Roosevelt and Isolationism
From Isolationism to War
Patrick Williams
Dr. B.G. McDonald HIE 366 15 April 2011
On 7 December 1941, shortly after seven in the morning, Japanese airmen, amidst the cries of "Banzai", commenced the bombing of Pearl Harbour, leaving them to wonder if the Americans had ever heard of the 1904 surprise attack on the Russian Naval base at Port Arthur. In less than twenty-four hours after the Japanese aggression, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would address the congress:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.... I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.[1]
As a result of this short, but poignant address, FDR had led his administration and fellow countrypersons from a primarily isolationist posture reminiscent of the twenties, to a posture of armed belligerency in the forties. What caused American foreign policy so drastically to alter its direction from the relatively insular isolationist posture, towards entanglement outside the western hemisphere? The Roosevelt administration's foreign policy can be viewed in two distinct phases, from 1932 to 1937 and from 1937 to 1941. The foreign policies in phase one were dominated by the small but influential senate members who were decidedly isolationist in posture. The second phase illustrates the receding influence of the isolationists and FDR's successful shift in foreign policy towards internationalism. Franklin D. Roosevelt's initial foray into politics led him to adopt a roused internationalist posture. Woodrow Wilson's presidential success in 1912, in which FDR vigorously supported Wilson's progressive ideas, was the launching pad for young FDR's political
Patrick Williams
Dr. B.G. McDonald HIE 366 15 April 2011
On 7 December 1941, shortly after seven in the morning, Japanese airmen, amidst the cries of "Banzai", commenced the bombing of Pearl Harbour, leaving them to wonder if the Americans had ever heard of the 1904 surprise attack on the Russian Naval base at Port Arthur. In less than twenty-four hours after the Japanese aggression, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would address the congress:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.... I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December seventh, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.[1]
As a result of this short, but poignant address, FDR had led his administration and fellow countrypersons from a primarily isolationist posture reminiscent of the twenties, to a posture of armed belligerency in the forties. What caused American foreign policy so drastically to alter its direction from the relatively insular isolationist posture, towards entanglement outside the western hemisphere? The Roosevelt administration's foreign policy can be viewed in two distinct phases, from 1932 to 1937 and from 1937 to 1941. The foreign policies in phase one were dominated by the small but influential senate members who were decidedly isolationist in posture. The second phase illustrates the receding influence of the isolationists and FDR's successful shift in foreign policy towards internationalism. Franklin D. Roosevelt's initial foray into politics led him to adopt a roused internationalist posture. Woodrow Wilson's presidential success in 1912, in which FDR vigorously supported Wilson's progressive ideas, was the launching pad for young FDR's political
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