The United States and the Rising Nazi Threat, 1933—1938

Based on primary sources and historiography the article presents an analysis of how U.S. military and diplomacy perceived and responded to the rising threat from the Nazi Germany in 1933—1938. The emphasis is laid on less known aspects of this reaction related to U.S. diplomatic and intelligence activities during the Sudeten crisis of 1938. Of special interest are previously little noticed dispatches from U.S. military attaches in Europe (“G-2”) buried in Henry Morgenthau Diaries collection at Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (Hyde Park, New York). It is demonstrated that despite being well informed about the seriousness of the Nazi threat by American diplomats and Army intelligence the official Washington pursued the course of non involvement in European crisis thus contributing to the appeasement of the aggressor. At the same time the Sudeten crisis provided a strong push to U.S. military preparations for the coming world war

Appeasement · Diplomacy · Economic history · Historiography · National security · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Seriousness · European history and politics · History · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law