America during the Second World War © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 26.

America during the Second World War

© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

Chapter 26Chapter 26

The Road to War: Aggression and Response

• International political instability arose from:– Built-up resentments from WWI– Worldwide depression of the 1930s– Ultra-nationalist movements in Japan, Italy,

Germany

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

The Rise of Aggressor States

• Manchuria (1931)– Manchukuo

• Hoover-Stimson Doctrine

• National Socialist (Nazi) Party– Adolf Hitler

• Benito Mussolini


Isolationist Sentiment and American Neutrality

• Nye committee– Gerald P. Nye– “Merchants of Death”

• Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937)

• “Cash and carry”

• Spanish Civil War


Growing Interventionist Sentiment

• Spanish Civil War precipitated a debate over foreign policy– General Francisco Franco– “Abraham Lincoln Battalion”

• Americans increasingly separated into interventionists or isolationists

• Roosevelt tilts cautiously toward intervention


The Mounting Crisis

• Marco Polo Bridge incident

• East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

• Panay (1937)

• Nanjing

• Axis Powers

• Sudetenland


The Outbreak of War in Europe

• Munich Conference (1938)• Germany annexes Czechoslovakia• Stalin-Hitler Pact• World War II

– Occupation of Poland (1939)– sitzkrieg

• Blitzkrieg: Hitler moves to take Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France– Dunkirk


America’s Response to War in Europe

• Roosevelt tries to mold American opinion against Axis

• “Cash and carry"• Selective Training and Service Act (1940)• Destroyers for bases deal• Robert Wood and the America First Committee• American Anti-Semitism• White Committee• Election of 1940: Roosevelt vs. Wendell Willkie


An “Arsenal of Democracy”

• Lend-Lease Act (1941)• Germany attacks Soviet Union• U.S. occupies Greenland and Iceland• Atlantic Charter (1941)• Undeclared naval war vs. German “Wolf

Packs”– Reuben James


The Attack at Pearl Harbor

• U.S. begins trade embargo against Japan (1940)• Japanese assets in U.S. frozen (1941)

– Petroleum issue

• Pearl Harbor: Japan’s gamble (December 7, 1941)• MAGIC• December 8, 1941: U.S. declares war on Japan• December 11, Germany and Italy declare war on

the United States


Fighting the War in Europe

• Axis doing well in 1942

• Joint Chiefs of Staff

• Pentagon

• ENIGMA and Ultra– Ultra precursor to computers


Campaigns in North Africa and Italy

• Europe first• Soviets and “second front”• Casablanca Conference• North African operation (1942)

– TORCH

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Stalingrad • The Italian Campaign


Operation Overlord• D-Day (June 6, 1944)

– Normandy

• Liberation of Paris• Elbe River• Holocaust• Hitler’s suicide• Europe split

– Eastern Europe Soviet

– Germany and Austria Divided

– Western Europe British and American


The Pacific Theatre

• Fall of the Philippines

• Bataan Death March


Seizing the Initiative in the Pacific

• Coral Sea (1942)

• Midway Island (1942)

• Guadalcanal

• “War without mercy”


China Policy

• Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)

• Mao Zedong

• "China lobby"


Pacific Strategy

• Douglas MacArthur• Chester Nimitz• Iwo Jima• Okinawa• Strategic bombing• Blockade• “Unconditional surrender“• Japan’s 3rd party peace “feelers”


A New President

• Roosevelt’s death

• Harry S Truman– “A little man from Missouri”


Atomic Power and Japanese Surrender

• Manhattan Project– Albert Einstein– Los Alamos, New Mexico

• Bomb decision– Save lives compared to invasion– End war before Soviets enter

• Hiroshima (1945)• Nagasaki (1945)• V-J Day


The War at Home: The Economy

• Success for U.S. military efforts depended on mobilization back home in America

• Great Depression finally came to a close

• The war transformed America’s political economy– Government, businesses, financial institutions,

and labor force


Government’s Role in the Economy

• War Production Board

• War Labor Board

• War Manpower Commission

• Office of Price Administration

• Office of Scientific Research and Development (R & D)


Business and Finance

• Increased government war spending• War bonds• Rationing and shared sacrifice• Social programs withered as big businesses

flourished under government subsidies– Cost plus contracts

• Anti-trust suits and legal challenges fell by the wayside


The Workforce

• Labor shortage gives opportunities to minorities and women

• Bracero program• Fair Employment Practices Commission

(FEPC)• African-Americans move North• Wages of workers and farm income

increases


Labor Unions

• Unions discriminate against minorities and women

• Racial conflict in the worklpace

• Smith-Connally Act (1943)


Assessing Economic Change

• Workplace became more inclusive

• Jobs seemed plentiful and personal savings grew

• Big business, big government, big labor expanded during war years– Science and technology: linked mutual interests

among these 3 sectors


The War at Home: Social Issues

• By war’s end: 16 million Americans had served

• Many people left their traditional homes

• Sacrifices on the home front


Wartime Propaganda

• War to preserve the “American way of life”

• Norman Rockwell– Four Freedoms

• Frank Capra– Why We Fight

• “Freedom” advertising

• Office of War Information (OWI)


Gender Equality

• WASPS (Women's Airforce Service Pilots)

• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) considered

• “Pin up” mentality


Racial Equality

• Fighting Fascism challenges segregation

• "Double V" campaign

• A. Philip Randolph

• Military segregation and discrimination


Racial Tensions

• Racial discrimination in housing• “Zoot suit" incidents• Native-Americans and the war• Committee (later, Congress) on Racial Equality

(CORE)• Executive Order 9066: Japanese internment• “Melting pot”• Population movements erode regional distinctions


Shaping the Peace

• Harry S Truman (1945-1953)

• Builds on Roosevelt’s legacy

• United Nations

• New international economic institutions created

• Important global political issues settled


International Organizations

• United Nations (UN)– General Assembly– Security Council– Economic and Social Council– Eleanor Roosevelt

• Bretton Woods Conference– International Monetary Fund (IMF)– World Bank

• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

Spheres of Interest and Postwar Settlements

• Stalin and Churchill’s agreement• Teheran Conference (1943)• Yalta Conference (1945)

– Germany

– Berlin

– Poland

• U.S. and the question of colonies– Support Britain and France retaking control

– Philippine independence

• Latin America• Question of a Jewish homeland


Conclusion

• Wartime mobilization led to the end of the Great Depression and shifted the New Deal away from social reforms and toward international issues

• U.S. most preeminent power• 1940s: debates over nature of liberty and

equality• Questions of post-war policies


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America during the Second World War © 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved. Chapter 26.

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