Chapter 25: The World at War, 1939-1945
The Road To War
- The Great Depression disrupted everyday life all over the world.
- In some European countries, they disrupted life down to the political core.
- Fascism overtook democracies in Germany, Spain, and Japan – it spread from Italy.
- The leaders were; Adolf Hitler (Germany), Hideki Tojo (Japan), Francisco Franco (Spain), and Benito Mussolini (Italy).
- By 1939, FDR was leading the US toward war against the fascist powers.
· The Rise of Fascism
- WWII had its roots in the settlement of WWI.
- Germany resented the bum deal it received, while Italy and Japan revisited their dreams of an overseas empire that had been previously thwarted.
- The previously established League of Nations proved unable to maintain the fragile peace, or enforce rules that it had created.
- In 1930, Japan sought to acquire more resources and so launched an unwarranted attack on Manchuria, a northern province in China, and in 1937, a full out attack on China.
- The League of Nations condemned Japan’s actions but failed to do anything.
- These actions of Japan’s that went unpunished encourage Italy’s new fascist-minded dictator, Mussolini, to implement a completely fascist government.
- After he did so, Hitler did the same in Germany.
- Fascism rests on an ideology of a powerful state that directs economic and social affairs.
- Italy, bitter with the lack of territories they received from the Treaty of Versailles, decided to invade Ethiopia in 1935.
- The League of Nations, in accordance with the Ethiopian government’s plea for help, only enforced minor sanctions.
- By 1936, Italy was in control, and had become an imperial nation.
· Hitler and National Socialism
- Germany soon made it clear however, that they were the predominant threat, not Italy.
- Adolf Hitler rose in power until he was chancellor of Germany, and then the German legislature granted him dictatorial powers to deal with the crisis of the WWI settlement.
- Hitler laid out his plan in Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and in it was…
- Overturn the territorial settlements of the Versailles treaty.
- Unite Germans living throughout central and eastern Europe in a great German fatherland.
- Annex large areas of Eastern Europe.
- To persecute (or later attempt to exterminate) the “inferior races” of Slavs, gypsies, and of course, Jews.
- Germany began violating the Versailles treaty, kind of daring France or Great Britain to call them out on it.
- Neither did anything, and during this time, Germany also formed alliances with two other like-minded states – Italy and Japan.
· Isolationists versus Interventionists
- While all this was going on in Europe, legislation was being passed in the US against previous imperialistic thought.
- The Good Neighbor Policy voluntarily repealed the Platt Amendment, which asserted the US’s right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
- It also renounced the use of military force and armed intervention in the rest of Latin America.
- However, the US still intervened when American business interests were at stake.
- Gerald P. Nye, a progressive Republican senator from ND, started an investigation into the amount of influence that the munitions dealers had on whether the US entered WWI or not.
- While he couldn’t get any charges to stick, it contributed to isolationist sentiment among the public.
- Also, as a result of this, the Neutrality Act of 1935 imposed an embargo on arms trading with countries at war and declared that American citizens traveled on the ships of belligerent nations at their own risk.
- It was expanded in 1936 to include banning loans to belligerents, and later (in 1937) adopted a “cash-and-carry” provision.
· The Popular Front
- Along with the isolationists, there were also a number of interventionists that were made up of “writers, intellectuals, and progressive social activists.”
- They opposed fascism, and that is why they thought the US should intervene.
- The major party to gather all these interventionists was the Communist Party of America, although many intellectuals did not join, but sympathized with their movement.
- The Communists in the Soviet Union encouraged their counterparts in the western hemisphere to join in a “popular front” against fascism.
- This strategy became even more urgent when Spain entered into a civil war – which was a fascist victory because no one sent significant aid to the Democratic government, while the fascist troops were being supported by Germany and Italy.
- Many intellectuals in the western hemisphere were scared away from the popular front because of the close association it had to with the Communist Party.
· The Failure of Appeasement
- Further encouraged by this “appeasement” of the Allied Powers, Hitler took it one step further by attempting to annex German-speaking Austria, while also scheming to seize a portion of Czechoslovakia.
- War now seemed imminent because France had an alliance with the Czechs – however, at the Munich Conference, Britain and France decided to let Germany annex it as long as Hitler promised to stop his territorial schemes.
- This was a disaster in the making, as within six months of the conference, Hitler’s forces had overrun the rest of Czechoslovakia.
- Another shocking development came in August of 1939, when Germany and Russia signed a Nonaggression Pact, which…
- Protected Russian interests by allowing them to stay out of the way, however it did hurt the efforts of the Popular Front in Western Europe and the US.
- More importantly protected Germany from having to fight a two-front war.
- On September 1st, 1939, Hitler launched a blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) against Poland – 3 days later, Britain and France had declared war on Germany.
- “World War II had begun.”
· Retreat from Isolationism
- Since the US was such a large player in the world, how they would react would likely determine the outcome of the war.
- However, similar to WWI, FDR declared the United States’ neutrality, right at the beginning.
- He said, “This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well.”
- In this was heavy truth – because around 84% of Americans (in a 1939 poll) supported the Allies.
- However, most Americans didn’t want to be drawn into another war.
- Initially, the need for American intervention seemed small, but then Germany conquered…
- Poland in September of 1939.
- Denmark on April 9th, 1940.
- Soon after, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg all fell as well.
- Lastly, on June 22nd, 1940, France was conquered.
- This meant that only Great Britain was left to stand against Hitler’s plans for domination of Europe.
· Support for Intervention Grows
- America began edging closer towards entering the war, especially in 1939, when Congress approved a change to neutrality laws that allowd the Allies to buy arms on a cash-and-carry basis.
- In support of intervening was William Allen White and his Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies.
- In opposition of this were Charles Lindbergh, and more importantly, Senator Gerald Nye, who formed the America First Committee, in an attempt to keep America out of the war.
- In many other ways the US moved closer to war…
- Roosevelt created the National Defense Advisory Commission and laid the basis for a bipartisan defense by bringing in two republicans as secretary of war (Henry Stimson) and secretary of the navy (Frank Knox).
- Roosevelt, through executive order and thus circumnavigating the Neutrality Act, traded 50 WWI destroyers to Great Britain for the right to build military bases on British possessions in the Atlantic.
- Also during this time when the war was expanding past the European front into the Middle East and into Africa, the US had a presidential election.
- The two candidates, FDR vs. Wendell Willkie differed only slightly in their platforms; however, Roosevelt won nevertheless with 55% of the popular vote and lopsided total in the electoral college.
· Lend-Lease and the Atlantic Charter
- With the election behind him, FDR focused on convincing the American public to send more aid to Great Britain.
- He believed Britain was essential in protecting the four freedoms that should be guaranteed around the world…
1. Freedom of speech
2. Freedom of religion
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom of fear
- Two months after making this speech, FDR convinced Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the president to “lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of” arms and other equipment to any country whose defense was considered vital in the security of the US.
- This was done because Britain could no longer pay for arms.
- This was also extended to the Soviet Union when Hitler ended the Nonaggression Pact with them in June of 1941.
- This was the unofficial entrance of the US into the war.
- Winston Churchill, who was Great Britain’s prime minister, met with FDR, and released the Atlantic Charter, which was an outline of their cause.
- It was similar to FDR’s “Four Freedoms” and Wilson’s “Fourteen Points.”
- Just like in WWI, Germany also began a naval war in the Atlantic by September of 1941; however, this was unbeknownst to most of the American public.
- Therefore, FDR was still hesitant to ask Congress for a declaration of war.
· The Attack on Pearl Harbor
- The final straw, surprisingly, came from Japan, and not from Germany.
- Japan, as of late, like Germany, had gone on a similarly destructive path that included…
- Military advances in China that interrupted US benefits of the open-door policy.
- The sacking and the “rape of Nanking”, in which 300,000 Chinese residents were massacred and 60,000-80,000 women were raped.
- Sunk an American gunboat in the Yangtze River.
- Japan continued to be aggressive, and so the US imposed trade restrictions on them, including aviation-grade gasoline and scrap metal.
- However, this didn’t stop them, and the US had to freeze all Japanese assets in the US and instituted an embargo on all trade with Japan, including oil shipments that accounted for almost 80% of their consumption.
- While the US knew from intelligence sources that Japan was readying for an attack on the US, they didn’t know when it would come or where they would strike…
- The strike came on December 7th, 1941 on Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i.
- Japanese bombers came early in the morning and the results of the attack were staggering…
- 2,400 Americans were killed.
- 8 battleships were heavily damaged or destroyed.
- 3 cruisers were destroyed.
- 3 destroyers were destroyed.
- Almost 200 airplanes were completely destroyed.
- The day after, FDR asked congress for a declaration of war.
- Referred to December 7th as, “a date which will live in infamy.”
- Senate voted for war unanimously.
- The House voted 388 to 1 for war.
Organizing for Victory
- Preparing for WWII was similar to preparing for WWI in these ways…
- The increase of the federal government’s role in everyday American lives.
- The changeover from civilian to war production.
- Raising an army.
- Assembling the necessary workforce.
- However, it differed in these ways…
- The War Powers Act – this gave the President unprecedented authority over all aspects of the conduct of the war.
- This act marks “the beginning of… the imperial Presidency – the far-reaching use (and abuse) of executive authority during decades of American world dominance, from 1945 to the present.”
· Financing the War
- The end of the Great Depression was seen because of defense mobilization during WWII.
- In 1940 – the GNP stood at $99.7 billion.
- By 1945 – the GNP had reached $211 billion.
- This was seen because…
- The average profits made by American businesses doubled.
- The agricultural output grew by a third.
- By late 1943 – 2/3 of the economy was directly involved in the war effort.
- The war was paid for through several methods…
- 50% came from the Revenue Act of 1942, which increased the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million.
- The other 50% came from borrowing; this included…
- The sale of treasury bonds.
- Actual borrowing from wealthy Americans.
- The national debt grew steadily during this time, and maxed out at $258.6 billion in 1945.
- Also a result of the war effort was a growth in the government – the number of government employees went from a little less than a million to 3.8 million.
- New government agencies made it very profitable for businesses to convert to war production by…
- Granting generous tax write-off.
- Approving contracts that would pay for an entrepreneur to build a war production factory and then after the war, they would be able to keep it.
· Henry J. Kaiser: “Miracle Man”
- Henry J. Kaiser was known as the “Miracle Man”, but a more appropriate term would be “government entrepreneur.”
- This is because through government subsidies and contracts, Kaiser was able to create the most efficient shipyard in the entire country.
- They were turning out a “Liberty Ship” every 5 days at his shipyard in Richmond, CA.
- Kaiser also offered corporate welfare programs, “which boosted workers’ productivity almost as much as his efficient assembly system.”
- They provided…
- Day care for their children.
- Financial counseling.
- Subsidized housing.
- Low-cost healthcare.
- The reason Kaiser was able to have so much success was because of his close relationship with the government.
- With American businesses and the federal government working together, a copious amount of military hardware was created…
- 86,000 tanks.
- 296,000 airplanes.
- 15 million rifles and machine guns.
- 64,000 landing craft.
- 6,500 cargo ships and naval vessels.
- However, in 1940, the largest one hundred companies produced 30% of the industrial output in the country.
- By 1945, that number had grown to 70%.
· Mobilizing the American Fighting Force
- Going to war once again meant that human resources had to be mobilized.
- In WWII, the armed forces of the US numbered around 15 million.
- 31 million men between the ages of 18 and 44 had been registered to the draft board, but most failed their physical (a large percentage because of “defective teeth” ß only in America).
- The military also tried (ineffectively) to screen out homosexuals.
- Just like WWI, racial discrimination continued to be a problem in WWII.
- Black troops were segregated.
- The NAACP would chide the government about this, saying, “A Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world.”
- Blacks serving were still giving menial tasks to perform (just like in WWI).
- Ironically, Native Americans and Mexican Americans were never officially segregated and usually welcomed into combat unites.
- WWII also marked the first time women played a significant role on the actual warfront.
- 350,000 (approximately) women enlisted in the armed services.
- About 140,000 served in WACs (Women Army Corps).
- Another 100,000 served as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
- 25,000 served as nurses.
- Around 1,000 served as WASPs (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots), which mostly carried supplies to noncombat areas.
· Workers and the War Effort
- The nation faced a critical labor shortage as millions of working age citizens joined the military.
- Because of this, a substantial number of blacks and women were able to join the industrial work force.
- Also because of this, the unemployment that plagued the nation during the Great Depression virtually disappeared.
· Rosie the Riveter
- Rosie the Riveter was a propaganda tool used by the federal government in an attempt to get more women to take up industrial defense jobs.
- Many women did not need the extra propaganda because they were drawn by the higher wages offered.
- Although, women were still very underpaid when compared to men doing the same job.
- By 1945, women made up 36% of the labor force.
- After the war, a large percentage of women lost their jobs – however…
- Their increased involvement in industrial output during WWII would begin a trend that would “continue for the rest of the twentieth century ad change the character of family life.”
· Organized Labor
- During WWII, Unions grew substantially.
- They also made significant gains in wages, working conditions, and had greater control over the number of hours they worked.
- Also, in December of 1941, representatives of the major unions pledged to not strike for the duration of the war.
- The Nation War Labor Board (NWLB) was also established by FDR.
- The responsibilities of the NWLB included…
- Establishing wages, hours, and working conditions.
- Enforcing these regulations and seizing plants that did not comply.
- 40 plants were seized during the war.
- John L. Lewis
- Led more than half a million United Mine Workers on a strike because they felt cheated.
- They felt cheated because profits were growing at a rate that didn’t match wage growth.
- Congress responded the Smith-Connally Labor Act of 1943, which required a thirty-day cooling-off period before a strike and prohibited strikes in defense industries.
- These actions also made Lewis disliked by a large percentage of Americans.
· African American and Mexican American Workers
- During WWII, African American leaders pledged themselves to a “Double V” campaign – a victory over Nazism abroad and victory over racism and inequality at home.
- A. Phillip Randolph led the movement against FDR that lobbied for more defense contracts to be given to blacks.
- Fearing a march upon Washington that would be a public embarrassment and possibly interrupt the war effort, FDR conceded.
- FDR issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”
- Encouraged by this, Latinos in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) began to challenge long-standing patterns of discrimination and exclusion as well.
- Both of these movements laid the groundwork for the civil rights revolution of the 1960s.
· Politics in Wartime
- Whilst the federal government did expand substantially during WWII, social reformers did not use this time to advance reforms.
- One contributing factor to this is that in the 1942 elections, Republicans picked up 10 seats in the Senate and 47 in the House.
- As the war continued, FDR began to lay the foundation for new federal social welfare measures.
- He dubbed it the second bill of rights, and it would guarantee that Americans had jobs, adequate food and clothing, decent homes, medical care, and education.
- Albeit the average amount of public support, Congress was less than enthusiastic and extended these benefits only to military veterans in what came to be known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Bill (1944) or “GI Bill of Rights.”
· The Election of 1944
- The election of 1944 was based largely on finding a solid vice presidential candidate for FDR because of his failing health.
- In lieu of Henry Wallace, the Democrats nominated Harry s. Truman of Missouri, who was more in-line with the majority of the Democrat party.
- In opposition of FDR and Wallace was Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York.
- Dewey gained his fame from fighting organized crime as a U.S. attorney in New York.
- He took on the mobs that rose in power during the “Roaring Twenties.”
- Even though Dewey pulled some of FDR’s votes, Roosevelt still won easily, receiving 53.5% of the popular vote.
Life on the Home Front
- The war deeply affected those on the home front, albeit in different ways than it did those on the battlefront.
- “Americans welcomed the return of prosperity but shuddered every time they saw a Western Union boy on his bicycle, fearing he carried a telegram from the War Department reporting the death of” a loved one.
- Although times were different, Americans accepted that they would be, “for the duration.”
· “For the Duration”
- People on the home front also had their duties to do…
- They planted “victory gardens”, which grew about 40% of the nation’s vegetables.
- Recycled old newspapers.
- Worked on civilian defense committees.
- Served on local rationing and draft boards.
- The Office of War Information (OWI) was involved in disseminating news and promoting patriotism.
· Popular Culture
- Movies, especially, reinforced the relationship between the home front and the war effort.
- Famous movie stars played roles in Wake Island (1942), Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1945), and award winning Casablanca (1943), to garner patriotism.
- Average weekly movie attendance soared to over 100 million – causing many theatres to have to start operating around the clock.
· Wartime Prosperity and Rationing
- While the war brought grief to those who lost loved ones, it also brought prosperity to the rest of America – most importantly it erased unemployment.
- The biggest “inconvenience” to most Americans were the limitations placed on consumption.
- The government agency that regulated almost everything Americans ate, wore, or used during WWII was the Office of Price Administration.
- Among the items/things/supplies rationed were…
- Rubber
- Shoes
- Fuel oil
- Some foods (meat, sugar, butter, and more)
- In response, many people began to buy these rationed items on the “black market,” although manufacturers of these goods just told consumers to save their money and then purchase these items after the war.
· Migration and Social Conflict
- A large amount of people moved during the war – about 15 million Americans changed residences.
- 50% moved to a different state.
- Because California was a major center for the defense production for the war in the Pacific Ocean they attracted a lot of immigrants.
- CA grew by 53% during the war (3 million new residents).
- CA produced 1/6 of all war materials.
- The three cities that grew the most were – San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
- Racial conflict also sprang up during this time, especially in California.
- In CA, many teenagers organized youth gangs (mostly Mexican and were named pachuco) and dressed in “zoot suits”, which were made up of broad-brimmed felt hats, pegged trousers, and clunky shoes, while they also slicked down their hair and carried pocket knives on gold chains.
- When rumors circled that one of these pachuco gangs had beaten a sailor, it was as if it had been declared open season on them.
- White servicemen roamed through Mexican neighborhoods and attacked those in zoot-suits, sometimes in plain sight of white policemen, who would do nothing about it.
· Civil Rights during Wartime
- Unlike WWI, the outbreaks of social violence were very limited – albeit they were extremely violent when they did occur.
- Communists, leftists, and other “radicals” did not face the same prejudice that was afforded to them during the First World War.
- A reason for this was that the US and the USSR (Soviet Union) were on the same side during this conflict.
· Japanese Internment
- After Pearl Harbor, anti-Japanese sentiment grew exponentially, especially in California, where there had always been roots of nativism.
- FDR’s response was Executive Order 9066, combined with an act from Congress, “gave the War Department the authority to evacuate Japanese Americans from the West Coast and intern them in relocation camps for the rest of the war.”
- Was only opposed by a few public leaders.
- It shocked Japanese Americans however, as 2/3 of them were native-born American citizens.
- Many problems were created from the internment of Japanese Americans however, such as…
- Labor shortages in agricultural fields.
- Many were also allowed to leave…
- 4,300 Japanese college students were allowed to resume their education outside the West Coast military zone.
- Another way out was by enlisting, such as those in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
· Gordon Hirabayashi: Constitutional Rights
- Nisei Gordon Hirabayashi was a college student at the University of Washington and actively resisted incarceration and enlistment.
- Instead, he turned himself into the FBI and was tried.
- His case went to the Supreme Court, who ruled his removal was legal, but refused to rule on the constitutionality of Japanese internment.
- In 1988, however, Congress did issue a public apology and $20,000 to each of the 80,000 surviving Japanese American internees.
- This had given the government sweeping powers of arrest and detention seen today in the PATRIOT Act of 2001.
Fighting and Winning the War
- WWII was literally a fight to control the war, and if the Axis Powers had won, they would have controlled Africa, Europe, and Asia.
- However, because the US fully stepped into the ring and the Soviet Union was drawn into the war, they were able to decide the outcome of the war and shape the character of the postwar world.
· Wartime Aims and Tensions
- The “Big Three” consisted of President Franklin Roosevelt of the US, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.
- These three formed the brain of the Allies.
- However, Stalin did not entirely trust the others, because he feared an invasion after the end of the war.
- Their plan was to engage Germany in a two-front battle, however it took a while for Great Britain and the US to gather their troops and enough resources to begin their western assault.
- During this time, the USSR was forced to subject to the full brunt of Hitler and his Nazi regime.
- When the second front was finally opened, Stalin was suspicious about American and British intentions.
· The War In Europe
- Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Allies suffered defeat after defeat.
- Germany was pushing further and further toward the major city of Stalingrad.
- They seized the wheat fields of Ukraine and the rich oil fields of the Caucasus.
- They began an offensive in Northern Africa in an attempt to capture the Suez Canal.
- Also, during this time, German submarines “relentlessly and successfully damaged American convoys carrying oil and other vital supplies to Britain and the Soviet Union.”
· The Allied Advance
- The tide of the war changed in the winter of 1942-1943.
- The first major Allied victory occurred in the “epic Battle of Stalingrad,” where Soviet forces decisively halted the German advance and killing or capturing 330,000 German soldiers.
- They then began to push westward and by early 1944 the Germany army had been driven out of the Soviet Union.
- The second front opened from the “west” was actually opened in Africa, and from there Great Britain and the US began their assault on the Germans.
- They defeated Germany’s Afrika Korps, which was led by General Erwin Rommel (who was also known as the Desert Fox) under the leadership of British General George S. Patton and American General Dwight D. Eisenhower
- From Africa, Churchill advanced into what he called the “soft underbelly” of the Axis by attacking Italy.
- However, this turned out to be a costly and time-consuming failure.
- The invasion of France had been long promised, and “D-Day” came on June 6th, 1944.
- The morning of June 6th, the “largest armada ever assembled” beached on the shores of Normandy.
- Although the US suffered heavy casualties, they secured a beachhead.
- This allowed for more than 1.5 million soldiers and thousands of tons of military supplies and equipment to flow into France.
- France was pretty much taken back by September of 1944.
- All the while, long-range bombers began to harass German cities – killing 305,000 civilians and wounding another 780,000.
· The Holocaust
- As Allied troops advanced through Poland and Germany they saw the horrors that were Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question.”
- These were the concentration camps where six million Jews had been put to death, along with another six million Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other “undesirables.”
- This persecution soon became widely spread in mass-circulation magazines and news tabloids – however, the United States refused to relax its strict immigration laws to take them in.
- This was because of a number of factors…
- Widespread anti-Semitism in the State department, in Christian churches and the public at large.
- Although the US only took in 21,000 Jews during the war, the War Refugee Board (est. 1944), helped move 200,000 Jewish people to safe havens in various countries.
· The War in the Pacific
- The war against Japan was just as dangerous as the one against Germany.
- After crippling Pearl Harbor, Japan quickly conquered Hong Kong, Wake Island, and Guam.
- They also advanced into Southeast Asia, taking the Solomon Islands, Burma, Malaya while threatening India and Australia.
- The Japanese also allowed the deaths of 10,000 prisoners of war in the Bataan “death march” after they captured the Philippine Islands.
- At this crucial moment in the Pacific War, the US scored two big victories…
1. The Battle of Coral Sea near southern New Guinea in May of 1942, which halted the Japanese invasion of Australia.
2. The Battle of Midway Island in June of 1942, which inflicted serious damage on the Japanese fleet.
- The Americans were led by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and in the next 18 months, they crept closer and closer to Japan.
- However, as they neared Japan, Japanese soldiers became more desperate and more deadly. For example…
- 21,000 Japanese on Iwo Jima fought to the death, killing 6,000 American marines and wounding another 14,000.
- Japanese pilots began to fly kamikaze (suicidal) missions, crashing their bomb-laden planes into American ships.
- The US also had crippled Japan’s economy and public morale through bombings.
- Based on the recent results, MacArthur and Nimitz “predicted millions of casualties in the upcoming invasion of Japan.”
· Planning the Postwar World
- As the Allies moved toward victor in both the Pacific and in Europe, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in February of 1945 at Yalta, a resort on the Black Sea.
- FDR wanted to keep Allied unity, which he saw as the “key to postwar peace and stability.”
- However, there were two big issues threatened to tear this unity apart…
1. The fates of the British and French colonial empires.
- Friction was caused between Roosevelt and Churchill because of the independence movement in British India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, had begun to gather strength.
2. The fate of central and eastern Europe.
- A more serious issue was Stalin’s insistence that Russian national security demanded the installation of pro-Soviet governments in central and Eastern Europe.
- The three leaders also agreed to divide Germany into four administrative zones, each run by a different country – either France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, or the US – and also to divide up the capital city, Berlin, into four zones.
· Creating the United Nations
- The Big Three also agreed to dispose of the discredited League of Nations and replace it with a new organization known as the United Nations (UN).
- A part of the UN was a Security Council, composed of the five major Allied powers – the US, Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union – and six other countries based on a rotating fashion.
- There would also be a General Assembly, comprised of all other nations.
- When FDR returned to America, he was 63 and clearly a sick man, suffering from heart failure and high blood pressure.
- On April 12, 1945, on a short visit to his “vacation home in Warm Springs, Georgia, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died.”
· The Atom Bomb
- When Harry S. Truman took over the presidency, he learned about the top-secret Manhattan Project, which had been charged with the developing of a new weapon – the atomic bomb.
- The scientists on this project had discovered that when they broke tiny nuclei into smaller pieces, a process called fission, of uranium atoms, the result was a chain reaction that released tremendous amounts of energy.
- This project cost $2 billion and employed 120,000 people.
- Involved the construction of 37 installations in 19 states.
- All of this was actively hidden from Congress, the American public, and even Vice President Truman.
- After the creation of successful atomic bombs, Truman ordered that two be dropped onto Japan.
- He had two goals by doing so…
1. Avoid a high-casualty invasion of Japan by hoping this forces them to surrender – which they did (at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives).
2. Intimidate Stalin and the USSR and ease his objections to American plans for the postwar world.
Additional In-Class Notes...
· Collective Security – the US is safe when the whole world is safe.
· “Wilsonianism” – “moral diplomacy”, the League of Nations
· Business Interests – huge production, need markets, money to be made in rebuilding Europe
· Nativists – immigrants are corrupting us, taking jobs
· Anti-War Movement – war leads us to picking sides, which means the US would have to fight
· American Isolationism
o Isolationists like Senator Lodge, refused to allow the US to sign the Versailles Treaty.
§ Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. (Republican, Massachusetts)
o Security treaty with France also rejected by the Senate.
o July, 1921 – Congress passed a resolution declaring WWI officially over!
· Washington Disarmament Conference
§ 1921-1922
§ 1st international conference held in U.S.
o Called by the administration of President Harding
o Attended by nine nations all having interests in the Pacific and East Asia
o Goals –
§ Naval disarmament and the political situation in the Far East.
o The United States begins to use espionage – “Spies’R’US”
· Five-Power Treaty
§ 1922
o A battleship ratio was achieved through this ratio…
§ US – 5
§ Britain – 5
§ Japan – 3
§ France – 1.67
§ Italy – 1.67
o Japan got a guarantee that the US and Britain would stop fortifying their Far East territories [including the Philippines].
o Loophole – no restrictions on small warships.
o Japan withdrew from the treaty in 1936 because they realized this loophole that the US was exploiting.
· Locarno Pact
§ 1925
o Guaranteed the common boundaries of Belgium, France, and Germany as specified in the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.
o Germany signed treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia agreeing to change the eastern borders of Germany by arbitration only.
· Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
o 15 nations dedicated to outlawing aggression and war as tolls of foreign policy.
o 62 nations signed.
o Problems – no means of actual enforcement and gave Americans a false sense of security.
· Japanese Attack Manchuria (1931)
o League of Nations condemned the action.
§ Japan leaves the League.
o Hoover wanted no part in an American military action in the Far East.
· Hoover-Stimpson Doctrine (1932)
o US would not recognize any territorial acquisitions that were achieved by force.
§ Japan was infuriated because the US had conquered new territories a few decades earlier.
o Japan bombed Shanghai in 1932, which resulted in massive amounts of casualties.
· FDR’s “Good Neighbor” Policy
o Important to have all nations in the Western Hemisphere united in lieu of foreign aggressions.
o FDR – “The good neighbor respects himself and the rights of other.”
o Policy of non-intervention and cooperation.
· FDR Recognizes the Soviet Union (late 1933)
o FDR felt that recognizing Moscow might bolster the US against Japan.
o Maybe trade with the USSR would help the US economy during the Depression.
· Nye Committee Hearings (1934-1936)
o Refers to Senator Gerald P. Nye (a Republican from North Dakota).
o The Nye Committee investigated the charge that WWI was needless and the US entered so munitions owners could make big profits [“merchants of death”].
§ The committee did charge that bankers wanted war to protect their loans Y& arms manufacturers to make money.
§ Claimed that Wilson had provoked Germany by sailing in to warring nation’s waters.
o Resulted in congress passing several neutrality Acts.
· FDR’s “I Hate War” Speech
· Ludlow Amendment (1938)
o Congressman Louis Ludlow (a Democrat from Indiana).
§ A proposed amendment to the Constitution that called for a national referendum on any declaration of war by Congress.
§ Introduced several times by Congressman Ludlow.
o Never actually passed.
· Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936, 1937
o When the President proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically go into effect:
§ Prohibited sales of arms to belligerent nations.
§ Prohibited loans and credits to belligerent nations.
§ Forbade Americans to travel on vessels of nations at war [in contrast to WWI].
§ Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-and-carry” basis – pay when goods are picked up.
§ Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
o This limited the options of the Resident in a crisis.
o America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!
· Panay Incident (1937)
o December 12, 1937.
o Japan bombed USS Panay gunboat & three Standard Oil tankers on the Yangtze River.
§ The river was an international waterway.
o Japan was testing US resolve!
§ Japan apologized, paid US an indemnity, and promised no further attacks.
§ Most Americans were satisfied with the apology.
o Results – Japanese interpreted US tone as a license for further aggression against US interests.
· “Rape of Nanking”
o During the Sino-Japanese war, Japanese soldiers captured the capital city of Nanking.
§ A disputed number of casualties are estimated at over 200,000.
§ It has also been reported that 20,000-80,000 women were raped by Japanese soldiers.
· This was extremely planned out by Japanese officials.
o The Japanese were just as racist as the Nazis, only they were racist against the Chinese.
· Fascist Aggression
o 1935:
§ Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty & the League of Nations (re-arming!)
§ Mussolini attacks Ethiopia.
o 1936:
§ German troops sent into the Rhineland.
§ Fascist forces sent to fight with Franco in Spain.
o 1937:
§ Austria Anschluss.
§ Rome-Berlin Tokyo Pact (AXIS)
§ Munich Agreement – APPEASEMENT
o 1939:
§ German troops march into the rest of Czechoslovakia.
§ Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.
o September 1st, 1939:
§ German troops march into Poland…
· Launch blitzkrieg…
o WWII begins.
· 1939 Neutrality Act
o In response to Germany’s invasion of Poland.
o FDR persuades Congress in special session to allow the US to aid European democracies in a limited war:
§ The US could sell weapons to the European democracies on a “cash-and-carry” basis.
§ FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones which US ships and citizens could not enter.
o Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act:
§ Aggressors could not send ships to buy US munitions.
§ The US economy improved as European demands for war goods helped bring the country out of the 1937-38 recession.