THE NEUTRALS, 1933-1940: THE UNITED STATES, THE OSLO NATIONS AND THE RESPONSE TO HITLER

The shortcomings of the United States' foreign policy during the 1930's is most apparent not in American relations with Britain, France, Germany and the Soviet Union, but in its policy towards Europe's smaller powers. The Oslo Nations (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands) shared many similar traits with the United States. All save Luxemburg were maritime neutrals; all had traditionally lived on the periphery of Europe's great power struggles; all were democracies; all supported a legalistic interpretation of international relations; all, by the 1930's, were essentially dedicated to free international trade. It is in their shared neutrality that the ties between the United States and the Oslo Nations were most important. How did their past experiences shape their international outlook? How did they respond to Adolf Hitler? How were their neutrality policies similar, and how did they differ? What does this comparison indicate about American neutrality? Why did Sweden alone of the Oslo Nations maintain its neutrality and independence throughout the war?; This study has a two-fold purpose. Its first is to examine the political relations between the United States and the Oslo Nations, as well as their response to Hitler. The second is to reevaluate American foreign policy during the 1930's from a new perspective: The United States' relations with the West's other neutrals. Included are examinations of these nations' diplomatic traditions; their participation at the Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932-1935; their reactions to the New Germany; their policies during the Ethiopian, Rhineland and Munich crises; their turn from collective security to neutrality; and their attempts to make their neutrality work during the early months of the war.; Thi study draws upon the Franklin D. Roosevelt papers, the U.S. Department of State files, and manuscript collections in the Library of Congress. It also uses published American, German, British, French, Canadian and Belgian diplomatic documents, memoirs and published papers of the diplomatic principals, contemporary journalistic accounts, and the pertinent secondary literature.