Munich Pustch Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler elected in Germany in

1933 (remember the Treaty of Versailles) Antisemitism, nationalism, militarism, and anti-communism

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=607e4d5110

1936 Re-militirized the Rhineland 1938 Took Austria

Germany wanted to take the Sudentenland (near Czechoslovakia)

English and French leaders gave it to Hitler (after Munich conference), in exchange for a promise not to annex any other land

Condemned Germany, but did nothing

Japan attacked China, US reaction is the same

Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1937• Made no distinction between aggressor and

victim (Italy and Ethiopia)

Wanted to expel Europeans from Asia so they could call the shots

Invaded Manchuria in 1931 Attack mainland China in 1937

• Rape of Nanking, 200,000 to 300, 000 civilians

Night of Broken Glass 1938 Polish Jew assassinated a German

diplomat in Paris. Germans destroyed hundreds of

synagogues 91 Jews killed, ~20,000 arrested

Soviet Union and Germany (Aug. 1939)

To the chancellor of the German Reich, Herr A. Hitler. I thank you for your letter. I hope that the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact will mark a decisive turn for the better in the political relations between our two countries. .

J. Stalin*

Invasion of Poland by Germans Britain and France declare war on

Germany Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)

By May 1940 Germany had taken France (it took 4 years in WWI)

You are Winston Churchill (UK). You have broken some of the German code and Intelligence says an attack is coming, but the Germans seem confused about where your factories and air fields are. You can either build up defense around your bases or sit and wait.

You are Adolf Hitler. You have little intelligence to tell you where the British airforce bases are. You can either attack where you think the bases are or destroy the city of London.

The US began to prepare for war• 19,000 warplanes, 150 ships• First peacetime draft (16.5 million men)

Election• 3rd term???• No American will fight in a foreign war, but

if attacked the war would not be “foreign” anymore

Lend-Lease Act (March 1941) Submarine warfare Atlantic Charter (Aug ‘41)

• Germany is first priority, Japan second• US and Britain will work together

US creates a navy for both Atlantic and Pacific oceans

Japan builds navy, US cuts off steel export

Japan takes Vietnam, US puts up a blockade

2,345 killed “A Date which will Live in Infamy”

Imagine that FDR had enough spy intelligence to know that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor. Do you:

Save the lives and stay out of the war?

Sacrifice the people in order to join the war?

They can go all out for ~ 6 months Germany may last longer

They attack Russia in June 1941 This opens a Two-Front war

Turning point of the European war Germans move forward, but run out

of supplies Germans forced to give up Almost 2 million causalities, lasted

199 days **Soviets lost more people in this 1

battle than the US lost in the entire war

Atlantic Ocean German U-boats destroy American and British ships (they worked in “wolfpacks”)

By 1943 Allies use planes and radar to shoot U-boats when they surface

Also, US mass produces ships (good for the economy!)