Peace movement
The peace movement in the United States reached a peak of influence during the 1930s, driven by widespread disillusionment with the outcomes of World War I. Many Americans, initially supportive of the war under the belief that it would preserve democracy, became frustrated when the post-war settlement prioritized nationalistic agendas over lasting peace. This sentiment fostered an environment receptive to peace activism, with significant participation from women, religious leaders, college students, and leftist groups. Organizations such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Catholic Worker movement emphasized nonviolence and social justice, while youth-led protests against military training on campuses highlighted a growing anti-war sentiment. Activists promoted disarmament and neutrality legislation, seeking to mitigate the influences of war profiteering on U.S. foreign policy, leading to the enactment of the Neutrality Acts. However, the rise of fascism in Europe created divisions within the movement, as differing perspectives on intervention and pacifism emerged. These rifts contributed to a decline in the movement's unity and influence by the end of the decade.
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Peace movement
Identification Cause focusing on eliminating U.S. involvement in armed conflicts
The peace movement played a large role in keeping the United States from intervening in the Spanish Civil War and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. It also postponed U.S. participation in World War II until Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
During the 1930’s, the peace movement in the United States experienced one of its greatest periods of influence. Its success was related to American disappointment with the peace settlement that ended World War I. Many Americans had initially supported U.S. involvement in the war because they believed President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that the conflict had been fought to preserve democracy and to end forever the need for further wars. Many of these same citizens were disillusioned when, in the war’s aftermath, the victorious nations pursued nationalistic concerns rather than laying the foundations for a fair and just international system. This disappointment and a desire to avoid participation in future European conflicts led many Americans to embrace the peace movement during the 1930’s.
Women were some of the greatest adherents of the peace movement during the 1930’s. Women’s peace activism was partly a relic of “separate spheres” ideology that not only declared women more caring, compassionate, and peace-loving than men but also suggested women’s roles as mothers led them to abhor the human waste of war. Many women participated in peace activism through the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Founded in 1915 by Jane Addams, the WILPF was a pacifist group that believed violence of any kind was unjustifiable. Other women joined the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, founded in 1924 by Carrie Chapman Catt. This more conservative organization supported military actions in certain circumstances, such as in a defensive war.
American clergy also embraced peace activism during the 1930’s. Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish religious leaders devoted more attention to the relationship between faith and peace than they ever had previously. Some joined organizations such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which had been founded in 1915 to push for political reforms based on ideals of Christian nonviolence, international brotherhood, and social justice. Meanwhile, the Catholic Worker movement, established in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, attempted to lay the foundations necessary for world peace by engaging in activities such as feeding the hungry and providing shelters for the homeless.
College students were particularly active during the 1930’s peace movement. Rejecting the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) training taking place on numerous college campuses, many engaged in protests against war and fascism. Students also became some of the leading promoters of the peace movement by participating in peace caravans that traveled around the country raising awareness and attracting adherents to the cause.
Other supporters of the peace movement during the 1930’s were American leftists. Socialists, communists, and unaffiliated radicals all viewed war as a consequence of an oppressive economic system. For them, peace activism was a way to challenge capitalism and prevent future wars that invariably affected the working classes more harshly than they did the upper classes.
Peace groups supported a variety of proposals during the 1930’s that they hoped would diminish the chance of a future war. One of the most popular was disarmament, which called for a reduction in the number of weapons and other instruments of war maintained by nation-states. Another was neutrality legislation. Inspired by the Nye Committee’s investigation of the munitions industry and the publication of The Merchants of Death (1934) by H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen, both of which argued that U.S. participation in World War I was largely the result of business owners wanting to profit from the sale of weapons, peace workers demanded the passage of laws to limit the influence of businesspeople on U.S. foreign policy. Their demands eventually led to the passage of the Neutrality Acts, which forbade the United States from selling armaments to belligerent nations, warned American citizens that they traveled at their own risk if they chose to sail on the ships of warring nations, and imposed a cash-and-carry policy for all American exports purchased by nations at war.
The influence of peace groups began to diminish with the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany during the mid-1930’s. Although most peace activists were appalled by the oppressive and nationalistic characteristics of fascism and expressed unhappiness with efforts to appease fascist governments, they disagreed and were divided over how to respond to fascist aggression. Staunchly pacifist organizations focused on keeping the United States out of the impending war in Europe. They allied with isolationist organizations and supported preserving strict neutrality legislation. More conservative organizations supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s foreign policies, including the peacetime draft and the act of providing aid to Great Britain and its allies once World War II broke out in Europe. They also began to argue that war to end oppressive systems such as fascism was justifiable.
The division of the peace movement led to a decline in membership for many peace groups. While some pacifist organizations stayed active during the 1940’s, even after the United States joined the war, they never regained the prominence or influence they experienced at the beginning of the 1930’s.
Impact
The peace movement attracted a large and varied group of adherents during the 1930’s. As these activists attempted to establish policies that would prevent U.S. participation in future wars, they were able to influence both public opinion and governmental actions. Disagreements about how to respond to the rise of fascism in Europe, however, led the movement to split during the mid-1930’s.
Bibliography
Chatfield, Charles. For Peace and Justice: Pacifism in America, 1914-1941. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973. Study of the rise and decline of pacifism in the United States from the start of World War I until the entry of the United States in World War II.
Foster, Carrie. The Women and the Warriors: The U.S. Section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1946. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995. Exploration of the founding and development of the U.S. section of the WILPF.
Howlett, Charles F., and Robbie Lieberman. A History of the American Peace Movement from Colonial Times to the Present. Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008. Examination of the efforts of peace activists and organizations to build an influential movement that would constrain U.S. military efforts.