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When Hitler and Stalin launched World War II, most Americans were determined on stay out of it, convinced that British propaganda had tricked America into entering World War I (September 1939). The course of events in Europe and President Roosevelt's leadership gradually changed this. A major change occured after the fall of France convinced many Americans that intervention was necessary (June 1940). The Luftwaffe Blitz on Britain dramatically reported by CBS corespondent Edward R. Murrow also changed many minds (September 1940-May 1941). Against the dramatic backdrop of World War II in Europe, President Roosevelt who clearly saw the dangers from the NAZIs and Japanese militarists, with great skill and political courage, managed the all important effort of supporting Britain in its hour of maximum peril. The President made great progress in 1941. A steady stream of actions month by moth pushed America toward war. It was not enough for a frustratedc Winston Churchill and a battered Britain, but it would take Anerica ti the brink of war. The Isolationists, however, remained a potent force in American politics. Here we an isolationist protest outside a British consulate while NAZI bombs were still falling in London (figure 1). Against enormous resistance from the Isolationists. the President managed to push through Congress measures that would make it impossible for the NAZis to defeat Britain. Most prominently Lend Lease (March 1941). The President himself did not unilaterally take Anmerica to war in 1941 as President Wilson had in 1917. His actions short of war, however, laid the ground work for turning American into the Arsenal of Democracy which would produce a tidal wave of equipment and supplies not only for the American military, but for our Allies as well in quantities that no one especially the AXIS believed possible. It would prove to be the greatest mobilization of industrial resources in all of history. Eventually only the Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor would convert the isolationists (December 1941). America would thus enter World War II as a united country, now resolutely committed to making war on an unprecedented scale.
President Roosevelt could not actively resist German aggression by force because of public opinion which we see being exoressed here (figure 1). He could begin to prepre America for war and begin the conversion of American industry to produce arms. The President first used the term "Arsenal of Democracy" in one of his Fireside Chats, radio boradcasts, to the American people (December 29, 1940). At the time the United States was in the moiddle of an intense political debate. Many Americans understood the dangers poised by the aggresive, totalitarian powers (NAZI Germany, Fascist Italy, the Sovoet Union, amd Imperial Japan). Many other Americans were determined to stay out of what they saw as another European war and did no appreciate the danger. The President expalined the importance of supplying the people of Europe, at the time primarily Britain with the 'implements of war'. He said that the United States "must be the great arsenal of democracy". The very day he spoke, a Luftwaffe raid on London severly damaged famous buildings and churches in the city center and engulfed St. Paul's Cathedral in flames. [Gilbert, p. 356.] Hitler feared America more than any other country and hoped that Britain could be defeated before America could be mobilized or American industry could be effectiverly harnassed for the war effort. This of course was the same calculation that Germany had made two decades eralier. Neither the NAZIs or the Japanese had any idea just how effectibely American production could be converted to war production. Air Marshall Goering sneared. "The Americans only know how to make razor blades." Four years later with the Luftwaffe in tatters, Goering said he knew that the War was lost when American P-51 Mustangs appeared over Berlin escoring waves of bombers. The record of American war production is staggering and in large measure determined the outcome of the War.
The State of the Union Address is a tradition in America, established by President Washington at the very creation of the Republic. The President reports to the Congress ob the state of the Union. There had been over 140 some such reports delivered before, few of which are remembered today. What President could have reported in more dire circumstances. A evil racist bent on genocide and reducing the people of Western Europe to slavery had defeated France. Jews and freedom loving people were being hunted like animals by all the powers of an efficent modern police state. Youth were bring taught to hate and make war. Scicnce was being contorted to evil ends. Almost all of Europe was in the hand of Fascists or Communists. The only country resisting the dictators was Britain and as the President faced the Congress, Edward R. Murrow was describing London burning in The NAZI blitz. All had seen St Paul's in central London engulfed in flames. America was the only hope for democracy. It was a question of whether Britain could survive, it was clear at the time that Britain by her self could not prevail. The President used the occassion to issue a clarion call for Western democracy--an enunciation of the Four Freedoms. Many Americans can not today recall the circumstances. Few are not aware of these four basic freedoms: "The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear ...." 【Roosevelt】
Japan invaded China launching the Second Sino-Japanes War (1937). The United States uinitiallyb responded with a series of inocuous diplomatic nmessages. This gradully escalted. The United States terminated the 1911 commercial treaty with Japan (1939). The President signed the Export Control Act which authoried the President to license or prohibit the export of essential defense materials (July 2, 1940). The President then restricted exports of scrap iron and steel to destinations other than Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere an Action aimed at Japan (July 31, 1940). The United States was Japan's principal export market. They had been hurt by the Depression, but by 1939 the American market was recovering. Apparently Japanese leaders were not all that concerned about the Ameruicb market. Their primary interest was China. President Roosevelt embargoed "all exports of scrap iron and steel to destinations other than Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere" effective October 16, 1940. Unlike earlier moves, this had a very signiicant impact on Japan. Presuident Roosevelt was getting Japan's attention. Some 75 percent of Japan's scrap iron came from the United States and nearly 95 percent of Japan's copper came from the United States. 【Barnhart, pp. 144–45.】 Japan sent ambassador Adm. Kichisaburo Nomura, a respected diplomat in America, to the United States in an effort to restore the cimmercial restrictions placed on Japan (January 2, 1941)). Secretary of State Cordell Hull made it clear in the resulting tasklks that to restore full commercial relations. Japan would not only have to end its aggression in China, but to withdraw from China. The talks would go nowhere. Japan was not about to withdraw from China. And was palanning expanded moves in French Indo-China.
President Roosevelt first proposed Lend Lease on December 17, 1940, at a press conference . It was a step he had been considering for some time. Polls showed that by December, 1940, public opinion had shifted significantly. An estimated 60 percent of the American people had come to favor aid to Britain even if it meant war. Britain was in fact in dire straits. It was rapidly depelting its gold reserves and ability to pay cash for war supplies. FDR thus saw the need to in effect "rent" war material to the British. The concept was pure Roosevelt. It sounded like a fair exchange, a loan which America would eventually get back. While to an American public still warry of war it sounded less like participating in war than selling arms. It was, however, a term perfectly suited for the time. Of course it was pure fiction. How could tanks, planes, trucks, bullets, food and other materials used in war be returned. Most would be destroyed or damaged and what good would they be after the War any way? Items like bullets and food would simply be used up. Congress passed the bill and FDR signed it into law on March 11, 1941. Congress on March 27 approved an initial $7 billion lend-lease appropriation. The Lend-Lease Act empowered the president to "lend, lease, or exchange" war materials with nations whose struggle against aggression he judged necessary to American security. It gave substance to FDR's proclamation of the United States as the "arsenal of democracy." The Coast Guard on March 30 siezed 64 Axis ships in U.S. ports for lend-lease convoys.While sounding inocuous, the Lend-Lease Act was in real terms tanamount to a declaration of war with Germany and within 2 months ships and U-boats were being sunk.
Greenland is a huge, lighly populated island. The Germans early in the War were able to setup weather stations in Greenland. At the time was a kind of self-governing Danish colony as a result of a relationship dating back to the Vikings. Germany invaded and occupied neutral Denmark as part of its Norwegian opperations (April 1940). But unlike other occupied countries, the Danish Government was allowed to continue functioning, albeit under strict NAZI supervision. The Danish Ambassador to he United States, Henrik Kauffmann, requested American interventionn (April 9, 1941). Thev date chosen was the one=year anniversary of the NAZI invasion of his ccountry. But it was against the instructions of his NAZI controlled government. Kauffmann signed an executive agreement with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, permitting the entry of American troops and making Greenland a de facto United States protectorate througout the remainder of the War. This prevented the NAZIs from seizing Greenland and allowed the United States to build important air bases bases needed to protect the Atlantic convoys. It was one more step in joint American, British, and Canadiann efforts to close the Mid-Atlantic gap where German U-boats were successfully operating with impunity.
The Germany Navy when war broke out in 1939 had no way of matching the Royal Navy. Only limited effort was made to build a U-boat fleet. Rather resources were given to build large, superbly engineered ships. And nothing symbolized this more than the Bismarck, the largest and finest battleship built until that time. The NAZIs were rapidly expanduing U-boat construction, but the Kriesmarine had not abandoned surface raiding. The OKM conceived of a commerce raiding operation to support U-boat operations. Hitler had misgivings about the operation when informed. The huge German battleship Bismarck broke out into the Atlantic to attack British convoys. She was the most powerful and well armored battleship aflot. The NAZIs had not adhered to treaty limitations. In its first engagement sunk the battle cruiser HMS Hood and severly damaged the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales. The sinking of Hood was perhaps the greatest shock to the Royal Navy during the entire War. Only three of her crew survived, Bismarck was tracked by two Royal Navy cruisers before being lost. It was an American built PBY Catalina that finally relocated her (my 26). The United States not only provided the plane, but secretkly Navy pilot to train the crew who was aboard when they spotted Bismarck. This was not announced to the public at the time. A massive assemblage of Royal Navy vessels finally tracked down the German battleship. A carier strike danafed her rudder, opreventuing her from reaching saftyb in French ports. She was then surounded by Bitish battle shiops and cruisers and pinded into oblivion. While only one ship, the engsgement woukd change Hitler's attitudes toward the Kriegsmarine and the German admirals tactics in the North Atlantic.
The NAZI U-boat campaign in the Atlantic was taking a toll on the British merchant fleet and the ability to move Lend KLease war material across the Atlatic. FDR declared an 'unlimited national emergency' to build ships to help the British (May 27). FDR on seized 80 foreign merchant ships in U.S. ports under new law of Congress (June 6). The answer to this problem Henry would be Henry Kaiser and the Liberty Ships.
FDR froze AXIS funds in the United States (June 14). The President ordered German consulates closed and expeled diplomats (June 16).
Iceland was much more important in the Battle of the Atlantic than Greenland. Icekland was a smaller island, but had a larger populatiion and was closer to the Atlantic convoy routes. Iceland was a Norwegian dependency which after the German invasion of Norway because of its imortance had been occupied by the British. FDR ordered the U.S. in cooperation with the British to relieve the British occupation force (June 16). Ironically, the relieving force was elemets of the storied 1st Marine Division which in about a year would be fighting in the streaming jungles of the South Pacific--Guadalcanal. Iceland provided critical air and sea bases in the Battle of the Atlantic. FDR announced the arrival of 4,000 Marines in Iceland and extended the Security Zone and Navy patrols to Iceland (July), American public opinion was changing. A Gallup poll showed 61 percent of Americans approved this action. President Roosevelt began by establishing a coastal securit zine. Now American naval patrols had been extended all the way ton Iceland.
The August 1939 NAZI-Soviet Non-Agression Pact had made Stalin in effect a partner and ally with Hitler. Stalin had conducted his own series of aggressions, invading or seizing areas of Finland, Poland, Czecheslovakia, and Romania and annexing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Soviet funds in America had been frozen. The entire complexion of the War and ballance of power changed (June 22, 1941) when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, in action. Some including Senator Harry Truman saw this as a good thing, letting the two ruthless dictators tear each other apart. Prime-Minister Churchill and President Toosevelt, sae Hitler as the greater danger and decided to aid Stakin abd the Soviet Union to resist the NAZIs. Lend Lease had been created primarily to help save Britain. But with little hesuitation, President Roosevelt extended it to the Soviet Union (June 24). The Presidebnt released $39 million in frozen Soviet funds. FDR refused to invoke the Neutrality Act against the Soviet Union (June 25). Instead he sent jis most trusted advisor,mHarry Hopkins, to Moscow (July) and Averill Harriman who was nanaguing Lend Lease (September) to determine how the United States could best assisst. Congress at the request of the President approved an initial Lend-Lease appropriation of $1 billion (October). The President had made various onerous demands on Britain for Lend Lease aid. Such demands were not placed on the aid to the Soviet Union.
President Roosevelt's main concern in 1941 was NAZI expansion and saving Britain. This was primarily because the NAZIs were by far the greatest threat. He was, however, also concerned with Japanese agression in China and threat of further expansion in Southeast Asia. In particukar, the Japanese seizure of southern French Indo-China crossed a red line that could not be ignored. southern Indo-Chinawas essentially a pistol pinyed at the American Philipines islands and thev oil-rich British and Dutch colonies in the South Pacific. After a series of ineffectual diplomatic and commercial actions, the United States took the forecful step to which the Japanese would have to react. The United States government froze Japanese financial assets in the United States (July 26). This meant that American businessnmen could no longer sell to Japan, even when paid in U.S. dollars. This virtully stopped all trade with Japan. The hope was that a financial freeze, a step short of war, could curb Japanese aggression. One observer writes, "Roosevelt administration officials rested on the false confidence that the Japanese would never attack the United States." 【Rogers】 This is not entirely correct. Because of Magic intercepts the Unites States had detailed knowlege of Japanese intentions and goals. Freezing trade with Japan was a much more significat step than might bevthought. It meant an oil embargo. Japan was depebndent on imported oil and America was where the Japanese got most of their oil. Without American oil, nob only would Japanese industry be impaired, but the military could not function, especially the Navy. It meant that Japan was left with only two options 1) end the agression in China and withdraw or 2) go to war. The oil embargo was a ticking time bomb because Japan in a little over a year would run out of oil. Unlike the previous diplomatic notes and trade sabctions. The oil embargo was not something the Japanese leaders could ignore. The President and his advisers were well aware that it could mean war. What they and their military advuisers did not understand was that the Japanese could attack Pearl Harbor.
The United States launched the Emergency Ship Building Program (1940). It got off to a slow start. American industrialist Henry Kaiser along with a partner, Todd Shipping, took on the job of building merchant ships. Kaiser's idea was to mass produce ships and he developed the production systm to do just this. They won the contract to build 60 cargo ships to assist Britain (Decmber 1940). The Liberty Ship was to be a central part of the American effort to increase ship construction. Kaiser played a key role by developing a revolutionary new way of shipbuilding--assembling mass produced parts. Kaiser had never bult a ship before. The unfamiliarity of Kaiser and others with ship building was undoubtedly a factor in their succees at developing an innovative construction system.
【Sawyer and Mitchel】 With American shipyards working flat out to build crtically needed naval vessels, the liberty ship cargo vessels were built in what amounts to virtual shipyards all along the U.S. coast. The first yard was st up at Richmond, California. Other yards were built in Portlan, Oregon, Newportnews, Virginia, and dozens of other sites. Kaiser and Todd set out to build new yard. Estimates suggested it would take at least 6 months to turn the swampy sit into a shipyard. They did it in 3 weeks. This allowed the United States begining in 1941 to harness skills, resources, and facilities to an extrodinary degree. The output was almost unbelieveable. Not only were labor requirements to build a ship reduced by to thirds and it was done largely by workers who had never worked in shipyards--many had never even seen the sea before. FDR's initial order of 60 vessels was soon expanded. The President now forsaw the need for hundreds of new vessel. The first Libert Ship was launched (August 1941).
President Roosevelt and Primeminister Churchill meet aboard the Prince of Wales on August 9-13, 1941 at Placentia Bay. The Prince of Wales had been badly mauled by Bismark in May. It was to be sunk by a Japanese aerial attack in December. Roosevelt and Churchill issue the Atlantic Charter. The two were war time allies. Britain had weathered the worst that the NAZI Luftwaffe could throw at it. America and Britain were fighting the U-boats in the North Atlantic to keep Britain alive. It was clear that America would soon be drawn into the War. America had already played an important role in keeping Britain alive and the two countries were the only hope of the occupied European and in fact Western civilization itself--threatened by the evil tide of NAZI tyranny. The two leaders, the two most important men of the 20th century, agreed to a simple, but elegant eight-point statement of their aims and today still stands as the central credo of the Atlantic Alliance.
The isolations were not silenced with their defeat over Selective Service (September 1940), Roosevelt's Third term (November 1940), and Lend Lease (March 1941). The Unites States virtually did not have an army before the Selective Srvice Act was passed. This was the first step in building a 6 million man army. The isolations staged a major effort to defeat the renewal of the act. Despite the war in Europe and Japanese advances in the Pacific, there was considerable resistance in Congress for not renewing the Selective Service Act. The resistance was led by the Republican minority, but the draft was such a sensitive issue that they were joined by enough Democrats that renewal as in question. The NAZI suprise attack on the Soviet Unionwas another clear indicator of what Hitler was capable of doing and that fighting him with allies was essential. The isolationists, however, again resisted the draft. Failure to renew Selective Service would have meant that the men drafted in 1940 would go home and that America would have entered World War II essentially without an army. Subsequently in a razor-thin Congressional vote on the eve of Pearl Harbor, the Selective Serbice Act was renwed (August 1941). While the President was with Churchill at the Atlantic Conference when the House approved the renewal of Selective Service by 1 lone vote. The vote was 203 to 202. There were attempts to change votes and runa a vote count, but Speaker Rayburn gaveked them down. To gain even this margin, the bill had to include a commitment not to send draftees out of the Hemisphere without Congressional authorization. 【Black, p. 656.】 Renewal permitted the Army to keep the one-year draftees.
Escoring convoys meant that America was entering an undecalred naval war with Germany in the North Atlantic. The first U.S. freighter, the Robin Moor was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk May 21. The lifeboats were found June 10. Hitler was still intent on keeping America out of the War, especially as he was about to invade the Soviet Union, and ordered Doenitz's U-boats to avoid all U.S. warships. The U.S. destroyer Greer on September 4 attacked the U-652, eluded 2 torpedos. FDR on September 11 declared Greer attack was "piracy" as was the August 17 sinking of U.S.-Panamanian freighter Sessa killing 24 of 27 crew. Little discussed in the press was the fact that the United States and helped set of flag of convenience registrations in Panama to circuvent provisions of the Neutrality Acts. FDR also protested the September 5 sinking of U.S. freighter Steel Seafarer clearly flying U.S. flag. He gave the Navy orders to "shoot-on-sight". A Gallup poll showed 62 percent of Americans approved the deeping involvement in the War. The U.S. freighter Montana on September 11 was sunk en route to Iceland, but no one was killed. The armed U.S.-Panamanian freighter Pink Star sunk en route to Iceland carrying food. U.S.-Panamanian oil tanker I.C. White was sunk on September 27 en route to South Africa, three people were killed. U.S. tanker W.C. Teagle was sunk and U.S.-Panamanian freighter Bold Venture were sunk sunk on October 16. The U.S. destroyer Kearny on October 17 was torpedoed and damaged with 11 killed inside the Security Zone. The U.S. freighter Lehigh on October 19 was sunk in South Atlantic. Oct. 30 - U.S.-Panamanian armed tanker Salinas on October 30 was torpedoed and damaged. The U.S. destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed abd sunk inside the Security Zone on October 31, 115 crew members were killed. It was first U.S. warship lost to the U-boats. America well before Pearl Harbor was involved in an undeclared naval war with Germany. Hitler's frustration with this war, was one reason he declared war on America after Pearl Harbor.
The President asked the Congress to arm merchantmen and for permission for them to make deliveries to beligerent ports (October 9, 1941). This meant Britain and now the Soviet Union. It was also the final end of the Neutrality Acts. The President wrote, "We will not let Hitler prescribe the waters of the world on which our ships may travel. We cannot permit the affirmative defense of our rights to be annulled and diluted by sections of the Neutrality Act which have no realism in the light of unscrupulous ambitions of madmen. .... We intend to maintain ... the freedom of te seas against the dominationby any foreign power which had become crazed with a desire to control the world."
FDR on October 9 as a result of the U-boat attcks on American shipping proposed revision of the 1939 Neutrality Act so that U.S. merchant ships could be armed. The President
at his Navy Day speech on October 27 claimed "America has been attacked" and that he had a German map of Americas. After the sinking of the Ruben James, a Gallup poll on November 5 showed 81 percent of Americans favored arming merchant ships and 61 percent favored American ships entering the war zones. The Senate on November 7 approved revision of the Neutrality Act 50-37. It was the closest vote since 1939. The House of Representives approved revision by an even closer vote 212-194. This allowed the atming of merchant vessels and it permitted U.S. ships to enter both combat zones abd belligerent ports.
Isolationist sentiment in America disappeared over night when Japnese carrier-based aircraft struck the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Parl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States declared war against Japan in on December 8. FDR was not sure how to proceed against the NAZIs which he considered a greater danger. This dilema was solved by Hitler when on December 11 he declared war on the United States--incredibly the only country on which he ever bothered to formally declare war. The Japanese attack was a stunning tactical victory. It may have been the greatest strategic error in the history of warfare. With one stroke the Japanese had turned a deeply divided country into a unified nation with one purpose, to defeat Japan and her Axis partners. America had an industrial capacity that was not fully appreciate in either Tokyo or Berlin. America was now infused with a burning capacity to wage war to even the most remote spot on earth. Americans who had wanted a Fortress America were to be fighting in far away palces (including many that they had never even heard of) from flying the hump over the Himalaysa, tropical jungles like Guadacanal, frozen landscares like Attu and Kiska, the Sahara Desert, volcanic islands like Iwo Jima, as well as more familiar places like Italy and France. Isolationist Americans waged and won the most expansive conflict in the historty of warfare.
The first American pilots to successfully engage Axis forces were the American Volunteer Group (AVG). President Roosevelt secretly approved a mission to provide the Nationalist Chinese pilots and planes to oppose the Japanese who were regularly bombing unprotected Chinese cities. Chiang Kai-shek had earlier appointed Claire Chennault to oversea his air defeneses. It was not until T. V. Soong, Madame Chiang's brother managed to arrange secret American aid, however, that Chennault was able to put together a creditable force. The United States provided 100 P-40 Tomahawk fighters and helped recruit experienced Americn "civilian" pilots. The American military attempting to prepare for the increasing liklihood that the United States would enter the War, was no in favor of providing 100 fighters to China, but Roosevelt insisted. The AVG was not fully in place in Burma and China ubtil November 1940. Roosevelt and Churchill had promissed to supply China with a substantial air fleet, but the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor (December 7, 1941) made addirtional deliveries impodsible in 1942. The British provided at air base at Toungoo. From here and bases in Kuming, the AVG tried to keep the Burma Road open. The P-40 was America's top-line fighter at the time, but was theoretically not a match for the more advanced Japanese fighters. Chennault developed innovative tactics which made the AVG the most successful American aviation unit in the first 6 months of the War. The AVG engaged the Japanese from December 1941 through July 1942. Although Americans called the AVG the "Flying Tigers," the P-40s were painted with shark features. China at the time was being supplied through the British colony of Burma. The Flying Tigers were deployed in an unsuccessful attempt to save Rangoon, but in 10 weeks destroying more than 200 Japanese planes while losing only 16 planes. This was a substantial loss for the Japanese air forces at a time when they held all of the advantages.
Barnhart, Michael A. (1987). Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919-1941 (Ithaca: Cornell UP).
Black, Conrad. Franklin Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom (Public Affairs: New York, 2003), 1280p.
Freidel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Launching the New Deal (Little Brown: Boston, 1973), 574p.
Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.
Rogers, Mitch. "From Freeze to Fire: How Economic Sanctions against Japan Led to the War in the Pacific," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing Vol. 47, Issue 2018, Art 12 (2018). This of course is a poorly titled article, reflecting author bias. It was not American sanctions that led to the Pacufic ar, but Japanese agression.
Roosevelt, Franklin. "four Freedoms Speech" 1941 State of the Union address. (January 6, 1941).
Sawyer, L.A. and W.H. Mitchell. The Liberty Ships (Lloyd's of London Press, 1985).
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