Unit 8: America in World War II

Life at Home

You Decide: Should America Go To War in Europe (Again)?

A national poll conducted in May 1940, as German forces rolled into Belgium and France, revealed that 84% of Americans were against going to war to assist Britain and France at that time.

Imagine it is now November 1, 1941. Knowing the events in the war thus far, from 1937 (in China) to the present (and even before), write a speech in which you either advocate:

why the US should enter the war NOW on the side of Britain,
or, if not, explain what the United States SHOULD do at this time

You should consider and refer to

specific events that have occurred thus far, and
specific points raised by either President Roosevelt or Charles Lindbergh

You may choose to have your speech reflect what you think your own personal beliefs on the subject might have been in 1941, or not, but in either case must be justified by actual events and specific, relevant arguments.

You should read each of the following as examples of the arguments that were then being circulated:

FDR Quarantine speech, poorly received on October 5, 1937: http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3310
Lindbergh Lend-Lease testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 6, 1941: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1601
Lindbergh Des Moines Speech, September 11, 1941: http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/speech.asp
- more on the speech: http://blogs.cfr.org/lindsay/2012/09/11/twe-remembers-charles-lindberghs-des-moines-speech/
Additional material on Lindbergh & the America First Committee, particularly the documents in the section entitled, “Download Brochures & Articles that criticized Lindbergh's American Isolationism Views and Statements”: http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/index.asp