America Moves Towards War

Roosevelt Asks Congress for Aid

• Cash and Carry

&
 The Axis is Formed
• The Tripartite Pact
• The Axis Powers - Germany, Italy, and Japan
 Aim of the Tripartite Pact
To keep the US out of the war!
 Rebuilding American Defenses
• Selected Service Act
– 16 million men between 21-35 required to register
– 1 million drafted in first peace-time draft for 1
year.
• Nation dramatically increases defense
spending in 1940.
 Roosevelt Runs for Re-Election
• Runs for third term against Wendell Willkie

I have seen war,

and I hate war.
Election Results, 1940
 “Arsenal of Democracy”
• Lend-Lease Plan
– Britain had no cash left
– “Any country whose defense was vital to the
United States.”
– Lend-Lease Act - Passed 1941
• Grew to spend over $50 billion
• Arms leased to both Great Britain and the Soviet Union
 “Aid short of War”
• 500,000 rifles A decidedly
unneutral act.
• 80,000 machine guns
• US trades 50 old
destroyers for leases
on British military
bases in the
Caribbean and
Newfoundland.
 German U-Boat Attacks
• Germans tried to strangle Britain by cutting off
supplies to the island from the Empire.
• German U-Boats destroy shipping faster than
the British could build ships.
 German U-Boat Attacks
• Wolf Packs
 German U-Boat Attacks
• In response to the unprecedented level of U-
Boat attacks, President Roosevelt orders US to
guard shipments as far east as Iceland.
• US Ships could fire on U-Boats in self-defense
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
• Hitler views the Soviet Union as the great
bastion of Communism and Jews – both
needed to be exterminated.
• Lebensraum
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
 Planning for War
• US extends the Draft by 18 mos. By a vote of
203/202
• The Atlantic Charter
 The Atlantic Charter
1. Seek no territorial expansion
2. Pursue no territorial changes without the consent of the
inhabitants.
3. Respect the right of people to choose their own form of
government
4. Promote free trade among nations
5. Encourage international cooperation to improve peoples’
lives.
6. Build a secure peace based on freedom and want of fear.
7. Work for disarmament of aggressors
8. Establish a “permanent system of general security.”
 US is attacked
When you see a rattlesnake
• US Destroyer Greer – poised to strike, you do not wait
until he has struck you before
none dead you crush him. These NAZI
submarines are the rattlesnakes
• US Destroyer Kearny – of the Atlantic.
11 sailors dead
• US Destroyer Rueben
James – 100 sailors dead

• Roosevelt orders Navy

to “Shoot on sight”
 Japan Extends its Empire
• Japans vision for empire brought it into
conflict with the:
– Dutch, British, French, Chinese, and the US.
• China invaded 1931 and 1937
• French Indochina invaded (Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos.)
 Japan Extends its Empire
• The US Responded to this aggression by
cutting off trade with Japan.
• Japan did not have oil reserves – their
expansion required oil, they could not survive
without it.
• Either the US ends its embargo, or the
Japanese invade the Dutch East Indies to get
their own.
 Japan Extends its Empire
• Hideki Tojo comes
to power as Prime
Minister
 Japan Extends its Empire
• Emperor Hirohito
 Japan Extends its Empire
• Admiral Isuroko
Yamamoto
 Japan and US engage in Peace Talks
• Tojo promised the Emperor that he would
make every effort to make a final attempt to
preserve the peace with America.
• November 5, 1941
– Tojo sends special peace envoy’s to Washington.
– Tojo instructs his Admirals to prepare plans to
attack the US.
 “Peace Talks”
• America had decrypted the Japanese army
secret codes
– We knew the Japanese were planning to attack
us; what we didn’t know was WHERE???
– US wanted to have Japan commit “the first
overt act.”
Where will they attack?
 “Peace Talks” Break Down
• December 6, 1941
– Japan sends a communiqué to its diplomats to end
peace negotiations
– President is notified; President predicts war is
around the corner.
 December 7, 1941
• “A date which will live in infamy…”
• Japan attacks on an early Sunday morning at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii (Pacific Fleet Headquarters)
– Nearly the entire US Pacific Fleet was incapacitated or
destroyed; the Japanese lost 29 planes.
• Cost of the attack:
– 18 ships sunk or destroyed
– 350 planes destroyed or severely damaged
– 2,400 dead, 1178 wounded
– Largest naval loss since WWI
Isolationist Sentiment
The only thing left now to do is to lick
the hell out of them.
“I have awoken a
sleeping giant.”

Said after the attack on

Pearl Harbor.