Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy 1933-1941

THE armistice of November 11, 1918, put an end to World War I, but it ushered in a battle of the books that continues to the present day. Responsibility for the outbreak of that conflict was glibly placed by Allied historians upon the shoulders of the statesmen of the Central powers. German historians replied with a flood of books and pamphlets that filled the shelves of many libraries, and the so-called “revisionists” in many lands swelled this rising tide by adding monographs that challenged the Allied war-guilt thesis. While this historical argument was still being vehemently waged, World War II broke out in 1939 and academic attention was shifted to the question of the responsibility for this latest expression of martial madness.

There was little doubt in most American minds that Hitler had deliberately provoked World War II by his attack upon Poland. Since 1933 he had been caustically criticized in the American press. His unrestrained manner of speech, his dubious program for the regeneration of Germany, and the mad antics of some of his fanatical followers had created in numerous American circles a personal hatred of him that far exceeded the strong antipathy felt for Kaiser Wilhelm during the first decade of the twentieth century. There is no doubt that, as far as America was concerned, Hitler was a liability that all the good intentions and the best brains of Germany could never liquidate. The immediate blight that he inflicted upon German-American relations can be readily appreciated when we contrast the friendly press notices of the Brüning government with the sharp attacks made upon the Nazi political groups after February 1933.

Each item in the Hitler program of expansion evoked columns of recriminations in many American newspapers. Distrust of Germany went so deep and spread so far that every vestige of American good will vanished from the pages of periodicals that once had been friendly. Streams of refugees of different races and different creeds gave detailed testimony of widespread injustice and the denial of the freedoms that seemed so essential to the American way of life.

From 1933 to 1939 multitudes of Americans were being slowly conditioned for war along some foreign frontier. As Hitler rearmed Germany and prepared to put force behind his bold announcements, large numbers of persons in this hemisphere began to feel that his bid for power was a menace to them as well as to his European neighbors. The old followers of Woodrow Wilson had never renounced their allegiance to a one-world ideal, and they were fervent in their belief that America should take an active part in the preservation of world peace. They received strong support from many “liberals” and “intellectuals” who believed that modern science had banished the old barriers of time and space and had brought the peoples of the world into such close communion that some form of world government was an international imperative.

Some scholars like Charles A. Beard have pointed out that presidential pronouncements from 1933 to 1937 gave scant encouragement to ardent one-worlders, but they underestimated the importance of the Chief Executive’s conversion to the explosive nonrecognition doctrine so strenuously advocated by Henry L. Stimson. This was a bomb whose long fuse sputtered dangerously for several years and finally burst into the flame of World War II. It was entirely fitting that Stimson became Secretary of War in 1940; no one deserved that title quite as well as he. The entry in his Diary for November 25, 1941, is illuminating. With regard to Japan “the question is how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.” On the following day Secretary Hull answered this question by submitting an ultimatum that he knew Japan could not accept. The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor fulfilled the fondest hopes of the Roosevelt Cabinet. It was easy now to denounce Japanese perfidy and to exult in the fact that the shock of the tragedy had erased all divisions of opinion in America. It was several years before inquiring minds began seriously to question the background of Pearl Harbor. When the report of the Army Pearl Harbor Board boldly pointed out the questionable conduct of General George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff, Secretary Stimson rushed to his defense. On the convenient ground of ill-health he later refused to appear before the Joint Congressional Committee that investigated the tragedy of Pearl Harbor.

In preparing this record of American foreign policy during the prewar years I have been fortunate in securing access to the copious correspondence in the confidential files of the Department of State. Up to this time no other historian has fully utilized the same materials. I wish to express my appreciation of the helpful courtesies shown me by Dr. C. Bernard Noble, chief of the Division of Historical Policy Research in the Department of State, and his able assistants, Mr. Richard Humphrey and Dr. Taylor Parks.

In the Library of Congress I have immensely profited by the traditional helpful courtesy now personified by Dr. Luther Evans. I wish also to record my indebtedness to Mr. Verner W. Clapp, chief assistant librarian, Mr. David C. Mearns, chief of the Division of Manuscripts, Mr. Archibald B. Evans, Dr. Charles P. Powell, Dr. Elizabeth McPherson, Mr. John de Porry, Miss Katherine Brand, and Mr. David Cole.

In the National Archives I am indebted for assistance to the National Archivist, Mr. Wayne Grover, Dr. Philip Hamer, and Dr. Carl Lokke. I wish to record a particular debt of gratitude to Mrs. Kieran Carroll whose ability and gracious spirit have made the National Archives a most pleasant place in which to work. I wish also to mention Dr. Almon Wright, Mrs. Natalia Summers, and Mrs. William A. Dowling whose beauty and charm make it a little difficult to keep one’s mind upon archival research.

In Georgetown University my colleague, Dr. Tibor Kerekes, has assisted me in innumerable ways, while the librarian, Mr. Phillips Temple, has bent every effort to secure the documentary data on which some of my chapters have been based.

To my old friend, Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes, I am deeply indebted for inspiration and assistance in every stage of the preparation of my manuscript.

There are many personal friends who have been of great assistance: ex-Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Judge Bennett Champ Clark, Dr. Walter A. Foote, Captain Miles DuVal, Rev. Henry F. Wolfe, Dr. Louis M. Sears, Dr. Reinhard H. Luthin, Dr. Rocco Paone, Dr. Carmelo Bernardo, Colonel Joseph Rockis, Dr. John Farrell, Dr. Eugene Bacon, Mr. Edwin H. Stokes, Mr. Anthony Kubek, Mr. Louis Carroll, Miss Mary Ann Sharkey, Miss Susan Sharkey, Mr. William R. Tansill, Mr. Charles B. Tansill, Mr. Raymond T. Parker, Mrs. B. R. Parker, Miss Grace Lee Tansill, Mrs. Mary Ann Sharkey, Mrs. C. Bernard Purcell, Mr. Fred G. Tansill, Mrs. Grace M. Carpenter, Miss Hazell Harris, Miss Amy Holland, and Rev. Herbert Clancy, S.J.

I cannot forget the inspiration of my dear friend, Dr. Gerald G. Walsh, S.J., whose wide scholarship has often kept my feet on the path of objectivity.

I have dedicated this volume to my students of more than three decades. They have been a strong bridge that has carried me over many deep waters of discouragement.

Last, and most of all, I wish to thank my wife, Helen C. Tansill, who has walked with me along all the paths of research, interpretation, composition, and bookmaking which could have been inexpressibly dreary without the proper companionship.

Charles Callan Tansill

Georgetown University