27 - Preserving Peace and Neutrality

Summary

The years immediately prior to 1941 represented a time of great uncertainty for the United States as the nation struggled to negotiate its place in international affairs. As war crept closer in the 1930s, the American people struggled with a dilemma about how to engage with the world, which was not resolved until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Despite great sympathy for victims of aggression in Europe and Asia, and despite close political, economic, and cultural ties to many of those victims, a clear majority of Americans were unwilling to go to war to help them. Strong popular antiwar sentiment limited the options available to President Franklin Roosevelt, as Americans found themselves increasingly torn between their desire to assist nations such as the United Kingdom, China, and even the Soviet Union, and their wish to avoid war. As a result, the period saw domestic pressures and politics play a crucial role in defining – and limiting – the place of the United States in the world as Americans failed to find a coherent response to growing world crises.