US foreign policy woooooot

D:
OKAY LET US BEGIN

isolationist thingers
- refusal to ratify Treaty of Versailles; refusal to join League of Nations (Congress pwns Wilson)
- refusal to join World Court throughout 20s and 30s (despite having lots of support from Coolidge/FDR/mostofthepress/unions - blocked by Senate Foreign Relations Committee; influence of strongly isolationist Senators such as Huey Long, as well as Hearst-owned press)
- 1921 Emergency Tariff Act (resp to domestic pressures from ailing ag industry)
- 1922 Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act (ditto above)
- 1930 Hawley-Smoot Tariff which was part of ...
- retreat from world during Great Depression (screw off, we have our own domestic problems to deal with)
- 1933 World Economic Conference: FDR 'no we're not cooperating with you we're doing our own thing'
- 1935 Neutrality Act banned sale of munitions to belligerent nations
- 1936 Neutrality Act banned loans to belligerents
- 1937 Neutrality Act expanded previous acts' provisions to include civil war (thanks to Spanish Civil War, which started in 1936??); banned US citizens from travelling on belligerent ships; cash and carry
- 1937 Gallup poll shows that 97% of USians think foreing policy should be geared toward staying out of wars instead of helping them break out in first place
- 1938 Ludlow Amendment ALMOST PASSED in Congress (decision to participate in war decided by popular referendem instead of by president)

not isolationist! ish
- 1921-22 Washington Disarmament Conferences ... OMFG
---four power treaty (us/uk/brit/jap); maintain status quo in pacific, confer with other nations in event of one nation being aggressive in that area
---five power treaty (us/uk/brit/jap/ita); limit tonnage of navies
---nine power treaty; established open door policies RE China as international law; USA worried about China being colonised; but recognised Japan's particular interest in Manchuria
------ BUT these treaties were all toothless with no power of sanctions against defaulting signatories, so ner. evidence of vaguely isolationist thing still? and this goes also for:
- 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact: renounced war as method of settling international disputes, tis for self-defence only - toothless, shown by US lack of action when Japan invaded Manchuria 1931
- 1924 Dawes Plan and 1929 Young Plan; reparations repayment plans for Germany offering scaled down reps and a $250m loan??? in Dawes; Young got killed by Great Crash/Depression
- 1934 Import-Export Bank providing loans to foreigners wishing to buy US products
- 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements whereby tariffs are reduced 50% for 'most favoured nations'
---above two: Cordell Hull recognising crappiness of tariffs, thinks trade = good
- 1937 Cash and Carry Act designed to help Britain
- 1937 FDR's quarantine speech; trying to push people toward accepting involvement in upcoming war; he was highly aware of isolationist sentiment, vaguely distanced himself from contents of speech when asked about it the next day
- 1939 renewal of '37 CC Act
- repeal of 1935 and 1937 Neutrality Acts
- 1940 ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY fireside chat
- 1941 Lend Lease Act; allows lending of war materials to Britain
- 1941 Atlantic Charter; joint declaration with Churchill after meeting with Britain and other Allies about vision for post-war world (international peace, self-determination etc.); essentially statement of US war plans; had to ease concerns of Americans anxious of fighting a war with USSR as ally, so be like 'post-war won't involve trading away democracy/freedom', justified helping USSR
---HOWEVER FDR refuses to declare war, but says he'll look for an 'incident' to allow him to do so or something aaaaaaand he extends Lend Lease to USSR ... and is reluctant to commit to international organisation to promote peace in post-war world
- 1941 undeclared naval war with Germany in Atlantic; escorting British ships to midpoint of Atlantic, patrolling for U-boats, occupying Greenland and Iceland bases to stop them becoming German U-boat harbours
- 1941 attempts to limit Japanese expansion; Hull meets with Ambassador Kichisaburo and tries to get Japan to withdraw from China and leave European colonies in SE Asia alone; later Congress limits supplies of oil, scrap iron and machine tools to Japan, eventually issuing an oil embargo and freezing Japanese assets in USA
- Japan dependent on US oil so... problem. decides to knock USA out of war in Pacific so it can't stop Japan from taking SE Asia and its oil supplies
- 7 January 1941 - PEARL HARBOUR ATTACK; USA declares war on Japan the following day



FRIGGING HELL
oh yeah and like by 1933 all the Allies but Finland had stopped paying their war debts due to the Great Depression; USA angry, passed 1934 Johnson Act which forbade the granting of govt loans to foreign govts who were in default for their debts