FDR and Foreign Policy

 

Good Neighbor Policy: (Latin America)

       to expand trade to help fight the Depression

       to unite the Western hemisphere against fascist aggression

 

Recognition of Communist Russia 1933

       while giving legitimacy to the Soviet government relations remained

            unfriendly

 

ISOLATIONISM:

 

Roosevelt pushed for joining the World Court (as established by the League) but the Senate refused

 

Congress passed more restrictions on immigration to limit world contact

 

High Tariffs which served to increase economic isolation

 

Refusal to cancel war debts from WWI because Europe could afford to rearm and they had borrowed the money so it was now time to repay

 

1934: Johnson Debt Default Act: in reaction to every nation defaulting on their debts to the U.S., this act stated that no public or private loans should be given to nations that defaulted on debts to the U.S.

 

American Neutrality Acts: 1935 and 1937

       prohibits sale of war goods to belligerents

       prohibited loans to belligerents

       prohibited Americans from sailing on ships of belligerents

       restricted entry of US ships into war zones

 

Roosevelt’s “Quarantine” speech 1937:

       stated that aggression was like an “epidemic of physical disease”

       therefore, aggressor nations should be quarantined

       FDR was testing the waters of isolationism

       most people still believed that the US could avoid the war

 

Neutrality Act 1939:

       proposed by FDR which would allow belligerents to buy war goods on the

            basis of cash and carry (pay cash and transport on your own ships)

 

Selective Service Act 1940:

       first ever peacetime draft as a part of American preparations for war as

            England now stood alone against Germany

 

Destroyers for Bases Deal: 1940

       FDR traded 50 “over-age” destroyers to England for military bases in the

              western hemisphere

       destroyers could be used against German submarines

       FDR negotiated this through executive order to avoid delay in the Senate

 

Lend-Lease Act 1941:

       FDR realized that England was nearly broke but still needed the “arsenal of

              democracy”

       Congress passed this act which allowed FDR to Lend or Lease goods to any

              nation whose defense was deemed necessary for the defense of the

              United States

       England and Russia both received Lend-Lease aid (over 50 billion $)

       U.S. Navy was to help convoy merchant ships across the Atlantic

 

Embargo on Strategic Materials to Japan:

       as a protest of Japanese occupation of Indochina and China

       prohibited sale of aviation gasoline, scrap iron and other materials

       froze Japanese assets in the United States

 

December 7, 1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

       to eliminate U.S. influence in the Pacific

       to curtail Lend-Lease Aid to allies

       to limit American preparation for war