Interwar Isolationism
Driven by peace movements led by women like Jane Addams, almost all nations signed this 1928 pact renouncing the use of aggressive force, but it failed because it lacked any plan of action against violators
What is the Kellogg-Briand Pact?
The U.S. officially entered World War II after Japan launched a surprise attack on this Hawaiian naval base on December 7, 1941.
What is Pearl Harbor?
This iconic figure was used in wartime propaganda to encourage millions of women to take jobs in defense industries and shipyards.
Who is "Rosie the Riveter"?
Led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the largest sea invasion in history took place on June 6, 1944, to take back beaches in Normandy, France.
What is D-Day?
Unlike the League of Nations after WWI, the U.S. quickly accepted membership into this new global peace organization drafted by 50 nations in 1945.
What is the United Nations?
Greatly influencing the rise of 1930s isolationism, this Senator's commission concluded that the U.S. had only entered WWI to serve the greed of businesses and bankers
What is the Nye Committee?
In 1939, Congress chipped away at neutrality by ending the arms embargo and passing this policy, which allowed belligerent nations to buy U.S. arms if they used their own ships and paid in full.
What is "Cash and Carry"?
This program allowed Mexican agricultural workers to enter the U.S. during harvest season without going through standard immigration procedures.
What is the Bracero program (or Braceros)?
The U.S. utilized this strategic military tactic in the Pacific, taking weakly held locations and isolating Japanese strongholds to slowly work toward the mainland.
What is Island Hopping?
At this historic February 1945 conference, the Allies agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones and hold free elections in liberated Eastern Europe.
What is the Yalta Conference?
This 1921 conference reflected Republican efforts to reduce military spending by resulting in treaties where the U.S., Great Britain, and Japan agreed to reduce the size of their navies
What is the Washington Conference?
This isolationist organization used famous speakers like Charles Lindbergh to travel the country and fiercely advocate against the U.S. entering the war in Europe.
What is the America First Committee?
This federal agency regulated many aspects of civilian life by setting prices, wages, and rationing items like meat, sugar, and gas.
What is the Office of Price Administration (OPA)?
This 1942 battle served as a major turning point after the U.S. broke Japanese codes, destroyed 300 planes, and halted Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
What is the Battle of Midway?
This numerical nickname was given to the allied leadership trio of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.
What is "The Big Three"?
Because isolationists controlled Congress, they passed three of these acts between 1935 and 1937 which strictly forbade arms shipments and loans to any belligerent nations
What are the Neutrality Acts?
This 1941 act ended "cash and carry," allowing the U.S. to give Great Britain all the arms they needed on credit, which FDR compared to lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a fire.
What is the Lend-Lease Act?
Upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. US, this specific presidential directive authorized the forced relocation of over 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps.
What is Executive Order 9066
The fierce Japanese resistance and massive U.S. casualties at the Battle of Okinawa directly influenced President Truman to use this new weapon rather than risk a mainland invasion.
What is the atomic bomb?
At this July 1945 conference, Harry Truman and Clement Attlee replaced FDR and Churchill to demand Japan's unconditional surrender.
What is the Potsdam Conference?
When FDR gave this 1937 speech suggesting that democratic nations work together to isolate aggressive nations, the isolationist American public rejected the idea so harshly that FDR had to drop it
What is the Quarantine Speech?
FDR and Winston Churchill met secretly to draft this agreement, which established that peace after the war would include self-determination for all nations and free trade.
What is the Atlantic Charter?
Directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer, this top-secret research initiative spent $2 billion to successfully develop the first atomic weapon.
What is the Manhattan Project?
Illustrating a major shift in the morality of warfare from World War I, the U.S. abandoned its policy of avoiding civilian casualties by heavily utilizing this devastating tactic on Japanese cities even before the atomic bombs were dropped.
What is firebombing?
In 1946, the Soviet Union's refusal to accept a U.S. proposal to the UN for this specific action ushered in the Cold War.
What is nuclear disarmament?