Us Foreign Policy Changes Between 1920 And 1941 Essay

In 1920, the United States was celebrating the “Roaring Twenties”. It was a time of great prosperity, but not for all of Europe. We were celebrating relief from World War I and the money we received from it. We were getting back to normalcy. We were almost solely an isolated country, but our foreign policy was going to change within the next ten years. The reasons did United States foreign policy change between 1920 and 1941 was mainly because of World War II. In the 1920’s, historians have considered the United States to be an isolationist country. Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding said that he opposed the League because it does not correspond with our constitution, even saying it would be a “deadly blow at our constitutional integrity”

The economy from the Roaring 20’s had collapsed, as economy declined due to overexpansion of credit and Europe’s ending of war debts. A European correspondent for the New York Times wrote: officially our government stays out of world organizations, but sometime sooner or later, we will have to get involved (Document C). As Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, Congress argued the United States should steer clear of future wars and remain neutral by avoiding financial deals with countries at war.. In 1938, the Munich Peace Conference was held with Hitler by Britain and France, which helped little. President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed several neutrality acts, which represented an isolationist policy. The first neutrality act was in 1937, which allowed trade with other countries under the condition that American ships were not used called the Cash and Carry Policy, later renewed in 1939. Many Americans did not want another war and that they were convinced that they could avoid it through appeasement. On the other hand, many Americans believed we should engage because Germany would not back down, which lead to a divide between American citizens. (Document

The Democrats wanted to build up military forces to prevent European powers to come into the western hemisphere (Document E). The tension for whether or not the United States would enter the war was growing. America would be a great help in the war: economically and politically. Roosevelt passed the Lend-Lease Act in 1941, which gave war supplies to the British when they could no longer pay for them. Following the act, many people were worried about going into war. A poll taken showed that less than twenty percent of American supported going into the war. Many people had opposed Roosevelt now for doing the acts to support the war and publicly stating that we need to help Britian.(Document H). The St. Louis Post-Dispatch compared him to a dictator and that he would cause the deaths of millions of Americans (Document F). Even as the public knew the Rape of Nanking, one of the most infamous war crimes committed by the Japanese, Americans were reluctant to intervene in foreign affairs (Document D). But one act of war would change thousands of Americans’ minds: the bombing of Pearl Harbor. America was unified and officially abandoned isolationism for full