Isolationism and the Foreign New Deal
During World War I and the 1920s, "isolationism," that is, opposition to American wars and foreign intervention, was considered a Left phenomenon. In a few short years, however, the ranking of isolationism on the ideological spectrum was to undergo a sudden and dramatic shift.
In the late 1930s, the Roosevelt administration moved rapidly toward war in Europe and the Far East. As it did so, and especially after war broke out in September 1939, the great bulk of the liberals and the Left "flip-flopped" drastically on behalf of war and foreign intervention. Gone was the old opposition to American militarism, and to American and British imperialism.
Not only that; but to the liberals and Left the impending war against Germany and even Japan became a great moral crusade, a "people's war for democracy" and against "fascism" — outrivaling in the absurdity of their rhetoric the very Wilsonian apologia for World War I that these same liberals had repudiated for two decades. FULL ARTICLE
Comments (12)
Weingarten
The allies might have lost WWII several times, and would surely have lost had America not entered. Had Germany conquered Europe, and Japan conquered China, what would have happened to America?
Published: October 11, 2007 8:50 AM
Peter Nelson
If the US had stayed out, Hitler would most likely have beaten himself to exhaustion trying to conquer Russia; and Hirohito would most likely have beaten himself up trying to conquer China. Both would have faced massive and growing internal resistance movements, civil disobedience, and the financial ruin implicit in a government run economy. However, if they did succeed in conquest, they would have been face to face and would have fought each other to their mutual demise.
Published: October 11, 2007 9:10 AM
flix
"Had Germany conquered Europe, and Japan conquered China, what would have happened to America?"
Can you imagine an invasion of the USA? If the germans had so much trouble crossing the channel to get to Britain, just imagine they had to cross the Atlantic!
The US was not necessary to stop Napoleon.
Published: October 11, 2007 11:06 AM
steve
Yes, Stalin conquered half of Europe and the other assorted communists conquered many countries in Asia and Africa, and guess what happened to America as a result of all this? Pretty much nothing, except the actions of those people that used these events to scare ordinary Americans into shedding their liberty.
Published: October 11, 2007 11:31 AM
Anthony
"Had Germany conquered Europe, and Japan conquered China, what would have happened to America?"
Provided it stayed out of the war, it wouldn't have frauds like FDR and Hoover...
Published: October 11, 2007 10:04 PM
TGGP
I discussed this at my blog: What was so bad about Charles Lindbergh?
Among the things bandied about is how safe America would have been had it not entered the war.
Published: October 11, 2007 10:43 PM
nick gray
Stalin could have beaten Hitler by himself, so Russia would have ended up with all of Germany. France would probably have been able to declare itself free as German troops would have been recalled for the Eastern Front. Probably Holland and Belgium would also have liberated themselves. Italy might have been invaded by Russia as an ally of Germany. In that case, all of the Balkans, and Greece, would have been Communist. Stalin would then have turned his attention to the yellow devils who beat Russia in 1905, and taken them on. (External) War Is (Internal) Peace, etcetera. Certainly an interesting world! May you live in interesting times.
Published: October 12, 2007 1:13 AM
nick gray
An unbiased historian could end up wondering if (And here's a whopper of a conspiracy theory!) Churchill was secretly sympathetic to Stalin. He engaged Britain in a war that would otherwise have had Hitler fighting Stalin much earlier, giving Stalin some time to catch up. He kept trying to make peace overtures to Moscow as part of an anti-Hitler alliance. Even though I'm British-born, I do speculate about such things. Was Churchill a closet commie?
Published: October 12, 2007 2:27 AM
Ohhh Henry
The allies might have lost WWII several times, and would surely have lost had America not entered. Had Germany conquered Europe, and Japan conquered China, what would have happened to America?
This reminds me of the old Bill Mauldin WWII cartoon showing an argument between two American GIs:
"You Irishmen woulda lost the war if it wasn't for allies like Texas!"
Published: October 12, 2007 12:58 PM
Allan Juranek
"...what would have happened to America?"
In all likelihood, nothing. We would have saved millions of American dollars and lives and prevented the deleterious consequences of having a war-based economy.
Perhaps we wouldn't have had to fight the Cold War, as Japan and Germany might have kept Russia in check.
Published: October 12, 2007 11:32 PM
lester
it's hard to think of what would have happened if we hadn't entered world war two because the statecraft was so obviously headed in that direction. big government was very popular all of the sudden in the industrial age. world war two was sort of destined to occur. the way fights are bound to break out when there is drinking
Published: October 14, 2007 9:36 PM
nick gray
And another consequence of isolation- we would have a lot less Jews in the world today, and possibly no state of Israel
Published: October 15, 2007 12:07 AM