home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- AmericaÆs involvement in World War Two
-
-
- When war broke out , there was no way the world could possibly know the severity of this guerre.
- Fortunately one country saw and understood that Germany and its allies would have to be stopped.
- AmericaÆs Involvement in World War two not only contributed in the eventual downfall of the insane
- Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich, but also came at the precise time and moment. Had the united states
- entered the war any earlier the consequences might have been worse.
-
- Over the years it has been an often heated and debated issue on whether the united states could
- have entered the war sooner and thus have saved many lives. To try to understand this we must look both
- at the peopleÆs and governmentÆs point of view.
-
- Just after war broke out in Europe, President Roosevelt hurriedly called his cabinet and military
- advisors together. There it was agreed that the United states stay neutral in these affairs. One of the
- reasons given was that unless America was directly threatened they had no reason to be involved. This
- reason was a valid one because it was the American policy to stay neutral in any affairs not having to with
- them unless American soil was threatened directly. Thus the provisional neutrality act passed the senate
- by seventy-nine votes to two in 1935. On August 31, Roosevelt signed it into law. In 1936 the law was
- renewed, and in 1937 a ôcomprehensive and permanentö neutrality act was passed (Overy 259).
-
- The desire to avoid ôforeign entanglementsö of all kinds had been an American foreign policy for
- more than a century. A very real ôgeographical Isolationö permitted the United States to ôfill up the empty
- lands of North America free from the threat of foreign conflictö(Churchill 563).
-
- Even if Roosevelt had wanted to do more in this European crisis (which he did not), there was a
- factor too often ignored by critics of American policy-American military weakness. When asked to
- evaluate how many troops were available if and when the United States would get involved, the army
- could only gather a mere one hundred thousand, when the French, Russian and Japanese armies
- numbered in millions. Its weapons dated from the first World War and were no match compared to the
- new artillery that Germany and its allies had. ôAmerican soldiers were more at home with the horse than
- with the tankö (Overy 273). The air force was just as bad if not worse. In September 1939 the Air Corps
- had only 800 combat aircrafts again compared with GermanyÆs 3600 and RussiaÆs 10,000 . American
- military Aviation (AMA) in 1938 was able to produce only 1,800, 300 less than Germany, and 1,400 less
- than Japan. Major Eisenhower, who was later Supreme commander of the Allied forces in the second
- World War, complained that America was left with ôonly a shell of military establishmentö (Chapman
- 234 ). As was evident to Roosevelt the United states military was in no way prepared to enter this
- European crisis.
-
- Another aspect that we have to consider is the peopleÆs views and thoughtÆs regarding the
- United States going to war. After all let us not forget that the American government is there ôfor the
- people and by the peopleö and therefore the peopleÆs view did play a major role in this declaration of
- Neutrality. In one of RooseveltÆs fireside chats he said ôWe shun political commitments which might
- entangle us In foreign wars...If we face the choice of profits or peace-this nation must answer, the nation
- will answer æwe choose peaceÆ ö,in which they did. A poll taken in 1939 revealed that ninety-four per
- cent of the citizens did not want the united states to enter the war. The shock of World War one had still
- not left ,and entering a new war, they felt, would be foolish. In the early stages of the war American
- Ambassador to London was quoted saying ôItÆs the end of the world, the end of everythingö ( Overy 261).
- As Richard Overy notes in The Road To War, this growing ôestrangementö from Europe was not mere
- selfishness. They were the values expressed by secretary of state, Cordel Hull: ôa primary interest in peace
- with justice, in economic well-being with stability, and conditions of order under the lawö. These were
- principles here on which most Americans (ninety-four percent as of 1939) agreed on. To promote these
- principles the United States would have to avoid all ôforeign entanglementsö, or as Overy puts it ôany
- kind of alliance or association outside the western hemisphereö. Instead the United States should act as an
- arbitre in world affairs, ôencouraging peaceful change where necessaryö and most and for all discouraging
- aggression (Overy 263).
-
- Why risk going to war, when it is contrary to American policy which most if not all Americans
- were in agreement with and not mentioning the fact that the American military was in shambles. Yet
- another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was the American Economy.
-
- The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized, whatever was happening
- elsewhere. It was RooseveltÆs view that the United states would fare well (economically speaking) whether
- Europe went to war or not. ôGold was flowing in from EuropeÆs capitals; orders were mounting daily for
- equipment and supplies of all kinds; America was building a battleship for Stalin, aero-engines for
- Franceö (Overy 277). For most of the 1930Æs the United states traded as openly with Germany and Japan,
- as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of
- the United StatesÆ ômost important marketsö during the 1930Æs. American investments in Germany
- increased by forty per cent between 1936 and 1940 ( Wilson 291). America was steadily regaining the
- prosperity that had diminished during World War 1. The real concern of American business was not ôthe
- rights or wrongs of trading with fascismö but the fear that commercial rivals such as Japan and Germany
- would exclude American goods from Europe and Asia altogether (273).
-
- It is very easy to point and accuse the united states of being selfish, but one has to understand that
- any negative actions made would have resulted in the United States being almost if not completely out of
- the economic race. Would the United states have been as prosperous as it is today had they intervened any
- earlier? They probably would have not because at that time in history America needed a boost to return to
- its earlier status of being economically stable which Germany and its allies so adequately provided.
- Therefore President Roosevelt was not about to go to war with all axis powers thereby jeopardizing not
- only the safety of the American people but also the American economy which was so essential to a large
- and complex country that the United States was at the time. Unless American interests were directly
- threatened, Roosevelt hesitated to ôpush the buttonö ( Churchill 542).
-
- On December 6, 1941 the Japanese Airforce led a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, completely
- eradicating the port. Finally President Roosevelt could wait no longer. America was now involved and not
- going to war would only endanger the United states more than it already was. On the following day
- Roosevelt argued that the attack ôhad given us an opportunityö. Congress approved the declaration of war
- with only one dissenting voice. Eleanor Roosevelt noted that the effect of the Japanese attack was ôto
- release my husband from months and pent-up tension and anxietyö. Andrew Wheatcroft says in his book
- The Road To War, ô It is tempting to see Pearl Harbor as the crisis that Roosevelt was waiting for and did
- nothing to preventö. AmericaÆs most vital interest, defense of American soil, had been challenged. At last
- America had to go to war and eventually bring an end to the rule of nazi Germany.
-
- The Americans upon declaring its Neutrality, gave additional encouragement to Japan and
- Germany to in a way ôtake over the worldö, and to Nazify it. Hitler had convinced himself that America
- had declined in the 1930Æs because of social crisis. This misconception also led Japan to confront the
- United States in 1941. Had the United States entered the war any earlier or later the consequences could
- have been much worse (If possible). Towards the end of the war Walter Lippmann reporter for the Herald
- Tribune recalled his experience:
- When I attempt to compare the America in which I was reared with the America of today, I am
- struck by how unconcerned I was as a young man with the hard questions which are the subject matter of
- history. I did not think about the security of the republic and how to defend it
- (Overy 341).
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt did think about the security of the republic and defended it magnificently.
- Leading the United States every step of the way President Roosevelt did a superior job in bringing
- America into war when he did. Evidently America entered World war 2 at the precise time and moment
- to once and for all take down Adolph Hitler and the third Reich.
-
-
-
-
-