Download The American Pageant, Chapter 35: America in WWII

Amsco AP Review: Chapter 25: Diplomacy and WWII, 1929-1945,
p 525-53
The American Pageant, Chapter 34: FDR and the Shadow of War,
1933-1941, p 810-820
The American Pageant, Chapter 35: America in WWII, 1941-1945,
p 821-848
WWII was a crucial event in the history of the US. Millions of people engaged in the effort to
stop Nazi and Japanese aggression, and the conflict became the turning point of their lives. This
war will also shape international relations. The US entered into a strategic alliance that paved the
way for the UN. Coming out of the war, many countries found their positions in world affairs
weakened. The US and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, emerged from the conflict as major
powers. The 2 countries had cooperated to defeat Germany, but mistrust each other every step of
the way, then were aggravated by a nuclear arms race after the world which manifested in the
Cold War.
America was not only wounded but also roused to national unity by Pearl Harbor. FDR settled
on a fundamental strategy of dealing with Hitler first, while doing just enough in the Pacific to
block the Japanese advance. With the ugly exception of Japanese internment, WWII proceeded
without the fanaticism and civil rights violations that occurred in WWI.
Domestically, the years following the bombing of Pearl Harbor had tremendous economic effects
on the US. The years from 1941-1945 offered abundant and sundry opportunities for many
people. Even though racial and gender tensions remained, economic opportunities increased for
all minorities. Many of these problems will be “resolved” in the post-war era. Nevertheless, the
nation mobilized to win the war, and the war effort led to bigger business, labor organizations,
agricultural operations and BIGGER government.
ACTIVITIES:
1. do all of the PEDLIGS on page 537-538
People:
 Cordell Hull- Secretary of State; Gave the President power to reduce U.S. tariff up to 50%
for nations that reciprocated with comparable reductions for U.S. imports As a means of
increasing international trade
 Benito Mussolini- Led Italy's Fascists party; attracted dissatisfied war veterans,
nationalists, and those afraid of rising communism; The party became the dominant
ideology in European dictatorships in the 1930s
 Francisco Franco- Led the fascist party in Spain
 American First Committee- Led by Charles Lindbergh; To mobilize American public
opinion against war, they formed this Committee to travel the country warning against
the folly of getting involved a second time in Europe's troubles; Isolationists became
alarmed by Roosevelt's pro-British policies
 Wendell Willkie- The Republican nomination against Roosevelt in the 1940 election; A
lawyer and utility executive with a magnetic personality; He criticized the New Deal, but
largely agreed with Roosevelt on preparedness and giving aid to Britain short of actually
entering the war; Lost because a fear of war caused voters to stay with the more
experienced leader
 Harry S. Truman- Roosevelt's VP; A Missouri senator with a national reputation for
having conducted a much-publicized investigation of war spending; Replaced
Roosevelt's old VP, Henry Wallace, who was too radical



Dwight Eisenhower- the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He had
previously been a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and
served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for
planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43
and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front.
In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
Chester Nimitz- American admiral; Adopted the idea of "island hopping," in which they
bypassed strongly held Japanese islands and isolated them with naval and air power;
Allowed the Allied forces to move rapidly toward Japan
Douglas MacArthur- American General; Commanded army units in the southern Pacific;
He vowed to return to the Philippines

J. Robert Oppenheimer- Led the Manhattan Project
Events:
 Manchuria- Defying both the Open Door policy and the covenant of the League of
Nations, Japanese troops marched into Manchuria, renamed it Manchukuo, and
established a puppet government; Showed the League of Nations inability to maintain
peace
 Pan-American conferences (1933, 1936)- Pledged never again to intervene in the
international affairs of a Latin American country during these; warned that if a European
power acted against America, the power would find a war with the Western
Hemisphere; FDR repudiated the policy of Theodore Roosevelt
 London Economic Conference (1933)- Hoover allowed U.S. participation in the League of
Nations, and at first so did FDR until proposals to stabilize currency, which FDR feared
would hurt American recovery
 Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)- An ideological struggle between the forces of fascism and
the forces of republicanism, called Loyalists; Francisco Franco's Fascists prevailed and
established a military dictatorship
 Destroyers-for-bases deal- Britain received 50 older but still serviceable U.S. destroyers in
exchange for giving the U.S. the right to build military bases on British Islands in the
Caribbean; Roosevelt could not sell U.S. destroyers to the British outright without
alarming isolationists
 Pearl Harbor- December 7, 1941; Japanese planes from aircraft carriers flew over,
bombing every ship in sight; 2,400 Americans were killed, almost 1,200 were wounded,
20 warships were sunk or severely damaged, and about 150 airplanes were destroyed
 Battle of the Atlantic- Between Allies and Germans; The Allied troops had crossed the
German border for a final push toward Berlin; the Germans launched a desperate
counterattack in Belgium
 D day- June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force
in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France.
The turning point of World War II.
 Battle of the Bulge- World War II battle in December 1944 between Germany and Allied
troops that was the last German offensive in the West.
 Holocaust- After Hitler committed suicide because he knew the end of the war was near,
the U.S. troops could advance through Germany and see the horrifying extent of the
Nazi's program of genocides against Jews and others; As many as 6 million Jews had
been systematically murdered in Nazi Germany
 Battle of Midway- The interception and decoding of Japanese messages that served as the
turning point in the war in the Pacific; Enabled U.S. forces to destroy four Japanese
carriers and 300 planes


Manhattan Project- Led by Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer; Employed over 100,000
people and spent $2 billion to create the atomic bomb; Began in 1942 and was
successfully tested on July 16, 1945; Tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico; Allowed
President Truman to call on Japan to surrender unconditionally or face "utter
destruction"
Hiroshima; Nagasaki- An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and later a second
bomb was dropped on Nagasaki; resulted in killing about 250,000 Japanese; Within a
week after the second bomb fell, Japan agreed to surrender if the Allies would agree to
allow the emperor to remain on the throne a titular (powerless) head of state
Documents:
 Tydings-McDuffie Act- Provided for the independence of the Philippines by 1946 and the
gradual removal of the U.S. military presence from the islands
 Neutrality Acts- 1: authorized the president to prohibit all arms shipments and to forbid
U.S. citizens to travel on the ships of belligerent nations; 2: forbade the extension of loans
and credits to belligerents; 3: forbade the shipment of arms to the opposing sides in the
civil war in Spain; Made to ensure that U.S. policy would be strictly neutral if war broke
out in Europe
 Quarantine speech- A speech proposing that the democracies act together to "quarantine"
the aggressor in the war between Japan and China; Public reaction to the speech was
overwhelmingly negative, and Roosevelt dropped the quarantine idea as politically
unwise
 Selective Training and Service Act (1940)- Provided for the registration of all American
men between the ages of 21 and 35 and for the training of 1.2 million troops in just one
year; Isolationists strenuously opposed the peacetime draft, but they were now
outnumbered as public opinion shifted away from strict neutrality
 Four freedoms speech- "Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and
freedom from fear"; Roosevelt proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of
U.S. war materials and justified such a policy because it was a defense of "four freedoms"
 Lend-Lease Act (1941)- Ended the cash-and-carry requirement of the Neutrality Act and
permitted Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit; The majority opinion had
shifted toward aiding Britain, and this Act was signed into law
 Atlantic Charter- Affirmed what Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill's peace objectives would be when the war ended; Written on a ship off the
coast of Newfoundland; The Atlantic Charter included self-determination for all people,
no territorial expansion, and free trade
Laws:
 Stimson Doctrine- The U.S. would honor its treaty obligations under the Nine-Power
Treaty by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of any regime like "Manchukuo" that had
been established by force
 Good-neighbor policy- A "policy of the good neighbor" toward other nations of the
Western Hemisphere; The rise of militarist regimes in Germany and Italy prompted
Roosevelt to seek Latin Americans cooperation in defending the region from potential
danger
Ideas:
 Fascism- The idea that people should glorify their nation and their race through an
aggressive show
 Isolationism- The prevailing opinion of the American people that the United States
should not enter into firm commitments to preserve the security of other nations;




Americans wanted to make sure that the U.S. would never against be drawn into a
foreign war
Appeasement- Hitler was creating an air force more powerful than anything Britain or
France could match, so Britain and France appeased Germany
Cash and carry- Roosevelt persuaded Congress to adopt a less restrictive Neutrality Act,
which provided that a belligerent could buy U.S. arms if it used its own ships and paid
cash; Technically it was neutral, but in practice it strongly favored Britain
Atomic bomb- Created by Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer; created from the splitting of
the atom; Allowed President Truman to call on Japan to surrender unconditionally or
face "utter destruction"
Big Three- The leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain
(Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill); Arranged to confer secretly to coordinate their military
strategies and to lay the foundation of peace terms
Government Stuff:
 Soviet Union- Roosevelt granted diplomatic recognition to the Communist regime that
ruled the Soviet Union; His reasoning was to increase U.S. trade and thereby boost the
economy
 German Nazi party- Led by Adolf Hitler; Reaction to deplorable economic conditions
after the war and national resentment over the Treaty of Versailles; Hitler gained control
of the German legislature in early 1933
 Axis Powers- Italy, Germany, and Japan and included capitalists, communism, and
fascism; As a result of the debt, death, and destruction from WWI
 Nye Committee- Concluded that the main reason for U.S. participation in the world war
was to serve the greed of bankers and arms of manufacturers; This committee's work
influenced isolationist legislation in the following year
 Ethiopia- Mussolini ordered Italian troops to invade this country; The League of Nations
and the U.S. objected but did nothing to stop the Italian aggressor, which succeeded in
conquering the African country after a year of bitter fighting
 Rhineland- This region was supposed to be permanently demilitarized according to the
Treaty of Versailles; Hitler openly defied the treaty by ordering German troops to march
into the Rhineland
 Czechoslovakia; Sudetenland - The strip of land that Hitler insisted that Germany had a
right to take over, where most of the people were German speaking
 Munich- Synonymous for the word appeasement; Roosevelt encouraged Neville
Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier to meet with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich; The
British and French leaders agreed to allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland unopposed
 Poland; Blitzkrieg- Britain, France, and the Axis. What? German tanks and planes began
a full-scale invasion of Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany,
and soon afterward Germany had the support of its Axis allies; By June 1940, the only
ally that remained free of German troops was Great Britain
 Office of Price Administration- Federal agency; Regulated almost every aspect of
civilians' lives by freezing gas prices, wages, and rents and rationing such commodities
as meat, sugar, gasoline, and auto tires
 Yalta- An agreement after victory in Europe; Established that Germany would not be
divided into occupation zones, there would be free elections in the liberated countries of
Eastern Europe, the Soviets would enter the war against Japan, the Soviets would control
the southern half of Sakhalin island and the Kurile Islands in the Pacific and would also
have special concessions in Manchuria, a new world peace organization (the future
United Nations) would be formed at a conference in San Francisco

United Nations- A peacekeeping organization; The Senate quickly voted to accept the
U.S. involvement in the U.N.
Supreme Court Cases:
 Smith vs. Allwright- ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny membership in political
parties to African Americans as a way of excluding them from voting in primaries
 Korematsu vs. U.S.- upheld the U.S. government's internment policy as justified in
wartime; In 1988 the federal government agreed that an injustice had been done and
awarded financial compensation to those still alive who had been interned
2.
Outline Bailey Chapters 34 & 35
Chapter 34: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War
The London Conference
 Roosevelt backed out- every man for himself
 Accomplished nothing
 Plunged America deeper in to depression
Freedom for the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians
 Withdrawal from Asia
o Desire to get rid of Filipino competition and liabilities
 Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934
o Provided for the independence of the Philippines after a twelve-period of
economic and political tutelage (by 1946)
 Formally recognized the Soviet Union in 1933
Becoming a Good Neighbor
 Focused on Latin America
 FDR’s policy called for nonaggressive tactics
Secretary Hull’s Reciprocal Trade Agreement
 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934
o Lowered rates of trade for both sides
Storm-Cellar Isolationism
 Benito Mussolini rose in Italy- Fascism
 Adolf Hitler rose in Germany- Nazi
 Rome-Berlin Axis
 Hirohito in Japan
 Tripartite Pact
Congress Legislates Neutrality
 Nye Committee- blamed WWI on greedy American Businessmen
 Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937
o When the President proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, certain restrictions
would automatically go in to effect
 Abandonment of Freedom of the Seas policy
America Dooms Loyalist Spain
 U.S. did not aid Spanish Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War
o Fascists won
Appeasing Japan and Germany
 Japan attacks China
 “Quarantine Speech” – 1937
o FDR called to quarantine the aggressors
 Japan sinks the Panay
 Hitler is given Sudetenland- Munich Conference
Hitler’s Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality
 August 23, 1939- Soviet Union signs a non-aggression treaty with Hitler
o Nazi-Soviet Pact
 Hitler invaded Poland
o Britain and France declared war on Germany
o Hitler took west Poland and Stalin took east
o FDR issued a proclamation of neutrality
 Neutrality Act of 1939
o “cash-and-carry”
o Helped America economically
The Fall of France
 June 1940- Hitler takes France
o Much of France’s army was able to escape in to Britain
 Winston Churchill rises as a leader
 The surrender of France startled America in to action
 FDR stands by the Monroe Doctrine
Bolstering Britain with the Destroyer Deal (1940)
 Battle of Britain- fought in the skies over the British Isles
FDR Shatters the Two-Term Tradition (1940)
 FDR vs. Willkie
Congress Passes the Landmark Lend-Lease Law
 Lend-Lease Act
o Arsenal of democracy
o Marked the end of neutrality
 May 21, 1941- the Robin Moor was torpedoed and destroyed by a German submarine
Hitler’s Assault on the Soviet Union Spawns the Atlantic Charter
 June 1941- Hitler invades the Soviet Union
o FDR gives aid through the Lend-Lease Act
 Atlantic Conference of August, 1941
o Atlantic Charter
 Accepted by Britain, America, and the Soviet Union
 Outlined the aspirations of the democracies for a better world at the
war’s end
U.S. Destroyers and Hitler’s U-boats Clash
 America escorted supplies to Britain
 Many U.S. destroyers were sunk by German submarines
 Restrictions were lifted on the Neutrality acts
Surprise Assault on Pearl Harbor
 Embargos on Japanese supplies
 December 7, 1941- Japan strikes Pearl Harbor
 America declared war on Japan
 Germany and Italy declared war on America
America’s Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent
 America could not keep it un-neutral bystander status
Chapter 35: America in WWII
The Allies Trade Space for Time
 Time was the only thing in America’s way
 #1 supplier of the war effort
The Shock of War
 Japanese internment
 Korematsu v. U.S.
Building the War Machine
 War production bolstered the economy
 Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
Manpower and Womanpower
 “women in arms”
 Mexican braceros brought from Mexico to aid in war production
 War brought about a different role for women in society
Wartime Migrations
 Fair Employment Practices Commission
 Navajo Code Talkers
Holding the Home Front
 The war lifted country out of the Depression
The Rising Sun in the Pacific
 Bataan Death March
Japan’s High Tide at Midway
 Victory at Midway
American Leapfrogging Toward Tokyo
 Island-hopping
The Allied Halting of Hitler
 Victory of the Battle of the Atlantic
 Erwin Rommel sent to Egypt
A Second Front from North Africa to Rome
 The Allies take Italy
D-Day: June 6, 1944
 Conference at Tehran
 D-Day: Normandy
 General George S. Patton
FDR: The Fourth-Termite of 1944
 Truman as Vice President
Roosevelt Defeats Dewey
 FDR wins his fourth term so he could finish the war
The Last Days of Hitler
 Battle of the Bulge- Hitler’s last attempt at victory
 Holocaust revealed
 Hitler’s suicide
 Russian’s pillage and rape
 May 7, 1945- victory in Europe
Japan Dies Hard
 Fire-bomb raids
 Iwo Jima and Okinawa
The Atomic Bombs
 Manhattan Project
o Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 Japan surrenders unconditionally
The Allies Triumph
 Americans suffered 1 million casualties
The Allies
Their Leaders in WWII
Great Britain
France
Soviet Union
United States (1941)
___Winston Churchill________________
___Charles DeGaule_________________
___Joseph Stalin____________________
___Franklin D. Roosevelt______________
The Axis Powers
Their Leaders in WWII
Germany
Italy
Japan
___Adolf Hitler____________________
___Benito Mussolini_________________
___Emperor Hirohito________________
Sure, there were other good guys like Canada, Australia, China but the big players are the ones we’ll concern
ourselves with. Hey, what happened to Big, Bad Spain?
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING Q’s
1. The Neutrality acts fail to prevent America’s growing involvement in military conflicts in Asia
and Europe because America was never completely neutral. FDR did as much as he could to help
Britain and the other Allied powers. For example, the Lend-Lease act was instituted in March of
1941 to help Britain and China. Even though the United States want to formally stay out of WWII,
they did not want Nazis and Fascism to win. After Pearl Harbor and after Germany declared war
on the United States, the United States had no choice but to formally enter the war.
2. The US probably would have entered WWII eventually even if the Japanese had not attacked Pearl
Harbor as the Allies' need for direct military aid increased. In addition, Germany most likely
would have declared war on the United States with or without our declaration of war on Japan.
3. America’s did not give that much aid to Jewish refugees during the start of WWII. At the time, the
American population was primarily xenophobic, anti-immigration, and anti-Semitic and in
response the government practiced stricter immigration policies to keep Jewish refugees out.
Towards the end of the war, when the horror of the Holocaust became known, FDR started to take
action to rescue Jewish refugees. He set up the War Refugee Board to facilitate the rescue of
imperiled refugees. After the war officially ended, President Truman enabled displaced Jewish
people to more easily immigrate to America. In my opinion, as soon as the United States heard of
the atrocities that were inflicted on European Jews they should have acted to rescue these victims
and done so with all of their power. Also, I believe that America should have completely opened
its doors to all refugees during and after the war.
4. The wisest strategic decision of WWII was the Allies' deception of Germany before Normandy.
Britain purposely sent out thousands of messages containing false locations of D-Day and they
only sent one message out saying hat the location would be in Normandy. Secondly, the Allies
built a fake army and barracks across from the Pas de Calais to make the Germans think that that
was the real attack point. Believing this, the Germans reduced their forces at Normandy which
allowed the Allies to win at D-Day. The most questionable decision of WWII was when Hitler
invaded Russia. Although they initially had many victories, as soon as winter set in Hitler's troops
were severely unprepared. Many soldiers died that winter or deserted. The Russians gathered
troops and waited for Hitler's army to diminish and the attacked. By then, the Russians had more
soldiers and their weapons were winterized unlike the German's. Hitler had to retreat and suffered
huge losses.