Hemispheric reactions to the events in Europe and Asia: inter-American diplomacy; cooperation and neutrality; FDR´s Good Neighbor Policy -its application and effect

• Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee

  • 1939: Countries of the Americas should stay out of European conflicts - and if one does, the U.S. should stay out

  • Advocates neutrality but not through pacifism - we must be prepare for war and support the defense of our allies (Advocated selling defensive weapons to our allies)

  • Criticizes Wilson for WWI - claiming Europe and the U.S. are not tied politically, but are tied racially: we shouldn’t fight any Europeans b/c it weakens the white race

  • Denounced loans to any warring nations, which had recently changed

• The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)

  • October 7, 1940 - Arthur McCollum writes a memo from the Philippines

  • Assesses the state of the war - U.S. strengths and weaknesses vs: Japan, Germany, Italy

  • Suggests that the U.S. bait Japan into attacking the U.S. in order to sway public opinion into declaring war

• The Nye Committee Report - 1934 (aka The Merchants of Death)

  • Munitions companies are ‘bribing’ other countries in order to sell weapons and maintain huge profits

  • U.S. companies are named: DuPont, GM, Colt, etc…

  • These companies are scaring countries into purchasing vast weapons systems and then going to neighboring countries and doing the same

  • Companies try to deflect blame to Britain and France - claiming their practices regarding this is worse (gas, etc…)

  • The committee accuses munitions companies of using their vast profits to unethically influence governments - especially the U.S. government

• Mexico, 1938

  • Mexico nationalized their oil industry, meaning the government took control of production - no private company can make a profit off oil

  • 100s of U.S. citizens are kicked out, and companies like Shell Oil, who are heavily invested, appeal to the USFG

  • U.S. oil companies want $200M in compensation

  • Cordell Hull writes Mexico, saying they have violated the above treaties because Mexico was confiscating / expropriating U.S. owned property

  • Mexico refuses U.S. demands, citing non-intervention principle

  • FDR negotiates a settlement - Mexico will eventually pay $30M in 1943 in compensation to U.S. oil companies

• Buenos Aires Conference, 1936

  • Organizes potential response to a “non-hemispheric aggressor”

  • U.S. does not attach reservations as they did at Montevideo

  • Simply says that IF this happens, signatory nations agree to coordinate a response

• Montevideo Conference 1933

  • FDR sends his Secretary of State Cordell Hull to Uruguay to formalize the GNP

  • Defines what a State is, declares that only states that sign the agreement are recognized, defines what states rights are

  • DECLARES THAT NO STATE HAS THE RIGHT TO INTERFERE IN THE EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF ANOTHER STATE

  • The U.S. adds “reservations” that essentially say that intervention might still happen b/c we haven’t agreed on definitions for everything

• Events in Asia (Japanese militarism / invasion of China)

  • What factors enabled Japanese expansion into China?

    • Meiji Restoration (rapid industrialization from 1860s to the 1940s)

    • Annexation of Korea in 1910 (lasts until 1945)

    • Japan is densely populated and resource poor

    • Washington Naval Conference 1922 limited Japan’s navy, leading to the rise of militarists 

    • Civil War in China began in 1924/5 - this chaos facilitates Japanese entry into Manchuria (Manchuko)

• 1936 - Japan joins the Anti-Comintern Pact w/ Germany and Italy (forming the “AXIS”) and withdraw from the League of Nations, Militarists take over the civilian government, expand their Navy, AND ---->

• 1937 - Full-Scale invasion of Chinese mainland - HORRENDOUSLY BRUTAL - The Rape of Nanking.

• Also in 1937: the “Panay Incident” - Japanese sink a U.S. oil tanker and kill its survivors.  They apologize, but relations are forever strained

FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy - Applications and Effects

• A policy put in place to ensure mutual, friendly relations between the U.S. and Latin American nations

• This was one strategy to unify the Western Hemisphere to make the U.S. stronger in world affairs: trade, conflict, etc…

• This was also done to alleviate the regional effects of the Great Depression

• Envisioned is a reciprocal relationship between the U.S. and Latin American nations - good relations will lead to mutually beneficial trade - everybody wins (in theory…)!

• U.S. withdraws military from all over the hemisphere (Nicaragua, etc…)

• The Platt Amendment is nullified - Cuba is actually independent for the first time, well, ever.

• Many U.S. business interests are afraid that the U.S. can no longer act to protect “American interests and lives”