7.2.1+America+on+the+Sidelines

=United States Neutrality=

// ~ The Consul General at Berlin (Messersmith) to the Under Secretary of State (Philips) // || No Formal Action || // ~ President Roosevelt at Arlington Cemetery // || No Formal Action || // ~ Statement by President Roosevelt // || Invoke Neutrality Laws || // ~ President Roosevelt at Chautauqua // || No Formal Action || // ~ Joint Resolution // || Revise Neutrality Laws || Germany annexes Austria, Austrian chancellor learned of Nazi plot traveled to make complaint || March, 1938 || It would mean a break with our past, both internationally and domestically. || No Formal Action || // ~ President Roosevelt to President of Czechoslovakia, Chancellor of Germany, and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and France // || No Formal Action || // ~ President Roosevelt to the Congress // || Expand Armed Forces || // ~ Acting Secretary of State (Welles) // || No Formal Action || ~ || No Formal Action || //~ Address Delivered by President Roosevelt to the Congress, 9/21/1939// || Revise Neutrality Laws || ~Statement by President Roosevelt~ || No Formal Action || // ~ Address Delivered by President Roosevelt to the Congress, 5/16/1940 // || Expand Armed Forces || ~ Message of President Roosevelt to the Congress, 9/3/1940 || Send Aid to the Allies || // ~ President Roosevelt to King George of Greece // || Send Aid to the Allies || // ~ Address Delivered by President Roosevelt to the Congress // || Send Aid to the Allies || ~ Statement by Secretary of State, 4/6/1941 || Send Aid to the Allies || ~ Radio Address Delivered by President Roosevelt, 5/27/1941 || Expand Escort Zone || ~//Acting Secretary of State (Welles) - June 23, 1941// || Send Aid to Allies || ~//Radio Address Delivered by President Roosevelt - September 11, 1941// || "Shoot-on-Sight" Order || //~Secretary of State Before the Committee - October 21, 1941// || Revise Neutrality Laws || materials || materials || materials ||
 * ~ Europe ||
 * = **Event (brief description)** ||= **Date** ||= **Quote/Evidence (state the source)** ||= **U.S. Action** ||
 * **Germany Withdraws from Disarmament Talks** || October, 1933 || “I do not believe that the majority of the German people yet desire war”
 * **Hitler Repudiates Versailles Treaty** || March, 1935 || “The primary purpose of this Nation is to avoid being drawn into war.”
 * **Italian Invasion of Ethiopia** || October, 1935 || “My proclamation making effective an embargo on the exportation from this country to Ethiopia and Italy of arms, ammunition, implements of war.”
 * **Germany Reoccupies the Rhineland** || March, 1936 || “We shun political commitments which might entangle us in foreign wars; we avoid connection with the political activities of the League of Nations....”
 * **Civil War in Spain** || July, 1936 || "..after the approval of this Resolution be unlawful to export arms, ammunition, or implements of war from any place in the United States."
 * **Germany Annexes Austria**
 * **Czech Crisis and Munich Conference** || September, 1938 || “The fabric of peace on the continent of Europe, if not throughout the rest of the world, is in immediate danger.”
 * **Hitler Threatens Poland.** || October, 1938 || “But the world has grown so small and weapons of attack so swift that no nation can be safe in its will to peace so long as any other single powerful nation refuses to settle its grievances at the council table.
 * **Germany Dismembers Czechoslovakia** It becomes clear that appeasement with Germany is coming to an end. || March, 1939 || "It is manifest that acts of wanton lawlessness and of arbitrary force are threatening world peace and the very structure of modern civilization"
 * **Italy Invades Albania** Albania had been under Italian influence since 1925, when Mussolini's government intervened in a civil war there. || April, 1939 || “Any threat to peace seriously concerns all nations and violates the will of all peoples in the world that their governments shall lead them, not toward war, but along paths of peace."
 * **Germany Invades Poland - WWII Begins** France and Britain issued ultimatum for Germany to leave Poland; Germany ignores; France and Britain declare war on Germany || September, 1939 || "...this Government must lose no time or effort to keep the Nation from being drawn into the war."
 * **Germany invades Denmark and Norway:** Hitler`s forces suddenly swooped upon Denmark and Norway. || April 1940 || “The Government of the United States has on the occasion of recent invasions strongly expressed its disapprobation of such unlawful exercise of force. It here reiterates, with undiminished emphasis, its point of view as expressed on those occasions. If civilization is to survive, the rights of the smaller nations to independence, to their territorial integrity, and to the unimpeded opportunity for self government must be respected by their more powerful neighbors.”
 * **Germany Invades Low Countries and France** French and British forces routed by Germans who avoided the Maginot Line. || May, 1940 || “Surely, the developments of the past few weeks have made it clear to all of our citizens that the possibility of attack on vital American zones ought to make it essential that we have the physical, the ready ability to meet those attacks and to prevent them from reaching their objectives."
 * **France Surrenders:** Netherlands and Belgium had surrendered, and British force has been evacuated from the French port of Dunkirk. Great Britain now stood alone against Germany and its allies. || June, 1940 || “This is not inconsistent in any sense with our status of peace. Still less is it a threat against any nation. It is an epochal and far reaching act of preparation for continental defense in the face of grave danger.
 * **Start of the "Blitz":** 58 Luftwaffe bombing raids on London to defeat British morale; killed 15,000 people || September, 1940 || This event created an outpouring of sympathy for the British; British morale does not decrease. || No Formal Action ||
 * **Italy Invades Greece:** In keeping up with Germany, Italy attempts to take over Greece, but are met with stiff resistance. || October, 1940 || "I assure Your Majesty that steps are being taken to extend such aid to Greece which is defending itself so valiantly."
 * **British Gold Reserves Run Low:** British request aid, Congress pass Lend-Lease Act to supply Britain with resources; many Americans angry as this means we take sides... || January, 1941 || "We cannot, and will not, tell them they must surrender, merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we know they must have."
 * **Germany Invades Yugoslavia and Greece:** Germany wanted to pass through Yugo.; Slavs overthrew leader, requesting assistance; All of E. Europe was allied with or conquered by Hitler. || April, 1941 || "The barbaric invasion of Yugoslavia and the attempt to annihilate that country by brute force is but another chapter in the present planned movement of attempted world conquest and domination."
 * **British Suffer Staggering Losses at Sea:** German U-Boats make any sea-going vessel a target; crippled shipping meant fewer supplies to British || May, 1941 || "We will not accept a Hitler-dominated world. And we will not accept a world, like the post-war world of the 1920's, in which the seeds of Hitlerism can again be planted and allowed to grow."
 * ======**Germany Invades Soviet Union:** Soviet Union had always been a primary objective for Hitler; Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression of August 1939 was merely a means of buying time until France and Britain could be defeated incident====== || June, 1941 || "If any further proof could conceivably be required of the real purposes and projects of the present leaders of Germany for world -domination, it is now furnished by Hitler's treacherous attack upon Soviet Russia."
 * ======**Greer Incident**: U.S. warships would escort merchant vessels deep into the Atlantic Ocean.====== || September, 1941 || "The Navy Department of the United States has reported to me that on the morning of September fourth the United States destroyer Greer, proceeding in full daylight towards Iceland, had reached a point South east of Greenland. She was carrying American mail to Iceland. She was flying the American flag. Her identity as an American ship was unmistakable."
 * ======**Kearny Incident**: U.S. warships were escorting merchant vessels bound for Britain more than halfway across the Atlantic, nearly as far as Iceland. U.S. ships were surprised when another U.S. Navy came under attack from a german submarine.====== || October, 1941 || "The paramount principle of national policy is the preservation of the safety and security of the Nation. The highest right flowing from that principle is the right of self-defense. That right must now be invoked. The key to that defense under present conditions is to prevent Hitler from gaining control of the seas."
 * **Germany and Italy declare war on the United Sates**: Japanese carrier-base aircraft attacked U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor || December, 1941 || "Delay invites greater danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the people of the world who are determained to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism." President //~Roosevelt to the Congress - December 11, 1941// || Declare War ||
 * ~ Asia ||
 * **Event (brief description)** || **Date** || **Evidence/Quote** || **U.S. Action** ||
 * Japan invades Manchuria || 1931 || dynamited a railway track || No Formal Action ||
 * Japan invade Jehol province || 1932 || province was completely under Japanese control || No Formal Action ||
 * Japan renounces naval treaty restrictions || 1934 || after 2 years the japanese gov. announced it wouldn’t be bound by the naval treaties || No Formal Action ||
 * promotes autonomy movement - in North China || 1935 || Tokyo announced East Hopei autonomous council to govern Japanese territory in China || No Formal Action ||
 * Japanese signes anti comintern pact || 1936 || they pledged mutual cooperation against the threat of international communism || No Formal Action ||
 * War outbreak between Japan and China || 1937 || no war was ever declared, but a full scale conflict began || Embargo strategic
 * Panay incident || 1937 || Japanese aircraft attacked U.S. vessels, several ships sunk, two sailors were killed, 30 wounded || Demand Indemnity ||
 * Japanese offenses in China || 1938 || two chinese forces linked, forming a front running from the Mongolian border to the chinese coast south of Shanghai || Embargo strategic
 * Japanese offense in southern China || 1938 || Tokyo announced that it would only recognize the rights of powers accepting Japan’s “new order” for East Asia || Send aid to China ||
 * Fighting between Japanese and Soviet forces || 1939 || Japanese troops fired on a group of Mongolian calvary in a desputed region along the Manchurian-Mongolian border || No Formal Action ||
 * Closing of the Burma road || 1940 || Chinese workers finished building a road that would connect Kunming to Bruma, over 500 miles || No Formal Action ||
 * Japan occupies northern Indochina || 1940 || Dutch and French colonies in Southeast Asia became increasingly tempting targets. || Embargo strategic
 * Japan occupies southern Indochina || 1941 || Several indochinese provinces were transferred to neighboring Thailand, a neighboring ally || Freeze Japanese assets ||
 * Japan proposes East Asia settlement || 1941 || Japan offered the United States a plan for an overall settlement of the issues that divided them || Reject ||