Download US Entry Into Ww2 Essay Research Paper

U.S Entry Into Ww2 Essay, Research Paper
US ENTRY INTO WORLD WAR II US ENTRY INTO WORLD WAR II The United States
entered the war for one main reason the attack on Pearl Harbor but a number of events led the
United States to ally itself indirectly with Britain before the attack on Pearl Harbor despite its
initial convictions to stay neutral. Events Before US Entry The United States ADOPTED
POLICIES TO KEEP ITSELF FROM BEING FINANCIALLY and militarily INVOLVED
WITH THE war. Since loans they had made to countries in Europe during World War I were not
paid back they decide to prevent this from happening again. Japan did not formally adopt
fascism, but the armed forces’ powerful position in the government enabled them to impose a
similar type of totalitarianism. The Allies trying to avoid war tried to appease Hitler by giving
him what he wanted but that did not stop him he continued to expand. The attack on Ethiopia by
the Axis resulted in a slap on the administered by the League on the Axis. A similar action was
taken when Germany took the Sudetenland. The U.S passed three neutrality acts from 1935 -37
they prohibited actions by U.S. Citizens from aiding foreign belligerents. This was done so both
sides would see them as neutral. The U.S. had severely impaired its ability to act against
aggression by passing a neutrality law that prohibited material assistance to all parties in foreign
conflicts (Encarta 97). The nation’s moral climate was completely against Germany and Japan’s
actions but at this point they were not willing to go to war over it. Japan used the Mukden
incident as a excuse to attack China despite the fact the League protested against it. In 1937 a
boycott was set on aggressive nations. The United States took every means necessary short of
war to impede the progress of countries with totalitarian dictatorships. They did this in order for
democracies or at least more democratic governments to be set up in Europe. They did not want
to become directly involved in the war but they sided with allies and they needed to do
something to aid them before they fell to the Axis powers. They gave the right for France and
England to purchase U.S. arms in attempt to aid them. In 1940 fifty-year-old U.S. destroyers
were leased to England in exchange for bases on western British colonies, which was called the
Lend Lease Act. The success of Germany prompted the United States to strengthen its defenses
in fear they may have to join the war. $18 billion dollars was used to raise an army of 1.2 million
and build up a strong navy and to prepare American industry for a war (Encarta 97). One cause
for the United States to join the war was the defeat of France. The Germans began their attack on
France on May 20th and by the 26th they had pushed French and English forces to narrow strip
of beach .On June 25th of that year France signed an Armistice with Germany. Germany then set
up a puppet government in France, which was controlled by Germany. At this point Germany
was defeating the Allies and it seemed that the Allies cause to stop Hitler might be doomed. Now
that only weakened England and Russia were the only ones with any chance of stopping Hitler’s
progress the U.S. feared a victory for the Axis. The U.S. shocked at the fall of France began its
first peacetime conscription. That year Hitler deployed it’s main forces to the East and allied
with countries from the southeast of Europe and Finland against Russia. Yugoslavia was asked to
join Hitler when they refused to join Germany’s forces they were then made a target. In June of
1940 Germany decided to cut off the lifeline from Britain and it’s colonies using submarine
warfare. Germany had bases in both France and Finland. This sea battle was called the battle of
the Atlantic. They then decided to take the war to a new level and attack Britain they decided to
fight in the air (Battle of Britain) but they underestimated Britain who had radar. Germany
attacked cities along the coastline but Germany had to withdraw and the attack was postponed.
Italy Germany’s ally took the war to the Balkans and into Northern Africa. England then began
to repel Italy’s forces when Hitler sent German troops to aid Italy . Romania and Hungary joined
the Axis powers in 1940 and in 1941 Bulgaria joined Germany. Up to this point in the war the
United States tried to stay neutral and not involve itself in the war. The reason behind this
isolationism was the result of World War I which cost the U.S. a great deal of money and lives
so we no longer wanted to be entangled with European affairs. Then they abandoned this ideal
and began giving aid to Britain. Germany continued to use unrestricted submarine warfare. In
January of 1941 the United States and Britain began to strategize the entry of the United States.
This strategy entailed that the Allies would focus on Germany and deal with Japan later if
needed. For they felt Japan would not be hard to defeat and Hitler was the main problem and
fear. Germany then attacked Russia with a force of three million troops. They focused their
attack on three key areas Moscow, Leningrad and Kyyiv (Encarta 97 ). The US decided to lend
aid to Russia to help them with their struggle with Germany. The United States believed it would
all be over in a month or so. Initially the Germans had success and in the Russian winter the
Russians went on the counteroffensive and had regained some of the territory Germany took
over. But Germany still had control of Leningrad. There was also still a threat on Moscow and
they still controlled the Ukraine. The war was now on a world scale.
BUILD UP The pressure for the US to join and fight in the Pacific against the Japanese grew
since the Japanese had now entered the war. Japan began to expand in the Pacific. The US
wanted to stop the expansion but they did not think the American people would want to go to
war to prevent it. In March of 1941 Congress signed the Lend-Lease Act in which seven billion
dollars was to be lended or leased in weapons and in other forms of aid to countries the President
would decide on later. This strategy would give a victory to the Allies without the U.S. having to
send troops. The United States began to escort British vessels west of Iceland and in September
they were authorized to attack Axis ships if needed. Japan took over Indochina from France. The
United States in turn prohibited the exportation of steel, gasoline , and iron to Japan. The
Russians and Japanese had signed a treaty earlier in which neither one would attack the other.
Japan continued to expand east. Japanese assets were froze two days later to prevent them from
getting the supplies they needed. Japan felt that the United States was the only obstacle in their
path for domination of the Asian continent so they planned an attack on Pearl Harbor where the
majority of the Pacific fleet was. On December 7,1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor this event
pushed the United States to enter the war and they declared war on Japan the next day. Italy and
Germany then declared war on the United States on the 11th. ENTRY The United States
mobilized in many aspects of the economy. The government directed science and technology to
military purposes. Industry focused on the war effort and the government regulated a myriad of
other aspects. The US began to send more troops and supplies to help the allied cause. The U.S.
brought much needed supplies, weapons, money and a boost in morale to the depleted troops of
the Allies. The U.S. added the much needed support and helped the Allies push back the
Germans. The United States and England were pushing towards Berlin in order to prevent Russia
from going further west inn case later they attempted to claim the territory they had conquered.
The big question in the war was whether the USSR could survive a second German summer
offensive, and the Russians were urging the U.S. and Britain to relieve the pressure on them by
starting an offensive in the west (Encarta 97). General George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army chief
of staff, believed the best way to help the Russians and bring an early end to the war was to stage
a buildup in England and attack across the English Channel into northwestern Europe (Encarta
97 ). In a series of conferences with other allies they decided to make a cooperative and focus
their attack on Germany. They also discussed how to get Germany out of the Ukraine. They also
decided what to do with Germany when they surrendered and what the peace agreements should
be made. Germany was soon defeated and attention was now focused on Japan. The United
States decided to use a leap frog strategy to take over the islands Japan had taken over. The
Battle of Midway had stopped the Japanese in the central Pacific, but they continued to advance
in the southwest Pacific along the Solomon’s chain and overland on New Guinea. On July 2,
1942, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) directed the naval and ground forces in the south and
southwest Pacific to halt the Japanese, drive them out of the Solomon’s and northeastern New
Guinea, and eliminate the great base the Japanese had established at Rabaul, on New Britain in
the Bismarck Archipelago ( Encarta 97 ). The U.S. slowly took back the islands from Japan. The
U.S. withheld the fact that they had a nuclear bomb. The U.S. fearful that Russia would soon
attack Japan and try to claim the spoils dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
This ended the war with Japan before Russia could enter into it. They decided to split Germany
in four different occupation zones. Which later was split in half between East and West Germany
with the East under Russian control. Russia and the United States were now the only super
powers left and the suspicions rose between the two which resulted in the Cold War which lasted
many decades following the war. The only reason Russia was part of the allied coalition was
because England needed their help in defeating Germany and Russia feared that Germany would
attack them or take Poland, which Russia wanted as a buffer zone. Now that Germany was
defeated there was no longer a reason to be allies anymore. The one positive result was that the
war took the United States out of the recession and it got rid of Hitler and the other dictators that
allied themselves with him. The United States lost lots of youngmen to accomplish this as well
as money. The Cold War ended up being a result of the since they were the two leading nations
in the new era.