truman :: essays papers

truman World War II began to take shape when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on January 30, 1930. Soon after, the German Parliament suspended the constitution making Hitler Fuhrer and dictator. Hitler was angered by the Treaty of Versailles and he blamed Germany’s defeat on the Communists and the Jews. In 1934, Hitler announced a program of rearmament that violated the Treaty of Versailles. At the same time Mussolini was building a powerful army in Italy and threatened to invade Ethiopia. In may 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and quickly overwhelmed their weak defenses. This action made Congress pass a Neutrality Act that authorized the president to stop all arms shipments to nations at war. In 1936, Mussolini joined forces with Hitler to form the Rome-Berlin Axis. During the buildup of the war the United States had the intention to stay neutral. Roosevelt stated, â€Å"We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war.† Isolation policies became more difficult when Franco started a civil war in Spain with the aid a Germany and Italy. Over 3000 Americans joined the loyalist cause and fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to oppose fascism in Spain. As a show of neutrality, the U.S. passed another Neutrality Act making it illegal for American citizens to travel on ships of countries at war. This act also made nonmilitary items available to other nations on a cash and carry basis only. In 1936, Hitler seized the previously demilitarized zone of the Rhineland and in 1938 he annexed Austria. Six months later he demanded the Sudetland which Britain and France granted him in return for an agreement that Germany make no more territorial advances. Within six months Hitler’s forces took Czechoslovakia. August 23, 1939 brought a Nazi-Soviet pact. One week later Hitler attacked Poland officially beginning World War II. Britain and France came to Poland’s defense. Also in 1939, Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt that German scientists were building an atomic bomb. Roosevelt authorized the establishment of the Manhattan Project. The German blitzkrieg rushed through Europe overwhelming Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Soon after the Germans invaded France which led to the French surrender in June of 1940. Meanwhile the U.S. approved shipments of 50 old American destroyers to Britain in return for the right to establish naval bases in British territory.