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mInterwar Foreign Policy Only one thing holds this country from war today; that is the rising opposition of the American people. Our system of democracy . . . is on test today as it has been never before. Charles Lindbergh, Des Moines, Iowa, September 1, 1941 Learning Objective: Explain the similarities and differences in attitudes about the nation’s proper role in the world. During the 1920s and 1930s, widespread disillusionment with World War I, Europe’s postwar problems, and communism in the Soviet Union (as Russia was renamed) made Americans fearful of being pulled into another European conflict. Hence, Congress refused to join the League of Nations, marking a retreat into a type of isolationism. However, the country did not return to the policies of the Gilded Age. Instead, the United States followed a policy of unilateralism, in which the United States often acted on its own through military interventions, private investment overseas, and occasionally signing a treaty. Ultimately, though, the efforts to remain out of another world war failed. Post-World War I Agreements The Republican presidents of the 1920s tried to promote peace and also scale back expenditures on defense by arranging treaties of disarmament. The most successful disarmament conference—and the greatest achievement of Harding’s presidency—was held in Washington, D.C., in 1921. Washington Conference (1921) Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes initiated talks on naval disarmament, hoping to stabilize the size of the U.S. Navy relative to that of other powers and to resolve conflicts in the Pacific. Representatives to the Washington Conference came from Belgium, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Three agreements to relieve tensions resulted from the discussions: • Five-Power Treaty Nations with the five largest navies agreed to maintain the following ratio with respect to their largest warships, or battleships: the United States, 5; Great Britain, 5; Japan, 3; France, 1.67; Italy, 1.67. Britain and the United States also agreed not to fortify their possessions in the Pacific, while no limit was placed on the Japanese. • Four-Power Treaty The United States, France, Great Britain, and Japan agreed to respect one another’s territory in the Pacific. 542 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION • Nine-Power Treaty All nine nations represented at the conference agreed to respect the Open Door policy by guaranteeing the territorial integrity of China. Kellogg-Briand Pact American women took the lead in a peace movement committed to outlawing future wars. (For her efforts on behalf of peace, Jane Addams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.) The movement achieved its greatest success in 1928 with the signing of a treaty arranged by U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand. Almost all the nations of the world signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced the aggressive use of force to achieve national ends. This international agreement would prove ineffective, however, since it (1) permitted defensive wars and (2) failed to provide for taking action against violators of the agreement. Business and Diplomacy Republican presidents believed that pro-business policies brought prosperity at home and at the same time strengthened U.S. dealings with other nations. Thus, they found it natural to use diplomacy to advance American business interests in Latin America and other regions. Latin America Mexico’s constitution of 1917 mandated government ownership of all that nation’s mineral and oil resources. U.S. investors in Mexico feared that the government might confiscate their properties. A peaceful resolution protecting their interests was negotiated by Coolidge’s ambassador to Mexico, Dwight Morrow, in 1927. Elsewhere in Latin America, Coolidge kept U.S. troops in Nicaragua and Haiti but withdrew them from the Dominican Republic in 1924. While American military influence declined, American economic impact increased. U.S. investments in Latin America doubled between 1919 and 1929. Middle East The oil reserves in the Middle East were becoming recognized as a major source of potential wealth. British oil companies had a large head start in the region, but Secretary of State Hughes succeeded in winning oildrilling rights for U.S. companies. Tariffs Passed by Congress in 1922, the Fordney-McCumber Tariff increased the duties on foreign manufactured goods by 25 percent. It was protective of U.S. business interests in the short run but destructive in the long run. Because of it, European nations were slow to recover from the war and had difficulty repaying their war debts to the United States. They responded to the high U.S. tariffs by imposing tariffs of their own on American imports. Ultimately, these obstacles to international trade weakened the world economy and were one reason for the Great Depression of the 1930s. War Debts and Reparations Before World War I, the United States had been a debtor nation, importing more than it exported. It emerged from the war as a creditor nation, having lent more than $10 billion to the Allies. Harding and Coolidge insisted that Britain and France pay back every penny of their war debts. The British and French objected. They pointed out that they suffered much worse losses than the Americans during the war, that the borrowed money had been spent in the United States, and that high U.S. tariffs made it more difficult to pay the debts. To be sure, the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay $30 billion in reparations to the Allies. But how were Britain and France to collect this money? Germany was bankrupt, had soaring inflation, and was near anarchy. Dawes Plan Charles Dawes, an American banker who would become Coolidge’s vice president, negotiated a compromise that was accepted by all sides in 1924. The Dawes Plan established a cycle of payments flowing from the United States to Germany and from Germany to the Allies. U.S. banks would lend Germany huge sums to rebuild its economy and pay reparations to Britain and France. In turn, Britain and France would use the reparations money to pay their war debts to the United States. This cycle helped to ease financial problems on both sides of the Atlantic. After the stock market crash of 1929, however, U.S. bank loans stopped and the prosperity propped up by the Dawes Plan collapsed. Legacy Ultimately, Finland was the only nation to repay its war debts in full. The unpaid debts of the other nations left bad feelings on all sides. Many Europeans resented what they saw as American greed, while Americans saw new reasons to follow an isolationist path in the 1930s. Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy Hoover concurred with the prevailing opinion of the American people that the United States should not enter into firm commitments to preserve the security of other nations. Such an opinion, in the 1930s, would be labeled “isolationism.” Latin America Hoover actively pursued friendly relations with the countries of Latin America. In 1929, even before being inaugurated, the president-elect went on a goodwill tour of the region. As president, he ended the interventionist policies of Taft and Wilson by (1) arranging for U.S. troops to leave Nicaragua by 1933 and (2) negotiating a treaty with Haiti to remove all U.S. troops by 1934. Japanese Aggression in Manchuria In the early 1930s, Japan posed the greatest threat to world peace. Defying both the Open Door policy and the covenant of the League of Nations, Japanese troops marched into Manchuria, a region of northeastern China, in September 1931. They renamed the territory Manchukuo and established a puppet government. This was part of a series of conflicts between Japan and China that began in the late 1800s. Despite its commitment to resist blatant aggression, the League of Nations did nothing except to pass a resolution condemning Japan for invading Manchuria. The Japanese delegation then walked out of the League, never to 544 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION return. In the Manchuria crisis, the League showed it was too weak to maintain peace. Its warnings would never be taken seriously by potential aggressors. Stimson Doctrine U.S. response to Japan’s violation of the Open Door policy was somewhat stronger than the League’s response—but no more effective in deterring further aggression. Secretary of State Henry Stimson declared in 1932 that the United States would honor its treaty obligations under the NinePower Treaty (1922) by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of any regime like “Manchukuo” that had been established by force. The League of Nations readily endorsed the Stimson Doctrine and issued a similar declaration. Franklin Roosevelt’s Policies, 1933–1939 In his first term, Roosevelt concentrated on the economic crisis at home and gave little thought to foreign policy. He did, however, extend Hoover’s efforts to improve U.S.-Latin America relations by initiating a good-neighbor policy. Good-Neighbor Policy In his first inaugural address in 1933, Roosevelt promised a “policy of the good neighbor” toward other nations of the Western Hemisphere. First, interventionism in support of dollar diplomacy no longer made economic sense, because U.S. businesses during the depression lacked the resources to invest in foreign operations. Second, the rise of militarist regimes in Germany and Italy prompted Roosevelt to seek Latin America’s cooperation in defending the region from potential danger. Pan-American Conferences At Roosevelt’s direction, the U.S. delegation at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933, pledged never again to intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country. In effect, Franklin Roosevelt repudiated the policy of his older cousin, Theodore, who had justified intervention as a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Another PanAmerican conference was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936. Roosevelt himself attended the conference. He personally pledged to submit future disputes to arbitration and warned that if a European power such as Germany attempted “to commit acts of aggression against us,” it would find “a hemisphere wholly prepared to consult together for our mutual safety and our mutual good.” Cuba Cubans had long resented the Platt Amendment, which had made their country’s foreign policy subject to U.S. approval. In 1934, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to nullify the Platt Amendment, retaining only the U.S. right to keep its naval base at Guantanamo Bay. Mexico In 1938, Mexico tested U.S. patience and commitment to the good-neighbor policy when its president, Lázaro Cárdenas, seized oil properties owned by U.S. corporations. Roosevelt rejected corporate demands to intervene and encouraged American companies to negotiate a settlement. Depression Diplomacy Helping the U.S. economy was the chief motivation for Roosevelt’s policies toward other foreign policy issues in his first term. Recognition of the Soviet Union The Republican presidents of the 1920s had refused to grant diplomatic recognition to the Communist regime that ruled the Soviet Union. Roosevelt promptly changed this policy by granting recognition in 1933. His reason for doing so, he said, was to increase U.S. trade and thereby boost the economy. Philippines Governing the Philippines cost money. As an economic measure, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 546 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION 1934, which provided for the independence of the Philippines by 1946 and the gradual removal of U.S. military presence from the islands. Reciprocal Trade Agreements Acting in the tradition of Progressive Democrats such as William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson, President Roosevelt favored lower tariffs as a means of increasing international trade. In 1934, Congress enacted a plan suggested by Secretary of State Cordell Hull that gave the president power to reduce U.S. tariffs up to 50 percent for nations that reciprocated with comparable reductions for U.S. imports. The Rise of Fascism and Militarism The worldwide depression soon proved to have alarming repercussions for world politics. Combined with nationalist resentments after World War I, economic hardships gave rise to dictatorships in Italy in the 1920s and Japan and Germany in the 1930s. Eventually, in 1940, Japan, Italy, and Germany signed a treaty of alliance. Together, they became known as the Axis powers. Italy A new regime seized power in Italy in 1922. Benito Mussolini led Italy’s Fascist Party, which attracted dissatisfied war veterans, nationalists, and those afraid of rising communism. Dressed in black shirts, the Fascists marched on Rome and installed Mussolini in power as “Il Duce” (the Leader). Fascism—the idea that people should glorify their nation and their race through aggressive shows of force—became the dominant ideology in European dictatorships in the 1930s. Germany The Nazi Party was the German equivalent of Italy’s Fascist Party. It arose in the 1920s in reaction to deplorable economic conditions after the war and national resentments over the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, used bullying tactics against Jews as well as Fascist ideology to increase his popularity with disgruntled, unemployed German workers. Hitler seized the opportunity presented by the depression to play upon anti-Semitic hatreds. With his personal army of “brown shirts,” Hitler gained control of the German legislature in early 1933. Japan Nationalists and militarists in Japan increased their power in the 1920s and 1930s. As economic conditions worsened, they persuaded Japan’s nominal ruler, the emperor, that the country needed to invade China and Southeast Asia to seize raw materials (oil, tin, and iron). Doing so would give Japan control over what their leaders called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Full-scale war erupted when Japan invaded China on July 7, 1937. In this conflict, called the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese committed atrocities included the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, in which they killed around 300,000 Chinese residents. The eight-year war resulted in millions of deaths. American Isolationists Public opinion in the United States was also nationalistic but expressed itself in an opposite way from fascism and militarism. Disillusioned with the results of World War I, American isolationists wanted to make sure that the United States would never again be drawn into a foreign war. Japanese aggression in Manchuria and the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany only increased the determination of isolationists to avoid war at all costs. Isolationist sentiment was strongest in the Midwest and among Republicans. The Lesson of World War I In the early 1930s, Americans commonly felt that U.S. entry into World War I had been a terrible mistake. An investigating committee led by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota bolstered this view when it concluded in 1934 that the main reason for U.S. participation in the world war was to serve the greed of bankers and arms manufacturers. This committee’s work influenced isolationist legislation in the following years. Neutrality Acts Isolationist senators and representatives in both parties held a majority in Congress through 1938. To ensure that U.S. policy would be strictly neutral if war broke out in Europe, Congress adopted a series of neutrality acts, which Roosevelt signed with some reluctance. Each law applied to belligerent nations, ones that the president proclaimed to be at war. • The Neutrality Act of 1935 authorized the president to prohibit all arms shipments and to forbid U.S. citizens from travel on the ships of belligerents. • The Neutrality Act of 1936 forbade the extension of loans and credits to belligerents. • The Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the civil war in Spain. Spanish Civil War The outbreak of civil war in Spain in 1936 was viewed in Europe and the United States as an ideological struggle between the forces of fascism, led by General Francisco Franco, and the forces of republicanism, called Loyalists. Roosevelt and most Americans sympathized with the Loyalists but, because of the Neutrality Acts, could not aid them. Ultimately, in 1939, Franco’s Fascists prevailed and established a military dictatorship. America First Committee In 1940, after World War II had begun in Asia and Europe, isolationists became alarmed by Roosevelt’s pro-British policies. To mobilize American public opinion against war, they formed the America First Committee and engaged speakers such as Charles Lindbergh to travel the country warning against reengaging in Europe’s troubles. Prelude to Another War In the years 1935 to 1938, a series of aggressive actions by the Fascist dictatorships made democratic governments in Britain and France extremely nervous. It was known that Hitler was creating an air force more powerful than anything they could match. Hoping to avoid open conflict with Germany, the democracies adopted a policy of appeasement—allowing Hitler to get away with relatively small acts of aggression and expansion. The United States went along with 548 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION the British and French policy. Events in Africa, Europe, and Asia showed how unwilling western democracies were to challenge Fascist aggression. • Ethiopia, 1935 In a bid to prove fascism’s military might, Mussolini ordered Italian troops to invade Ethiopia. The League of Nations and the United States objected but did nothing to stop the Italian aggressor, who succeeded in conquering the African country after a year of bitter fighting. • Rhineland, 1936 This region in western Germany was supposed to be permanently demilitarized, according to the Versailles Treaty. Hitler openly defied the treaty by ordering German troops to march into the Rhineland. • China, 1937 Full-scale war between Japan and China erupted in 1937 as Japan’s troops invaded its weaker neighbor. A U.S. gunboat in China, the Panay, was bombed and sunk by Japanese planes. The U.S. government quickly accepted Japan’s apology for the sinking. • Sudetenland, 1938 In Europe, Hitler insisted that Germany had a right to take over a strip of land in Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, where most people were German-speaking. To maintain peace, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, and the French president, Édouard Daladier, with Roosevelt’s support, met with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich. At this conference in September 1938, the British and French leaders agreed to allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland unopposed. The word Munich has since become synonymous with appeasement. Quarantine Speech Roosevelt recognized the dangers of Fascist aggression but was limited by the isolationist feelings of the majority of Americans. When Japan invaded China in 1937, he tested public opinion by making a speech proposing that the democracies act together to “quarantine” the aggressor. Public reaction to the speech was overwhelmingly negative, and Roosevelt dropped the quarantine idea as politically unwise. Preparedness Like Wilson in 1916, Roosevelt argued for neutrality and an arms buildup at the same time. Congress went along with his request in late 1938 by increasing the military and naval budgets by nearly two-thirds. Some isolationists accepted the increased defense spending, thinking it would be used only to protect against possible invasion of the Western Hemisphere. Outbreak of World War II in Europe In March 1939, Hitler broke the Munich agreement by sending troops to occupy all of Czechoslovakia. After this, it became clear that Hitler’s ambitions had no limit and that war was probably unavoidable. Recognizing the failure of appeasement, Britain and France pledged to fight if Poland was attacked. They had always assumed that they could count on the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, to oppose Hitler, since communism and fascism were ideological enemies. The democracies were therefore shocked in August 1939 when Stalin and Hitler signed a nonaggression pact. Secretly, the Soviet and German dictators agreed to divide Poland between them. Invasion of Poland On September 1, 1939, German tanks and planes began a full-scale invasion of Poland. Keeping their pledge, Britain and France declared war against Germany—and soon afterward, they were also at war with its Axis allies, Italy and Japan. World War II in Europe had begun. Poland was the first to fall to Germany’s blitzkrieg (lightning war), an overwhelming use of air power and fast-moving tanks. After a relatively inactive winter, the war was resumed in the spring of 1940 with Germany attacking its Scandinavian neighbors to the north and its chief enemy, France, to the west. Denmark and Norway surrendered in a few days, France in only a week. By June 1940, the only ally that remained free of German troops was Great Britain. AXIS AGGRESSION IN THE 1930s Principal Axis Powers Coerced by Germany to Join Axis Powers Annexed or Occupied by Germany Alliances Date of annexation, occupation, alliance, or invasion (1935) 0 500 kilometers 0 500 miles aerial bombing campaign FINLAND ITALY ALBANIA SPAIN SWEDEN NORWAY GERMANY FRANCE ROMANIA YUGOSLAVIA DENMARK POLAND GREECE NETHERLANDS BELGIUM LITHUANIA LATVIA ESTONIA SICILY CORSICA SARDINIA UNITED KINGDOM LUX. SWITZ. AUSTRIA HUNGARY BULGARIA CZECHOSLOVAKIA SOVIET UNION AFRICA (1936) (1939) (1941) (1940) (1940) (1940) (1940) (1940) (1940) (1938) (1939) (1938) (1939) (1940) (1940) (1941) (1941) (1941) ETHIOPIA ITALIAN SOMALILAND ERITREA KENYA (1935–1936) SUDETENLAND INDEPENDENT STATE OF CROATIA RHINELAND Warsaw Berlin Munich Vienna Prague Budapest Rome Danzig London Paris North Sea M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a A d r i a t i c S e a B a l t i c S e a Red Sea 550 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION Roosevelt Changes Policies President Roosevelt countered isolationism in the United States by gradually giving aid to the Allies, especially Great Britain. Now that war had actually begun, most Americans were alarmed by news of Nazi tanks, planes, and troops conquering one country after another. They were strongly opposed to Hitler but still hoped to keep their country out of the war. President Roosevelt believed that British survival was crucial to U.S. security. The relationship that was built over the coming years between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and FDR proved one of the keys to Allied success in the war. The president chipped away at the restrictive neutrality laws until practically nothing remained to prevent him from giving massive aid to Britain. After the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940, most Americans accepted the need to strengthen U.S. defenses, but giving direct aid to Britain was controversial. “Cash and Carry” The British navy still controlled the seas. Therefore, if the United States ended its arms embargo, it would help only Britain, not Germany. Roosevelt persuaded Congress in 1939 to adopt a less restrictive Neutrality Act, which provided that a belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid cash. Technically, “cash and carry” was neutral, but in practice, it strongly favored Britain. Selective Service Act (1940) Without actually naming Germany as the potential enemy, Roosevelt pushed neutrality back one more step by persuading Congress to enact a law for compulsory military service. The Selective Training and Service Act of September 1940 provided for the registration of all American men between the ages of 21 and 35 and for the training of 1.2 million troops in just one year. There had been a military draft in the Civil War and World War I but only when the United States was officially at war. Isolationists strenuously opposed the peacetime draft, but they were now outnumbered as public opinion shifted away from strict neutrality. Destroyers-for-Bases Deal In September 1940, Britain was under constant assault by German bombing raids. German submarine attacks threatened British control of the Atlantic. Roosevelt knew that selling U.S. destroyers to the British outright would outrage the isolationists. He therefore cleverly arranged a trade. Britain received 50 older but still serviceable U.S. destroyers and gave the United States the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean. The Election of 1940 Adding to suspense over the war was uncertainty over a presidential election. Might Franklin Roosevelt be the first president to break the two-term tradition and seek election to a third term? For months, the president gave an ambiguous reply, causing frenzied speculation in the press. At last, he announced that, in those critical times, he would not turn down the Democratic nomination if it were offered. Most Democrats were delighted to renominate their most effective campaigner. During the campaign, Roosevelt made the rash pronouncement: “Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” Wendell Willkie The Republicans had a number of veteran politicians who were eager to challenge the president. Instead, they chose a newcomer to public office: Wendell Willkie, a lawyer and utility executive with a magnetic personality. Although he criticized the New Deal, Willkie largely agreed with Roosevelt on preparedness and giving aid to Britain short of actually entering the war. His strongest criticism of Roosevelt was the president’s decision to break the two-term tradition established by George Washington. Results Roosevelt won with 54 percent of the popular vote—a smaller margin than in 1932 and 1936. Important factors in the president’s reelection were (1) a strong economic recovery enhanced by defense purchases and (2) fear of war, which caused voters to stay with the more experienced leader. Arsenal of Democracy Roosevelt viewed Germany’s conquest of most of Europe as a direct threat both to U.S. security and to the future of democratic governments everywhere. After his reelection, he believed that he was in a stronger position to end the appearance of U.S. neutrality and give material aid to Britain. In a December 1940 fireside chat to the American people, he explained his thinking and concluded: “We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” Four Freedoms Addressing Congress on January 6, 1941, the president delivered a speech that proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials. He justified such a policy by arguing that the United States must help other nations defend “four freedoms”: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Lend-Lease Act Roosevelt proposed ending the cash-and-carry requirement of the Neutrality Act and permitting Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit. The president said it would be like lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a fire. Isolationists in the America First Committee campaigned vigorously against the lend-lease bill. By now, however, majority opinion had shifted toward aiding Britain, and the Lend-Lease Act was signed into law in March 1941. Atlantic Charter With the United States actively aiding Britain, Roosevelt knew that the United States might soon enter the war. He arranged for a secret meeting in August 1941 with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard a ship off the coast of Newfoundland. The two leaders drew up a document known as the Atlantic Charter that affirmed that the general principles for a sound peace after the war would include self-determination for all people, no territorial expansion, and free trade. Shoot-on-Sight In July 1941, the president extended U.S. support for Britain even further by protecting its ships from submarine attack. He ordered the U.S. Navy to escort British ships carrying lend-lease materials 552 UNITED STATES HISTORY: AP® EDITION from U.S. shores as far as Iceland. On September 4, the American destroyer Greer was attacked by a German submarine it had been hunting. In response, Roosevelt ordered the navy to attack all German ships on sight. In effect, the United States was now fighting an undeclared naval war against Germany. Disputes with Japan Meanwhile, through 1940 and 1941, U.S. relations with Japan were becoming increasingly strained as a result of Japan’s invasion of China and ambitions to extend its conquests to Southeast Asia. Beginning in 1940, Japan was allied with Germany and Italy as one of the Axis powers. Hitler’s success in Europe enabled Japanese expansion into the Dutch East Indies, British Burma, and French Indochina—territories still held as European colonies. U.S. Economic Action When Japan joined the Axis powers in September 1940, Roosevelt responded by prohibiting the export of steel and scrap iron to all countries except Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere. His action was aimed at Japan, which protested that it was an “unfriendly act.” In July 1941, Japanese troops occupied French Indochina. Roosevelt then froze all Japanese credits in the United States and also cut off Japanese access to vital materials, including U.S. oil. Negotiations Both sides realized that Japan needed oil to fuel its navy and air force. If the U.S. embargo on oil did not end, Japan would likely seize the oil resources in the Dutch East Indies. At the same time, Japan’s invasion of China was a blatant violation of the Open Door policy, to which the United States was still committed. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull insisted that Japan pull its troops out of China, which Japan refused to do. The Japanese ambassador to the United States tried to negotiate a change in U.S. policy on oil. Agreement, however, seemed most unlikely. In October, a new Japanese government headed by General Hideki Tojo made a final attempt at negotiating an agreement. Neither side, however, changed its position. U.S. military leaders hoped to delay armed confrontation with Japan until U.S. armed forces in the Pacific were strengthened. Japan, on the other hand, believed that quick action was necessary because of its limited oil supplies. Pearl Harbor The U.S. fleet in the Pacific was anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, while most American sailors were still asleep in their bunks, Japanese planes from aircraft carriers flew over Pearl Harbor bombing every ship in sight. The surprise attack lasted less than two hours. In that time, Japan killed 2,400 Americans (including over 1,100 when the battleship Arizona sank), wounded almost 1,200 people, sank or severely damaged 20 warships, and destroyed approximately 150 airplanes. Partial Surprise The American people were stunned by the attack on Pearl Harbor. High government officials, however, knew that an attack somewhere in the Pacific was imminent because they had broken the Japanese codes. They did not know the exact target and date for the attack, which many felt would be in the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, or Malay Declaration of War Addressing Congress on the day after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt described December 7th as “a date which will live in infamy.” He asked Congress to declare “that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.” On December 8, Congress declared war, with only one dissenting vote. Three days later, Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by declaring war on the United States. The War in Europe in 1941–1942 By the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, Europeans had been fighting for two years. On June 22, 1941, Hitler had broken his nonaggression pact with Stalin and ordered his troops to invade the Soviet Union. This shifted the main battlefront in Europe from the west to the east. The principal Allies fighting Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945, then, were Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The three Allied leaders— Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin—agreed that they should concentrate on the European war against the aggressive militarism and fascism of the Nazis before shifting their resources to counter Japanese advances in the Pacific.