America Our Heritage


End of Isolationism


Two giant oceans could not save America from another devastating war, says historian Craig Shirley.


I


n 1941, america was an isola- tionist country desperately trying to stay out of yet another Euro- pean war.


The United States had made the


mistake of getting involved in the previous European war, and all it did was to give rise to Adolf Hitler and all the atrocities that would supervene because of him. That war did not make the world


safe for democracy but killed thou- sands of American doughboys by exposing them to the infl uenza plague that eventually swept the world and killed millions more. Many American men succumbed


Depression came the Dust Bowl, which devastated whole states in the Midwest, leaving farm families in the worst, most grinding sort of poverty. Banks foreclosed on unproductive


farms, mere hovels. A mass exodus occurred as poor families left for Cali- fornia in search of work and food. Overseas, the Axis powers — Ger-


ATTACK Imperial Japanese Navy airplanes struck the U.S. deep- water naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.


before they ever entered the trenches of France. But now America was just begin-


ning to emerge from the Great Depression, an economic disaster that had fi rst swept America and then the world, decimating compa- nies and individuals. In America, on top of the Great


32 NEWSMAX | MAY 2023


many, Italy, and Japan — had begun their fascist expansionist policies: Germany into Poland and then Den- mark, Norway, and the Low Countries; Italy into Ethiopia; Japan into mainland China and the Nanking Massacre, where thousands of Chinese women were brutally vio- lated and mur- dered by Japa- nese soldiers. America had remained isola- tionist since 1919. There was an adage circulat- ing the country that “all we got was debt, death, and George M. Cohan” — the Broadway show- man known for patriotic songs such as Over There.


Passage of the various Neutral-


ity Acts by a Democrat Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Democrat, gave the lie to the notion that Republicans were isolationists and Democrats were internationalists. At the time, everyone was isola- tionist, on left and right.


The American fl eet — mostly in San


Diego and Pearl Harbor — such as it was, was creakingly old. As an example, the big battleship


USS Arizona had her keel laid in 1914 at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. The other 16 battleships in the fl eet were just as old. Japanese warships were newer, lighter, faster, and had better armor plating. Only a few Americans saw the com-


ing war. Most were comforted by the fact that we were walled off by two giant oceans. The world knew about Nazi Ger-


many’s harsh treatment of Jews — all of Europe had treated them badly at one time or another. But only a few top Nazis knew of Hitler’s “fi nal solution,” which was leading to the murders of at least 6 million Jews. In America, few knew and fewer


believed it. An exception was the Insti- tute of Jewish Aff airs in Manhattan, which produced a seldom read white paper on the disappearance of Jews from the cities of Germany. Time magazine despicably titled


its story on the white paper, “Wan- dering Jews.” A member of the Roosevelt adminis-


tration, and of Jewish descent, Jerome Frank did not see Hitler for the evil man he was, just as a “paranoiac buf- foon with mad, bad dreams of world conquest. And he was no menace to the United States.” Frank spoke for many at the time.


America was more interested in “Love Goddess” movie star Rita Hayworth. The gorgeous redhead was featured in every magazine. Little did anyone suspect that four


Japanese aircraft carriers hauling over 300 planes and dozens of support ves- sels were closing in on Pearl Harbor for a surprise attack that would kill 3,000 Americans. Our nation and the world changed


forever.


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