SECTION 2: From Isolation to Involvement
▲ Women protesting the Lend-Lease Act
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
An Isolationist Voice
As war erupted in Europe, Americans debated what stance the United States should take on the global conflict. Charles A. Lindbergh, the popular aviation hero, felt strongly that it would be a mistake for the United States to enter the new war in Europe:
“We must band together to prevent the loss of more American lives in these internal struggles of Europe…. Modern war with all its consequences is too tragic and too devastating to be approached from anything but a purely American standpoint. We should never enter a war unless it is absolutely essential to the future welfare of our nation…. Our safety does not lie in fighting European wars. It lies in our own internal strength, in the character of the American people and of American institutions.”
—Charles Lindbergh, radio address, September 15, 1939
Objectives
- Understand the course of the early years of World War II in Europe.
- Describe Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy in the mid-1930s and the great debate between interventionists and isolationists.
- Explain how the United States became more involved in the conflict.
Terms and People
- blitzkrieg
- Axis Powers
- Allies
- Winston Churchill
- Neutrality Act of 1939
- Tripartite Pact
- Lend-Lease Act
- Atlantic Charter
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Sequence Sequence the major events described in the section in a timeline.
Why It Matters While Britain and France appeased the dictator in Germany at Munich, American President Franklin Roosevelt condemned aggression in Asia but did little to stop it. As war exploded in Europe, it became increasingly difficult for the United States to maintain its neutrality. Once again, Americans would have to decide what role they were willing to play in shaping world events. Section Focus Question: How did Americans react to events in Europe and Asia in the early years of World War II?
Roosevelt Opposes Aggression
The unrestrained violence of the 1937 Japanese attack on China shocked Americans, even before the notorious Rape of Nanjing in December 1937. Japan attacked without a declaration of war. Its planes rained terror on Chinese cities, especially Shanghai and Nanjing. The Japanese had even killed three American sailors when Japanese warplanes sank the United States gunboat Panay on the Chang River.
In the midst of these bloody events, President Franklin Roosevelt criticized Japan’s aggression in a speech in Chicago on October 5, 1937. He lamented the “reign of terror and international lawlessness,” the bombing of civilian populations, and the horrible acts of cruelty. Speaking in a city where American isolationist sentiments
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