Isolationism in Post-World War I America

In George Washington's farewell speech he warned the American people to beware "the insidious wiles of foreign influence." Though it was never put into law, this statement has played a major role in the American foreign policy of isolationism. American isolationist sentiment stems from the fact that America is geographically isolated from the rest of the world. American isolationist sentiment was at its peak in the years following World War I. "In the war of 1914-1918 that had set the stage on which Hitler now strutted, no people had been more reluctant combatants, and few more disappointed with the result, than the Americans"(Kennedy, 385). After losing more than fifty thousand young troops in a war that was viewed to be unnecessary, the American people began to view neutrality as the best policy. The reasons for American intervention into World War I, which included the sinking of the Lusitania and large foreign investments, were to be avoided at all cost in the unstable 1930s. The Great Depression and the New Deal promoted insulation from foreign trade in order to improve the economy. Extreme isolationist sentiment shaped and hindered Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy in the late 1930s. The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s were designed to maintain neutrality by first eliminating the causes of World War I. As the War ripped through Europe, the American isolationists slowly began to view intervention as a necessary evil.

The majority of Americans of all ages, genders, and incomes in the years following World War I were staunch advocates of American isolationism. This attitude originated from America's fortunate geographical location, which allowed the country to grow in an environment detached from all European threat and controversy. The isolation of the North American continent gave birth to the isolationist belief that America has the freedom to pick which wars to get involved with. Not only were Americans physically distant from European problems, but also believed that they were superior and culturally distant from the Europeans. American intervention in foreign affairs therefore was believed to be a waste of time, money, and lives. In the last weeks of World War I, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne were the only two major battles that American troops fought in, yet the death toll was more than fifty thousand. The American people believed that the soldiers' lives were lost in vain fighting a war whose outcome they did not significantly affect. Woodrow Wilson's refusal to sign the Versailles Treaty sent America back into isolation. Since they did not join the League of Nations, America would not be obligated to send troops to the aid of European League members.

Many of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies were isolationist in nature. Roosevelt decided that the best way to conquer the Great Depression, which was not only a domestic problem but a global one, was to reject Europe and to focus on the internal crisis. Roosevelt was greatly influenced by the isolationist sentiment at the time of the 1932 Presidential election. Though he had supported American entrance into the League of Nations in the past, he was quick to change his position in order to gain support from isolationists. Roosevelt said "our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy." With his "Bombshell Message" at the 1933 London Economic Conference, Roosevelt dropped the gold standard as well as foreign trade in order to increase national economic growth. Also, the New Deal's NRA's price and wage regulations and the AAA's efforts to increase agricultural values depended on the isolation of America from foreign trade and competition. Roosevelt, influenced by isolationists, cut spending and men from the army. These decisions made by Roosevelt during the Depression years were greatly effected by the popular isolationist ideals.

As Hitler openly violated the Treaty of Versailles in 1935 by introducing military conscription, the United States was quick to proclaim neutrality. As Franklin Roosevelt began to have more internationalist views, Americans, under no circumstances, wanted to be drawn into another foreign war. The result was a relative stand still in American foreign policy. Congress pacified isolationists by passing the Neutrality Act of 1935, which was designed to isolate America from the growing Nazi monster. First, it created an embargo on the sale of arms to all belligerent nations and second it stated that American citizens that traveled on belligerent ships were doing so at their own risk. The Act was basically an attempt to prevent the World War I nightmare from happening again. Roosevelt was required to sign the bill though he would have rather it had different provisions regarding the embargo of arms to belligerent nations. He was in favor of creating selective embargoes

on certain countries instead of to all belligerent nations but realized that it could cause America to become active in the war. Roosevelt said that he was "walking a tight rope," and that he "realize[d] the seriousness of [American foreign policy] from an international as well as a domestic point of view." Benito Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia posed a crisis for Roosevelt.