The 1930s were a difficult time for most Americans.

Faced with colossal

economic hardships—unprecedented in American history—many Americans
turned inward to focus on the worsening situation at home. The United States
became increasingly insensitive to the obliteration of fellow democracies at
the hands of brutal fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. The U.S. was
determined to stay out of war at all costs—even if its allies were in trouble;
Americans believed that they were immune from Europe’s problems as long as
they refused to get involved. However, as the “free” countries fell, one by one,
to the Nazi war machine, Americans began to realize the folly of their foolish
optimism and clamored for increasing involvement in foreign affairs. American
foreign policy changed in the years 1930-1941 as Americans realized that
fascism would likely conquer all of Europe unless Americans acted quickly.
Ultimately, it was fear of the fascist threat to American democracy that
triggered the end of American isolationism and inaugurated the era of
American interventionism.

World War I had left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Americans; many
believed that the U.S. had been tricked into joining the war for the wrong
reasons, and they were determined to avoid making the same mistake twice.
After the Great War, Americans were disappointed to realize that the war was
fought for null; World War I was not the “War to End Wars” as advertised by
the government propaganda. The disappointment of being “suckered” into
the Great War helped motivate Americans to adopt a largely isolationist policy
during the 1930s. The situation was worsened when Britain and France
defaulted on their loans from the U.S. after they were unable to collect
reparation payments from Germany satisfactorily. In a political cartoon of
1932, Uncle Sam is seen wisely remarking that the only thing European nations
are able to agree upon is that they cannot pay back their U.S. loans
(Document B). Isolationism was also encouraged when Hoover approved the
Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930, raising the tariff to an unbelievable sixty percent.
The hiking-up of the tariff shut out foreign trade nearly completely—a fact
which did not seem to bother too many Americans who were concerned with
their own fortunes at the time. Many foreign nations responded with high
tariffs of their own, largely destroying any prospect of international trade.
Unfortunately, American isolationism had more dire consequences than the
loss of trade or loan defaults.
As the 1930s dragged on, it became clear that fascism was destroying many
democracies around the globe, but America still opted for neutrality rather
than war. Hopelessly optimistic and naïve American politicians like Frank B.
Kellogg created the Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed by fifteen nations, which
would supposedly protect America from the threat of war. Although the
nations that signed agreed not to use war as an instrument of national policy,
the Pact was utterly useless because it could not be enforced. Similarly, the
Nine Power Treaty attempted to keep the Open Door in China open by
affirming the territorial integrity of the country; however, the agreement was
easily broken by the Empire of Japan in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria.
Although Americans lambasted Japan for disregarding international treaty
agreements, there was nothing the U.S. could do—short of war—that would
stop Japanese aggression (Document A). In order to avoid any unintentional
disasters that might plunge the U.S. into war, Congress passed three
consecutive Neutrality Acts from 1935-1937 aimed at keeping Americans
impartial and out of harm’s way. If Americans were not able to secretly aid
belligerents on either side, as they had in World War I, then, presumably, the
U.S. would not be drawn into the conflict (Document C). Although Americans
were upset with Japanese aggression, they opted to maintain peaceful
relations as long as possible, as evidenced by the Public Opinion Poll results in
1939-1941 which show that a majority of Americans opposed war during this
period (Document E). However, the fall of France demonstrated to the
American people, more than anything else, the true threat fascism could pose
to American democracy.

President Roosevelt realized that Britain needed aid or else the U.S. would
become a lone “free” nation in a fascist-dominated world. The American
military needed to be mobilized in order to assist the Allies or democracy
would be in grave danger. Roosevelt plead his case to the American people in
his famous “Quarantine Speech” in which he called for an end to dangerous
isolationism; however, his speech was not well-received and he was criticized
for his desire to “entangle” the U.S in European foreign affairs (Document D).
With Britain the only remaining power fighting against Germany, Roosevelt
felt compelled to offer aid in some way. In 1940, Roosevelt boldly transferred
fifty World War I destroyers to Britain in exchange for eight valuable defense
bases stretching from Newfoundland to South America. As bombs dropped
over Britain, Americans began to realize that their interests were intricately
tied to Britain’s and that they must offer aid or else the battle would come to
American soil soon. The goals of American foreign policy were reversed when
Congress repealed the now defunct Neutrality Acts and officially ended their
Neutrality. The U.S. began openly selling weapons to Britain on a “cash-and-
carry” basis so as to avoid attacks on American ships. When this was not
enough, Roosevelt devised the “lend-lease” system that allowed Britain to
borrow billions of dollars of American military equipment to be returned at the
end of the war. Americans finally realized that the Atlantic Ocean would not
protect them from Germany in the age of modern warfare, and that they must
actively protect their country. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill met at the Atlantic Conference to discuss the idealistic motivations
behind the war and create the Atlantic Charter, a document similar to Wilson’s
“Fourteen Points,” explaining the values that Britain and the U.S would seek to
uphold at the war’s end. The biggest departure from traditional 1930s
American isolationist thinking was in the provision that affirmed the right for
people to determine their ruler, and declared a new League of Nations to
uphold this “peace of security” (Document D). By the end of 1941, the U.S. was
preparing for war at full speed, egged on by the attack on Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941.

During the last few years of the Roaring ‘20s the Hoover administration had
set up policies that isolated America from the rest of the world. The U.S. was
prospering and the quality of life in America had never been higher—why
meddle in European affairs? However, as the 1940s approached, Americans
realized that amid the growing Fascist threat presented by Hitler and
Mussolini, the U.S. could no longer hide behind the false illusion of safety
offered by isolationism. Americans slowly but surely realized that their nation’s
ultimate fate was tied to Britain’s. As American support for international
intervention grew, the U.S.’s foreign policy goals changed to accommodate aid
to Britain in an effort to avoid risking American lives in all-out war.
Unfortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbor angered Americans so much that
they called for immediate revenge against Japan—permanently erasing
isolationist ideas from American minds forever.