March 11th turns out to be an important day twice in World War II history. On this day in 1941 Roosevelt's Lend-Lease program got underway. In March of 1941 the US was not at war (Pearl Harbor is nine months away); while Roosevelt is deeply committed to the Allied (i.e., British) cause in the war, the country is split between "interventionists" and "isolationists". In this politial climate, Roosevelt can only manage this "Lend-Lease" program by which the US will "lend" munitions and economic supplies to Britain and get them back (or the value of them) later. Through this program, the US economy could support the struggling British and Roosevelt could continue to claim that the US was being neutral (after all, we were just lending some stuff to a friend). The best quotation to explain how Roosevelt was able to sell this program to the US public comes from one of Roosevelt's radio broadcasts:
Franklin Roosevelt, eager to assure public consent for this controversial plan, explained to the public and the press that his plan was comparable to one neighbor's lending another a garden hose to put out a fire in his home. "What do I do in such a crisis?" the president asked at a press conference. "I don't say……, 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.' …I don't want $15 — I want my garden hose back after the fire is over."
With "Lend-Lease", the US (unofficially) began mobilizing the US economy and moving towards active participation in World War II.
A year later (March 11, 1942), however, saw one of the worst moments for America in the war. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy, supported (reluctantly) by the Japanese Army, moved to take over multiple islands in the South Pacific as part of the Japanese attempt to justify the attack on America. Japan founded the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere as political cover for the naked imperialism that Japan was following in order to find greater and greater resources to pay for the war in China (see Kupchan for an explanation). Thus, the attack on Pearl Harbor was, in many senses, a diversion to draw the Americans off while the important attacks were made against Indonesia (Dutch East Indies, at the time) and Phillipines (to protect the supply lines from Indonesia to Japan).
The invasion of the Phillipines began only days after Pearl Harbor, and went badly for the Americans (and Phillipinos) quickly. While the fighting went on for months (the last US troops surrendered on May 6, 1942), the famous commanding general Douglas MacArthur was ordered to withrdraw from the Phillipines (in order to save either his reputation or a competent general; there is still much debate). Thus, on March 11, 1942, MacArthur gave his famous "I will return" line and left the Phillipines. He moved to become commander of all allied forces in the south Pacific, and from that position returned to the Phillipines in 1944.
MacArthur's retreat/withdrawal, and subsequent defeat of US forces, continued to make the first six months of 1942 a series of agonizing losses by the Americans in the Pacific.
Posted by baltar at March 11, 2006 01:11 PM | TrackBack | Posted to War and History