In Many Ways Franklin D
-
Upload
john-r-west -
Category
Documents
-
view
220 -
download
0
Transcript of In Many Ways Franklin D
-
8/3/2019 In Many Ways Franklin D
1/3
John R. West
HIST 4330
Exam I, Question 1
In many ways Franklin D. Roosevelt did not have much choice in the matter on
how to deal with Germany, Italy, and Japan. To bring the U.S. into the war Roosevelt
would need at least the agreement of the people, or the Senate and House of
Representatives. With Japan there were many things that could cause the U.S.
concern, but Germany threatened the U.S. economy, way of life and even the shores of
the main land.
The war was coming to the shores of the United States but Roosevelt thought it
was coming from Germany, and yes Japan did hit Hawaii, but really there was no real
threat that the west coast was ever in danger. The Atlantic ocean is a small area and
travel across it by sea was rather quickly, not to mention that Charles Lindbergh had
shown that air travel could be done easily no stop from Europe to the U.S. The Pacific
ocean was much larger, and to control the Pacific ocean, a government would need to
control specific areas: the Philippines, Hawaii, Guam, Japan, Solomons, and many
other Islands. Japan would need to control at least Midway or Hawaii to be able to
strike at the west coast of the U.S. Japan never got close enough to land troops on
either place.
Provoking Germany into going to war with the U.S. looked to be the only way
Roosevelt was could fully back Britain and France with troops on the ground. Using the
destroyer deal, Lend-Lease, a revision of the Neutrality Act, and last the shoot on sight
order, which referred to German subs, were all ways to force Germanys hand.
-
8/3/2019 In Many Ways Franklin D
2/3
Roosevelt knew that the U.S. would only go to war if we had someone else declare war
on us first. Roosevelt did not see as well as everyone else that Japan was very
desperate.
These ways were all stages like the destroyer deal was a way to slow down or
discourage the German wolf pack from striking at British convoys by giving away fifty
old destroyers we no longer were using. A destroyer is a ship designed to seek out and
sink submarines, which is what the wolf pack was made up of - around three to five
German submarines in a wolf pack.
The Neutrality Act stated that the United States is neutral and cannot help out
any country at war. Roosevelt saw this as an obstacle that needed to be crossed, so
late in 1939 he proposed a revision to allow support to be sent to Britain and France to
fight against the Nazi control of Europe. When this passed it opened the door to the
Lend-Lease deal and it also made it easier for the shoot on sight policy to get passed.
But it was not until late 1940 when the U.S. peoples attitude to Germany and the
European Front changed when France fell quickly to the Nazi Blitzkrieg.
Now more than ever Roosevelt believed that the only way to get the U.S. people
on his side he would have to bolster the British, and later Russia with the Lend-Lease
program. This was a way for the U.S. to sell arms to the allies to help them fight the
German and Italian armies. The United States sent over Liberty ships, tanks (mainly M3
Stuart, M3 Lee, and M4 Sharman), guns and supplies. This was a way for Roosevelt to
strengthen Britain, and not make them pay for the supplies until after the war was over.
Of course, this would only really work if the United States would get into the war at
some time.
-
8/3/2019 In Many Ways Franklin D
3/3
With all the Wolf pack attacks on the United States supply lines to Britain, the
U.S. would soon adopt a shoot on sight policy which gave all U.S. warships the right to
sink any German U-boat they come across without being at war with Germany. This
was only U-boats, though, so any German surface ship was off limits.
After everything that Roosevelt went though attempting to provoke Germany into
action against the U.S. from 1939 to 1941, all he really ever needed was to support
China and put and oil embargo on Japan. On December 7, 1941 Japan launch an
attack on Pearl Harbor with more than one hundred planes. Germany and Italy soon
declared war on the U.S., believing that Japan would then join the war against Russia,
which never happened. So in conclusion it is well believed that Franklin D. Roosevelt
believed that the U.S. needed to join the war, but could not until he had a popular
agreement from the people or Congress that we needed to go to war. So Roosevelt did
almost anything in his power to steer the U.S. in that direction.