1941 : a turning point for US foreign policy ?

1941 : a turning point for US foreign policy ?

Introduction :

        Before the World War II, the Monroe Doctrine, defined by President James Monroe declared that Europeans would not increase their influence or recolonize any part of the Western Hemisphere. Monroe’s remarks have served as an inspiration for American non-interventionism, mostly in the first part of the XX century. In a context of the World War II, the United States wanted to « remain a neutral nation » in the war, had declared President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Nevertheless, the US implemented a new foreign policy in 1941, mainly based on interventionism. Then, we might wonder, in what extent American foreign policy changed in 1941? In a first part, we will see the non-interventionism/isolationism policy lead by the US since the 1920’s. In the second part, we will focus on the implementation of the American interventionism policy lead since 1941.

1. From non-interventionism/isolationism…

1. Back to « disentanglement » in the 1920’s.

• The 1920 presidential campaign was a referendum on Wilsonian idealism. Americans voted for Republican Warren G. Harding, who promised a return to « disentanglement », meaning isolationism. Besides, during the last few years of the 1920’s, the Hoover administration had set up policies that isolated America from the rest of the world.

2. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had increased the isolationism policy

• The 1930’s were a difficult time for most Americans because of The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, began on October 24. Faced with colossal economic hardships, unprecedented in American history, free trade, with the imports and American exports, considerably decreased.

• The United States became increasingly insensitive to the obliteration of fellow democracies at the hands of brutal fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini.  

3. The threat of totalitarianism and the Roosevelt’s policy

• The US was determined to stay out of war at all costs -even if its allies were in trouble; Americans believed that they were immune from Europe’s problems as long as they refused to get involved. However, as the « free countries fell », one by one, to the Nazi war machine, Americans began to realize the folly of their foolish optimism and clamored for increasing involvement in foreign affairs. The Neutrality Acts were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930’s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US, following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts.

• American foreign policy changed in the years 1940’s as Americans realized that fascism would likely conquer all of Europe unless Americans acted quickly. Ultimately, one of the reasons of the US interventionism was the fear of the fascist threat to American democracy that triggered the end of American isolationism.

• In the beginning of the 1940s, Americans realized that amid the growing Fascist threat presented by Hitler and Mussolini, the U.S. could no longer hide behind the false illusion of safety offered by isolationism. Americans slowly but surely realized that their nation’s ultimate fate was tied to Britain’s. As American support for international intervention grew, the US’s foreign policy goals changed to accommodate aid to Britain in an effort to avoid risking American lives in all-out war. In December 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had already asked Congress to permit the British to defer all payments after the war. This new initiative would be known as the Lend-Lease Act.

• However, Roosevelt refused to enter the conflict. He was « not willing to fire the first shot ». Finally, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 forced the US government into war.

1. …to interventionism.

1. Pearl Harbor brought the US into WWII

• The US began helping Britain by shipping supplies across the Atlantic. Despite their ships being attacked many times by German submarines, that was not enough to make the US enter the war.

• The attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, played a major historical role in World War II by galvanizing US support against the Axis. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii focused American outward.

• Previously, the US had generally supported Britain but was dissuaded by public opinion from direct involvement. By attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor, Japan brought the US into the war. It is the beginning of the Pacific war between the US and Japan. Pearl Harbor brought the US into WWII, which changed the reason of why we would fight in the war, and potentially changed the outcome of World War II. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States had declared to « remain a neutral nation » in the war by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• On December 8th, 1941, the day after the attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war on Japan. Millions of men signed up for the war, some lying about their ages. Women got right to work in factories that made ships, planes, jeeps, bullets, guns, and everything else needed for war. The document 2 shows us the shock of the Pearl Harbor attack, due to the torn flag and also the determination and the patriotism by the quotation of Abraham Lincoln, an ancient president of the US who claimed that the US will fight until the end.

2. The end of the « American First »

• The America First Committee (AFC), the foremost United State non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry in the World World II, started on September 4, 1940, it was dissolved on December 10, 1941, three days after the attack of Pearl Harbor. It was one of the largest anti-war organizations in American history. The document 1, a poster used by the « American First Committee » in 1940, shows us, according to them, that American democracy can be preserved only by keeping out of the European War. The analogy of the destruction of the Statue of Liberty by a missile demonstrate that.

3. Implement of the leadership policy

• On July 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered his secretary of war, Henry Stimson, and his secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, to prepare a plan for the « overall production requirements required to defeat our potential enemies. » Thus, the « Victory Program » was a military plan for the United States involvement in World War II submitted prior to the country's official entry into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The plan was initially secret but was famously exposed by the Chicago Tribune on December 4, 1941, three days before Pearl Harbor.

• In the same time, the Lend-Lease policy, enacted on March 11, 1941, was a program under which the United States supplied Allies (Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations) with food, oil, and material, included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended in September 1945. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $667 billion today) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S. This program effectively ended the United States' pretense of neutrality and was a decisive step away from non-interventionist policy, which had dominated United States foreign relations since 1931 (Neutrality Acts of the 1930’s). In 1940, Roosevelt already said that the US has become the « arsenal of democracy », by giving to them military supplies.

• Finally, the Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued during World War II on 14 August 1941, which defined the Allied goals for the postwar world. The leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States drafted the work and all the Allies of the World War II later confirmed it. Adherents of the Atlantic Charter signed the Declaration by United Nations on January, 1st, 1942, which became the basis for the modern United Nation. The Atlantic Charter set goals for the postwar world and inspired many of the international agreements that shaped the world thereafter. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the postwar independence of European colonies, and much more are derived from the Atlantic Charter.

Conclusion :

        To conclude, 1941 was undeniably a major turning point for the US foreign policy, marked by passing from an isolationism to interventionism policy linked with the attack of Pearl Harbor by Japan, which lead the US into the World War II. The United States emerged from the World War II as of the two foremost in the world. In contrast to its unwillingness to entangle itself in the interwar years, the US led the « free world » to counterbalance the communist superpower, the USSR. It was the beginning of The Cold War, another period characterized by the American interventionism.

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