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| London Economic Conference |
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Definition
| A 60 nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates. Franklin Roosevelt's decision to revoke American participation contributed to deepening economic crisis. |
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| A departure from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy stressed nonintervention in Latin America. It was begun by Herbert Hoover but associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt. |
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| Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act |
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| The act reversed traditional high protective tariff policies by allowing the President to negotiate lower tariffs with trade partners, without Senate approval. Its chief architect was Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade. |
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| Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, & fascist Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, allied themselves together under this nefarious treaty. The pact was signed after both countries had intervened on behalf of the fascist leader Francisco France in the Spanish Civil War. |
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| Steeped in ugly memories of World War I, this spiteful act prevented debt-ridden nations from borrowing further from the United States. |
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| Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 |
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| Short-sighted acts passed in order to prevent American participation in a European War. Among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents. |
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| Idealistic American volunteers who served in the Spanish Civil War defending Spanish Republican forces from the fascist general Francisco Franco's nationalist coup. Some 3,000 Americans served alongside volunteers from other countries. |
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| An important speech delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in which he called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" land-hungry dictators, presumably through economic embargoes. The speech flew in the face of isolationist politicians. |
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| The policy followed by leaders of Britain & France at the 1938 conference in Munich. Their purpose was to avoid war, but they allowed Germany to take Czechoslovakia & the Sudetenland. |
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| Treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany & the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other. The fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland & the Western democracies. |
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| This act stipulated that European democracies might buy American munitions, but only if they could pay in cash & transport them in their own ships. The terms were known as "cash & carry." It represented an effort to avoid war debts & protect American arms-carriers from torpedo attacks. |
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| German for "night of broken glass", it refers to the murderous program that destroyed Jewish businesses & synagogues & sent thousands to concentration camps on November 9, 1938. Thousands more attempted to find refuge in the U.S., but were ultimately turned away due to restrictive migration laws. |
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| A U.S. agency formed to help rescue Jews from German occupied territories & to provide relief to inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The agency performed noble work, but it did not begin operations until very late in the war after millions had already been murdered. |
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| Based on the motto "Send guns, not sons", this law abandoned former pretenses of neutrality by allowing Americans to sell unlimited supplies of arms to any nation defending itself against the Axis Powers. Patriotically numbered 1776, the bill was praised as a device for keeping the nation out of World War II. |
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| Meeting on a warship off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941, Franklin Roosevelt & British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the covenant outlining the future path toward disarmament, peace, & a permanent system of general security. Its spirit would animate the founding of the UN & raise awareness of the human rights of individuals after World War II. |
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| An American naval base in Hawaii where Japanese warplanes destroyed numerous ships & caused 3,000 casualties on December 7, 1941, a day that, in Roosevelt's words, was to "live in infamy." The attack brought the U.S. into World War II. |
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| Fascist Italian leader; originally part of the Axis powers but turned against Germany late in the war. |
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| Nazi Germany leader who brainwashed his way into the dictatorship reign during World War II. |
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| Leader of Fascist rebels who successfully overthrew the Spanish government pre-World War II. |
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| Secretary of State who advocated lower tariffs for better international trade with the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act. |
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| Leading challenger to FDR's third term. Stayed away from international policies during his campaign. Inexperience cost him the race. |
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