Page 90 - NS-2 Textbook

THE INTERWAR YEARS 83

China, quickly conquering most of the eastern ha1£ of the Faced with the potential loss of the Royal Navy,
country. During these Chinese operations, Japan repeat- which in effect served as the first line of u.s. defense,
edly bombed U.S. missions, schools, churches, and hos- Congress finally recognized the necessity of expanding
pitals, and even sank the U.S. Navy gunboat Fanay. The the U.S. Navy as Roosevelt had requested. Congress
United States limited its response to verbal and written passed the Two-Ocean Navy bill, authorizing the presi-
protests. In 1938 Hitler invaded Austria. Betrayed by dent to build for each ocean a fleet sufficient to meet
traitors from within, that nation became a province of American defense needs.
Germany. Events started to move faster for the United States. In
British prime minister Neville Chamberlain now de- September 1940 Roosevelt concluded a deal with
cided that the only way to avert war was to come to some Churchill in which the United States gave Britain fifty of
agreement with Italy and Germany. He undertook what its oldest destroyers and ten Coast Guard cutters in return
has become known as a policy of "appeasement." Under for ninety-nine-year leases on sites for bases in the West
this policy, Britain and France made a series of conces- Indies, Newfoundland, and Bermuda. In March of the fol-
sions to Hitler and Mussolini in return for "promises of lowing year, the famous Lend-Lease Act was passed, al-
peace." In one of these deals Britain persuaded the league lowing the United States to "loan" war materials to
to recognize the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, an act that Britain. This put U.S. industry on a wartime production
effectively destroyed the league. Next, Britain and France level, because, as Roosevelt declared, America had be-
agreed to the takeover of Czechoslovakia by Germany. come the "arsenal of democracy." The United States later
But when Hitler's next demand was for the free city seized Axis ships in American ports, froze German and
of Danzig and a large segment of western Poland, Britain Italian assets in the United States, occupied Greenland,
and France finally drew the line, abandoned the policy of and took over the defense of Iceland from Britain.
appeasement, and aligned themselves with Poland. The In 1941 high-ranking U.s. and British officers met se-
Soviet Union, which had been angered by the British- cretly in Washington and drew up what was called the
French sellout on Czechoslovakia, now signed a nonag- ABC-1 Staff Agreement. This agreement put the U.s. Navy
gression pact with Germany. Hitler was thus free of the in the war on the side of the Allies, since by its terms the
Soviet threat from the east. On 1 September 1939 his Navy would be sharing escort duties for transatlantic con-
armies invaded Poland in a massive offensive. Britain voys to Britain. The agreement also called for meetings be-
and France, henceforth referred to as the Allies, declared tween American and British chiefs of staff in order to
war on Germany two days later. World War II had begrm. make strategic plans. A key decision to come out of the
meetings was that the United States would make its prin-
cipal military effort in the European theater, even if Japan
AMERICAN DRIFT TOWARD WAR
made war on America. TIus decision was made because
Between 1935 and 1939, as the Washington disarmament of Germany's greater military potential and because of
treaties collapsed, the United States retreated into a pol- the immediate danger faced by Britain.
icy of isolationism and neutrality. When the Europeans In the meantime, the situation in the Pacific had also
declared war on each other, President Franklin Roosevelt deteriorated. When France fell in 1940, the Japanese
established the Neutrality Patrol, which had as its task the quickly declared a protectorate (a relationship of protec-
reporting and tracking of belligerent ships and aircraft tion and partial control) over Indochina, taking control of
approaching the United States or the West Indies. Actu- the valuable rice crop and occupying the air and naval
ally, President Roosevelt regarded the Neutrality Patrol as bases there. They also informed the Dutch authorities in
a means of preparing for the war he saw coming. The pa- the East Indies that the oil resources on those islands
trol enabled him to refit some ships and recali reserves to would now be developed "jointly" with them. It was
active duty for training and assignment at sea. clear that the Japanese were out to dominate the East In-
The American people were certainly opposed to the dies and its mineral resources. In reaction to this aggres-
totalitarian governments and aggression of the Axis sive behavior, President Roosevelt inunediately placed
powers and Japan, but they wanted to stay out of the an embargo on the sale of aviation gasoline and scrap
war. As the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over Poland and con- iron to Japan. Steel was added to the embargo two
quered Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Den- months later.
mark, and France-all by June 1940-President Roo- An elnhargo on oil ,vas sure to he the next U.S. move.
sevelt began to see the defeat of Britain as a possibility. It came in July 1941, along with a freeze on all Japanese
He asked for assurances that the British fleet would not assets in the United States. Thus the Japanese could no
be turned over to Hitler in that event. Prime Minister longer pay in cash for Dutch East Indies oil. War was
Churchill replied that he could not guarantee this, since now inevitable. Japanese militarists would accept noth-
he probably would not be prime minister following a ing less than full cooperation in their effort to conquer
British defeat. China-and America would not give it to them.