WWII: The Diplomacy Of The New Era

Video- Notes Chapter 27: WWII
“Speaking Intelligently About The Outline”
Blue = “Terms to Know”

1. The Legacy of WWI, “The Diplomacy of The New Era” a. Henry Cabot Lodge was very suspicious of the treaty of Versailles, especially Article 10 (which stated that the US was required to respect the territory of other states) he viewed the league as limiting the power of the government, and believed that we should be the “master of our own fate.” b. The failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles was mainly due to the lack of ability to compromise between Lodge and Wilson. c. The idea of maintaining the stance that America would stay un-involved in foreign affairs. 2. Treaties to replace the Treaty of Versailles
and the League of Nations d. The Washington Conference was an attempt to prevent a costly naval armaments race between America, Britain, and Japan. Hughes proposed a plan for dramatic reductions in the fleets of all three nations and a ten years moratorium on the construction of large warships. This was mostly an attempt to create a kind of safety net for the U.S to keep from getting into war again. e. The Kellogg-Briand Pact was a diplomatic treaty outlawing war as an instrument of foreign policy- “protect the peace” f. These are connected to the retreat to isolationism because we were trying to create systems to keep us out of any foreign problems. 3. International Debt and Diplomacy g. Calvin Coolidge was opposed to offering aid to those in debt, the general attitude of our gov. was “they hired the money, didn’t they?” suggesting that they could pay it back. h. One major problem of debt was the circular pattern the money was making: we gave Germany a loan, the lent it to France/England, France gave it back to us- resulting in no solution. The debt these nations acquired caused an imbalance of trade. i. Charles G. Dawes, an American banker, negotiated an agreement between France, Britain, Germany, and America by stating (how plan worked) that American banks would provide huge loans to Germany (allowing them to meet their reparations.) In return, Britain and France would agree to reduce the amount of those payments. However, Dawes plan did little to solve the problem it addressed- (what it did) creating a growing economic presence in Germany, along with a growing circular pattern of international finance. It was an attempt to stabilize Germany. j. High tariffs caused additional problems, the Fordney-McCumber Act was designed to protect American product by raising the tariff rate to 38%. This gave the president the power to raise the percentage on any product he felt necessary. This was passed in the beginning to protect the farmers, who were taking a post WWI decline, this tariff hoped to use the surplus on a domestic level and eventually leak into international trade- this effected the European nations trying to pay back debts because they were unable to export goods and make a profit.

4. Failure of New Era Diplomacy, “Hoover and the World Crisis” k. Hoover’s attempts to help included placing a moratorium on war debt loans- meaning European nations did not have to make payments for six months. During this time Hoover hoped to stabilize the currency and stop the circular cycle. This idea caused Hoover to be given very little support in America- resulting the idea to die before he really had the chance to work with it. Disarmament- Hoover was trying to extend the ideas of the Washington Conference and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. l. Rise of Dictatorships: In the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin became dictator in 1929 and Benito Mussolini came to the front of Italy in 1925, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, and later on dictator, and Hideki Tojo led Japan. Germany stopped reparation payments and occupied czar valley, Soviet Union was persuading expansion against borders, Japan was invading China and extending its power into China, Mussolini invades Africa. Anything we wanted to do in terms of peace and disarmament was in shambles. m. U.S. Foreign Policy crumbles: there was the choice to be interventionists: and try to influence things before they happened (economic, military, political) or move into Nationalism that we relied on our own devices for dealing with problems at hand. 5. Isolation, “Isolationism and Nationalism” n.
World Economic Conference- London, 1933. Roosevelt went off the gold standard and said they were going to make payments, limit loans to end cycle, and the negotiations in 1933 fell apart because other nations were not willing to move away from backings of gold and silver. Roosevelt in 1934 forebayed American banks to make loans to foreign countries- hoping to end that circular systems- which it did. These were isolationist ideas because we were going on our own standard. Roosevelt helped international trade by pushing through the reciprocal trade agreement act- empowered Roosevelt to lower tariff rates as much as 50% to get some currency flowing internationally and positively. Roosevelt also broke with past policies by recognizing the Soviet Union- hoping to establish strong trade, not very successful but an attempt to expand trade. However Roosevelt was too late and economic crisis deepened. America began turning to
isolationism. o.
Nye Commission: Gerald Nye put together a study that blamed our entry into WWI on the military complex (large factories producing munitions, chemicals, clothing, etc.) This placed the blame strictly on economics and the blame landed on manufacturers of America. In addition to finding the military complex responsible, it also blamed the national government/loaning and finance institutions for getting us caught in loans. p. Neutrality Acts of 1935/36/37/39: These acts forbayed any lending institutions to loan money to belligerence in a war situation with hopes to get away from investment of American dollars in war. They also forbayed trading on the basis of loans. The concept of cash and carry came out of these acts- if companies were going to trade with belligerence in war, the only way that was okay was if it was paid for in cash. q. Failure of appeasement, Munich: This marks the end of creating an international policy. Hitler went through a series of marches with no opposition. Appeasement is the idea of giving someone what they wants to get them to shut up, even though it isn’t good for them. The Munich Conference Hitler lies and promises that the expansion was over. Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf explained he was going to continue
expanding.

r. Isolation as a form of appeasement: Our failure to become part of the international community in 1920 created problems throughout the world because there was no enforcement. The U.S. didn’t get involved because we were involved one time and were rejected (14 points)

6. “From Neutrality to Intervention” s. Western Europe Falls, Great Britain alone: