History 485
Devine
Fall 2015
David Reynolds, From Munich to Pearl Harbor
Chapter
5
- Why
did “cash and carry” became unworkable by early 1941? How did FDR solve the “cash” problem and
then address the “carry” problem?
- How
did British orders for war materials also spur American preparedness?
- What
was the significance of FDR’s “four freedoms”? Why did he announce them? Why, unlike Wilson, did he desire a “peace with victory”?
- What
arguments did the America First committee make in opposing Lend Lease and,
more broadly, FDR’s overall interventionist foreign policy? To what extent were their arguments
sound?
- How
did FDR answer his critics? How
would you assess his methods?
- Initially,
why did both business and the military impede lend-lease production?
- In
negotiating the terms of lend-lease with the British, the US did not want Britain’s colonies. What did
it want in exchange from the British?
- Why
were Churchill and FDR concerned about the battle of the Atlantic?
How did this concern lead to formulating the concepts of “Atlanticism” and
“national security”? In what ways
did this new conception of US national security have significance beyond
World War II?
Chapter
6
- How
did FDR react to the USSR’s
entrance into the war against Germany? What factors shaped
his reaction? How did the Soviet
presence in the war shape US
strategy?
- How
did US
policymakers differ regarding the proper response to Japanese expansion in
the Pacific? How did advances in US
air power begin affect policymakers’ calculations?
- Though
FDR considered the British allies, on what issues – strategic, economic,
and geopolitical – did he want the British to make concessions? How did FDR use the Atlantic Charter to
exact these concessions?
- What
concessions did Churchill want FDR to make regarding both the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific?
- Why
were the Greer incident and the
oil embargo on Japan
significant in drawing the US
closer to war in Europe and in the
Pacific respectively?
- Reynolds
notes (pp. 156-158) that FDR was determined not to rush into formal war
during 1941. What reasons did FDR
have for adhering to this position?
- Why
did the differences between Japan
and the US
prove irreconcilable? What would
the US
not agree to? What would Japan not
agree to?
- How
does Reynolds assess the popular conspiracy theory that FDR had advance
notice of the attack on Pearl Harbor?
- Why
did Hitler declare war on the US
after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
Chapter
7
- Why
does Reynolds believe that Roosevelt himself was central and determinative
in US policy making in
the years from Munich to Pearl
Harbor? What evidence does he introduce in making the case
for FDR’s centrality?
- What
does Reynolds mean when he says that FDR’s foreign policy was founded on geopolitics
and ideology? How did FDR redefine US “national
security”? How did he propose to ensure it without turning the nation into
a garrison state?
- According
to Reynolds, what “key concepts” had been formed during the lead up to
World War II that would continue to be influential once the Cold War
began?
- Why
does Reynolds argue that the “Imperial Presidency” and the “national
security state” originated with FDR?