Chapter 35

Lend-Lease Act

1941, allowed for American arms to be lent or leased to the democracies of the world that needed them, criticized as similar to used chewing gum (you don't want it back), but FDR and proponents praised it as a good way for the US to avoid war,challenged Axis dictators; Hitler recognized the Lend-Lease Bill as an unofficial declaration of war.

Reciprocal Trade Agreement

Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934. Designed to lower the tariff, it aimed at both relief and recovery. Secretary of State Hull succeeded in negotiating pacts with 21 countries by the end of 1939. These pacts were essentially trade agreements that stated if the United States lowered its tariff, then the other country would do the same. With the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, the president was empowered to lower existing rates by as much as 50% provided that the other country involved would do the same. During these years of trade agreements, U.S. foreign trade increased dramatically. The act paved the way for the American-led free-trade international economic system that took shape after WWII.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Even though the two nations were bound to peace under the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, neither Hitler nor Stalin trusted one another. Hitler decided to crush the Soviet Union, seize the oil and other resources of the Soviet Union, and then have two free hands to battle Britain

Neutrality Act of 1939

Heeding to the need of France and Britain of war materials from America, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939. It stated that the European democracies could buy American war materials as long as they would transport the munitions on their own ships after paying for them in cash. America thus avoided loans, war debts, and the torpedoing of American arms-carriers. Overseas demand for war goods brought a sharp upswing from the recession of 1937-1938 and ultimately solved the decade-long unemployment crisis

Wendell L. Willkie

Republicans to run against President Roosevelt, great personality but no experience, opposed to the FDR dictatorship and the New Deal-related extravagances

The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

Responding to overwhelming popular pressure, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937. The acts stated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or make loans to a belligerent. The Neutrality Acts were made to keep the United States out of a conflict. By declining to use its vast industrial strength to aid its democratic friends and defeat its totalitarian foes, the United States helped to provoke the aggressors.

Appeasement

Satisfying the demands of dissatisfied powers in an effort to maintain peace and stability (prevent war)

Atlantic Charter

promised that there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants; it affirmed the right of a people to choose their own form of government and to regain the governments abolished by the dictators; and it declared for disarmament and a peace of security, pending a new League of Nations

Battle of Britain

waged in the air over the British Isles for months, brought US sympathies to Britain