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This article explores the United States' shift away from neutrality and its actions to muster its forces before entering World War II. Topics covered include the cash-carry policy, the Axis Threat, building U.S. defenses, the Lend-Lease Plan, Winston Churchill's alliance with the U.S., German Wolf Packs, FDR's plans for war, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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America Moves Toward War World War Looms #4
I. The United States Musters its Forces • A. Moving cautiously away from neutrality. • 1. The cash-carry policy allowed the U.S. to provide arms and supplies to countries that paid them cash.
B. The Axis Threat • 1. The Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy, and Japan, a mutual defense treaty was designed to prevent the U.S. from joining the war. • 2. They became known as the Axis Powers.
C. Building U.S. Defenses • 1. The Selective Training and Service drafted 16 million men between the ages of 21 to 35 to join the army in case of a war. • 2. Roosevelt ran and won an unprecedented 3rd term as president by defeating Wendell Wilkie.
II. “The Great Arsenal of Democracy” • A. The Lend-Lease Plan • 1. The U.S. would lend or lease arms and supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” • 2. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. • 3. FDR even sent arms and supplies to Stalin because Hitler had invaded the Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill • “If Hitler invaded Hell,” the British would be prepared to work with the devil himself.
B. German Wolf Packs • 1. Groups of German U-boats or submarines sank as much as 350,000 tons of U.S. shipping a month. • 2. However, by 1943 submarines attacks were contained because of the use of radar and sonar. • 3. U-Boats were known as the “rattlesnakes of the Atlantic.”
III. FDR Plans For War • A. The Atlantic Charter • 1. With Great Britain, FDR signed a joint declaration of war aims and declared the following: collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas. • 2. The declaration was signed by 26 nations and they became known as the Allies. • 3. FDR then ordered U.S. ships to shoot on sight if they saw a German U-Boat. • 4. Became the basis of the United Nations.
B. The Four Freedoms Speech • 1. FDR proposed four points as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy. • 1. Freedom of Speech and Expression. • 2. Freedom of Religion • 3. Freedom from Want • 4. Freedom from Fear • Set out a vision for a world in which war would be less likely. • The Atlantic Charter was built on the ideas in the Four Freedoms speech.
IV. Japan Attacks the United States • A. Japan’s ambitions in the Pacific. • 1. General Hideki Tojo Chief of Staff led Japan’s army in conquering all of Eastern Asia. • 2. After Japan had conquered French Indochina the U.S. stopped selling Japan oil. • 3. After breaking Japan’s secret code th U.S. learned that Japan would attack and on December 6, FDR got a decoded message that Japan was “to reject all American peace proposals”
B. The Attack on Pearl Harbor • 1. On the morning of Dec, 7, 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack. • 2. 2,403 Americans were killed, 1,178 were wounded, sunk or damaged 21 ships including 8 battleships, and more than 300 aircraft were damaged. • 3. “A day that will live in infamy.” • 4. Even isolationists wanted war.
Burton Wheeler • “The only thing now to do is to lick the hell out of them.”