America First Committee Apush

Joseph Stalin

L:(1879-1953) Joseph Stalin was a Russian leader who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party after Lenin's death, and created a totalitarian state out of Communist Russia by literally purging all opposition and subjecting the people of Russia to a strict regime of dictatorial power.
I: Stalin was integral in the creation of the circumstances necessary for the Cold War to come about after the end of the Second World War. Stalin aided in proselytizing Marxism and Communism across the world. The USSR ran counter to the West's capitalistic ideologies, and without Stalin's leadership, it would not have come to last so long.

Wendell Willkie

L: Wendell Willkie was the Republican candidate for the election of 1940 who ran against FDR. Willkie was a lawyer and utility executive who was strongly opposed to the TVA competing with private business. He criticized FDR's New Deal, but largely agreed with his war policies such as preparedness and aiding Britain short of entering the war. His strongest criticism of FDR was his running for a 3rd term.
I: Willkie represented a large part of the country who disagreed with the expansion of Executive power under Roosevelt. This was shown by his disagreement with the TVA, as well as his disagreement with Roosevelt attempting to stay in office for a third term, longer than the norm.

Fascism

L: Fascism is a system of government characterized by strict social and economic control and a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator. Often also featuring nationalism and patriotism, as well as characteristic xenophobia, it was first found in the Modern Era in Italy by Mussolini.
I: Fascism came to prominence following the world wide Great Depression because the people wanted stricter control on what they saw as "bad" in society (an extension of ideas in the progressive movement, such as eugenics) as well as stricter control on the subversive banking cabals of the world that they blamed for the economic downturn.

"Quarantine Speech"

L:(1937) In this speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt compared Fascist aggression to a contagious disease, saying democracies must unite to quarantine aggressor nations.
I: This speech represented United States Federal policy shifting away from Isolationism as much, to more aid towards Democratic nations.

America First Committee

L: The America First Committee was an isolationist organization that opposed FDR's reelection in 1940 & urged neutrality in WWII, under the logic that "the US wouldn't be harmed by Hitler's advances in Europe", and so therefore should stay uninvolved in European affairs. Pilot and celebrity Charles Lindbergh was its most visible spokesperson.
I: The America First Committee was the opposing side against those who advocated for America to release itself from isolationism and come to the aid of the other democratic nations.

Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies

L: The CDAAA was an American PAC formed in May 1940. It was at the forefront of the effort to support a "pro-British policy" against Axis aggression, advocating American military materiel support of Britain as the best way to keep the United States out of the conflict in Europe.
I: The complete opposite of the America First Committee, the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies was the supporting side behind America coming to the rescue of their Democratic brethren in Europe, and the containment of the Empire of Japan.

Adolf Hitler/Nazi's

L: Adolf Hitler was a German Politician, and leader of the Nazi Party. Born in Austria, Hitler fought in WW1 and rose to prominence by using his oratory skills to promote national pride and xenophobia. The Nazi Party was a National Socialist party that was anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-communist. The Nazi party was pro-Nationalism and pro-eugenics.
I: Adolf Hitler, and by extension the Nazi Party, subjugated and systematically imprisoned and killed numerous low-class and outsider social groups including the Roma (gypsies), the handicapped, the mentally ill, and the Jewish. The Nazis were also the commanding political group for the German side during WW2.

Appeasement

L:(1930) Appeasement was a European policy that aimed to avoid war with Germany and Italy. Although Germany had agreed to not overstep their boundaries that were established at the Munich Conference and the Treaty of Versailles negotiations. The logic behind appeasement was to "settle international quarrels by satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise".
I: Appeasement was by and large not successful, as because the West did not punish Germany for invading and annexing the regions around it, Germany continued their process of annexation and conquering until they invaded Poland in 1939, which finally brought England and France in.

Rome-Berlin Axis

L:(1936) The Rome-Berlin Axis was the close cooperation between Italy and Germany, and soon after Japan joined, believing that an alliance with the Fascist powers of Europe would give them the strategic pull to obtain more territory in the Asian theater. The alliance mainly resulted from Hitler; who had supported Ethiopia and Italy. By doing so, Hitler overcame Mussolini's doubts about the Nazis' policy.
I: The Rome-Berlin Axis helped to draw the battlefronts that would come to define WW2. By joining with Italy, Germany immediately made itself vulnerable to punishment due to their connection with Italy. In much the same way, Japan doomed itself to problems if Germany or Italy became belligerent to their neighbors, which would soon occur.

Hitler-Stalin Pact

L: The Hitler-Stalin Pact was a treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany, under Hitler, and Stalin, with the Soviet Union, agreed not to fight each other. The agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies.
I: Hitler's unheeded invasion of Russia went against this pact, and helped to include Russia in the war, a key factor in the downfall of the Nazi's control over Europe.

Destroyers-for-bases Deal

L:(1940) President Roosevelt arranged to trade fifty old American naval destroyers to Britain in exchange for six Caribbean naval bases. It was a shrewd deal that helped save Britain's fleet and bolster U.S. defenses in the Atlantic.
I: The Destroyers-for-bases Deal subverted the Neutrality Agreement, and on a larger scale was another step towards direct US involvement in WW2. The Deal furthered the distance between US policy and prior isolationist policy.

Benito Mussolini

L:(1883-1945) Benito Mussolini was a Fascist Italian leader. He founded the Italian Fascist Party, which brought Fascism to prominence in Italian politics in the Modern Era, and sided with Hitler and Germany in World War II. In 1945 he was overthrown and assassinated by the Italian Resistance.
I: Mussolini was one of the lynchpins of the rise of Fascism in Europe, and his charismatic leadership of the Fascist Party promoted Italian nationalism against outsiders. Although Mussolini did not ultimately succeed in maintaining the Fascist regime in Italy, it was a major political shift in the nation's history.

Neutrality Acts

L: The Neutrality Acts were originally designed to avoid American involvement in World War II by preventing loans to those countries taking part in the conflict. The Neutrality Acts were later modified in 1939 to allow aid to Great Britain and other Allied nations.
I: The Neutrality Acts were relics of America's Isolationist policy after WW1, and slowly began to shift away from Isolationism as the war worsened against France and England. Despite disallowing aid, there were numerous ways around it, including the Destroyers-for-Bases deal.

"Merchants of death"

L: The propaganda phrase "Merchants of death" was an epithet used in the U.S. in the 1930s to attack industries and banks that supplied and funded World War I. The US had failed to nationalize the arms industry, and public outcry against the military industrial complex inspired three congressional Neutrality Acts in the mid-1930s that signaled profound American opposition to overseas involvement.
I: Post-WW1, a large contingent of the public did not want the US to be further involved in European and other international affairs. The idea of a negative connotation of arms companies represented this negative attitude towards making guns to further conflicts.

"Cash-and-Carry"

L:(1939) "Cash-and-Carry" was a policy adopted by the United States in order to preserve neutrality while aiding the Allies. Britain and France could buy goods from the United States if they paid in cash and transported them. This kept American ships as well as American loans out of the war.
I: Cash-and-Carry, much like Detroyers-for-Bases, was a method the United States used that allowed their policy to diverge from complete and total isolationism, without going against the Neutrality Acts that had been previously established.

Lend-Lease

L:(1941) Lend-Lease was a congressional act that authorized the Executive Branch to provide aid to any nation whose protection was believed to be vital to American security.
I: Lend-Lease allowed U.S. to send weapons to Britain during the early years of WWII, again without stepping too far out of the bounds of the Neutrality Acts. Lend-Lease also represents the economic potential of warfare, and the massive opportunity given to the United States to benefit off of WW2, as the United States' industry was largely unaffected when compared to Europe and Asia.

Atlantic Charter

L:(1941) The Atlantic Charter was an international aquatic meeting caried out on a boat. FDR and Chuchill attended the meeting, and came out of it with the joint statement that condemned using aggression for foreign policy, affirmed national self-determination, and endorsed the principles of collective security and disarmament.
I: The Atlantic Charter represented the base principles of the United Nations, and how much the idea of self-determination would affect post-colonial Asia and Africa for both the United States and England.

Winston Churchill

L: Winston Churchill was a British Prime Minister who led Britain throughout most of World War II and along with Roosevelt planned many allied campaigns. Churchill exemplified England's "stiff upper lip" mentality, and helped to maintain order during the German bombing runs.
I: Churchill predicted an iron curtain that would separate Communist Europe from the rest of the West due to tensions after dividing the reconstruction of Germany, and the ideological differences that spread between the two sides of Capitalism and Communism.

Good Neighbor Policy

L:Franklin Roosevelt described his foreign policy as that of a "good neighbor." Unlike Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy, FDR's policy advocated peaceful nonintervention until major conflict developed, for which the US would provide aid.
I: "Good Neighbor Policy" came to be used to describe the U.S. attitude toward the countries of Latin America. Under Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," the U.S. took the lead in promoting good will among these nations.

China Incident

L:(1937) The China Incident was when Japan conducted its all out invasion of China. Roosevelt refused to call this an officially declared war to bypass recent Neutrality Acts and continued to send arms to desperate China.
I: Roosevelt went against declaring there to be war between Japan and China so that he could do the right thing in aiding China instead of declaring it war, and following the Neutrality Acts and not providing aid due to arcane Isolationist ideas.

"Phony War"

L: The "Phony War" was the months following the collapse of Poland where France and Britain did not commit any military action. Inaction during this time was stopped when the Soviets attacked Finland in an effort to secure strategic buffer territory.
I: The Phony War ended when Hitler overran Denmark and Norway, and the following month attacked the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as going after France.