APUSH Unit 6 AMSCO (Chapters 26-29)

Events Abroad: Fascism and Aggressive Militarism

With nationalist resentments after World War I, economic hardships gave rise to military dictatorships in Italy in the 1920s and Japan and Germany in the 1930s. Eventually, in 1940, Japan, Italy, and Germany signed a treaty of alliance which formed the Axis Powers.

As president, Hoover ended the interventionist policies of Taft and Wilson by

arranging for U.S. troops to leave Nicaragua by 1933 negotiating a treaty with Haiti to remove all U.S. troops by 1934.

The Neutrality Act of 1935

authorized the president to prohibit all arms shipments and to forbid U.S. citizens to travel on the ships of belligerent nations.

The Office of War Information

controlled news about troop movements and battles. Movies, radio, and popular music all supported and reflected a cheerful, patriotic view of the war

"Double V"

slogan-one for victory over fascism abroad and one for equality at home.

the War Production Board (WPB)

was established to manage war industries

Coordinating their military strategy, the British and Americans concentrated on two objectives in 1942: (

(1) overcoming the menace of German submarines in the Atlantic and (2) beginning bombing raids on German cities.

African Americans

, over 1.5 million African Americans left the South. In addition, a million young men left home to serve in the armed forces. Whether as soldiers or civilians, all faced continued discrimination and segregation. White resentment in urban areas led to dozens dying in race riots in New York and Detroit during the summer of 1943.

Prelude to War

In the years 1935 to 1938, a series of aggressive actions by the Fascist dictatorships made democratic governments in Britain and France extremely nervous. It was known that Hitler was creating an air force more powerful than anything they could match.

Asia WWII

Japan was threatening China.

Preparedness

Like Wilson in 1916, Roosevelt argued for neutrality and an arms buildup at the same time. Congress went along with his request in late 1938 by increasing the military and naval budgets by nearly two-thirds. Some isolationists accepted the increased defense spending, thinking it would be used only to protect against the possible invasion of the Western Hemisphere.

Mexican Americans

Many Mexican Americans worked in defense industries, and over 300,000 served in the military. A 1942 agreement with Mexico allowed Mexican farmworkers, known as braceros, to enter the United States in the harvest season without going through formal immigration procedures. The sudden influx of Mexican immigrants into Los Angeles stirred white resentment and led to the so-called zoot suit riots in the summer of 1943, in which whites and Mexican Americans battled on the streets.

The Election of 1944

Many felt that, in the war emergency, there should be no change in leadership. The president therefore sought and received the Democratic nomination for the fourth time. There was a change, however, in the Democrats' choice of a vice presidential running mate. Party leaders felt that Roosevelt's third-term vice president, Henry Wallace, was too radical and unmanageable. With Roosevelt's agreement, they replaced Wallace with Harry S. Truman, a Missouri senator with a national reputation for having conducted a much-publicized investigation of war spending. Although Roosevelt publicly denied medical problems, those near him recognized his uncertain health.

Disputes With Japan

Meanwhile, through 1940 and 1941, U.S. relations with Japan were becoming increasingly strained as a result of Japan's invasion of China and ambitions to extend its conquests to Southeast Asia. Beginning in 1940, Japan was allied with Germany and Italy as one of the Axis powers. Hitler's success in Europe enabled Japanese expansion into the Dutch East Indies, British Burma, and French Indochina-territories still held as European colonies.

Japanese Americans

More than any other ethnic group, Japanese Americans suffered from their association with a wartime enemy. Almost 20,000 native-born Japanese Americans served loyally in the military. Nevertheless, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were suspected of being potential spies and saboteurs, and a Japanese invasion of the West Coast was considered imminent by many. In 1942, these irrational fears as well as racism prompted the U.S. government to order over 100,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast to leave their homes and reside in the barracks of internment camps. Japanese Americans living in other parts of the U.S., including Hawaii, did not come under this order

Japan

Nationalists and militarists in Japan increased its power in the 1920s and 1930s. As economic conditions worsened, they persuaded Japan's nominal ruler, the emperor, that the best way to ensure access to basic raw materials ( oil, tin, and iron) was to invade China and Southeast Asia and thereby give Japan control over what their leaders proclaimed to be the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Invasion of Poland

On September 1, 1939, German tanks and planes began a full-scale invasion of Poland. Keeping their pledge, Britain and France declared war against Germany-and soon afterward, they were also at war with its Axis allies, Italy and Japan. World War II in Europe had begun.

Pearl Harbor-

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, while most American sailors were still asleep in their bunks, Japanese planes from aircraft carriers flew over Pearl Harbor bombing every ship in sight. The surprise attack lasted less than two hours. In that time, 2,400 Americans were killed (including over 1,100 when the battleship Arizona sank), almost 1,200 were wounded, 20 warships were sunk or severely damaged, and approximately 150 airplanes were destroyed.

Changing U.S. Policy

President Roosevelt countered isolationism in the United States by gradually giving aid to the Allies, especially Great Britain. Now that war had actually begun, most Americans were alarmed by news of Nazi tanks, planes, and troops conquering one country after another. They were strongly opposed to Hitler but still hoped to keep their country out of the war. President Roosevelt believed that British survival was crucial to U.S. security. The relationship that was built over the coming years between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and FDR proved one of the keys to Allied success in the war. The president chipped away at the restrictive neutrality laws until practically nothing remained to prevent him from giving massive aid to Britain. After the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940, most Americans accepted the need to strengthen U.S. defenses, but giving direct aid to Britain was controversial.

Wartime Solidarity

The New Deal helped immigrant groups feel more included, and serving together as "bands of brothers" in combat or working together for a common cause in defense plants helped to reduce prejudices based on nationality, ethnicity and religion. The wartime migrations also helped to soften regional differences, and open the eyes of many Americans to the injustice of racial discrimination.

Recognition of the Soviet Union

The Republican presidents of the 1920s had refused to grant diplomatic recognition to the Communist regime that ruled the Soviet Union. Roosevelt promptly changed this policy by granting recognition in 1933. His reason for doing so, he said, was to increase U.S. trade and thereby boost the economy.

Thomas Dewey

The Republicans nominated the 42-year-old governor of New York, Thomas Dewey, who had a strong record of prosecuting corruption and racketeering. The Republican candidate was unable to offer any real alternative to Roosevelt's leadership or generate enthusiasm for change.

Research and Development

The government worked closely not only with industries, but also universities and research labs to create and improve technologies that could be used to defeat the enemy

Fighting Germany

The high tide of the German advance ended in 1942, partly as a result of U.S. entry into the war but mainly because of a Soviet victory at Stalingrad in the winter of that year.

Spanish Civil War

The outbreak of civil war in Spain in 1936 was viewed in Europe and the United States as an ideological struggle between the forces of fascism, led by General Francisco Franco, and the forces of republicanism, called Loyalists. Roosevelt and most Americans sympathized with the Loyalists but, because of the Neutrality Acts, could not aid them. Ultimately, in 1939, Franco's Fascists prevailed and established a military dictatorship

Neutrality Acts

To ensure that U.S. policy would be strictly neutral if war broke out in Europe, Congress adopted a series of neutrality acts, which Roosevelt signed with some reluctance. Each law applied to nations that the president proclaimed to be at war.

America First Committee

To mobilize American public opinion against war, they formed the America First Committee and engaged speakers such as Charles Lindbergh to travel the country warning against reengaging in Europe's troubles.

U.S. Economic Action

When Japan joined the Axis in September 1940, Roosevelt responded by prohibiting the export of steel and scrap iron to all countries except Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere. His action was aimed at Japan, which protested that it was an "unfriendly act." In July 1941, Japanese troops occupied French Indochina. Roosevelt then froze all Japanese credits in the United States and also cut off Japanese access to vital materials, including U.S. oil.

The Election of 1944 (Results)

Winning 53 percent of the popular vote and an overwhelming 432-99 victory in the electoral college, the president was elected to an unprecedented fourth term. As it proved, however, FDR would live for less than three months after his inauguration. Most of his term would be served by Truman.

Atlantic Charter

With the United States actively aiding Britain, Roosevelt knew that the United States might soon enter the war. He arranged for a secret meeting in August with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard a ship off the coast of Newfoundland. The two leaders drew up a document known as the Atlantic Charter

Blitzkrieg (lightning war)

a form of warfare in which surprise attacks with fast-moving airplanes are followed by massive attacks with infantry forces

The policy of appeasement

allowing Hitler to get away with relatively small acts of aggression and expansion. The United States went along with the British and French policy

The Neutrality Act of 1936

forbade the extension of loans and credits to belligerents.

The Neutrality Act of 1937

forbade the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the civil war in Spain.

Federal Government

gar, gasoline, and auto tires, primarily to fight wartime inflation. Deficit spending during the depression was dwarfed by the deficits incurred during the war. Federal spending increased 1,000 percent between 1939 and 1945. As a result the gross national product grew by 15 percent or more a year. World War II proved what the New Deal did not, that the government could spend its way of a depression. By war's end, the national debt had reached the then staggering figure of $250 billion, five times what it had been in 1941.

Operation Torch,

in November 1942. Led by U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower and British General Bernard Montgomery, Allied forces succeeded in taking North Africa from the Germans by May 1943.

The Connally Anti-Strike Act of 1943,

passed over Roosevelt's veto, empowered the government to take over war-related businesses whose operations were threatened by a strike. In 1944, Roosevelt had occasion to use this law when he ordered the army to operate the nation's railroads for a brief period.

Selective Service Act (1940)-

provided for the registration of all American men between the ages of 21 and 35 and for the training of 1.2 million troops in just one year. Isolationists strenuously opposed the peacetime draft, but they were now outnumbered as public opinion shifted away from strict neutrality.

the Office of Price Administration (OPA)

regulated almost every aspect of civilians' lives by freezing prices, wages, and rents and rationing such commodities as meat, sugar, gasoline, and auto tires, primarily to fight wartime inflation.

the Office of War Mobilization (OWM)

set production priorities and controlled raw materials. The government cost-plus system, in which it paid war contractors the costs of production plus a certain percentage for profit

Atlantic Charter (1941)

that affirmed that the general principles for a sound peace after the war would include self-determination for all people, no territorial expansion, and free trade.

In Europe WII

the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany with promises of reasserting German nationalism and militarism.

Korematsu v. U.S. (1944),

the Supreme Court upheld the U.S. government's internment policy as justified in wartime. Years later, in 1988, the federal government agreed the ruling was unjust and awarded financial compensation to those still alive who had been interned.

Pan-American Conference (1933)

the U.S. delegation at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933, pledged never again to intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country. In effect, Franklin Roosevelt repudiated the policy of his older cousin, Theodore, who had justified intervention as a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

nonaggression pact

was an agreement between Hitler and Stalin not to attack each other. This allowed for German victories in the west without worries of the east. The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed on how they would later divide up Eastern Europe

The Office of Research and Development

was established to contract scientists and universities to help in the development of electronics, such as radar and sonar, medicines such as penicillin, jet engines, rockets, and in the top-secret Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb. Ironically, many of the European scientists that had to flee Fascist persecution would contribute to its defeat working in the United States.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

was formed in 1942 to work more militantly for African American interests. After black leaders threatened a protest march on Washington, the Roosevelt administration issued an executive order to prohibit discrimination in government and in businesses that received federal contracts

Pan-American Conference (1936)

was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936. Roosevelt himself attended the conference. He personally pledged to submit future disputes to arbitration and also warned that if a European power such as Germany attempted "to commit acts of aggression against us," it would find "a hemisphere wholly prepared to consult together for our mutual safety and our mutual good."

World War I, after all

was meant to be a "war to end all wars" and, as Woodrow Wilson had said, a war "to make the world safe for democracy."

Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934-

which provided for the independence of the Philippines by 1946 and the gradual removal of U.S. military presence from the islands.

Neutrality Act

which provided that a belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid cash. Technically, "cash and carry" was neutral, but in practice, it strongly favored Britain.

Smith v. Allwright (1944)

which ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny membership in political parties to African Americans as a way of excluding them from voting in primaries.

In the United States, WII

worries about the depression overshadowed concerns about a second world war.

The Election of 1940

1. Adding to the suspense over the war was uncertainty over a presidential election. 2. At last, he announced that, in those critical times, he would not turn down the Democratic nomination if it were offered. Most Democrats were delighted to renominate their most effective campaigner. During the campaign, Roosevelt made the rash pronouncement: "Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars."

Negotiations

1. Both sides realized that Japan needed oil to fuel its navy and air force. If the U.S. embargo on oil did not end, Japan would likely seize the oil resources in the Dutch East Indies. 2. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull insisted that Japan pull its troops out of China, which Japan refused to do. The Japanese ambassador to the United States tried to negotiate a change in U.S. policy regarding oil. 3. In October, a new Japanese government headed by General Hideki Tojo made a final attempt at negotiating an agreement. Neither side, however, changed its position. 4. U.S. military leaders hoped to delay the armed confrontation with Japan until U.S. armed forces in the Pacific were strengthened. Japan, on the other hand, believed that quick action was necessary because of its limited oil supplies.

The following events showed how unprepared the democracies were to challenge Fascist aggression.

1. Ethiopia, 1935 2. Rhineland, 1936 3. China, 1937 4. Sudetenland, 1938

Japanese Aggression in Manchuria

1. In the early 1930s, Japan posed the greatest threat to world peace. Defying both the Open Door policy and the covenant of the League of Nations, Japanese troops marched into Manchuria in September 1931, renamed the territory Manchukuo, and established a puppet government. 2. The League of Nations did nothing except to pass a resolution condemning Japan for its actions in Manchuria. The Japanese delegation then walked out of the League, never to return. In the Manchurian crisis, the League, through its failure to take action, showed its inability to maintain peace. Its warnings would never be taken seriously by potential aggressors.

Business and Industry

1. Stimulated by wartime demand and government contracts, U.S. industries did a booming business, far exceeding their production and profits of the 1920s. The depression was over, vanquished at last by the coming of war. By 1944, unemployment had practically disappeared. 2. Instead of automobiles, tanks and fighter planes rolled off the assembly lines. American factories produced over 300,000 planes, 100,000 tanks, and ships with a total capacity of 53 million tons. So efficient were production methods that Henry Kaiser's giant shipyard in California could turn out a new ship in just 14 days. The war concentrated production in the largest corporations, as a smaller businesses lost out on government contracts to larger businesses with more capacity. The 100 largest corporations accounted for up to 70 percent of wartime manufacturing.

Financing the War

1. The government paid for its huge increase in spending ($100 billion spent on the war in 1945 alone) by (1) increasing the income tax and (2) selling war bonds. 2. For the first time, most Americans were required to pay an income tax, and in 1944, the practice was begun of automatically deducting a withholding tax from paychecks. Borrowing money by selling $135 billion in war bonds supplemented the tax increase. In addition, the shortage of consumer goods made it easier for Americans to save.

Good-Neighbor Policy

1. The policy of the good neighbor" toward other nations of the Western Hemisphere. First, interventionism in support of dollar diplomacy no longer made economic sense, because U.S. businesses during the depression lacked the resources to invest in foreign operations. 2. Second, the rise of militarist regimes in Germany and Italy prompted Roosevelt to seek Latin American cooperation in defending the region from potential danger. FDR implemented his good-neighbor policy through several actions

Women

1. The war also changed the lives of women. Over 200,000 women served in uniform in the army, navy and marines, but in non combat roles. As in World War I, an acute labor shortage caused women to take jobs vacated by men in uniform. Almost 5 million women entered the workforce, many of them working in industrial jobs in the shipyards and defense plants. The number of married women in the workforce increased to 24 percent. 2. A song about "Rosie the Riveter'' was used to encourage women to take defense jobs. However, they received pay well below that of male factory workers.

Four Freedoms Speech

Addressing Congress on January 6, 1941, the president delivered a speech that proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials. He justified such a policy by arguing that the United States must help others nations defend "four freedoms:

Declaration of War

Addressing Congress on the day after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt described December 7th as "a date which will live in infamy." He asked Congress to declare "that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire." On December 8, Congress acted immediately by declaring war, with only one dissenting vote. Three days later, Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by declaring war on the United States.

Wendell Willkie

Although he criticized the New Deal, Willkie largely agreed with Roosevelt on preparedness and giving aid to Britain short of actually entering the war. His strongest criticism of Roosevelt was the president's decision to break the two-term tradition established by George Washington.

American Indians

American Indians also contributed to the war effort. Approximately 25,000 served in the military, and thousands more worked in defense industries. Having discovered the opportunities off their reservations, more than half never returned.

The outbreak of war in Europe

Britain and France pledged to fight if Poland was attacked. They had always assumed that they could count on the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, to oppose Hitler, since communism and fascism were ideological enemies. The democracies were therefore shocked in August 1939 when Stalin and Hitler signed a nonaggression pact.

Soviet Union Invaded

By December 1941, the battlefront in Europe had shifted from the west to the east. Breaking his nonaggression pact with Stalin, Hitler had ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. Thus, the principal Allies fighting Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945 were Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union

Cuba

Cubans had long resented the Platt Amendment, which had made their country's foreign policy subject to U.S. approval. In 1934, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to nullify the Platt Amendment, retaining only the U.S. right to keep its naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Four Freedoms

Declared by President FDR; 1. Freedom of speech and expression; 2. Freedom of every person to worship in his own way; 3. Freedom from want; 4. Freedom from fear

The War's Impact on Society

Every group in the U.S. population adjusted to the unique circumstances of wartime. The increase in factory jobs caused millions to leave rural areas for industrial jobs in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast, especially California. Entirely new communities arose around the construction of new factories and military bases. Many of the new defense installations were located in the South because of that region's warm climate and low labor costs. The wartime expansion set the stage for a post-war migration to the Sunbelt

Fascism in Italy

Fascism consisted of extreme nationalism, national order, violence to keep this order, and blind loyalty to the state. Fascists believed democracy lead to corruption and weakness and put individual or class interests above national goals. (against democracy) --the idea that people should glorify their nation and their race through an aggressive show of force-became the dominant ideology in European dictatorships in the 1930s.

China, 1937

Full-scale war between Japan and China erupted in 1937 as Japan's troops invaded its weaker neighbor. A U.S. gunboat in China, the Panay, was bombed and sunk by Japanese planes. Japan's apology for the sinking was quickly accepted by the U.S. government.

Defense at Sea, Attacks by Air

Gradually, however, the Allies developed ways of containing the submarine menace through the use of radar, sonar, and the bombing of German naval bases. The U.S bombers carried out daylight "strategic bombing" raids on military targets in Europe, but the lines between military and civilian targets became blurred as the war carried on, especially in Japan,

Destroyers-for-Bases Deal

He therefore cleverly arranged a trade. Britain received 50 older but still serviceable U.S. destroyers and gave the United States the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean.

Herbert Hoover's Foreign Policy

Hoover concurred with the prevailing opinion of the American people that the United States should not enter into firm commitments to preserve the security of other nations. Such an opinion, in the 1930s, would be labeled "isolationism."

Sudetenland, 1938

In Europe, Hitler insisted that Germany had a right to take over a strip of land in Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, where most people were German-speaking. To maintain peace, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, and the French president, Edouard Daladier, with Roosevelt's support, met with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich. At this conference in September 1938, the British and French leaders agreed to allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland unopposed. The word "Munich" has since become synonymous with appeasement.

From North Africa to Italy

1. The Allies had the daunting task of driving German occupying forces out of their advanced positions in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They began their North Africa campaign, 2. The next U.S.-British target was the Mediterranean island of Sicily, which they occupied in the summer of 1943, preparatory to an invasion of Italy. Mussolini fell from power during the summer, but Hitler's forces rescued him and gave him nominal control of northern Italy. In fact, German troops controlled much of Italy at the time that the Allies invaded the peninsula in September 1943. The Germans put up a determined resistance to the Allied offensive

World War 11: The Battlefronts

1. The fighting of World War II was waged on two fronts, or "theaters of operation." 2. In the Pacific, Japanese forces reached the height of their power in 194 2, occupying islands throughout the western Pacific Ocean. 3. In Europe, much of the fighting in the first year of the war was between the Germans and the Soviets, as the latter fought desperately to prevent the conquest of Russia.

Shoot-on-Sight

In July 1941, the president extended U.S. support for Britain even further by protecting its ships from submarine attack. He ordered the U.S. Navy to escort British ships carrying lend-lease materials from U.S. shores as far as Iceland. On September 4, the American destroyer Greer was attacked by a German submarine it had been hunting. In response, Roosevelt ordered the navy to attack all German ships on sight. In effect, this meant that the United States was now fighting an undeclared naval war against Germany.

The Lesson of World War I

In the early 1930s, Americans commonly felt that U.S. entry into World War I had been a terrible mistake. An investigating committee led by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota bolstered this view when it concluded in 1934 that the main reason for U.S. participation in the world war was to serve the greed of bankers and arms manufacturers. This committee's work influenced isolationist legislation in the following years.

The three Allied leaders

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin agreed to concentrate on the war in Europe before shifting their resources to counter Japanese advances in the Pacific.

Wartime Propaganda

Few people opposed the war, so the government's propaganda campaign of posters, songs, and news bulletins was primarily to maintain public morale, to encourage people to conserve resources, and to increase war production

Latin America

Hoover actively pursued friendly relations with the countries of Latin America.

From Neutrality to War, 1939-194 l

In March 1939, Hitler broke the Munich agreement by sending troops to occupy all of Czechoslovakia. After this, it became clear that Hitler's ambitions had no limit and that war was probably unavoidable.

Ethiopia, 1935

In a bid to prove fascism's military might, Mussolini ordered Italian troops to invade Ethiopia. The League of Nations and the United States objected but did nothing to stop the Italian aggressor, which succeeded in conquering the African country after a year of bitter fighting.

Franklin Roosevelt's Policies, 1933-1938

In his first term, Roosevelt's concentration on dealing with the economic crisis at home kept him from giving much thought to shaping foreign policy. He did, however, extend Hoover's efforts at improving U.S. relations with Latin America by initiating a good-neighbor policy.

Braceros (1942)

Mexican farmworkers

Mexico

Mexico tested U.S. patience and commitment to the good neighbor policy in 1938 when its president, Lazaro Cardenas, seized oil properties owned by U.S. corporations. Roosevelt rejected corporate demands to intervene and encouraged American companies to negotiate a settlement.

Blitzkrieg

Poland was the first to fall to Germany's overwhelming use of airpower and fast-moving tanks-a type of warfare called blitzkrieg (lightning war). After a relatively inactive winter, the war was resumed in the spring of 1940 with Germany attacking its Scandinavian neighbors to the north and its chief enemy, France, to the west. Denmark and Norway surrendered in a few days, France in only a week. By June 1940, the only ally that remained free of German troops was Great Britain.

Reciprocal Trade Agreements

President Roosevelt favored lower tariffs as a means of increasing international trade. In 1934, Congress enacted a plan suggested by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, which gave the president power to reduce U.S. tariffs up to 50 percent for nations that reciprocated with comparable reductions for U.S. imports.

Rhineland, 1936

This region in western Germany was supposed to be permanently demilitarized, according to the Versailles Treaty. Hitler openly defied the treaty by ordering German troops to march into the Rhineland.

Italy

A new regime seized power in Italy in 1922. Benito Mussolini led Italy's Fascist party, which attracted dissatisfied war veterans, nationalists, and those afraid of rising communism. Dressed in black shirts, the Fascists marched on Rome and installed Mussolini in power as "11 Duce" (the Leader).

American Isolationists

Public opinion in the United States was also nationalistic but expressed itself in the opposite way from fascism and militarism. Disillusioned with the results of World War I, American isolationists wanted to make sure that the United States would never again be drawn into a foreign war. Japanese aggression in Manchuria and the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany only increased the determination of isolationists to avoid war at all costs. The isolationist sentiment was strongest in the Midwest and among Republicans.

Lend-Lease Act

Roosevelt proposed ending the cash-and-carry requirement of the Neutrality Act and permitting Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit. The president said it would be like lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a fire. Isolationists in the America First Committee campaigned vigorously against the lend-lease bill. By now, however, majority opinion had shifted toward aiding Britain, and the Lend-Lease Act was signed into law in March 1941.

Quarantine Speech

Roosevelt recognized the dangers of Fascist aggression but was limited by the isolationist feelings of the majority of Americans. When Japan invaded China in 1937, he tested public opinion by making a speech proposing that the democracies act together to "quarantine" the aggressor. Public reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly negative, and Roosevelt dropped the quarantine idea as politically unwise.

Arsenal of Democracy

Roosevelt viewed Germany's conquest of most of Europe as a direct threat both to U.S. security and to the future of democratic governments everywhere. After his reelection, he believed that he was in a stronger position to end the appearance of U.S. neutrality and give material aid to Britain. In a December 1940 fireside chat to the American people, he explained his thinking and concluded: "We must be the great arsenal of democracy."

The Election of 1940(Results)

Roosevelt won with 54 percent of the popular vote-a smaller margin than in 1932 and 1936. Important factors in the president's reelection were (1) a strong economic recovery enhanced by defense purchases and (2) fear of war, which caused voters to stay with the more experienced leader.

Stimson Doctrine

Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared in 1932 that the United States would honor its treaty obligations under the NinePower Treaty (1922) by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of any regime like "Manchukuo" that had been established by force

Partial Surprise

The American people were stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor. High government officials, however, knew that an attack somewhere in the Pacific was imminent because they had broken the Japanese codes. They did not know the exact target and date for the attack, which many felt would be in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, or Malaya.

Germany

The Nazi party was the German equivalent of Italy's Fascist party. It arose in the 1920s in reaction to deplorable economic conditions after the war and national resentments over the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, used bullying tactics against Jews as well as Fascist ideology to increase his popularity with disgruntled, unemployed German workers. Hitler seized the opportunity presented by the depression to play upon anti-Semitic hatreds. With his personal army of "brown shirts," Hitler gained control of the German legislature in early 1933.