American Foreign Policy 1920-1941

America’s foreign policy between 1920 and 1941 was supposedly neutral until December 1941. World War I (1914-1918) had just ended and even though America had suffered little compared to the other nations involved, it was determined not to get involved with global affairs a second time. As time went on and World War II started, America found it was impossible to stay neutral. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, America officially joined the war. In 1920, Americans were set on never getting involved in European matters again which kept with America’s tradition of isolation. President Wilson, who was president during WWI, came up with the League of Nations which was an international organization whose goal was to maintain world peace. The League
FDR promised to stay out of the war but he keep pushing America away from neutrality. This can be seen with the progression of the Neutrality Acts. First passed in in 1935-1937, the acts outlawed arms sales and loans to nations at war and barred Americans from traveling on the ships of belligerent powers. In 1939 Roosevelt got the Acts amended so the fighting countries could purchase weapons from the U.S. if they paid cash and carried the arms away in their own ships. FDR thought this amendment would help the Allies because they controlled the seas. Finally in 1941 the cash part was gotten rid of and the president could lend supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.” All of these changes were meant to help the Allies. By 1940 Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain, was asking for help from America and FDR was convincing Americans to give it to him. Doc H is from FDR who used a metaphor involving a hose and a house fire to try to convince Americans why the U.S. needed to help Britain. Besides isolation and intervention there were people who were somewhere in