Appeasement

1
Appeasement Neutrality

• TIMELINE

2
1920s

• Kellogg-Briand Pact
• Nye Committee

Frank Kellogg
3
1935

• Hitler reinstates the draft
• Italy invades Ethiopia no oil sanction
• Neutrality Act of 1935

4
1936

• 3/7/36 Germany militarizes the Rhineland
• 7/18/36 Spanish Civil War begins

5
1937

• Neutrality Act of 1937

6
1938

• 3/12/38 Anschluss (Union) with Austria
• 9/30/38 Hitler demands Sudetenland
• 11/9/38
• Kristallnacht

7
1939

• 3/15/39 Seizure of Czechoslovakia
• 8/23/39 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• 9/1/39 Germany attacks Poland

• Blitzkrieg

8
1939

• 9/3/39 Britain and France declare war against
  Germany
• 9/5/39 Neutrality Act of 1939
• 9/17/39 Soviets attack Poland

German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland,
September 1939
9
1940

• 5/10/40 Nazis attack France, Belgium and
  Luxembourg
• 5/26/40 Dunkirk evacuation
• 6/10/40 Italy declares war against Britain and
  France
• 6/22/40 France surrenders

10
1940

• Britain stands alone against German aggression
  (Luftwaffe)
• Germany attacks in four phases
• Attacks against shipping lines
• Day and night bombing of RAF airfields
• Daytime bombing of the cities
• Nighttime bombing of the cities

11
Reasons for Luftwaffes Defeat

• Luftwaffe not trained or equipped to conduct
  strategic bombing
• British had excellent command, control, and
  communication systems in place
• Luftwaffe had poor intelligence capabilities

12
1940

• You boys are not going to be sent into a foreign
  war. Except in case of attack.
• When asked why, he said Its not necessary. If
  were attacked, its no longer a foreign
  war.
• - FDR

13
United States prepares for War

• Army Air Corps was expanded
• July 1940 -- Air Corps expands to 54 combat
  groups to include 14 heavy bomb groups
• March 1941-- Air Corps expands to 84 combat
  groups to include 24 heavy bomb groups
• Emphasis placed on bombers, not escort aircraft
  -- hurts US bombing efforts

14
1941

• 5/41 - 79 of Americans opposed to intervention
• 8/41 - Selective Service Act passes by one vote
• 12/7/41 - Pearl Harbor
• 12/8/41 - American declaration of war