Tripartite Pact

They had an unwritten phrase of the axis, and that was coined from Mussolini in a speech in 1936, back when he was talking about the Rome-Berlin axis, and then later on.

although America never used that term until after the Tripartite Act was signed, and then Franklin Eleanor Roosevelt continued to utilize that over 150 times.

But that was nothing that was officially formalized as far as Axis, just like we had the Allied powers.

There was the Axis during World War II.

Simultaneously, the Roosevelt administration funneled financial aid and military advisors to Chinese Nationalist Forces under General and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

War Minister Hideki Tojo, promoted to his position in 1940 under Prime Minister Fumimaro Kanoi, aggressively expanded the war in China while advocating for the tripartite pact with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, signed in September of 1940.

I think at this point I'd like to bring back my expansion map.

The turning point would come in July of 1941.

Only one dissenting vote emerged, Representative Janice Rankin, a pacifist who also voted against American entry into World War I.

The declaration passed the Senate 82 to 0 and the House 388 to 1, giving Roosevelt a decisive mandate for prosecuting the war.

Germany and Italy, Japan's allies under the Tripartite Pact, honored their commitment by declaring war on the United States on December the 11th.

Hitler, in one of his more impulsive and strategically dubious decisions, declared war despite the military advantages that might have accrued to Germany from allowing Britain and the United States to battle Japan while the German forces focused on defeating the Soviet Union.

Du Bois, uh, promised to extend the hand of friendship to Asia, and he conveyed that while Blacks in the United States did face prejudice, they had sympathy and they had the appreciation that all of Asia was given, and that Asia was a sign of hope for the African community in the United States.

Du Bois was slightly perplexed by Japan's decision to join the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, despite Hitler's beliefs, racist beliefs, uh, and the fact that the Axis powers despised Japan.

There's a lot of communications that show it was a tenuous relationship at best.

Du Bois did believe that the Japanese alliance was a matter of self-defense due to the predatory nature of England, and so he did believe that the racist attitudes of the Western powers had driven Japan into the arms of Hitler.

The Nazis, he said, have done everything possible to push Japan into the conflict.

So far, neither Germany nor Italy has carried out the provisions of the Tripartite Axis Pact and declared war against the United States.

As you know, the pact said that if any member of the Axis alliance becomes involved in war with a power that was at peace when the pact was signed in 1940, the other two members would go to the assistance of that member.

The propaganda statements out of Berlin would seem to confirm the charge made by the White House tonight, though.

It wasn't, like, that, you know, the view was that, like, the regime and Zagreb was being too mean or something.

But, um, moving on it uh the uh let me scroll down here and see what i've got on my outline um there's a uh such that it existed i mean such that there was it didn't matter the kingdom of yugoslavia um hitler realized you know which still existed until 1941 hillary realized that um he had what all costs they court them into the tripartite pact which eventually he did and famously um famously uh the us love regent prince paul on june 3rd 1939 the The Prince of Yugoslavia and his wife was an English woman, you know, like born and bred.

They were invited to Berlin.

There was this whole gala celebration.

um and it's also you know the like we talked about before i mean by this time the the soviet union had um or by by the advent of hostilities between germany and poland the soviet unity captured you know 410 000 square kilometers which was the size of the entire german empire as of 1919 i mean this was not this was not um Hitler couldn't afford to wait and see what developed and then trying to insinuate a kind of meaningful forward deployment the balkans by you know a combination of like threats and incentivization like this like was not in the cards um the um and especially when it became clear that turkey is not gonna you know turkey traditionally um was uh was one of was one of the ways germany hedged against um you know both uh russian and um British power in the Mediterranean that was that was off the table It's an interesting subtext late in the war The foreign ministries like the overtures the foreign ministry did make towards Ankara, but it was never I mean by that point they were You know, they were in the throne of desperation and and seeking any port in a storm.

It was never serious some They were serious It was never seriously within the minds of anybody who was realistic.

But by March of 1941, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia had all joined the Tripartite Pact.

um this was a big coup for hitler because the hungarian prime minister finally agreed to allow german troops to cross through hungarian territory to access um you know romania and um and and and and as well as like deploy they basically allowed, like, free, like, ingress and egress across, like, the Hungarian frontier.

But still, there was a solid majority that was opposed to pursuing a policy of aggressive posturing, let alone war with Japan.

But there began to be talk in New Deal quarters of provoking a war with Japan as a backdoor to war with Germany, especially over the Tripartite Pact, for obvious reasons.

Which, for those who don't know, was a pact between Germany, Italy, and the Empire of Japan.

that if anyone was attacked, the other two would come to the aid of the other.