pearl harbor Essay -- essays research papers fc

Pearl Harbor: Isolationism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is a common held belief that America has historically been a nation driven by the ideology of isolationism. The best cases for these arguments are through our unwillingness to participate in either world war. The lynch pin being the events that happened in Pearl Harbor. I will try to dispel this theory in my essay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On December 7th, 1941 war was forced upon America by the Japanese assault on Peal Harbor, and declarations of war by Germany and Italy four days later. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt was anxious to bring America into the war, and was prevented from doing so by the overwhelming isolationist spirit of the American people. The evidence shows that FDR was primarily concerned with his domestic policies and had no wish â€Å"to join in a crusade against Nazism or totalitarianism or indeed against international aggression.† He took no positive steps to involve the United States in the conflict. The war came as much a surprise-and an unwelcome surprise-to him as anyone else. There is a persistent myth that he was forewarned about the Japanese aggression at Pearl Harbor, and did nothing to stop it, being anxious that American participation in the global conflict should be precipitated by the unprovoked act of aggression. That all kinds of warnings were in t he air at the time is clear. But an objective survey of all the evidence indicates that Pearl Harbor came as a real and horrifying shock to all the members of the Roosevelt administration, beginning with the President himself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is also a myth, however, that America’s unwillingness to engage in World War Two-the polls show that around 80 percent of the adult population wanted America to stay neutral until the Pearl Harbor assault-sprang from a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  -2- deep sense of isolationism, which was America’s â€Å"pristine and natural posture in world affairs.† This myth is so persistent that it has led in the 1990’s to a demand to ‘return to isolationism,’ as though it were America’s destiny and natural preference. So it is worth examining in a longer historical context. There is nothing unique, as many Americans suppose, in the desire of a society with a strong cultural identity to minimize its foreign contacts. On the contrary, isolationism in this sense has been t... ...ry into international affairs. He was a President fraught with the problems of a panicked, economically debacled country. His entire focus was on the regrowth of the American infrastructure. The fickle attitude of Japan, a country that occilated between threats of war and neutrality, between military and civilian control, were not taken seriously in leu of more prevalent problems. This is not to say, either, that the U.S. itself was a populace of isolationists. America had grown wealthy through international trade and exports, but the devastating implications of a war on an already strained people was too much. America joined the war, initially, in retaliation to the threat of war. It was forced, inadvertently, into war, not by Presidential conspiracy to overturn isolationist feelings, but out of self-defense. Bibliography Charles C. Transill, â€Å"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace† (New York 1957) Ibid., 688. Roberta Worhlstetter: Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (New York 1980) Akira Ariye: Across the Pacific: an Inner History of American-East Asian Relations (New York 1967) The American Past: Conflicting Interpretations of the Great Issues Vol. II (Macmillan Co. 1961) pearl harbor Essay -- essays research papers fc Pearl Harbor: Isolationism   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is a common held belief that America has historically been a nation driven by the ideology of isolationism. The best cases for these arguments are through our unwillingness to participate in either world war. The lynch pin being the events that happened in Pearl Harbor. I will try to dispel this theory in my essay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On December 7th, 1941 war was forced upon America by the Japanese assault on Peal Harbor, and declarations of war by Germany and Italy four days later. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt was anxious to bring America into the war, and was prevented from doing so by the overwhelming isolationist spirit of the American people. The evidence shows that FDR was primarily concerned with his domestic policies and had no wish â€Å"to join in a crusade against Nazism or totalitarianism or indeed against international aggression.† He took no positive steps to involve the United States in the conflict. The war came as much a surprise-and an unwelcome surprise-to him as anyone else. There is a persistent myth that he was forewarned about the Japanese aggression at Pearl Harbor, and did nothing to stop it, being anxious that American participation in the global conflict should be precipitated by the unprovoked act of aggression. That all kinds of warnings were in t he air at the time is clear. But an objective survey of all the evidence indicates that Pearl Harbor came as a real and horrifying shock to all the members of the Roosevelt administration, beginning with the President himself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is also a myth, however, that America’s unwillingness to engage in World War Two-the polls show that around 80 percent of the adult population wanted America to stay neutral until the Pearl Harbor assault-sprang from a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  -2- deep sense of isolationism, which was America’s â€Å"pristine and natural posture in world affairs.† This myth is so persistent that it has led in the 1990’s to a demand to ‘return to isolationism,’ as though it were America’s destiny and natural preference. So it is worth examining in a longer historical context. There is nothing unique, as many Americans suppose, in the desire of a society with a strong cultural identity to minimize its foreign contacts. On the contrary, isolationism in this sense has been t... ...ry into international affairs. He was a President fraught with the problems of a panicked, economically debacled country. His entire focus was on the regrowth of the American infrastructure. The fickle attitude of Japan, a country that occilated between threats of war and neutrality, between military and civilian control, were not taken seriously in leu of more prevalent problems. This is not to say, either, that the U.S. itself was a populace of isolationists. America had grown wealthy through international trade and exports, but the devastating implications of a war on an already strained people was too much. America joined the war, initially, in retaliation to the threat of war. It was forced, inadvertently, into war, not by Presidential conspiracy to overturn isolationist feelings, but out of self-defense. Bibliography Charles C. Transill, â€Å"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace† (New York 1957) Ibid., 688. Roberta Worhlstetter: Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (New York 1980) Akira Ariye: Across the Pacific: an Inner History of American-East Asian Relations (New York 1967) The American Past: Conflicting Interpretations of the Great Issues Vol. II (Macmillan Co. 1961)