As we approach World War 2, I believe that posts leading into World War 2 become more relevant. A lot of people think of World War 2 as the war that should have been fought to fight fascism and genocide. The war on what was universal thought to be man's crimes against man, but quite a few people were very against entering World War 2. For some people, the war was like World War 1, where many people feel they are disconnected to the cause, or too far away from Europe to care and believed that this war Europe's war to fight, and not theirs. Other people interestingly, were students.
Many students thought that the first war did not work, so they should not enter another. Many students also knew that they would be first in line for the draft and would be on the front lines in this war. Students at Yale even founded the isolationist movement "America First" to protest entering the war.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/26/175288241/angry-days-shows-an-america-torn-over-entering-world-war-ii
It's interesting how peoples' political views changed going through the depression. At the bottom of the depression, there were actually many people who wanted FDR to take control as a fascist dictator, because they saw how effective it was in Germany. Once they started getting out of the depression, peoples' views changed to one that saw fascism as evil and ineffective
ReplyDeleteI think the freedom of speech was nice for these students, but I also think that the US was right to enter the war, for the good of their country. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America needed to fight against them. The reason was that Japan attacked in order to hopefully break America's superpower in the pacific and they wanted more resources. Not to mention, They had already allied with the Axis powers, which were against democracy. America's war with Japan was inevitable especially due to the Japanese's eagerness to take America. This eagerness can be seen in their kamikaze planes fighters, which would suicide in order to damage American ships.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005155
Yeah, I think the most immediate cause of the US joining the war was the attack on Pearl Harbor, but tensions between the Japanese were already high following the American embargo on Japan. War would likely have struck out in any case. Also I believe that the USA did not go to war with Germany and Italy directly, but rather the Germans and Italians declared war with the USA because Japan was their ally.
DeleteIt is quite interesting how isolation was not only a concept on a government policy level, but also on a public level. Especially after the Great Depression, and FDR's method of reform during it, it makes sense that many Americans would be opposed to further entanglement in international affairs. Roosevelt's national reform programs had brought the United States into recovery. Most still believed that focus on national infrastructure was the key to economic stability, and didn't want the government to lose that focus. Also many saw the cause of the Great Depression in the Great War and were NOT willing to repeat history.
ReplyDeleteI think that the decisions that were made in this time period really played a big role in future United States foreign policy. What FDR did throughout his presidency, especially in the year 1939, still provides a base for what a president should value and fight for in this day and age. The preservation of human rights, along with the protection of the sovereignty of nations, has remained in the values of US foreign policy to this day and we find that this is usually the basis (at least the government claims it is...*cough*oil*cough*geopolitics*...) for foreign intervention.
ReplyDeleteThe precedents set at this time still play a large role today and we also find that youth and student groups are often opposed to war, especially when we have seen failure in the past. For as long as we can remember, we have been interlaced in the affairs of the middle East. When people ask themselves, especially the youth, "Should we be involved?" or "Why are we here?", the answer becomes more negative over time. The same happened prior to WWII, when many students looked at WWI as we look at 2001-2006 today.
Public opinion for wars is a very interesting subject to ponder. For example in world war one, one of the big contributing factors was militarism, and finding worth in your country based on the size of its military and military achievement. While some countries maintain pacifist views, during this time period of militaristic dictatorships, militarism played a huge part in entering these wars. At the bottom of this comment is an article talking about the public opinion of wars, telling how WW1 seemed to be extremely unpopular with Americans, and how events during war such as violence swayed public opinion in Iraq , as well as how age could defined whether you believed in the Vietnam war or not .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/14/920157/-Surprising-American-public-opinion-on-wars-past-and-present#