Full transcript
0:00FDR's attempts to liberalize the
0:03Neutrality Acts and make it easier for
0:06America to supply European allies like
0:09Great Britain proved well time by the
0:12summer and fall of 1940 Europe has
0:14fallen into what's now known as the
0:17second world
0:19war you have Britain and France Allied
0:22Powers pitched against Germany and Italy
0:24to access
0:25powers Germany is fighting a two front
0:28war on the Eastern Front they are
0:30attacking the Soviet Union on the
0:33Western Front they've invaded France
0:35they've taken Paris by the summer of
0:381940 and they're beginning to launch
0:41nightly Air Raids onto Great Britain
0:44so-called Battle of Britain the goal is
0:48to soften up Britain's
0:50defenses both materially and
0:53psychologically before launching a a
0:56naval Invasion hopefully sometime in
0:58early 194 one so that Hitler could
1:03consolidate his control of Western
1:04Europe for concentrating all of his
1:07resources on the Eastern front and the
1:09Soviet
1:10Union this worried FDR FDR didn't
1:15believe that Britain could hold
1:17out for much longer past the fall of
1:211940 he also believed that Hitler would
1:25continue to seek out control that's what
1:27authoritarian leaders do they they're
1:30never happy with one bit of power they
1:32always look to expand it and so he
1:34believed it was in the United States
1:37National Defense best interests to help
1:40Britain stop uh Hitler now again FDR
1:44believed that this eventually meant
1:47boots on the ground in Europe but the
1:49American people were not ready for that
1:51yet so Winston Churchill Prime Minister
1:55of Great Britain comes to FDR in the
1:58fall of 194 and says we need more than
2:02what you can supply through the
2:04Neutrality Act of 1939 we're tapped out
2:07we have no money but we need more from
2:10you Roosevelt in his famous four freedom
2:14speech given on January 6
2:171941 goes to the American people and
2:20says look we need to pitch in if we
2:25don't want to be pulled into this
2:27conflict beyond our wishes we need need
2:30to find ways to get the British people
2:34more supplies he says they're a good
2:35investment they've done a lot with very
2:38little and they deserve our help now is
2:41essentially our our national cousins I'm
2:44not going to go into all the details the
2:46four freedom speech that's outlined
2:48pretty good in chapter two excuse me 22
2:52but but basically what what FDR does is
2:54two things
2:55one he depicts the conflict in Europe as
3:00one against the spread of
3:02authoritarianism and as one protecting
3:05four vital freedoms that Americans
3:08associated with American capitalism and
3:11democracy so he depicted the war as
3:14something that was a fight for values
3:16Americans already believed in the second
3:19thing he he put forth in this uh Speech
3:22was the need for uh new legislation that
3:25made it easier to supply uh allies and
3:29that lead s to the lind Lease Act passed
3:31in March
3:331941 the lind Lease Act said that any
3:36nation whose security was vital to US
3:39security could get Arms by quote sale
3:42transfer or lease so goodbye with this
3:45cash and car stuff if you need guns
3:48we'll get them to you right moving
3:51forward from March of 1941 FDR would
3:54work to formalize relations with Great
3:57Britain via a document called the
3:59Atlantic Charter the Atlantic Charter
4:02resulted from a meeting between
4:03Churchill and FDR that summer and it's
4:06the foundation for really a postor War
4:09II uh world and really what a lot of
4:12that that document says and again you
4:14can see the textbook from more details a
4:17lot of that document says it sort of
4:19repeat stuff that Wilson had wanted to
4:21happen back in the late 19s with the
4:24Treaty of Paris in 1919 FDR was a big
4:27wilsonian he believed in Wilson 's
4:30vision for Europe and he saw the
4:32Atlantic Charter as a chance to
4:33revitalize that to avoid future
4:36conflicts and a lot of what the Atlantic
4:38Charter would do was forward Open Seas
4:41trading self-determination for free
4:44Nations and advanced social welfare in
4:46other parts of the world it's worth
4:48pointing out that all of these issues
4:50also depended upon a more
4:53interventionist us it would open up
4:55doors for the American economy and other
4:58parts of the world but that also meant
5:01that the us would have to play a more
5:03formal role in joining other countries
5:07around the world in more formal treaty
5:10relationships to protect the peace that
5:12would be won through the second world
5:14war so first and foremost the Atlantic
5:19Charter
5:20defined what should happen because of
5:23the second World War and what should
5:25happen was very much understood in terms
5:27of advancing American interests broad
5:30second thing is that attic Charter sped
5:34up the US involvement in the war not
5:38necessarily because of the US pushing
5:42itself into the conflict but when that
5:44Charter gets signed Hitler recognizes
5:47this is sort of the last piece or two
5:49being put in before the United States
5:51could really join so he knows that it's
5:55gotten tougher to defeat Britain because
5:56of us uh help but he also knows that
6:00he's going to have to fight against the
6:02US eventually which is not something
6:04Hitler wants to do fighting a two front
6:06War he immediately makes connections
6:10with Japanese military leaders and
6:12assures them that if they found
6:15themselves in a war with the United
6:16States that Germany would back them so
6:20Earl Harbor which
6:22was the beginning of a conflict that
6:25many people thought was coming since the
6:28turn of the 20th century is sped up
6:31because the Atlantic Charter the
6:32Japanese decision to attack us Pearl
6:35Harbor was very much motivated by the
6:37signing of the Atlanta Charter