America In World War 2
America's 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.
America's 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 people's and government's 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 "comprehensive
and
permanent" neutrality act was passed (Overy 259). The desire to
avoid
"foreign entanglements" of all kinds had been an American
foreign
policy for more than a century. A very real "geographical
Isolation"
permitted the United States to "fill up the empty lands of North
America
free from the threat of foreign conflict"(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.
"American soldiers were more at
home with the horse than with the tank"
(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 Germany's
3600 and Russia's 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 "only a shell of
military establishment" (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
people's views and thought's
regarding the United States going to war. After all
let us not forget that
the American government is there "for the people and
by the people" and
therefore the people's view did play a major role in
this declaration of
Neutrality. In one of Roosevelt's fireside chats he said
"We 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 'we
choose peace' ",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 "It's the end of the
world, the end
of everything" ( Overy 261). As Richard Overy notes in The
Road To War,
this growing "estrangement" from Europe was not mere
selfishness. They
were the values expressed by secretary of state, Cordel
Hull: "a primary
interest in peace with justice, in economic well-being with
stability, and
conditions of order under the law". 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
"foreign
entanglements", or as Overy puts it "any kind of alliance
or
association outside the western hemisphere". Instead the United
States
should act as an arbitre in world affairs, "encouraging peaceful
change
where necessary" 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 Roosevelt's view that the United
States would fare well (economically
speaking) whether Europe went to war or
not. "Gold was flowing in from
Europe's capitals; orders were mounting
daily for equipment and supplies of all
kinds; America was building a
battleship for Stalin, aero-engines for
France" (Overy 277). For most of
the 1930's 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 States'
"most important markets" during
the 1930's. 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 "the rights or wrongs of
trading with fascism" 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 "push
the button" (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 "had given us
an
opportunity". Congress approved the declaration of war with only
one
dissenting voice. Eleanor Roosevelt noted that the effect of the Japanese
attack
was "to release my husband from months and pent-up tension
and
anxiety". Andrew Wheatcroft says in his book The Road To War, " It
is
tempting to see Pearl Harbor as the crisis that Roosevelt was waiting for
and
did nothing to prevent". America's 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 "take over
the world", and to Nazify it. Hitler had convinced
himself that America had
declined in the 1930's 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.