Us in WWII
...pport the allies (the non-aggressive democracies that he was ideally tied to) or face a group of unreceptive countries in the postwar world. However, his American people had set up a barrier of isolationism between the US and any foreign involvement. Roosevelt understood their view but he said, “[it would take time to] make people realize that war will be a greater danger to us if we close all doors and windows then if we go out in the street and use our influence to curb the riot” (Kissinger 381). As a result, Roosevelt decided to persuade his people slowly until they realized the evil strength of Hitler and his power. The first sign of this came during his Quarantine Speech; “it was the first warning to America of the approaching peril and [Roosevelt’s] first public statement that America might have to assume some responsibility with respect to it” (Kissinger 379). >From this time onward Roosevelt tried to justify outer involvement (helping the allies which was not direct involvement) in the war. Consequently, in April of 1939, when Hitler took Prague, Roosevelt declared, “the continued political, economic and social independence of every small nation in the world does have an effect on out nation safety and prosperity. Each once that disappears weakens our national safety and prosperity” (Kissinger 383). Also during this month, Roosevelt sent a message directly to Hitler and Mussolini that asked them not to “attack some thirty-one specific European and Asian nations for a period of ten years” (Kissinger 384). Hitler obviously inquired with all of these nations and they obviously denied any type of concern. However, “Roosevelt achieved his political objective. By asking only Hitler and Mussolini for assurance, he had stigmatized them as the aggressors before the only audience that, for the moment, matter to Roosevelt – the American people” (Kissinger 384). However, this shift from neutrality to a gradual helping of the allies did not stop there. On November 4, 1939 Roosevelt added the Fourth Neutrality Act, which “permitted belligerents to purchase arms and ammunition from the United States, provided they paid in cash and transported their purchases in their own or neutral ships” (Kissinger 385). However, as France fell into the hands of Hitler, Roosevelt knew that the British could not defeat Hitler alone. As a result, Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to rid the Fourth Neutrality Act of the cash requirement and instead suggested that the American people accept the Lend-Lease Act, which “allowed the President discretionary authority to lend, lease, sell, or barter under any terms he deemed proper any defense article to ‘the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the Untied States’” (Kissinger 388). This clear favoritism led to the isolation of the aggressors and the view that the US would eventually be drawn into the war. By this time Roosevelt had already taken strategic steps to be involved in the war – even though the United States were not directly involved in the war. By this time he had set up a project that allowed the British and French to assemble planes (of which the components would be supplied by the United States) in Canada. The Neutrality Acts technically allowed this project since the component parts were civilian built. Roosevelt also made an agreement with Great Britain. The agreement was that the British navy would protect the Atlantic while the United States protected Great Britain’s Asian interests in the Pacific. In a addition to all thi...