FIGHTING WORLD WAR II ★^867War in Europe
In the Munich agreement of 1938, Britain and France had caved in to Hitler’s
aggression. In 1939, the Soviet Union proposed an international agreement to
oppose further German demands for territory. Britain and France, who distrusted
Stalin and saw Germany as a bulwark against the spread of communist influence
in Europe, refused. Stalin then astonished the world by signing a nonaggression
pact with Hitler, his former sworn enemy. On September 1, immediately after the
signing of the Nazi–Soviet pact, Germany invaded Poland. This time, Britain and
France, who had pledged to protect Poland against aggression, declared war. But
Germany appeared unstoppable. Within a year, the Nazi blitzkrieg (lightning war)
had overrun Poland and much of Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands. On
June 14, 1940, German troops occupied Paris. Hitler now dominated nearly all of
Europe, as well as North Africa. In September 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan cre-
ated a military alliance known as the Axis.
For one critical year, Britain stood virtually alone in fighting Germany.
Winston Churchill, who became prime minister in 1940, vowed to resist a
threatened Nazi invasion. In the Battle of Britain of 1940–1941, German planes
launched devastating attacks on London and other cities. The Royal Air Force
eventually turned back the air assault. But Churchill pointedly called on the
“new world, with all its power and might,” to step forward to rescue the old.
Toward Intervention
Roosevelt viewed Hitler as a mad gangster whose victories posed a direct threat
to the United States. But most Americans remained desperate to remain out of
the conflict. “What worries me, especially,” FDR wrote to Kansas editor Wil-
liam Allen White, “is that public opinion over here is patting itself on the back
every morning and thanking God for the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.”
After a tumultuous debate, Congress in 1940 agreed to allow the sale of arms to
Britain on a “cash and carry” basis—that is, they had to be paid for in cash and
transported in British ships. It also approved plans for military rearmament.
But with a presidential election looming, Roosevelt was reluctant to go further.
Opponents of involvement in Europe organized the America First Committee,
with hundreds of thousands of members and a leadership that included such
well-known figures as Henry Ford, Father Coughlin, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
In 1940, breaking with a tradition that dated back to George Washington,
Roosevelt announced his candidacy for a third term as president. The inter-
national situation was too dangerous and domestic recovery too fragile, he
insisted, for him to leave office. Republicans chose as his opponent a political
amateur, Wall Street businessman and lawyer Wendell Willkie. Differences
between the candidates were far more muted than in 1936. Both supported the
What steps led to American participation in World War II?