Unit 11 - 1

Unit 11 Review Questions

1. How and why did the United States attempt to isolate itself from foreign troubles during the 30s?

 WHY? In the 1930’s the only thing the American people wanted to deal with was the Great Depression, and it
was the only battle Roosevelt wanted to wage. America had its own burdens to shoulder, and the costs of foreign
involvement, whether in blood or money simply seemed too great.
 HOW? EX: London Economic Conference
o Purpose: to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression. They were particularly
eager for exchange-rate stabilization.
o Roosevelt at first agreed to send an American delegation to the conference, but later withdrew.
o Revealed America’s “every man for himself” mindset and how Roosevelt’s early foreign policy was
subordinated for domestic economic recovery.
 HOW? EX: Withdrawal from Philippines
o Americans were eager to get rid of the expensive liability of the Philippines. Organized labor demanded
the exclusion of low wage Filipino workers and American sugar producers wanted elimination of
Philippine competition.
o Congress passed Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934 to eventually grant Filipino independence
o Americans were freeing themselves from the Philippines for their own welfare and ignored political
situation in Asia.
 HOW? EX: Good Neighbor Policy
o Roosevelt extended new relations with Latin America.
o US was giving up its ambition to be a world power and content to be a regional power confined to
Western Hemisphere.
 HOW? EX: Neutrality Acts 1935, 1936, 1937
o When president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into
effect. No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or
make loans to a belligerent.
o Acts were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of conflict like WWI

2. How were the Neutrality acts of the 1930s a reaction to the events of 1914 to 1917?

The 3 Neutrality Acts stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions
would automatically go into effect.
No American could:
- legally sail on a belligerent ship
- sell or transport munitions to a belligerent
- make loans to a belligerent.

These restrictions were designed to prevent all of the factors that dragged America into the First World War: American
lives from being lost on foreign ships, the hassle of foreign war debts, torpedoing of American transports, and sale of
munitions to belligerents in which the Nye Committee found blame. There was a revision later on to allow the sale of
munitions, but on a cash and carry basis only. This still kept American ships out of danger and eliminated the war
debt problem.

3. Discuss the effects of the neutrality laws of the 1930s and how they tended to aid totalitarian aggression.

America served notice that it would make no distinction whatever between aggressors and victims. By trying to hold
the scales even, it actually overbalanced them in favor of the dictators, who were already well armed. Thus democratic
nations were put at a severe disadvantage.
EX: Spanish Civil War
- The loyalist regime urgently needed munitions, but the Neutrality Acts prevented the sale of arms to either
side
- Franco was abundantly supplied with arms and men by his fellow dictators
- The loyalists were overthrown with America standing idly by, which only encouraged the dictators to continue
their aggression
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4. List the steps FDR took to gradually move the United States towards providing aid to Britain and
undercutting the isolationists’ position.
Background: Before the fall of France in 1940, the US remained neutral. But without France, Britain stood alone between Hitler and
European domination, and the policy of neutrality seemed increasingly questionable. Soon after Hitler began bombing Britain (Battle of
Britain), debate in the US intensified over what foreign policy to embrace, and sympathy began to grow for the British.

Steps FDR took:

 FDR faced a historical decision: stick with isolationism, or help the British through all means but war itself.
 Initial step was establishing the cash-and-carry sale of munitions to the allies
 Since the German U-Boats sank many of Britain’s destroyers, on Sep. 20, 1940, Roosevelt boldly transferred 50
old-model destroyers to Britain in return for eight valuable defense base sites. This became known as the
“destroyer deal”.
o Though this move was condemned by isolationists, it was popular with the American people.
 The Lend-Lease Bill, which had the underlying concept “send guns, not sons”, was passed in March of 1941.
o Britain was almost out of money by late 1940, and as FDR had bitter memories of the Allies’ WWI debt,
he devised the scheme of lending or leasing American arms to democratic governments such as Britain;
when the war ended, the arms would be returned to the US.
o Lend-Lease was one of the most momentous bills ever passed, as it hurled a challenge straight into the
teeth of the Axis powers. By its very nature, it marked the complete abandonment of neutrality.
 FDR also began meeting with Allied leaders to discuss the war with the Atlantic Conference in August 1941
 To ensure that arms sent to Britain would reach there, FDR finally agreed that a convoy would have to escort
them, but only as far as Iceland
 In the east, FDR enacted embargoes on the Japanese to try and halt their aggression
 By Nov 1941 the Neutrality Act of 1939 was annulled and American ships could arm themselves and enter
combat zones

5. Was America’s entry into the war inevitable? Take a stand and briefly list your reasons.
THROWN OUT

6. List the effects of the war on the American economy as well as on the role of women in America.
ECONOMY
a. war crisis caused the drooping American economy to snap back into action
b. massive military orders-over $100 billion in 1942 alone-almost instantly soaked up idle industrial capacity o/t
lingering depression
c. orchestrated by the war production board, American factories poured forth an avalanche of weaponry...40 billion
bullets, etc.
 wpb halted manufacturing of nonessential items like passenger cars
 when japanese invaded british malaya, the gvt created a nat'l speed limit and gasoline rationing in order to
save rubber
 farmers increased their output. although many farmers went overseas to farm, new agricultural machinery and
fertilizers helped them haul in record breaking billion-bushel wheat harvests
d. these wonders of production however, had economic strains.
 full employment and scarce consumer goods fueld a sharp inflationary surge in 1942
 office of price admin. eventually brought rising prices under ctrl w/ extensive regulations
 war labor board imposed ceilings on wage increases
ROLE OF WOMEN
a. armed services enlisted some 216,000 women who were employed for noncombat duties
b. best known of these women in arms were the WAACS (army) , WAVES (navy) and SPARS (coast guard).
c. more than 6 million women took jobs outside the home; over half of them had never worked for wages before
d. when the war ended, many women continued to work
e. war thus foreshadowed an eventual revolution in the roles of women in american society
f. not all women were impacted by the war
g. great majority continued in trad'l roles at home
h. at war's end, majority of women left work force to go have kids (baby boom!)
i. america was destined to experience thoroughgoing rev. in women's status later in postwar period, but that
epochal change was only beginning to gather momentum during war yrs.
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7. List the reasons why the United States and its Allies won World War II.
There are three major reasons why the US and its Allies have won WWII:
1. Soviet Transformation
 Soviet learned greatly from their own mistakes
 Their air and tank armies were reorganized to mimic the German Panzer division and air forces
 Soviet industry and workforce were extremely efficient
o They have command economy with quotas. If you don’t fill up this quota you are punished harshly.
 Change in politics
o Until the summer of 1942, Stalin and his party closely controlled the Red Army.
2. American Power
 Lend and Lease policy
o Enough food and ammunition for the Allies…
 Federal government involvement for total war
 The federal government, for the first time, began to operate it sown economic planning agencies.
 American’s strategic bombing tactic
 Dwarf the enemy air force and assault on the economic and military infrastructure of the enemy state
3. German Errors
 Wasting man power
 A gigantic construction of project for an underground economy was authorized by Hitler. Using camp labor,
billions of marks and man-hours were wasted in an attempt to achieve the impossible.
 Diverted most of its fighter force to the defense of Germany
o Aerial bombing forced Germany Air Force to reduce the number of fighters away from its frontline. Due to
this, by 1944 German air power was easily defeated and pilot losses reached exceptionally high levels.

8. Briefly describe the origins of the Cold War.

The big issue was what to do with Eastern Europe right after WWII (they were messed up after the war, as far as
borders and reconstruction went) Both America and the USSR each had different plans for what to do.

MUTUAL DISTRUST (Stalin distrusted FDR's capitalistic democracy in America, FDR distrusted Stalin's communism in
Russia)

USSR COMMUNIST Stalin wanted to guarantee the safety of the USSR. He wanted to have friendly governments along
the USSR's western border especially in Poland. He basically wanted a "sphere of influence" He wanted to spread
communism as far as he could, remember it was Lenin's dream!!! (But Stalin was a genocidal maniac, don't mention this)
Soviet felt it good to mistrust the west:

 The west did not invite the Soviets to the Munich Conference which decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in the
years leading up to World War II, even though the Soviet Union had a security pact with Czechoslovakia .

America CAPTIALIST DEMOCRACY Most Americans thought a "sphere of influence" was too much like an "empire."
FDR had a dream of an "open world." Decolonized, demilitarized and democratized with a strong int'l org to oversee
global peace. FDR wanted these eastern nations to have free elections, he wanted them to stay as far from communism
as possible. REMEMBER, the US was afraid of world wide revolution and they believed that if Stalin had his way
communism would spread and take over.

The west, for its part, never trusted the Soviet Union :

 The avowed purpose of the International Communist Party to secure world wide communist revolution. There was
a great fear of socialism in Europe and America, especially here .
 The Soviets negotiated an agreement with Hitler and annexed eastern Poland .
 By the end of the war Britain and the United States distrusted the Soviet motives in eastern Europe(Yalta) .

The Origins of the Cold War are widely regarded to lie most directly within the immediate post- Second World War
relations between the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union in the years 1945 - 1947, leading to the
developed Cold War that endured until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both the superpowers contrasted in their
views, and the USSR was totally different from the USA . The USSR was a Socialist state and a ruthless dictatorship that
sent tens of millions to their death for displeasing Stalin. The USA was a democratic capitalist state.
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The wartime cooperation was never friendly, and it became increasingly strained by February 1945 at the Yalta
Conference, as it became increasingly clear that Stalin intended to seize control of most of Eastern Europe--especially
those areas that had once been controlled by the Czars, together with eastern Germany.

9. Explain the logic of the “containment policy” and list two examples of its application during the Cold War.
Crafted by a brilliant young diplomat and Soviet specialist, George F. Kennan, this concept held that Russia, whether
tsarist or communist, was relentlessly expansionary. But the Kremlin was also cautious, Kennan argued, and the flow of
Soviet power into "every nook and cranny available to it" could be stemmed by "firm and vigilant containment"
Ex.1 Truman Doctrine: Truman asked for $400 million from Congress to bolster Greece and Turkey.
-He had found out that Britain couldn't bear the financial and military load of defending Greece against communist
pressures
- If Greece fell, Turkey would presumably collapse and the strategic eastern Mediterranean would pass into the
Soviet orbit
Ex. 2 Marshall Plan: spend $12.5 billion over four years in sixteen cooperating countries
- France, Italy and Germany were still suffering from the hunger and economic chaos spawned by the war = in
grave danger of being taken over from the inside by Communist parties that could take advantage of them
- It was a success, in a few years, Europe was drenched in prosperity and the Communist Parties in Italy and
France lost ground = saved from the westward thrust of communism
Ex. 3 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): pledged to regard an attack on one as an attack on all and promised to
respond with "armed force" if necessary
- became the cornerstone of all Cold War American policy toward Europe
-"to keep the Russians out, the Germans down, and the Americans in"
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Unit 11 DBQ/Free Response Topics

1. How and for what reasons did United States foreign policy change between 1920 and 1941?

 Woodrow Wilson
 Red Scare
 Response to Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
 Many feared Socialism spreading into the US
 resulted in a nationwide crusade against left-wingers whose Americanism was suspect
 Warren Harding
 called for return to “normalcy”
 American people tired and disillusioned by WWI
 they now turned inward
 established isolationist views, which remains until WWII
 Events under Harding:
 treaties with Germany, Austria and Hungary, formally ending WWI for the US
 treaty to indemnify Colombia for its loss of Panama
 Washington Naval Conference 1921-1922
 5-3-3 naval armaments ratio
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff 1922
 raised tariffs from 27% to 38.5%
 further isolated US from Europe
 1921 Emergency Quota Act
 greatly cut off US immigration to a mere trickle
 3% of that nationality in 1910
 Sacco and Vanzetti (1921)
 Italians and anarchists
 executed despite unpopularity
 Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
 pledged for no more wars
 ultimately ratified by 62 nations
 pact was virtually useless, impossible to enforce
 accurately reflect the American mind
 Calvin Coolidge
 nativist feelings and anti-foreign emotions
 war debts
 Allied war debt became harder and harder to pay for the Europeans from American isolationist
attitudes
 US wanted the Allies to pay their debts
 Allies protested that the demand for repayment was unfair
 Dawes Plan, 1924
 negotiated largely by Charles Dawes
 rescheduled German reparations payments and opened the way for further American private
loans to Germany
 US bankers loaned money to Germany, Germany paid reparations to France and Britain, and
they paid war debts to the US
 Ku Klux Klan
 spawned by postwar reaction
 antiforeign, anti-Catholic, antiblack, anti-Jewish, antipacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist,
antievolutionist, antibootlegger, antigambling, antiadultery, anti-birth control
 pro-Anglo-Saxon, pro-“native” American, pro-Protestant
 at peak in mid-1920s, it claimed about 5 million members and wielded political influence
 suddenly collapsed in the late 1920s
 Events under Coolidge:
 Immigration Act of 1924
 immigration cut down to 2% of that immigration in 1890
 Herbert Hoover
 continued feelings of isolation
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 Events under Hoover
 Hawley Smoot Tariff 1928
 highest protective tariff in the nation’s peacetime history
 average duty on nonfree goods was raised from 38.l5% to nearly 60%
 Manchuria, 1931
 Japanese invade
 Americans, wanting to keep out of foreign affairs, don’t react much
 Good Neighbor Policy
 Hoover strove to abandon the interventionist twist given to the Monroe Doctrine by TR
 1932 Hoover negotiated a new treaty with Haiti, and this pact provided for the complete
withdrawal of American platoons by 1934
 1933, the marines left Nicaragua after an almost continuous stay of some 20 years
 Franklin Roosevelt
 Isolationism
 strong isolationist views continue until the US is plunged into war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor
 received strong boost from alarms abroad
 though disapproving of the dictators, Americans still believed that their encircling seas conferred a
kind of mystic immunity
 FDR’s quarantine speech, 1937
 alarmed by recent aggressions of Italy and Japan, he called for “positive endeavors” to
“quarantine” the aggressors, presumably by economic embargoes
 triggered many protests from isolationists and other foes of involvement who feared moral
quarantine would lead to shooting quarantine
 Propaganda Groups
 Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies
 formed by supporters of aid to Britain
 to interventionists, it could appeal for direct succor to the British by such slogans as “Britain is
fighting our fight”
 to isolationists, it would appeal for assistance to the democracies by “All methods short of
war”, so that the conflict would be kept in Europe
 The American First Committee
 contended that America should concentrate what strength it had to defend its own shores,
lest a victorious Hitler, after crushing Britain, plot a transoceanic assault
 “The Yanks Are Not Coming”
 most effective speechmaker was famed aviator Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
 Cordell Hull
 idealistic Secretary of State
 high-minded Tennessean of the low-tariff school
 believe that trade was a two-way street, that a nation can sell abroad only as it buys abroad, that tariff
barriers choke off foreign trade, and that trade wars beget shooting wars
 Events under Roosevelt
 London Economic Conference, 1933
 revealed how thoroughly Roosevelt’s early foreign policy was subordinated to his strategy for
domestic economic recovery
 delegates hoped to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression
 particularly eager to stabilize the values of the various nations’ currencies and the rates at which they
could be exchanged
 Roosevelt at first agreed to send an American delegation, but withdrew from negotiations after
scolding the conference for attempting to stabilize currencies
 Good Neighbor Policy
 accent on consultation and nonintervention
 Roosevelt made it clear at the outset that he was going to renounce armed intervention
 very similar to Hoover’s Good Neighbor Policy
 Mexican oil expropriation, 1938
 Mexican government seized Yankee oil properties
 American investors demanded armed intervention to repossess their confiscated businesses
 Roosevelt successfully resisted the badgering and a settlement was finally threshed out in 1941, even
though many oil companies lost much of their original stake
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 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, 1934
 designed in part to lift American export trade form the depression doldrums
 aimed at both relief and recovery
 activated the low-tariff policies of the New Dealers
 Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937
 stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions
would automatically go into effect
 no American could legally sail on a belligerent ship sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or
make loans to a belligerent
 Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
 painful object lesson in the folly of neutrality-by-legislation
 Panay incident, 1937
 Japanese aviators bombed and sank American gunboat in Chinese waters, with a loss of 2 killed and
30 wounded
 Tokyo hastened to make necessary apologies and pay a proper indemnity
 Americans were relieved to have avoided war
 “Cash and Carry” Neutrality Act, 1939
 European democracies might buy American war materials but only on a “cash-and-carry” basis
 they would have to transport the munitions on their own ships, after paying for them in cash
 America would thus avoid loans, ward debts, and torpedoing of American ships
 Destroyer deal, 1940
 September 2, Roosevelt agreed to transfer Britain 50 4-funnel destroyers left over from WWI
 in return British promised to hand over to the US 8 valuable defensive base sites
 Lend-Lease Act, 1941
 “Send guns, not sons.”
 Roosevelt promised America would be the “arsenal of democracy”
 would send a limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression, who in turn, would finish the job
and keep the war on their side of the Atlantic
 accounts settled by returned the used weapons or their equivalents after the war
 Atlantic Charter 1941
 formally accepted by Roosevelt and Churchill and endorsed by USSR later that year
 outlined the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war’s end
 promised that there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants
 further affirmed the right of a people to choose their own form of government and to regain the
governments abolished by the dictators
 declared for disarmament and a peace of security
 Japanese embargo, 1940
 late 1940, US finally imposed the first of its embargoes on Japan-bound supplies
 Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
 Surprise bombing on US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii changed people’s views about
isolationism
 angered by the blatant Japanese attack, Americans moved to war

Between 1920 and 1941, U.S. foreign policy changed drastically. After World War I, America retreated back to the
rampant isolationism that had characterized American foreign policy before WWI. The American people were tired of this
moral crusade they were waging to make the world "safe for democracy" and many wanted to return to normal again. The
1920s and the 1930s was also the time of the Depression for most Americans and many felt more inclined to focus on
finding solutions for domestic internal problems than for sticking their nose in the affairs of others outside America.
America's isolationism in the 1920s was shown as American didn't join the League of Nations, quickly withdrawing from
Europe, tried to solidify it's isolationism, etc.

However by the time World War II came about, the wisdom of being isolated from world affairs and neutrality that the
Americans have held for a time (by the Neutrality Acts and such) came into question. The dictators of Europe and Japan
rearmed for conquest and soon rolled over many of their weaker neighboring countries. By the time France fell to German
forces, Britain was the only European country strong enough to stand between Hitler and Nazi domination. Many feared
that if Britain fell to German forces, Germany would soon plan a trans-Atlantic assault on America, breaching the ocean
moats by which Americans have hid smugly behind for so long. America would then have to face the powerful dictators
alone. Driven by this fear, American began to break its Neutrality Acts in ways such as transferring ships to Britain for
convoy duty, etc. The climax of the foreign policy change came in the form of the Lend-Lease Law where America
 Unit 11 - 8
pledges to all the other democratic countries in the world to be the "arsenal of democracy." America would supply all
materials to democratic countries under attack so that those countries would finish the fight. Though important, the
change wasn't as drastic as the Lend-lease law had a tinge of isolationist influence on it. Americans would send arms and
materials to the countries under attack but would refrain from direct action (sending in troops) so as to not draw American
herself into the war.

2. Analyze the influence of TWO of the following on American-Soviet relations in the decade following the Second World
War.
 Yalta Conference
 Communist revolution in China
 Korean War
 McCarthyism

Korean War and McCarthyism occurred simultaneously (during the 1950s, which were a time of social conformism).
There was a pressure to be seem as the same.

McCarthyism

 McCarthyism (period of time during the 50s in which accusations were made against ppl who were "different" accused
"different" people of being Communists)
 Led by Senator McCarthy (a Republican)
 Remember, Democrats were in power during the time
 Used as a [political] bludgeon
 Accused State Department, actors, playwrights, etc
 To discredit Democrats
 To gain political power
 Caused people to believe that American government was infiltrated with Commies
 Soviet Union began their own nuclear weapon production (no one but USA had known how to make
A-bombs fact that SU knew how compelled Americans to believe that Commie spiers were divulging
secrets)
 China became communist (overthrown by Mao and his peasant followers)
 Americans asked, "How could we have lost China [to Communism]?"
 Had been their ally during WWI
 SU+China = 1/3 of world = commies
 Gave McCarthy credibility that government [remember: Democrats in power] had communistic
elements
 Swept an air of fear
 Anything that had slight hint of Communism or supported any leftist political thinking = BAD
 ~ to previous Red Scare but larger and longer scared everyone
 Those accused of being Commies were blacklisted or jailed
 Those on blacklists couldn't get jobs
 Hollywood blacklist: many actors, directors, etc suspected of being commie because
many of them had radical ideas)
 McCarthy eventually brought down by TV coverage
 Had accused Army
 Seen as an intimidating bully with groundless arguments
 Eventually censored by the Senate

Korean War

 Korea had been divided into 2 pieces of land temporarily (N for SU and S for US)
 2 pieces were supposed to reorganize and recombine [later]
 North Korea (NK) attacks South Korea (SK)
 Wanted to unite SK w/ NK under 1 commie gov't
 Not directed by SU but supported by SU indirectly through providing NK SU's supplies
 N advances quickly (goes up to Pusan)
 Unofficial war against NK w/ US mostly fighting (1st sanction made by UN international action)
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 McCarthy makes move in Inchon and pushes the NK troops back all the way up to Chinese border
(Chosun Reservoir)
 Wanted to push further
 Truman says no b/c he didn't want to start a WWIII
 Then, Chinese ppl come and flood US
 Not all equipped w/ weapons but sheer number of ppl = overwhelming
 US pushed back
 Ends in stalemate
 Truce in '53 (Eisenhower promises truce when he runs in '52)
 KW = test of containment
 SU not directly involved indirectly (supplied provisions, etc) for NK

 Basically caused relations with the Soviet Union to worsen and encouraged the Americans to think that communism
was aggressive & expanding and would expand if left uninhibited
 Beginning of 1945, US+SU = allies at the end of the war, relationship had crumbled because Truman made no effort
to make relations w/ Stalin (FDR had: Yalta Conference, etc) Truman was against Stalin b/c Stalin had promised free
election in Eastern Europe but had not kept his promise they were super opponents McCarty and KW fueled this
opposition

American Soviet relations (Overall reasons for bad relationships)//Background info

 Communism and capitalism never got along in all of history
 US had refused to recognize the Bolshevik revolutionary government until it was 16 yrs old
 America and Britain delay on opening second front during WWII
 America and Britain kept the Soviets out of the atomic weapons project
 America lent Britain 3.75 billion dollars in a reconstruction loan but refused to loan the Soviets $6 billion
 Stalin wanted to make sure Germany would never attack again create borders w/ friendly government (Poland)
spheres of influences in Eastern Europe
 Americans felt that the influences were becoming the Soviet's Empire

The Yalta Conference

 Stalin agreed that Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania should have a representative government based on free elections –
he broke his promise
 Stalin agreed to attack Japan in three months after Germany surrendered (which he did) but only if
o The USSR were promised the southern half of Sakhalin Island
o Japan's Kurile Islands
o Control over the railroads of China's Manchuria
o Special privileges in the two key seaports of that area , Dairen and Port Arthur (Manchuria)
 The demands were vital areas in the industrial centers of China
 The conference gave elastic agreements with the Soviets

Communist Revolution in China

 (America) by giving in to the Soviet's demands for their help in Japan contributed to Jiang's overthrow by the
communists
 Was a defeat for America and its allies in the Cold War