1. Chapter 19 Sec. 4
America Enters the War
After England and France
declared war on
Germany, President Roosevelt
declared the United States
neutral. Yet he was
determined to help the 2
countries in their fight against
Hitler.
2. Neutrality Act of 1939
• Although the US was neutral, FDR was
determined however, to do all he could to
help, so he asked Congress to revise the
neutrality laws.
• Neutrality Act of 1939—warring nations could
buy weapons from the US only if they paid
cash and carried the arms on their own ships.
3. The Election of 1940
• No President had ever run for 3 terms before
but FDR decided to. He steered a careful
course between neutrality and intervention
but in the end, voters re elected him in a wide
margin, preferring to stick with a president
they knew during this crisis period.
4. The Lend-Lease Act
• FDR warned that if Britain fell, an “unholy
alliance” of would keep trying to conquer the
world, and then, “all of us in all the Americas
would be living at the point of a gun”. FDR
argued that the US should become the “great
arsenal of democracy”.
• This act sent weapons to Britain if Britain
promised to return or pay rent for them after
the war.
5. Japan Attacks the United States
• America Embargeos Japan: Japan depended
on the US for many key materials-iron, steel
and oil, 80% of Japan’s oil came from the US.
But the Japanese were threatening to British
territories in the Pacific so:
• --FDR first blocked the sale of airplane fuel
and iron to Japan
• He started to send aid to China
6. • Japanese were furious—they positioned
themselves to attack Hong Kong and
Singapore.
• FDR then froze all Japanese assets in the US
and reduced the amount of oil being shipped
to Japan.
7. FDR sent Gen. Douglas MacArthur to
the Philippines to build up America
defenses there.
8. • FDR made it clear he would lift the oil
embargo if Japan withdrew from Indochina
and made peace with China. With the war
with China in jeopardy because of a lack of oil
and other resources, the Japanese military
began making plans to attack the resource rich
British and Dutch colonies in southeast Asia.
