MASTERS THESIS M-3188 BANKSON, Marjory Zoet THE ISOLATIONISM OF SENATOR CHARLES W. TOBEY. University of Alaska, M.A., 1971 History, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1972 Marjory Zoet Bankson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE ISOLATIONISM OF SENATOR CHARLES W. TOBEY A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS .. By Marjory Zoet Bankson, A.B. College, Alaska June, 1971 . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE ISOLATIONISM OF SENATOR CHARLES W. TOBEY Ul, R - Department Head APPROVEVED; V u U - - --.. ' w ...----------------------_ DATE_ (ZAnJl^ r- , /1>/ ^^fc«ifof]5ean^fejfDej of the College of Business, Economics and Government Z'? / ■ L A - Vice-President for Research a e>i._ it. e m u a u v c u i w u a t u u y Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE ISOLATIONISM OF SENATOR CHARLES W. TOBEY Charles Tobey, Republican of New Hampshire, was convinced that mobilization for World War II would destroy representative government and laissez-faire capitalism in the United States. Because of his own Alger-like rise to success within the frame­ work of small-town Republican politics, Tobey idealized competition with commonly understood rules: he rejected the class conflict and economic management of the New Deal. As the threat of war increased in 1939, Tobey entered the United States Senate, where his suspicion of President Roosevelt was heightened by contact with outspoken isolationists. He supported the war effort only after Pearl Harbor, but his main interest remained domestic affairs. His parochial outlook made it possible for Tobey to support inter­ national cooperation during the post-war period, because he decided that was the best way to create domestic conditions to encourage democracy and capitalism. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE of CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION................................................ 1 Chapter I. FAITH in AMERICAS THE EARLY YEARS..................... 7 II. CONCERN for AMERICA: CONGRESS, 1933-1938.............. 50 III. FEAR of WAR; SENATE ISOLATIONISM, 1938-1941........... 87 IV. CONVERSION to INTERNATIONALISM: BRETTON WOODS and ITS AFTERMATH.................................... 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................... *,,..197 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Would a German victory in Europe be a vital threat to the United States? That question divided Americans into rival groups before Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. The answer was particularly critical for members of the American government because they had to made decisions about offering aid to opponents of Germany and Japan. William L. Langer and S. Everett Gleason describe the foreign policy debate of the late thirties as one between the isolationists and the interventionists, "...between those determined to stand aloof from foreign wars at all costs and those convinced that the United States could not escape the effects of foreign quarrels and that therefore the country should take a hand in them if only to protect itself and its national interests."^ President Roosevelt and his administration took an interventionist position, while leading members of the U.S. Senate continued to hold traditional isolationist views. Until he gained their support, the President was hampered in his attempts to supply defense materials to England. German victories in 1940 and 1941 caused increasing numbers of Senators to favor more interventionist policies, until a majority sided with the President on the lend lease program and repeal of the American neutrality laws. However, a core of outspoken isolationists remained until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor outmoded their position. ^William L. Langer and S. Everett Gleason, The Challenge to Iso­ lationism, 1937-1940 (New York: Harper and Brosl, 1952), ix. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 Why did some Senators believe that the prospective German victory in Europe would not be vital to America, while a majority came to the opposite conclusion? Biographers of the leading Senate isolationists point to several important factors: Gerald P. Nye's "agrarian radicalism," William E, Borah's "belligerent nationalism," Arthur H. Vandenberg's faith in the natural protection of two oceans and Robert A. Taft's preference o for domestic affairs. There were other isolationists who were not so well-known, but whose vote against interventionist proposals counted equally in the Senate. Even more important, the isolationists represented constituents whom President Roosevelt had to enlist before embarking on an interventionist foreign policy. Senator Charles W. Tobey, Republican of New Hampshire, was one of the isolationists who stubbornly opposed the idea that American security was linked to European affairs. During debates on revision of the neu­ trality laws, Tobey wrote to a constituent: It is not necessary for us to get into the war. We are not a nation such as the small nations of Europe that have been overrun by Hitler. We of America are 132 million strong, able to out-produce all of Europe, and able to take care of ourselves in this world should any nation or nations attempt to come our way.3 Tobey's evident faith in America was coupled with his fear of the effects ^Wayne S. Cole, Senator Gerald P. Nye and American Foreign Relations Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962, 6-13; Manfred Jonas, Isolationism in America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966, 50; Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr., ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952), xix; William S. White, The Taft Story (New York: Harper and Bros., 1954), 108-109. ^To Mrs. William Lord, November 14, 1941, The Papers of Charles W. Tobey. Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, New Hampshire, Box 81. Hereinafter cited as Tobey Papers. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 which war might have on American political traditions. To an America First rally in Madison Square Garden on September 17, 1941, Tobey said: ...the greatest menace to this country and to our form of government does not come from any enemy abroad, but rather exists right here in our own country, and more particularly and specifically, under the Capitol Dome in Washington, where the people's representatives in Congress have apparently lost their sense of responsibility under the Constitution to act as a separate but coordinate branch of the federal government and have yielded to pressure and blandishments of another branch, the Executive. Therein is the great threat to the American way of life and the American form of government. He blamed Congress for following the lead of President Roosevelt, rather than maintaining an independent check on the Administration. Tobey feared the rise of totalitarianism in this country as a result of Roosevelt's strong leadership and he saw American participation in the European conflict as the means by which this would occur. In both his faith in America and his fear of war, Tobey was like other prominent isolationists described by Manfred Jonas in his Isolationism in America. 1935-1941.^ The particular content of Senator Tobey's faith in America, his background for isolationism, is described in the first chapter of this study. His reaction to President Roosevelt's leadership, particularly in foreign policy matters before the question of intervention became so imminent, is contained in the second chapter. Tobey's fear that war would destroy democracy in this country marks the peak of iso­ lationism in this country and for Tobey himself, as he entered the U.S. Senate in 1939. That period is covered in chapter three. “^Charles W. Tobey, "Wake Up America! The Hour is Late," Vital Speeches of the Day. VII (October 1, 1941), 749. 5Jonas, 23. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 The political career of Charles Tobey is made more interesting by the fact that he became an internationalist after the war. That is, he encouraged American membership in such international organizations as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He underwent a foreign policy "conversion" similar to that of his more famous colleague, Senator Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan. Tobey joined a small group of liberal Republicans, including Senators George Aiken of Vermont and Wayne Morse of Oregon, in support of President Harry Truman's programs during the critical period of conservative Republican control of Congress from 1947 to 1949. Tobey remained a spokesman for international cooperation until his death in 1953, at the age of 73. His post-war views are discussed in the final chapter. Tobey's long political career reached a critical juncture when Pearl Harbor outmoded