Chancellor Brüning's strategies to win American support were fashioned to maintain his government in office. In 1931 he continued to hold his chancellorship in the face of unremitting opposition from both the Nazis and the Communists as well as a motley array of shifting opposition groups. In the face of that opposition, Brüning did little to alleviate the suffering of the German people. Instead, he pursued a policy of retrenchment, which he used to demonstrate to the foreign powers that Germany was confronted with bankruptcy. He wanted them to believe that the situation was so bad that it would be necessary to cancel reparations payments.

American diplomats in Washington took exception to the course the chancellor was following. They felt that everything the United States could do for Germany had been done and that further demands were not possible to fulfill. Besides, German statements that the nation was near bankruptcy simply aggravated the situation and made the reestablishment of German credit a near impossibility. President Hoover was as upset with the Germans as he was with the French. As a consequence, Castle asked Stimson to refuse to discuss financial matters with Brüning to avoid any further misunderstanding. For his part, Stimson lectured the Germans on militarism and told them that their case at the disarmament conference was being compromised by their insistence on building pocket battleships.