APUSH Chapter 37 Essay Questions

    1. Explain in what way (a) the fall of France, (b) Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, and (c) the attack on Pearl Harbor mark the most important turning points in American foreign policy between 1935 and 1942.
    2. Explain in what way the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s "marked in effect an abandonment of the [United States’] traditional policy of freedom of the seas."
    3. Explain what the text’s authors mean by their remark that in the 1930s, "Congress was one war too late with its [neutrality] legislation."
    4. Explain how in the thirties, "the American people were overwhelmingly anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler,.. . but they were desperately determined to stay out [of war]."
    5. Compare and contrast the views of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies with the America First Committee. Had you been there at the time, with which would you have agreed? Why?
    6. It is a common observation that American foreign policy often reflects domestic politics. In what way did domestic considerations influence the Roosevelt administration’s
    1. recognition of the Soviet Union?
    2. adoption of a Good Neighbor policy?
    3. extension of independence to the Philippines?
    1. Assess President Roosevelt’s conduct of American foreign policy after 1935. When and why did he move from isolationism to interventionism in the European war? Why wasn’t he more candid with the American people about what he was doing? Do you think he purposely led the United States into war? Why or why not?
    2. To what extent did American diplomacy and economic policy provoke war with Japan? What might the United States have done to delay or even prevent war with Japan? Why wasn’t that done?
    3. At what point do you think American entry into the war in Europe became inevitable? Explain.
    4. Do you think the argument that "one should not change horses in the middle of a stream" is sufficient to justify Franklin Roosevelt’s breaking the two-term tradition in 1940? Do you think anyone should be allowed to serve more than two terms in the presidency? Why?
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