America Enters WWII

FDR Supports England

• Neutrality Act of 1939– Public opinion strongly supported him– Warring nations could buy weapons• Cash and carry

– Destroyers for Bases Deal• Old ships for the right to build bases• Loophole

Isolationist Debate

• Shift in opinion– 1940

• Fight for Freedom Committee– Immediate declaration of war on Germany

• Committee to Defend America– Aid but no armed intervention

• America First Committee– Opposed any aid or intervention

• 1940– FDR elected president for a 3rd term– Campaigned between neutrality and intervention

Edging Toward War• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iHKtrirjlY

• Lend-Lease Act (1940) – A way to remove the cash requirement– “vital to the defense of the U.S.”– “the arsenal of democracy”– Soviet Union

• Hitler disregarded the Nazi-Soviet Pact• Hemispheric Defense Zone– U.S. Navy would patrol the western Atlantic and reveal the location of German subs

• Atlantic Charter (August 1940)– Committed the two leaders to postwar democracy,

non aggression, free trade, and freedom of the seas– FDR looking for a reason

• Reuben James

America Embargoes Japan• FDR wanted to weaken Japan– Restricted strategic materials to Japan• 80% of Japan’s oil came from the U.S.

• 1940 Congress passed the Export Control Act– Japan allied itself with Germany & Italy

• Lend-Lease aid to China– FDR froze Japanese assets– Force Japan out of China– Japanese negotiate, but prepare for war

Japan AttacksU.S. failure to collect sufficient data

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_3RiBp9oLM&feature=related

US enters the War

• After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, FDR asked congress to declare war on Japan– Near unanimous vote sent us to war– Germany then declares war on US

• Similarities between Pearl Harbor and 9/11

Assignment

• Create a Newspaper Front page about the day after Pearl Harbor

• Must have– Headline– Picture– Description– Color