Chapter 34 Study Guide
Chapter #34: IDENTIFICATIONS
Nuremburg Trials- “war crime” trials at Nuremberg and Japan
Cordell Hull- Secretary of State; lead reciprocal policy of the New Dealers; Tennessean of the low-tariff school; believed trade was a two-way street, that tariff barriers choke of foreign trade, and that trade wars beget shooting wars
Winston Churchill- inspired leader, Prime Minister of England; met with Roosevelt on many occasions to discuss nations’ actions
Charles Lindbergh- most successful speechmaker of isolationist-formed American First Committee; famed
aviator; ironically narrowed the Atlantic in 1927
Good Neighbor Policy- Roosevelt inaugurated a new era in relations with Latin America
Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act- 1934; lifted American export trade from depression doldrums; was aimed at both relief and recovery; activated low-tariff policies of New Dealers; avoided uncertainties of wholesale tariff revision; whittled down schedules of Hawley-Smoot Law by amending them; Roosevelt empowered to lower existing tariff by as much as 50%; resulting pacts were to become effective without approval of Senate
Rome-Berlin Axis- Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations and in 1936 he and fascist Mussolini allied themselves
Nye Committee- A senate committee headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota; appointed to investigate lurid articles and books condemning the munitions manufacturers as war-fermenters; 1934
Neutrality Acts- stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would go into effect; were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of conflict like WWI
Russo-German Nonaggression Pact- Soviet Union signed on August 23, 1939 a nonaggression treaty with Hitler; gave Hitler a green light to make war on Poland and Western Democracies without fearing Soviet Union
"cash and carry"-British could get weapons needed if they would transfer them with their own ships after first paying in cash
America First Committee- formed by isolationists; wanted to stay out of the war; put America first; challenged Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies; most successful speechmaker was Colonel Lindbergh
Lend-Lease Act- America would become “arsenal of democracy”; send limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression; approved by Congress March 1941; Hitler recognized it as an unofficial declaration of war
Atlantic Charter- new covenant outlined the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war’s end; promised there would be no territorial changed; affirmed the right of the people to choose their own government; to regain the governments abolished by the dictators; declared for disarmament and peace of security, pending a “permanent system of general security
Chapter #34 GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
The London Conference
Know: London Economic Conference
1. What were the results of Roosevelt's decision not to help stabilize currencies?
Roosevelt’s decision plunged the planet deeper into the economic crisis. It led to the collapse of the London Conference which strengthened the global trend toward extreme nationalism, making international cooperation even more difficult. Roosevelt’s actions also played into the hands of power-mad dictators.
Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
Know: Tydings-McDuffie Act
2. What was the reason for America's decision to free the Philippines?
Taxpayers were eager to throw overboard the expensive tropical liability. The organized labor demanded exclusion of low-wage Filipino workers, and American sugar producers clamored for elimination of Philippine competition.
Becoming a Good Neighbor
Know: Good Neighbor Policy
3. Was the United States serious about the Good Neighbor policy? Explain.
Yes. Roosevelt endorsed nonintervention to the nations below at the Seventh Pan-American Conference. He didn’t want the Latin Americas to get involved with the ugly European war. Evidence that the U.S. was serious about the policy comes from when Roosevelt made a settlement between Mexican and American oil companies badgered over the Mexican government seized American oil properties in 1938. American oil companies lost most of their original stake.
Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements
Know: Cordell Hull, Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
4. Were reciprocal trade agreements a good idea? Explain.
The reciprocal trade agreements were a good idea because it lifted American export trade from depression doldrums and was aimed at both relief and recovery. They bettered economic and political relations with Latin America and U.S. foreign trade increased appreciably.
Storm-Cellar Isolationism
Know: Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Fascism
5. What were the reasons for American isolationism?
Americans still believed that their encircling seas conferred a kind of mystic immunity. They were continuing to suffer disillusionment born of their participation in World War I, which they now regarded as a colossal blunder. They likewise nursed bitter memories of the ungrateful and defaulting debtors.
Congress Legislates Neutrality
Know: Gerald Nye, Neutrality Acts
6. How did the Neutrality Acts attempt to keep the U.S. out of war?
The Neutrality Acts stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. The Acts were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of conflict like World War I.
America Dooms Loyalist Spain
Know: Francisco Franco, Spanish Civil War
7. How did the Spanish Civil War contribute to WWII?
Spanish rebels, headed by General Franco, were rising against the Spanish government, aided by Hitler and Mussolini. The United States watched on the sidelines as fascistic Franco strangled the republican government of Spain. This encouraged the dictators, as there was no threat from big and powerful Uncle Sam.
Appeasing Japan and Germany
Know: Quarantine Speech, Panay, Rhineland, Sudentenland, Munich Conference, Appeasement
8. What actions were taken by fascist governments that showed that they were a threat?
Japan led an all-out invasion of China. Hitler flouted the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military service in Germany, marching into Rhineland, persecuting Jewish population in areas under his control, and whipped the German air force and mechanized ground divisions into the most devastating military machine ever seen. Hitler then occupied Austria and Sudetenland. A conference was held and Hitler promised that Sudetenland was his last territorial claim, but then continue to steamroll over most of Europe.
Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
Know: Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, Cash and Carry
9. How did the United States respond to the start of WWII in Europe?
Roosevelt summoned Congress and created the Neutrality Act of 1939, which provided the European democracies might buy American war materials, but only on a “crash and carry” basis. Roosevelt was now able to proclaim danger zones into which American merchant ships would be forbidden to enter. It also hurt China, which was effectively blockaded by the Imperial Japanese Army.
The Fall of France
Know: Phony War, Blitzkrieg, Winston Churchill
10. What further steps did the United States take after the fall of France?
Congress appropriated the astounding sum of $37 billion. Congress also passed a conscription law which gave provision made for training each year 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves. The Havana Conference of 1940, the U.S. agreed to share its twenty New World neighbors the responsibility of upholding the Monroe Doctrine.
Makers of America: Refugees from the Holocaust
Know: Anti-Semitism, Albert Einstein, American Jewish Committee, Father Coughlin, American Jewish Congress
11. Why did America not make more room for European Jews in the 1930's?
The restrictive American immigration law of 1924 had set rigid national quotas and made no provision for asylum-seekers. Because of the vast numbers of unemployed in the Depression decade, advocates of reforming the immigration statutes were warned that any proposed changes would “rouse to life antialien bills of all kinds” and might even shut down immigration altogether.
Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
Know: Battle of Britain, Royal Air Force, Fortress America, America First, Charles Lindbergh, Destroyer Deal
12. Describe the conflict between interventionists and isolationists in America in 1940.
Supporters of aid to Britain formed propaganda groups such as the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and isolationists formed the America First Committee. Interventionists thought it would be better for America’s defensive if they got involved with the European conflict, but isolationists thought the U.S. should stay out of the other nations’ business to avoided another conflict like World War I.
FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
Know: Wendell Willkie
13. Interpret the results of the 1940 election.
Roosevelt won the 1940 election because it was right in the middle of such a big crisis. Voters wanted to have a more experienced president in office, rather one that was much inexperienced as Wendell Willkie. Willkie had come up to such a nomination so quickly.
Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
Know: Lend-Lease
14. What was so controversial about Lend-Lease?
The Lend-Lease Bill was controversial because it broke the nation’s isolationism. The U.S. could now send a limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression and accounts would be settled when returned or equivalents given after the war was over. Wheeler assailed the scheme as “the blank-check bill” because it was like, as he said, returning chewed gum.
Hitler's Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
Know: Atlantic Charter
15. What was the reaction in America to the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union?
America then came to the defense of the USSR because our real enemy was Nazi Germany. The U.S. extended $1 billion in lend-lease, a first installment on the ultimate total of $11 billion. The Atlantic Charter was created and outlines the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war’s end. After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, America was no longer neutral.
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler's U-Boats Clash
16. How did America's implementation of the Lend-Lease policy bring us closer to war?
Roosevelt’s decision to issue orders to the navy to escort lend-lease shipments as far as Iceland led to the Germans destroying the U.S. destroyers Greer, Kearny, and Reuben James. Congress then voted to pull teeth from the Neutrality Act of 1939 and merchant ships could now legally be armed and could enter combat zones with munitions for Britain.
America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
17. Was United States entry into WWII sudden or gradual? Explain.
The United States entry into WWII was sudden because America wanted to stay neutral throughout the whole process. They finally joined in at the last minute after Hitler took control of so many nations and killed so many humans. In the beginning they only aided Britain by giving them military equipment and finally, when Japan attacked, they got involved.
Nuremburg Trials- “war crime” trials at Nuremberg and Japan
Cordell Hull- Secretary of State; lead reciprocal policy of the New Dealers; Tennessean of the low-tariff school; believed trade was a two-way street, that tariff barriers choke of foreign trade, and that trade wars beget shooting wars
Winston Churchill- inspired leader, Prime Minister of England; met with Roosevelt on many occasions to discuss nations’ actions
Charles Lindbergh- most successful speechmaker of isolationist-formed American First Committee; famed
aviator; ironically narrowed the Atlantic in 1927
Good Neighbor Policy- Roosevelt inaugurated a new era in relations with Latin America
Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act- 1934; lifted American export trade from depression doldrums; was aimed at both relief and recovery; activated low-tariff policies of New Dealers; avoided uncertainties of wholesale tariff revision; whittled down schedules of Hawley-Smoot Law by amending them; Roosevelt empowered to lower existing tariff by as much as 50%; resulting pacts were to become effective without approval of Senate
Rome-Berlin Axis- Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations and in 1936 he and fascist Mussolini allied themselves
Nye Committee- A senate committee headed by Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota; appointed to investigate lurid articles and books condemning the munitions manufacturers as war-fermenters; 1934
Neutrality Acts- stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would go into effect; were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of conflict like WWI
Russo-German Nonaggression Pact- Soviet Union signed on August 23, 1939 a nonaggression treaty with Hitler; gave Hitler a green light to make war on Poland and Western Democracies without fearing Soviet Union
"cash and carry"-British could get weapons needed if they would transfer them with their own ships after first paying in cash
America First Committee- formed by isolationists; wanted to stay out of the war; put America first; challenged Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies; most successful speechmaker was Colonel Lindbergh
Lend-Lease Act- America would become “arsenal of democracy”; send limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression; approved by Congress March 1941; Hitler recognized it as an unofficial declaration of war
Atlantic Charter- new covenant outlined the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war’s end; promised there would be no territorial changed; affirmed the right of the people to choose their own government; to regain the governments abolished by the dictators; declared for disarmament and peace of security, pending a “permanent system of general security
Chapter #34 GUIDED READING QUESTIONS
The London Conference
Know: London Economic Conference
1. What were the results of Roosevelt's decision not to help stabilize currencies?
Roosevelt’s decision plunged the planet deeper into the economic crisis. It led to the collapse of the London Conference which strengthened the global trend toward extreme nationalism, making international cooperation even more difficult. Roosevelt’s actions also played into the hands of power-mad dictators.
Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
Know: Tydings-McDuffie Act
2. What was the reason for America's decision to free the Philippines?
Taxpayers were eager to throw overboard the expensive tropical liability. The organized labor demanded exclusion of low-wage Filipino workers, and American sugar producers clamored for elimination of Philippine competition.
Becoming a Good Neighbor
Know: Good Neighbor Policy
3. Was the United States serious about the Good Neighbor policy? Explain.
Yes. Roosevelt endorsed nonintervention to the nations below at the Seventh Pan-American Conference. He didn’t want the Latin Americas to get involved with the ugly European war. Evidence that the U.S. was serious about the policy comes from when Roosevelt made a settlement between Mexican and American oil companies badgered over the Mexican government seized American oil properties in 1938. American oil companies lost most of their original stake.
Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements
Know: Cordell Hull, Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
4. Were reciprocal trade agreements a good idea? Explain.
The reciprocal trade agreements were a good idea because it lifted American export trade from depression doldrums and was aimed at both relief and recovery. They bettered economic and political relations with Latin America and U.S. foreign trade increased appreciably.
Storm-Cellar Isolationism
Know: Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Fascism
5. What were the reasons for American isolationism?
Americans still believed that their encircling seas conferred a kind of mystic immunity. They were continuing to suffer disillusionment born of their participation in World War I, which they now regarded as a colossal blunder. They likewise nursed bitter memories of the ungrateful and defaulting debtors.
Congress Legislates Neutrality
Know: Gerald Nye, Neutrality Acts
6. How did the Neutrality Acts attempt to keep the U.S. out of war?
The Neutrality Acts stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect. The Acts were specifically tailored to keep the nation out of conflict like World War I.
America Dooms Loyalist Spain
Know: Francisco Franco, Spanish Civil War
7. How did the Spanish Civil War contribute to WWII?
Spanish rebels, headed by General Franco, were rising against the Spanish government, aided by Hitler and Mussolini. The United States watched on the sidelines as fascistic Franco strangled the republican government of Spain. This encouraged the dictators, as there was no threat from big and powerful Uncle Sam.
Appeasing Japan and Germany
Know: Quarantine Speech, Panay, Rhineland, Sudentenland, Munich Conference, Appeasement
8. What actions were taken by fascist governments that showed that they were a threat?
Japan led an all-out invasion of China. Hitler flouted the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military service in Germany, marching into Rhineland, persecuting Jewish population in areas under his control, and whipped the German air force and mechanized ground divisions into the most devastating military machine ever seen. Hitler then occupied Austria and Sudetenland. A conference was held and Hitler promised that Sudetenland was his last territorial claim, but then continue to steamroll over most of Europe.
Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
Know: Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, Cash and Carry
9. How did the United States respond to the start of WWII in Europe?
Roosevelt summoned Congress and created the Neutrality Act of 1939, which provided the European democracies might buy American war materials, but only on a “crash and carry” basis. Roosevelt was now able to proclaim danger zones into which American merchant ships would be forbidden to enter. It also hurt China, which was effectively blockaded by the Imperial Japanese Army.
The Fall of France
Know: Phony War, Blitzkrieg, Winston Churchill
10. What further steps did the United States take after the fall of France?
Congress appropriated the astounding sum of $37 billion. Congress also passed a conscription law which gave provision made for training each year 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves. The Havana Conference of 1940, the U.S. agreed to share its twenty New World neighbors the responsibility of upholding the Monroe Doctrine.
Makers of America: Refugees from the Holocaust
Know: Anti-Semitism, Albert Einstein, American Jewish Committee, Father Coughlin, American Jewish Congress
11. Why did America not make more room for European Jews in the 1930's?
The restrictive American immigration law of 1924 had set rigid national quotas and made no provision for asylum-seekers. Because of the vast numbers of unemployed in the Depression decade, advocates of reforming the immigration statutes were warned that any proposed changes would “rouse to life antialien bills of all kinds” and might even shut down immigration altogether.
Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
Know: Battle of Britain, Royal Air Force, Fortress America, America First, Charles Lindbergh, Destroyer Deal
12. Describe the conflict between interventionists and isolationists in America in 1940.
Supporters of aid to Britain formed propaganda groups such as the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and isolationists formed the America First Committee. Interventionists thought it would be better for America’s defensive if they got involved with the European conflict, but isolationists thought the U.S. should stay out of the other nations’ business to avoided another conflict like World War I.
FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
Know: Wendell Willkie
13. Interpret the results of the 1940 election.
Roosevelt won the 1940 election because it was right in the middle of such a big crisis. Voters wanted to have a more experienced president in office, rather one that was much inexperienced as Wendell Willkie. Willkie had come up to such a nomination so quickly.
Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
Know: Lend-Lease
14. What was so controversial about Lend-Lease?
The Lend-Lease Bill was controversial because it broke the nation’s isolationism. The U.S. could now send a limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression and accounts would be settled when returned or equivalents given after the war was over. Wheeler assailed the scheme as “the blank-check bill” because it was like, as he said, returning chewed gum.
Hitler's Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
Know: Atlantic Charter
15. What was the reaction in America to the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union?
America then came to the defense of the USSR because our real enemy was Nazi Germany. The U.S. extended $1 billion in lend-lease, a first installment on the ultimate total of $11 billion. The Atlantic Charter was created and outlines the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at war’s end. After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, America was no longer neutral.
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler's U-Boats Clash
16. How did America's implementation of the Lend-Lease policy bring us closer to war?
Roosevelt’s decision to issue orders to the navy to escort lend-lease shipments as far as Iceland led to the Germans destroying the U.S. destroyers Greer, Kearny, and Reuben James. Congress then voted to pull teeth from the Neutrality Act of 1939 and merchant ships could now legally be armed and could enter combat zones with munitions for Britain.
America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
17. Was United States entry into WWII sudden or gradual? Explain.
The United States entry into WWII was sudden because America wanted to stay neutral throughout the whole process. They finally joined in at the last minute after Hitler took control of so many nations and killed so many humans. In the beginning they only aided Britain by giving them military equipment and finally, when Japan attacked, they got involved.