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Transcript
AP Outline Notes – 826 – 858 Chapter 36 – America in World War II Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41 – “a date that will live in infamy” – brought the U.S. into WWII. The strategy of the U.S. and its allies was to ‘defeat Hitler first’, and to thus initially fight a defensive war in the Pacific. A. The Allies Trade Territory for Time 1) America had to retool for war production, and time was of the essence. a) Reasons – 1) The Fascists and the militarists had a big head-start. 2) Germany might develop a secret weapon – like an atomic bomb. 3) U.S. had a daunting task of feeding and supplying munitions to allies in far-away places, and transport its forces to places as far away as Burma and Britain. B. The Shock of War 1) WWII started with Hitler invading Poland 9/1/39 – Blitzkrieg 2) 1941 - Hitler violates the non-aggression pact with Stalin, and invades Soviet Union – helps to unify opposition in U.S. against Hitler a) WWII, unlike WWI, accelerated the assimilation process in U.S. b) Virtually no government witch-hunting of minority groups like happened in WWI, except for Japanese Americans. 1) Internment policy – 110,000 Japanese Americans were rounded-up and put in camps on West Coast, beginning in 1942. 2) U.S. tried to justify this on basis that Japanese Americans were security risks, but none of them were ever proven to be security risks. 3) Japanese American Neisse Regiments were most decorated in WWII 4) 1944 – Korematsu vs. U.S. – Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of forced Japanese relocation. – Note: 1988 – Congress gave official apology for internment program, and paid $20,000 to each camp survivor. 3) 1942 - ‘Dr. New Deal’ replaced by ‘Dr. Win-the-War’, as the need to win the war was the top priority, and America had become more conservative. C. Building the War Machine 1) Preparation and production for WWII was what finally pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. 2) Led by War Production Board, American factories engaged in massive production for WWII. a) Henry J. Kaiser – “Sir Launchalot” – huge shipbuilder b) War Production Board stopped manufacture of non-essential items such as passenger cars. Page 2. c) It set priorities for production - ex: rubber conservation with reduction of speed limit. d) Farmers increased production, with less help, better machines, and better fertilizers. 3) Full employment and scarce consumer goods brought surge of inflation in 1942. a) Office of Price Administration eventually brought inflation under control. b) Rationing held down consumption of critical goods such as meat and butter. 4) War Labor Board (WLB) imposed ceilings on wage increases a) Union membership grew during the war, but workers resented wage caps imposed by government. b) United mine workers, led by John L. Lewis, struck several times during WWII. c) 1943 – Simth Connally Anti-Strike Act – authorized the federal government to seize and operate industries where strikes shut down production. It made strikes against government-operated businesses a criminal offense. 1) Under this act, Washington took over the coalmines, and briefly the railroads. 2) Work stoppages accounted though for less than one percent of total working hours of U.S. wartime labor force. 3) On the whole American workers supported the war effort and went to work to do-so. 5) Manpower and Womanpower – 1) Almost 15 million men and about 216,000 women in noncombat roles) were in the armed services during WWII. 2) Best known of these women were the WAACS (army), WAVES (navy) and SPARs (Coast Guard). 3) Before U.S. involvement in the war, America started its first peacetime draft. 4) After Pearl Harbor, the draft took many more young men than before. a) certain key categories of agricultural and industrial workers were exempted from the draft b) 1942 – U.S. agreement with Mexico brought braceros – farm workers – from Mexico into U.S. to harvest fruit and grain crops in the West. c) Women went to work in factories – “Rosie the Riveter”, who helped to pave the way for the modern role of women in the workplace. d) The great majority of women, who had husbands at home, with small children, did not go into the workforce. Page 3. e) At the end of the war, 2/3s women working for the war effort left the labor force. f) Women rushed to the suburbs, and began to have the baby-boom generation (1945-1960). D. Wartime Migrations 1) FDR, who had called the South the number-one economic problem of America, focused states of the old Confederacy for many government defense contracts. This laid the seeds of the Sunbelt. 2) Despite this, about 1.6 million blacks migrated from the South seeking jobs in war plants in the North and West, and to escape Jim Crow. a) Tensions over employment, housing, and segregated facilities boiled over. b) 1941 - Black leader A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened a huge ‘Negro March on Washington’, to demand equality of opportunity for blacks in the armed forces and in war jobs. 1) FDR responded by issuing an executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries. 2) FDR also established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance of order forbidding said discrimination. 3) Blacks were drafted, but they were mostly assigned to service units, and subject to degradations such as segregated blood banks and serving in segregated units. 4) ‘Double V’ campaign – fighting for victory abroad and equality at home – started by black newspaper – Philadelphia Inquirer. a) Membership goes up in NAACP, and in 1942, Congress of Racial Equality formed (CORE.) b) “Great Migration” accelerates even more after the War, with the invention of the mechanical cotton picker in 1944 – its impact rivaled Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. It marked the end of the Southern need for cheap labor. c) In the 30 years after the war, about 5 million black tenant farmers and sharecroppers left the south and went northward in the ‘Great Migration.’ d) By 1970 half of the American black population lived outside of the South, and cities had become typically heavily black. 5) Many Native Americans left the reservations during the war. a) Thousands of Indians found war employment in the cities, and thousands also joined the service. Page 4. b) In 1940, more than 90 percent of Indians lived on reservations. c) Sixty years later, more than half of them lived cities, with a large concentration in Southern California. d) Comanche Indians in Europe and Navajos in the Pacific made huge contributions to the U.S. war effort as ‘code talkers’ – the Germans and the Japanese could never understand these spoken languages. 6) 1943- ‘zoot-suit’ riots - Mexicans and Mexican Americans in L.A. wearing ‘zoot-suits’ were viciously attacked by American sailors who cruised the streets searching for victims. 7) 1943 – Rioting breaks-out in Detroit between blacks and whites – reflective of the tension caused by job competition, rapid and fast influx of minorities in the cities, and racism – leaves 25 blacks dead and 9 whites. E. Maintaining the Home Front 1) Though much of the globe was wrecked during WWII, the U.S. economy was invigorated by the War. From 1940-1945, U.S. GNP grew by over $100 billion. 2) Disposable personal income more than doubled during the War. 3) Price controls were able to keep inflation sufficiently reigned-in during the war. a) When price controls were lifted in 1946, prices rose 33 percent in less than two years. b) The war, more than maybe even the New Deal, signaled the post 1945 era of big government intervention. c) Government imposed rationing was felt by all. d) Millions served in the armed forces, and millions worked in the defense industries, where employers and unions were monitored by the FEPC and the WLB. e) Government sponsored health plans, day-care, and housing projects brought aid to millions. f) The Office of Scientific Research and Development channeled several hundred million dollars into university-based scientific research – setting a precedent for partnership between the government and universities that provided the basis for U.S. technological and economic leadership in the post WWII era. Page 5. g) War spending finally brought full employment to the U.S., and thus it was war, not the New Deal that brought the U.S. out of the Depression. The post-war economy would depend dangerously on military spending, thus many view 1941-1945 as the beginning of the ‘warfare-welfare state.” h) WWII was incredibly expensive - $330 billion. i) Sale of government “E” bonds, and income taxes were how the U.S. paid for the war. j) The national debt increased about five-fold – about $49 billion in 1941 to $259 billion in 1945. F. The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1) Japan realized that it would have to win quickly, or suffer a slow loss. 2) Simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the period of time directly following, the Japanese attacked a) Guam b) Wake c) Philippines d) Hong Kong e) Malaya (with its important supplies of rubber and tin) 3) Burma Road – Over a rough route in the snake-infested jungles of Burma, (where the U.S. had sent some aid to Chiang Kai-shek, who was resisting the Japanese invaders into China) Japanese soldiers built Burma Road, which cut off American access. a) American fliers flew a handful of war supplies to Chiang ‘over the hump’ of the huge Himalayan mountains from the IndiaBurma theater. 4) The Japanese moved southward against the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. a) These islands fell quickly after the combined British, Dutch, Australian, and American air and naval forces had been defeated by the Japanese. b) Japanese expansion was slowed in the Philippines. 1) After the Japanese landed in the Philippines, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the American commander, withdrew with his troops to Bataan. 2) American forces supported by a larger Filipino force, heldoff huge Japanese attacks until, without supplies or reinforcements, they were forced to surrender in April of 1942. 3) Before the surrender, MacArthur was ordered to secretly depart to Australia, and from there lead the resistance to Japan. 4) As he left, he said – “I shall return” Page 6. 5) After his army had surrendered, they were treated with extreme cruelty in the horrible “Bataan Death March” to POW camps. 6) The island fortress of Corregidor in Manila harbor, surrendered in May 1942, leaving the Japanese in complete control of the Philippines. G. Midway – the turning point of the War in the Pacific 1) The Japanese continued to push southward, invading New Guinea, and landing on the Solomon Islands – in both cases putting Australia in jeopardy. 2) The Japanese were finally turned back at the Battle of the Coral Sea – May 1942. a) This was the first time in history that the fighting was done by carrier-based aircraft – neither fleet saw the other or fired a shot directly at the other. 3) Japan next sought to seize Midway Island, about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu. From Midway, the Japanese could attack Pearl Harbor a) June 3-6 – 1942, American Admiral Chester W. Nimitz directed a carrier strategy against the invading Japanese fleet. b) The fighting was done entirely by planes. c) The U.S. won the battle, as the Japanese withdrew after losing four crucial aircraft carriers, several planes, and many of Japan’s best pilots. . d) MIDWAY WAS THE TURNING POINT OF WWII IN THE PACIFIC. e) In there expansion eastward though, the Japanese took islands of Kiska and Attu in the Aleutian archipelago off Alaska – Japan had overextended itself. H. America Leapfrogging toward Tokyo 1) After Midway, the U.S. began its campaign of strategic Island hopping – taking strategic islands in the direction of Japan, to establish refueling stations for ships and submarines, and to build airfields for our planes, all in preparation for attacking Japan, and for bombing some of the enemy bases that the U.S. had bypassed. In the process, the Americans would bypass many islands that the Japanese held and heavily fortified. a) Guadalcanal – (in the Solomons) – the first in the island hopping campaign, and strategically important for assuring supplies to Australia. U.S. wins battle in February, 1943. The casualty ratio at Guadalcanal – Japanese to Americans – at more than 10 to 1 in favor of the Americans, would persist throughout the war. b) MacArthur in command of American forces protecting Australia, hung on to the southeastern tip of New Guinea – the last buffer to Australia. Page 7. c) The American navy turned the tide, as it inflicted deadly blows to Japanese supply ships and troop carriers. d) August, 1944 – U.S. and MacArthur achieve victory in New Guinea – the first step in ‘return’ing to the Philippines. e) Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy, with marines and army divisions was doing tough fighting and ‘leapfrogging’ the Japanese-held islands in the Pacific. f) Admiral Nimitz skillfully coordinated naval, air, and ground units in the island hopping campaign. g) May and August of 1943 – Attu and Kiska were easily retaken by U.S. in Aleutians. h) November, 1943 – ‘bloody Tarawa’ and Makin, both in Gilbert Islands, fell to the U.S. after bitter suicidal resistance. i) Jan and Feb 1944, U.S. takes over key posts on Marshall Islands. j) U.S. forces then focused on the valuable Mariana Islands, including America’s Guam. 1) From bases in the Marianas, the U.S. would launch roundtrip bombing raids on the Japanese home islands with the new B-29 superbombers. 2) June 19, 1944 – the ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’ – combination of the new American ‘Hellcat’ fighter plane and the new antiaircraft proximity fuse technology, destroyed about 250 Japanese aircraft, while only 29 American planes were lost. 3) Battle of the Philippine Sea – the following day (6/20) – U.S. navy sank several carriers, and the Japanese recovered from the heavy loss of planes, pilots, and ships. 4) With fanatical resistance finally failing, surviving Japanese soldiers and islanders took part in a mass suicide leap from ‘Suicide Cliff’ on Saipan. a) The major islands of the Marianas fell to the U.S. in July and August of 1944. b) With virtually unsinkable aircraft carriers at this point, the U.S. began virtual round-the-clock bombing of Japan in Nov, 1944. I. The Allies Stop Hitler 1) Like in the Pacific, the war for America in the Atlantic would be fraught with several early setbacks. It would not be until the spring of 1943 that the Allies clearly had the upper hand against the U-boats. a) Hitler started the war with a powerful fleet of ultramodern submarines, which operated in ‘wolf packs’ with devastating effect, particularly in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico. b) During a 10-month period in 1942, more than 500 merchant ships were reported lost. Page 8. c) Slowly, the U.S. achieved the upper-hand, using old techniques such as escorting convoys of merchant vessels and dropping depth charges from destroyers, and also using new ones like air patrol, the newly invented radar, and the bombing of submarine bases. Merchant seamen would say ‘Keep ‘Em Sailing’ – many of these seamen perished as unsung heroes of the war. d) British code-breakers who had cracked the ‘Enigma’ codes of the Germans, could now pinpoint locations of U-Boats in the North Atlantic. e) If the Allies had not won the Battle of the Atlantic, Britain would have been lost. 2) Turing point of land-air war against Hitler – late 1942 – a) May, 1942 – British launch a thousand-plane raid on Cologne, Germany. b) August, 1942 – American air force joins British RAF, bombing German cities. c) Turning point in North Africa - the “Desert Fox” – Marshall Irwin Rommel and his German tank forces had driven eastward into Egypt, and were threatening the Suez Canal. 1) Late October, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery turned Rommel back at the Battle of El Alamein, and with the aid of American-supplied Sherman tanks, quickly drove the Germans back to Tunisia. d) September, 1942 – The Soviets stall the German conquest of the Soviet Union at Stalingrad. 1) With horribly cold winter conditions for which Hitler’s troops were unprepared, more than 20 German divisions were defeated or surrendered – Stalingrad was the turning point of WWII in Europe. 2) Nov, 1942 – Russians unleash a counter-offensive, which was never seriously turned back. J. A Second Front from North Africa to Rome 1) By the end of WWII, about 20 million Soviets had been killed, and a huge swath of their nation had been laid to waste. 2) In 1942, there had already been millions of soldiers and civilians who had been killed in the war – but British and American losses combined were only in the thousands. 3) The Soviets obviously wanted a western front to be opened to take some of the pressure off the Soviet Union. 4) FDR wanted to open a western front in 1942 or 1943, fearful that the Soviets would not be able to stand up to the Germans, and that the Soviets would make a separate piece with Germany. Page 9. 5) Churchill and Britain opposed the opening of a western front, as they clearly remembered the horrific losses that they had sustained in WWI. a) Britain preferred to attack the ‘soft underbelly’ of Europe, in the Mediterranean area. b) The U.S. reluctantly agreed to postpone the huge invasion of Europe. c) The Compromise – an assault on French-held North Africa to create a second front. d) November 1942 – Dwight D. Eisenhower leads a joint Allied (U.S., British, and French) secret attack, with about 850 ships, on Algiers in North Africa. After brutal fighting, the German force surrendered in May 1943, in Tunisia. 6) Jan, 1943 – Casablanca – FDR and Churchill held a conference, and agree to a) put more pressure on in the Pacific b) invade Sicily c) put more pressure on Italy d) insist on ‘unconditional surrender’ of the enemy (would become a very controversial decision, because many said it would cause a ‘bunker’ mentality among the enemy.) 7) With victory in North Africa, Allied forces now turned their focus on Sicily, and the ‘soft underbelly’ of Europe. a) August, 1943 – Sicily falls to Allies b) Shortly before Sicily fell, Mussolini was deposed in Italy, and Italy surrendered unconditionally in Sept 1943. c) German troops stubbornly resisted Allied advances in Italy, and attacked Italian troops, because ‘turncoat’ Italy had declared war against Germany in October, 1943 d) For several months, the Germans halted the Allied advance in Italy, focusing their defense at Monte Cassino. e) The Allies were ultimately successful in their assault on the beachhead at Anzio, and then took Rome on June 4, 1944. f) May 2, 1945 – several hundred thousand Axis troops surrendered. g) The Italian second front drew some German troops and equipment away from the Soviet and French fronts (D-Day was June 6, 1944 – the Allied invasion of Europe at France.) But, it also may have delayed by several months, D-Day, which gave the Soviets more of a chance to advance into Eastern Europe – a circumstance that would have profound effect on Post WWII Europe. Page 10. K. D-Day – June 6, 1944 – 1) Stalin was displeased with FDR and Churchill for failing to open a western front in Europe. FDR and Churchill had promised Stalin that there would be a western front opened up. a) 1943 – Tehran Conference – Churchill, Stalin, and FDR met at Tehran, Iran, and agreed to the following: 1) Broad strategy, including the launching of Soviet attacks on Germany from the east simultaneously with Allied attacks from the west. 2) The Allied attack to open up the western front would be accomplished by a cross-English Channel invasion of France. 3) Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander of the Allied invasion. 4) Normandy, France was to be the location of the invasion. 5) June 6, 1944 – D-Day – the invasion proceeded, with the Germans providing heavy resistance, though they believed that the invasion would take more northerly. 2) The Allied beachhead, though hard to establish, gradually was enlarged, consolidated, and reinforced. 3) American armored divisions under the brilliant command of Gen. George S. ‘Blood ‘n’ guts’ Patton were instrumental in the re-conquering of France. 4) August 1944 - An American-French force landed on southern coast of France, and pushed northward. With the help of the French ‘underground’, Paris was liberated. 5) Allied forces now proceeded onward toward Germany. L. FDR REELECTED TO A FOURTH TERM – 1944 1) The Democrats re-nominated FDR, and nominated a new running mate (dumping Henry A. Wallace) for him – Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman – little known, but had recently made a name for himself as an effective chairman of a Senate committee examining wasteful war expenditures. 2) The Republicans nominated young dapper, liberal New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, a former prosecutor in NY City. His running mate was Sen. John W. Bricker of OH, an isolationist. a) Dewey’s platform called for continued prosecution of the War, and creation of a new international organization to keep world peace. 3) FDR defeats Dewey – with the war going well, FDR easily won a fourth term. Page 11. M. The End of Hitler. 1) With Allied bombs raining on German cities, the Soviets coming from the east and the Allies coming from the West, Hitler gambled everything on one last offensive. a) Dec 16, 1944 – Battle of the Bulge - Hitler unleashes a secret force that he has been assembling, against weak American lines in the Ardennes Forest. b) Hitler’s objective was to capture the Belgian port of Antwerp – a key part of the Allied supply system. c) Surprised, the Americans were driven back, creating a large ‘bulge’ in the Allied line. d) 101st Airborne Division halted the 10-day penetration of the Allied line, at Bastogne. 1) The U.S. commander, Brig. Gen. A.C. McAuliffe, defiantly responded to a German demand for surrender with simply stating “Nuts.” 2) March, 1945 – American troops reach Germany’s Rhine River, where, by a stroke of luck, they located one strategic bridge not blown-up. a) Eisenhower’s troops reached the Elbe River in April, 1945. b) There, American and Soviet troops clasped hands amidst cries of “Ameriikanskie tovarishchi” (American comrades). c) Americans found the horrible concentration camps where the Nazis had implemented Hitler’s ‘final solution’ – the mass murder of 1) ‘undesirables’ 2) Jews (approximately 6 million) 3) homosexuals 4) persons with disabilities 5) gypsies 6) political dissidents d) The U.S. government had known about Hitler’s genocide program – though not to the full extent of same - against the Jews but had been grievously slow to respond. 1) FDR had shut America’s door to huge numbers of Jewish refugees, as did several other nations. c) The Soviets, coming form the east, reached Berlin in April, 1945, while pillaging and raping, they captured the bombed-out city. d) Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on April 30, 1945. e) April 12, 1945 – FDR dies of a massive stroke. f) May 7, 1945 – the remains of the German government surrendered unconditionally. May 8 – V-E Day (Victory in Europe) was wildly celebrated in Allied nations. Page 12. N. Japan Finally Succumbs 1) By war’s end, American submarines in the Pacific – “the silent service” – sank about half of the Japanese merchant marine. 2) Giant bomber attacks, launched from Saipan and other captured Mariana islands, were destroying Japanese cities, converting them into burned-out rubble. a) March 9th and 10th, 1945 - huge American fire-bomb raid on Tokyo – approximately 83,000 people were killed. 3) Meanwhile, Gen. MacArthur was proceeding northwest for the Philippines, after he finished his conquest of New Guinea. a) Oct 20, 1944 – MacArthur ‘return’s to the Philippines. b) Oct 23-26, 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf - Japan’s navy made one last-ditch effort to stop MacArthur by wiping out his troop transports and supply ships. 1) Battle was fought on the sea and in the air, and was actually three battles. 2) The Americans won each of them. 3) Japan was no longer a naval power – it had lost about 60 ships in the greatest naval battle of all time. c) Jan 1945 - after Leyte Gulf, MacArthur landed on Luzon, the main Philippine island. 1) Manila was his main objective, which he would accomplish in March. 2) July, 1945 – MacArthur completes the conquest of the Philippines, but not without terribly bloody fighting. d) March, 1945 – Americans capture Iwo Jima – a tiny island needed as a refuge for damaged American bombers returning from raids on Japan. 1) Like Okinawa to follow, the Japanese put up some of their stiffest resistance, fighting to the death, choosing suicide rather than shameful surrender. 2) Over 4,000 Americans were killed in the 25-day assault on Iwo Jima. 3) In what might be the most famous photograph of WWII, U.S. marines hoisted the flag atop Mount Suribachi) e) April – June, 1945 - Okinawa – well defended (as was Iwo Jima,) needed by U.S. for closer bases for certain attacks on Japan. 1) In horribly bloody fighting (50,000 American casualties, and even more Japanese) U.S. finally captures Okinawa. 2) The U.S. navy sustained severe damage covering the U.S. troops in the assault on Okinawa. Page 13. a) Japanese suicide pilots (‘kamikazes’), committing hara-kiri for their emperor-god, crashed their planes into the decks and coning towers of the U.S. ships. b) Kamikazes sank more than 30 ships, and badly damaged many more. O. The Atomic Bombs 1) An all-out invasion of Japan was being planned by the U.S. a) It was estimated that this invasion would cost about one million American lives, and even more Japanese, as the emperor had instructed the citizens of Japan to fight when the invasion came. b) Japan, recognizing imminent defeat, secretly sent four peace feelers to the Soviet Union, which had not entered the Pacific war. 1) Because the U.S. had broken the Japanese codes, it knew about these peace overtures. 2) Japan outwardly expressed no desire to surrender unconditionally. 3) July, 1945 – Potsdam Conference, held in a suburb of Berlin – Truman met with Stalin and British leaders, and issued an ultimatum to Japan – surrender or be destroyed. a) Early in 1940, FDR was convinced by American and exiled scientists – most notably Albert Einstein – to proceed with research to develop an atomic bomb. This top-secret project to develop an atomic weapon would become known as the Manhattan Project. b) July, 1945 – U.S. detonated the first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert. c) August 6, 1945 – U.S. dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima, leaving 70,000 killed instantly, and another 60,000 or more to die from radiation and burns. d) August 8, 1945 – Stalin enters the war against Japan. e) Soviet armies roll over Japanese defenses at Manchuria and Korea in six days. f) August 9, 1945 – U.S. drops second atomic bomb – this time on the city of Nagasaki – this time about 80,000 killed or missing. g) August 10, 1945 – Japan asks for peace, on the condition that Hirohito, the emperor, be allowed remain on the ancestral throne as a nominal emperor. h) August 14, 1945 – the U.S. accepts the peace offer of Japan. Page 14. 2) September 2, 1945 – MacArthur conducts the official surrender ceremonies aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. At the same time, wild celebration of V-J Day – Victory in Japan Day – was taking place. P. The Allied Victory 1) U.S. forces suffered a million casualties during WWI, about 1/3rd of which were deaths. 2) The Soviets suffered about 20 million killed. 3) The U.S. itself had sustained essentially no damage, while much of the rest of the world lay in ruins. 4) America was more ready for WWII when it entered it than it had been for other wars. a) The U.S. had tremendous military leadership – 1) Eisenhower 2) MacArthur 3) Chief of Staff George Marshall 4) Admirals like Nimitz and Spruance 5) Great leaders and strategists as heads of state – FDR and Churchill, were critically important. 6) American industrial might and mass production were a critical part of American success in the War. 7) Though an unusual amount of control was exercised over the American individual during the war, the liberties of Americans were not seriously impaired.