On 7 December 1941, the US Navy had 343 warships in commission; however, a "second" fleet, consisting of 344 warships, was in various stages of construction in shipyards across the country. Given that building a warship could take anywhere from less than a year for a destroyer, to over three years for a battleship or aircraft carrier, it is clear that the foresighted building of warships in the years prior to US involvement in World War II would play a major role in enabling the US Navy to counter and eventually defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific. In order to trace the evolving influences behind this warship building program, this thesis divides the pre-war period into three separate phases: Phase 1 is bounded by Roosevelt's inauguration and the USS Panay incident, phase two runs from the USS Panay incident until the fall of France, and phase three covers from the fall of France until the attack on Pearl Harbor. In total, the building programs of all three prewar phases amount to 586 warships. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.