faced a choice, either repair relations
  with the US to restore the flow of supplies or it
  would have find those supplies elsewhere (British
  and Dutch possessions in the Pacific), the
  Japanese Prime Minister requested a personal
  meeting with FDR but the US rebuffed the overture
  saying they would only meet if Japan would give
  guarantees in advance that it would respect the
  territorial integrity of China, negotiations
  broke off and the situation quickly deteriorated

69
From Neutrality to Intervention

• On November 27, 1941 Secretary of State Hull
  cabled Secretary of War Stimson I have washed my
  hands of the Japanese situation, and now it is in
  the hands of you and Knox (the Secretary of the
  Navy), the Army and the Navy, US intelligence
  had already decoded Japanese messages which made
  clear that war was imminent, that after November
  29 an attack would only be a matter of days

70
From Neutrality to Intervention

• Most US officials assumed that an attack would
  not be against American territory but rather
  British or Dutch territory in the South Pacific,
  a large Japanese convoy was moving southward
  through the China Sea while a smaller Japanese
  fleet moved east from the Kurile Islands in the
  general direction of Hawaii

71
From Neutrality to Intervention

• 755 AM on Sunday, December 7, 1941 a wave of
  Japanese bombers taking off from aircraft
  carriers attacked the US naval base at Pearl
  Harbor, within 2 hours the US lost 8 battleships,
  3 cruisers, 4 other vessels, 188 airplanes, and
  other shore installations, more than 2,000 US
  soldiers and sailors died in the attack, none of
  the American aircraft carriers had been at Pearl
  Harbor at the time of the attack.

72
From Neutrality to Intervention

• Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a day which will
  live in infamy the United States of America was
  suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval
  and air forces of the Empire of Japan with 4
  hours the Senate had voted unanimously and House
  388 to 1 (the lone dissenter was Jeannette Rankin
  of Montana who had voted against WWI as well) to
  approve a declaration of war against Japan