Part I: Background: American Foreign Policy 1920-1941

Introduction

America’s participation in the first World War came relatively late, but by the time the war was over
and President Wilson had participated in the writing of the Treaty of Versailles, the result of the war
for America was that the nation was more connected with the rest of the world than it had ever been
before. The American acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands as an outcome of
the Spanish-American War and President Roosevelt’s sponsoring of the Treaty of Portsmouth also
contributed to America’s new international standing.

All that did not mean, however, that Americans were prepared to step to the front of the world stage
and become involved in international issues as a matter of course. Indeed, for reasons we shall
discuss below, the United States to an extent turned its back on the rest of the world and retreated
into something resembling its traditional 19th-century mode of isolationism.

United States Diplomacy in the 1920s: The Aftermath of the Great War

In the aftermath of the Great War, as American troops came home from Europe, the United States
became permeated by a sense of disillusionment as people observed the turmoil continuing in Europe
in the years following that terrible conflict. In 1921 Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes called for
a naval conference in Washington to address the armaments race that many had seen as an
underlying cause of the First World War, the first of many steps taken internationally to try to prevent
the outbreak of more war.

The Washington Naval Conference convened in November 1921, and in the opening address
Secretary Hughes gave a candid speech in which he declared that “the way to disarm is to disarm,”
and that the time to begin was immediately. Thus he proposed a 10-year holiday in the construction of
capital ships—battleships and heavy cruisers—and recommended the scrapping of additional ships.
One British reporter claimed that Secretary Hughes had in 15 minutes “sunk more ships than all the
admirals of the world have sunk over the centuries.”

Although Hughes’s proposals were welcomed by many peace advocates, traditional naval powers such
as Great Britain were less than enthusiastic. Nevertheless, the pressure for disarmament was such
that an agreement was finally reached which would limit the ratio of capital ship tonnage among the
five major powers:

• United States (5)

• Great Britain (5)
• Japan (3)
• France (1.67)
• Italy (1.67.)

The Five-Power Naval Treaty was signed in February, 1922, and was to remain in effect until 1936.
The treaty placed a limitation on the numbers and sizes of major warships, although it did not affect
smaller vessels such as destroyers, submarines and cruisers, and it called for a construction “holiday”
of ten years.

The conference also agreed on a four-power treaty in which Great Britain, the United States, Japan,
and France agreed to respect each other's interests in the Pacific. Finally, a Nine Power Treaty
endorsed the Open Door policy in China. Those who signed that agreement agreed to respect the
“sovereignty, independence, and territorial and administrative integrity of China” and to uphold the
principles of the Open Door.
The Washington Conference was a landmark event, and it was followed by other attempts to reduce
armaments and control the forces that tended to lead to war. Further conferences were held at
Geneva and London, but ultimately none of the agreements ever prevented anything significant. In
1927 with rumblings of discontent in Germany, France approached the United States with a proposal
that the two nations enter into a defensive alliance, an obvious attempt to provide protection in
advance in case of German retaliation. Secretary of State Kellogg, not wanting to become snarled in
an alliance, suggested a wider pact that would “outlaw” war. The resulting Kellogg-Briand Pact was
signed in 1928, though many realized that its goals were illusory, since its intent was indeed to make
war illegal. One U.S. Senator claimed it was “not worth a postage stamp”; another called it “worthless
but harmless.”

A similar agreement had arisen from a meeting in Locarno, Switzerland, in 1925 among
representatives of Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany. Under the leadership of Gustav
Stresemann, the German Foreign Minister, the meeting settled a number of security issues involving
France, Belgium and Germany. Germany also signed agreements with its eastern neighbors, but just
as important was the “Spirit of Locarno” that emerged, an indication that the major powers
intended to try to settle future differences peaceably. Following the signing of the Locarno Pact,
Germany was admitted to the League of Nations. Along with Friedrich Ebert, President of the German
(Weimar) Republic, Stresemann showed great statesmanship, but unfortunately for Germany and the
rest of the World, Hitler and the Nazis were on the rise in the 1920s.

GERMANY. (See also “The Rise of Nazi Germany”) The Weimar Republic was a courageous attempt
at establishing democracy in Germany, but it was doomed because of structural weaknesses and
economic disorders stemming from, among other things, the Versailles settlements. In 1924
Germany's international obligations totaled $132 billion gold marks, and the nation underwent a
period of chaotic inflation that wrecked the economy. French troops occupied the Ruhr Valley in 1923
after the Germans defaulted on their obligations, and in response Germans practiced “passive
resistance” in the form of sit-down strikes.

America's interest in the German situation resulted from the fact that the allies owed large sums of
money to the United States from loans made during the war, and it was clear that if Germany could
not indemnify the allies, they would not be in a position to repay the United States. President
Coolidge understood that dilemma and his policies led to the Dawes Plan—the U.S. guaranteed that it
would loan Germany money and help them reorganize their finances. In 1929 further problems arose
and President Hoover approved the Young Plan, which reduced German debts and set up an
international bank for collection. But by the 1930s with the world depression affecting everyone, all
debts were eventually defaulted or cancelled.

The Good Neighbor Policy. The U.S. had a history of intervention in Latin America going back to the
time of Andrew Jackson in Florida, when it still belonged to Spain. By the 1920s Presidents Hoover and
Roosevelt and many others slowly began to recognize the basic unfairness of America’s Latin American
policy. Both Harding and Coolidge had to deal with growing "Yankee-phobia" south of the border.
President Hoover rejected Wilson’s interventionist policies and went on a goodwill tour after the 1928
election. The gradual removal of all American occupying forces began and was completed by 1934.
The United States also renounced its right to intervene in Cuban affairs by terminating the Platt
Amendment. Many problem areas still existed, and the U.S. had difficult issues to resolve with various
individual nations, but the Good Neighbor policy improved relations enormously, so that by World War
II the Western Hemisphere was reasonably unified, even though the United States was still seen as
the “colossus of the North.”

In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt attended the Buenos Aires Inter-American Conference. FDR’s
address to the delegates was well received—he called himself a “traveling salesman for peace” and
preached “mutual safety.” The Lima Declaration of 1938 reinforced inter-American solidarity.
 America in the 1930's: The Triumph of Isolationism
A “gloomy, pessimistic, negative pacifism”
During the crisis years of 1931-1939 Americans found themselves in the depths of the Great
Depression and did not want to think of further war, so the country retreated into a deeper position of
isolationism. Americans saw themselves as “innocent bystanders” in world affairs and began to feel as
trouble arose in Europe that America’s participation in the First World War may have been a waste. In
1933 the U.S. finally recognized the Soviet government and established formal relations with the
USSR—primarily for business reasons. By 1936, as Hitler was beginning to menace Europe,
Americans wanted to stay out of it, but how? Secretary of State Henry Stimson claimed, “The only
sure way to stay out of war is to prevent it.” But how was the United States, which had refused even
to joint the League of Nations and had reduced its armaments to a dangerously low level, supposed to
accomplish that?

The Nye Committee Hearings. In 1934 Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota began a series of hearings
that tried to show that munitions makers had made “huge” profits during World War I and were
therefore somehow responsible for America’s involvement in the conflict. They were called the
“Merchants of Death.” Although the results of the Nye Committee investigation were inconclusive, the
isolationists won the day and several Neutrality Acts were the result. The Committee concluded that
American freedom of the seas doctrine had become unreasonable because of the submarine. Neutrals,
they concluded, should keep out of war zones.

The Neutrality Acts: As the hearings went forward, the isolationists were in control. Reading the
political winds, FDR asked the Nye Committee to prepare legislation.

• The Neutrality Act of 1935 forbade sale of arms to belligerents. Civilians would enter war
zones on belligerent ships at their own risk. FDR signed the bill in August 1935.
• The Arms embargo on all nations portion of the bill was opposed by FDR because it made it
impossible for the U.S. to influence the action.
• The Act was non-specific on trade. Cordell Hull called it a “moral embargo,” but there were
problems in execution of the Act.
• The Neutrality Act was invoked in 1935 when Italy invaded Ethiopia. No neutrals were allowed
on belligerent ships. Italy was insulted.
• Lesson learned: Don't go around insulting belligerents when trying to stay out of war. Half-
hearted sanctions made things worse.
• Historian A.J.P. Taylor said, “Fifty two nations opposed Italian aggression, and all they
accomplished was that Haile Selassie lost all of his country [Ethiopia] instead of only half.”

Further neutrality acts were passed in 1936 and 1937, and the net result of those laws was to
handcuff the United States, even if it had a legitimate desire to assist nations that were victims of
international aggression. President Roosevelt made no attempt to block this legislation, but refused to
invoke the laws when Japan invaded China, thereby allowing China to buy arms from the United
States.

The Lure of Pacifism

Looking back at World War I as a meaningless effort, many Americans sought security in pacifism as
well as in legal neutrality. They wanted a way to ensure that the United States would not be drawn
into another European conflict. Most Americans suspected that they had been duped by the politicians,
munitions makers and bankers into going to war in 1917 and resolved never again to fight a
meaningless war. Romantic notions of pacifism were not exclusive to the United States: in Great
Britain college students pledged that they would never again fight in any kind of war. (Many of those
same young men would die during World War II.)
A gradual breakdown of attempts at international cooperation developed as militaristic nations
asserted their will with no regard for consequences or for maintaining the peace—conquest and
revenge were their motives. The concept of collective security was, in effect, the same idea as the old
“Concert of Europe,” but a toothless League of Nations brought nothing but head-in-the-sand
optimism, not action. Aggressor nations ignored the League.

Reasons for isolationism:

• Belief that the depression had been caused by World War I

• Belief that Europe was unworthy of our support
• Belief in Pacifism—people hated and abhorred war
• Belief that arms manufacturers, bankers had caused World War I
• Belief that World War I had been a tragic mistake for the U.S.
• Chronology of Events Leading to World War II

1936 The 1935 Neutrality Act is extended to 1 May 1937 and forbids loans or credits to
belligerents.

August 14: FDR makes his Chautauqua speech: “I hate war.” Very strong speech, in which he
holds out for discretionary power, but his words still please the isolationists. The American
people feel (correctly) that Europe is going to go up in flames and that we should stay out.
The U.S. is criticized for aloofness, but France and Great Britain don’t do much either.

1937 New Neutrality Law restricts arms sales, neutral travel, forbids arming merchantmen;
cash and carry on items other than munitions allows profit-making without involvement. Much
discretion granted to president to list other items.

• Paradox: This “neutrality” act was actually favorable to Great Britain and put us at
odds with the Nazis. It was never invoked against Japan because Japan had never
declared war on China. By not invoking Neutrality Act, FDR in effect aided China. But
Japan was also helped because of her large merchant marine.

1937 Peak of isolationism. Gallup poll: 94% say “keep out” over “prevent.” In his Quarantine
Speech FDR urges isolation of aggressors. Widespread boycott of Japanese goods follows.
Constitutional amendment proposed that except in case of invasion, declarations of war would
be conducted by referendum.

1939 Germany attacks Poland, September 1. World War II in Europe begins.

1939 Neutrality (“Cash and Carry”) Act repeals Neutrality Act of 1937. Declaring of war zone
gives Hitler justification for using U-boats. No doubt which side we are on this time. As war
progresses, U.S. becomes appalled at Hitler's tyranny; measures short of war seen as OK—
whatever we could get away with. FDR pushed it as far as he could.

August 2, 1939. Albert Einstein sends a letter to President Roosevelt the about possible
development of an atomic bomb by Germany, which eventually leads to the Manhattan
Project. (Einstein later regrets sending the letter.)

1940. By 1940 the U.S. population is 131.7 million. In April Germany overruns Denmark in
one day, and Norway takes only one month. Belgium, the Netherlands and France fall quickly
as well. Thousands of British and French soldiers are saved by the “miracle” of Dunkirk and
evacuated back to England. By June 22 the French have capitulated. The British now stand
alone, and Churchill faces the future with “grim resolution,” looking toward the U.S. for help.
The U.S. institutes first ever peacetime draft, begins rearming.

May-June FDR calls for increased military expenditures, releases outdated military equipment
to Great Britain. $43 million worth sent in June alone.
20 June. FDR names Republicans Henry Stimson and Frank Knox to War and Navy posts—
spirit of cooperation in the face of crisis. Still the internationalist-isolationist debate goes on.
Many clubs and organizations urge non-involvement. As war grows closer, FDR falls behind
public opinion, perhaps from over-concern with isolationists like Lindbergh.

1940 Presidential Election: A third term for FDR a major issue. Much isolationist sentiment
among Republicans. No Democratic challengers to FDR, the “man above the fray.” Willkie too
close to FDR on most issues to draw any distinction. FDR’s promise: “I have said it before, and
I will say it again and again and again. Your boys are not going to be sent to fight in any
foreign wars.”

Results: New Deal programs were very popular. Hard to make political hay out of many of the
issues. FDR wins 55-49%, smaller percentage than in 1932 or 1936. Still, 449-82 in Electoral
College. “Don't switch horses in the middle of the stream.”

1941 Feb-May: Battle of the Atlantic. Germans do great damage to shipping, sink U.S. ships
within sight of shore. January-March Secret military talks in Washington between U.S., British
staffs decide Germany first policy. Japan signs non-aggression pact with Russia
March 11. Lend-Lease Act comes about as result of correspondence between Churchill and
FDR. $7 billion—largest appropriation in U.S. history. Total in war $50 billion.

April. FDR extends convoy patrols across Atlantic nearly to Iceland. U.S. destroyers fire at U-
boots with some success, losses. Office of Price Administration established to control inflation.

Balkans overrun by Germany, Italy--Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete. Hungary, Rumania,

Bulgaria fall into Axis camp. Germany comes to the aid of Italy in Africa.

May U.S. suspends diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy.

June 22: Hitler invades Russia: No ultimatum, no declaration. Huge front 1800 miles;
Germany attacks on 3 axes. First counterattack Nov-Dec 1941.

The Atlantic Charter. FDR and Churchill meet August 11-12 in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
After talks they issue a joint statement of war aims against the Axis.

• Renounced territorial aggrandizement

• Opposed territorial changes against will of people
• Self determination of form of government
• Easing international trade
• Improve social, economic conditions for world's people
• Freedom from want and fear
• Disarmament of aggressors, permanent peace structure

In response to the Newfoundland conference conservative newspapers such as the Chicago

Tribune published angry editorials denouncing the agreement and asking what business the
president of a neutral nation had discussing war aims with the prime minister of a nation at
war
Winter 1941-42: Napoleon revisited as Hitler's armies drive deep into Russia. FDR agrees to
aid the Soviet Union Russia—$1B in Lend Lease.
Oct 17: Destroyer U.S.S. Kearny attacked by U-boat, 11 killed.
Oct 30: Destroyer U.S.S.Reuben James sunk, 2/3 of crew of about 200 perish.
Nov 17. Armed merchantmen are now authorized. Step by step, the country moves closer and
closer to war.
Nov. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew warns FDR that Japan may attack the U.S.
Pacific commanders warned that Japanese fleet has left home waters.
December 7: Pearl Harbor. Strong sense of national purpose—right and wrong clear. No
question about the mission: defeat the axis as quickly and decisively as possible.

Japanese take the Philippines, Guam, Wake, Hong Kong in short order. Prince of Wales and
Repulse sunk.

Summary of American policy 1920-1939 and beyond:

• The Red Scare of 1919—"100% Americanism—follows World War I. Americans want to

let Europe stew in its own juice, etc. Americans show an incredible indifference to the
fate of Europe during the 1920s
• The Red Scare of the post World War I era led to the attitude that we should let
Europe stew in her own juice, etc.
• The U.S. follows foreign policy that is narrow, cautious, and self-centered and refuses
to be bound by any agreement to preserve international peace. (No “entangling
alliances.”)
• Ethnic groups had become angry with President Wilson over Versailles—they felt he
had let them down by refusing to insist on self-determination for all nations. In the
1930s those chickens came home to roost.
• Americans exhibited incredible indifference to the fate of Europe during the 1920s.
They naively believed that the Kellogg-Briand Pact could actually deter war.
• America's Anti-Japanese immigration policies and tight immigration laws of the 1920s
were paradoxical considering the number of immigrants who were already in the U.S.
• The U.S. military establishment was reduced to 118,00 by 1927 and remained small
during the 1930s, even as Germany and Japan were building up their military, air and
naval forces. .
• Washington wants World War I debts paid, quarrels with almost everybody over
various issues. America had loaned Allies during and after war a total of $11billion.
Great Britain proposes canceling reparations debts if U.S. will cancel Great Britain's $4
billion debt. U.S. refuses.
• Protective American tariffs hurt international trade, but Americans were preoccupied
with domestic economic concerns.
• Domestic issues dominate U.S. foreign policy in the 1930s. The boom to bust
phenomenon that led to the Great Depression pushed other issues into the
background
• As WWII nears, the U.S. becomes increasingly involved in world affairs and takes a
leading role in maintaining world order.
• During World War II the U.S. becomes the dominant world power.
• As the Soviet Union rises in the years following World War II and the Cold War builds,
Americans realize they can no longer live in isolation.