7.11 Interwar Foreign Policy

disarmament, Washington Conference, Five-Power Treaty, Four-Power Treaty, Nine-Power Treaty, Kellogg-Brian Pact, war debts, reparations, Dawes Plan, Japanese aggression in Manchuria, Stimson Doctrine, Good-Neighbor Policy, Pan-American Conferences, recognition of the Soviet Union, independence of the Philippines, reciprocal trade agreements, fascism, Axis powers, Benito Mussolini, Fascist Party, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Party, isolationism, Gerald Nye, Neutrality Acts, Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco, America First Committee, Charles Lindbergh, appeasement, Ethiopia, Rhineland, Sudetenland, Munich, quarantine speech, Poland, blitzkrieg, cash and carry, Selective Training and Service Act, destroyers-for-bases deal, third term, Wendell Wilkie, four freedoms, Pearl Harbor

post WWI agreements

• treaties of disarmament - attempts to promote peace and reduce defense costs

• Washington Conference (1921) - during Harding’s presidency, initiation of talks of naval disarmament and agreements to relieve tension, representatives from Belgium, China, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal

• Kellogg-Briand Pact - arranged by U.S. and France - renounced aggressive force to achieve national ends

  • permitted defensive war

  • failed to provide for consequences of violators

Washington Conference

attempts to make agreements to relieve tensions

• Five-Power Treaty - nations with the 5 largest navies (U.S., Britain, Japan, France, Italy) agreed to maintain a ratio of battleships, Britain and U.S. agreed not to fortify positions in the Pacific (not Japan)

• Four-Power Treaty - U.S., France, Britain, and Japan agree to respect each others’ territory in the Pacific

• Nine-Power Treaty - nine conference nations (Belgium, China, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, U.S.) agreed to respect Open Door Policy, guaranteeing territorial integrity of China

business and diplomacy

• Latin America

  • negotiations for U.S. investors in mineral and oil in Mexico

  • presence of American troops declined, economic impact on Latin America increased

• Middle East - winning oil drilling rights for U.S. companies

• Fordney-McCumber Tariff

  • Europeans unable to recover and repay war debts to U.S., imposed tariffs on U.S. imports

  • weakened world economy, contributed to the Great Depression

war debts and reparations

• U.S. went from debtor nation to creditor nations, insisted that Great Britain and France repay war debts

• Germany was unable to pay WWI reparations to Allies → bankruptcy, inflation, near anarchy

• Dawes Plan - cycle of payments from the U.S. to Germany, Germany to Allies, Britain and France to the U.S., stopped after the stock market crash of 1929

Herbert Hoover’s foreign policy

• ended interventionism in Latin America - arranged for removal of U.S. troops from Nicaragua and Haiti

• Japanese aggression in Manchuria, defying Open Door policy

  • demonstrated weakness of League of Nations

• Stimson Doctrine - Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared that the U.S. would refuse to recognize the legitimacy of nations established by force

  • endorsed by League of Nations, ineffective

FDR’s good neighbor policy

efforts to improve relations with Latin America to save resources spent on foreign operations and seek cooperation in defense against Germany and Italy

• Pan-American Conferences

• nullified Platt Amendment - Cuba’s foreign policy was no longer subject to U.S. approval

• Mexican president seized U.S. corporations’ oil properties, FDR encouraged companies to negotiate themselves

Pan-American Conferences

U.S. pledged

• to never interfere with internal affairs of Latin America

• to submit future disputes for arbitration

• hemispheric cooperation if Europeans committed acts of aggression against them

FDR’s depression diplomacy

• recognition of the Soviet Union to increase trade and boost economy

• Tydings-McDuffe Act - granted independence of the Philippines, U.S. presence gradually removed

• reciprocal trade agreements - legislation enacted to reduce U.S. tariffs for nations that reciprocated comparable reduction for U.S. imports

Axis powers

alliance consisting of dictatorships of Japan, Italy, and Germany

• Italy - Benito Mussolini leads Italy’s Fascist Party of dissatisfied war veterans, nationalists, people afraid of communism

  • fascism - the idea that people should glorify their nation and race through aggressive shows of force, dominant ideology of 1930s European dictatorships

• Germany - Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party which arose due to economic struggles and the Treaty of Versailles

• Japan - nationalism and militarism increased, economic conditions worsened led to the invasion of China and Southeast Asia for raw materials

American isolationism

• Gerald Nye (1934) - North Dakota senator, led investigating committee concluding that participation in WWI was mainly a result of greed of bankers and arms manufacturers

• Neutrality Acts - passed due to an isolationist majority in Congress preventing aid to belligerents in Europe and Spanish Civil War

• Spanish Civil War (1936) - ideological struggle between fascism (General Francisco Franco) and republicanism (Loyalists) - U.S. was sympathetic to the Loyalists but did not provide aid, fascism prevailed, establishing a military dictatorship

• America First Committee - formed by isolationists alarmed at FDR’s pro-British policies to keep public opinion against war with speakers such as Charles Lindbergh

Neutrality Acts

• Neutrality Act of 1935 - authorized the president to prohibit all arms shipments and U.S. citizen travel on belligerent ships

• Neutrality Act of 1936 - forbade extensions of loans and credits to belligerents

• Neutrality Act of 1937 - forbade shipment of arms to opposing sides of Spanish Civil War

western democracies unwilling to challenge fascist aggression, appeasement policy

• Ethiopia 1935 - Benito Mussolini conquers Ethiopia

• Rhineland 1936 - Adolf Hitler defies the Treaty of Versailles by militarizing Rhineland

• China 1937 - war between Japan and China, U.S. accepts Japanese apology for the sinking of U.S. gunboat in China

  • quarantine speech (1937) - Roosevelt proposed quarantining the aggressor, negative public reaction

• Sudetenland 1938 - Hitler insists on his right to take over Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia

  • Munich - symbolic with appeasement - Britain and France (with U.S. support) meet with Hitler and Mussolini, allowing Hitler to take Sudetenland unopposed

outbreak of WWII in Europe

• Hitler breaks Munich agreement and sends troops to occupy Czechoslovakia

• Britain and France pledge to fight if Poland is attacked, expecting Russia to oppose Germany

• invasion of Poland 1939 →Britain and France declare war against Germany (and Axis allies by extension)

• blitzkrieg - German lightning war - Germany’s air power and fast-moving tanks, led to the surrender of France, Denmark, Norway

Roosevelt changes policies

• cash and carry - less restrictive Neutrality Act, belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid in cash, technically neutral but favored Britain because of its navy control

• Selective Training and Service Act - registration of all American men 21-35, draft of soldiers but the U.S. was not yet officially at war, public opinion shifted away from strict neutrality and in favor of preparedness

• destroyers-for-bases deal - Britain received 50 U.S. destroyers, the U.S. received the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean

election of 1940

• Democrats - FDR reelected for third term

  • strong economic recovery enhanced by defense purchases, fear of war → voters wanted an experienced leader

arsenal of democracy

• four freedoms - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, freedom from fear - justification of the proposal to lend money to Britain to purchase war materials

• Lend-Lease Act (1941) - ended cash and carry requirement, permitting Britain to obtain U.S. arms on credit, opposition from America First Committee

• Atlantic Charter (1941) - document created by Winston Churchill and FDR during a secret meeting - affirmed that general principles for peace after war would include self-determination for all people, no territorial expansion, and free trade

• Roosevelt ordered the navy to attack all German ships on-sight

disputes with Japan

• economic action - U.S. prohibited export of steel and scrap iron, froze all Japanese credits in the U.S., cut off Japanese access to vital materials like oil

• negotiations for U.S. oil unsuccessful

• Pearl Harbor - Japan bombed every ship in sight, killed and wounded civilians, damaged warships, and destroyed airplanes

  • U.S. declares war