Download 1 Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) - U.S. Government Introduction

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) - U.S. Government
Introduction
Aristide Briand, the French foreign minister, angered U.S. Secretary of State Frank
Kellogg when Briand asked the American people directly whether they would sign a
treaty with France to prevent future wars. Kellogg believed that Briand should have gone
through the normal diplomatic channels. Furthermore, the secretary believed that
accepting Briand's offer would eventually draw the United States into another world war.
Although its actions were not isolationist, the United States had an isolationist feeling
during the 1920s.
Because the United States believed that the European alliance system had caused World
War I, it was hesitant to sign any type of alliance treaty with another country. There were
some groups, however, that thought cooperating with the French would bring the United
States closer to joining the League of Nations, and Briand feared their public attacks if he
failed to pursue the offer. Kellogg, adopting an idea from isolationist Senator William E.
Borah, proposed a multilateral treaty that fifteen nations signed. Think about world
events in the 1930s and 1940s as you answer the following questions.
Source
Article 1. The high contracting parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective
peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies,
and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.
Article 2. The high contracting parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes
or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise
among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.
Questions to Answer:
1. What did the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlaw?
2. What did the pact propose in its place?
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of this policy to solve world problems.
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World War II Homefront (1942)
Introduction
Few events in American history have moved the American people about so massively as World
War II. Using information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this map illustrates population
migration during the 1940s.
Questions to Consider
1 Looking at the legend for the map, what do the shaded circles represent?
2 What two cities appear to have grown the most from 1940 to 1950? Speculate about why you
think these two cities grew more than the other cities shown on the map.
3 After studying the arrows representing the movement of people during the 1940s, which
area(s) of the country increased the most in population?
4 From the information available to you, explain why people were moving in these patterns
during World War II and the rest of the 1940s.
Source: Thomas A. Bailey, David M. Kennedy, and Lizabeth Cohen.
The American Pageant, 11th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998), 854.
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Effects of the Atomic Bomb (1945) - The United States Bombing Survey
Introduction
Few actions of the United States government remain as controversial as the dropping of
the atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II in the Pacific. On August 6, 1945, a
single atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later a
second bomb was detonated at Nagasaki. No one at the time knew exactly what this new
form of weaponry would accomplish, which was reason enough for several prominent
American scientists to oppose its use. Within days it was obvious to the world that the
United States possessed the most awesome and destructive technology imaginable. In
1944, a joint Army-Navy group, the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, had been
organized to study the effect of the air war on the military, economic, and political
structures of Germany and Japan. Their report on Hiroshima and Nagasaki enormously
influenced both government policy and popular perceptions of atomic bombs.
Source
A single atomic bomb, the first weapon of its type ever used against a target, exploded
over the city of Hiroshima at 0815 on the morning of 6 August 1945. Most of the
industrial workers had already reported to work, but many workers were enroute and
nearly all the school children and some industrial employees were at work in the open on
the program of building removal to provide firebreaks and disperse valuables to the
country... Because of the lack of warning and the populace's indifference to small groups
of planes, the explosion came as an almost complete surprise, and the people had not
taken shelter. Many were caught in the open, and most of the rest in flimsily constructed
homes or commercial establishments.
...Hiroshima was uniformly and extensively devastated. Practically the entire densely or
moderately built-up portion of the city was leveled by blast and swept by fire. A "firestorm" ...developed in Hiroshima: fires springing up almost simultaneously over the wide
flat area around the center of the city drew in air from all directions... The "fire-wind"
attained a maximum velocity of 30 to 40 miles per hour 2 to 3 hours after the explosion.
The "fire-wind" and the symmetry of the built-up center of the city gave a roughly
circular shape to the 4.4 square miles which were almost completely burned out...
At Nagasaki, the scale of destruction was greater than at Hiroshima, though the actual
area destroyed was smaller because of the terrain and the point of fall of the bomb. The
Nagasaki Prefectural Report describes vividly the impress of the bomb on the city and its
inhabitants:
Within a radius of 1 kilometer from ground zero, men and animals died almost
instantaneously from the tremendous blast pressure and heat; houses and other structures
were smashed, crushed and scattered; and fires broke out. The strong complex steel
members of the structures of the Mitsubishi Steel Works were bent and twisted like jelly
and the roofs of the reinforced concrete National Schools were crumpled and collapsed,
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indicating a force beyond imagination. Trees of all sizes lost their branches or were
uprooted or broken off at the trunk...
...The most striking result of the atomic bombs was the great number of casualties. The
exact number of dead and injured will never be known because of the confusion after the
explosions. Persons unaccounted for might have been burned beyond recognition in the
falling buildings, disposed of in one of the mass cremations of the first week of recovery,
or driven out of the city to die or recover without any record remaining... The Survey
believes the dead at Hiroshima to have been between 70,000 and 80,000, with an equal
number injured; at Nagasaki over 35,000 dead and somewhat more than that injured...
Most of the immediate casualties did not differ from those caused by incendiary or highexplosive raids. The outstanding difference was the presence of radiation effects, which
became unmistakable about a week after the bombing.
The seriousness of these radiation effects may be measured by the fact that 95 percent of
the traced survivors of the immediate explosion who were within 3,000 feet suffered from
radiation disease...
A plausible estimate of the importance of the various causes of death would range as
follows:
Flash burns, 20 to 30 percent.
Other injuries, 50 to 60 percent.
Radiation sickness, 15 to 20 percent...
...The flash of the explosion, which was extremely brief, emitted radiant heat traveling at
the speed of light. Flash burns thus followed the explosion instantaneously...
Survivors in the two cities stated that people who were in the open directly under the
explosion of the bomb were so severely burned that the skin was charred dark brown or
black and that they died within a few minutes or hours...
Because of the brief duration of the flash wave and the shielding effects of almost any
objects-leaves and clothing as well as buildings-there were many interesting cases of
protection. The radiant heat came in a direct line like light, so that the area burned
corresponded to this directed exposure. Persons whose sides were to-ward the explosion
often showed definite burns of both sides of the back while the hollow of the back
escaped.
People in buildings or houses were apparently burned only if directly exposed through
the windows. The most striking instance was that of a man writing before a window. His
hands were seriously burned but his exposed face and neck suffered only slight burns due
to the angle of entry of the radiant heat through the window...
Unfortunately, no exact definition of the killing power of radiation can yet be given, nor a
satisfactory account of the sort and thickness of concrete or earth that will shield people...
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In the meanwhile the awesome lethal effects of the atomic bomb and the insidious
additional peril of the gamma rays speak for themselves.
There is reason to believe that if the effects of blast and fire had been entirely absent from
the bombing, the number of deaths among people within a radius of one-half mile from
ground zero would have been almost as great... Instead of being killed outright as were
most of these victims, they would have survived for a few days or even 3 or 4 weeks,
only to die eventually of radiation disease...
Questions to Answer:
1. When was the first atomic bomb dropped?
2. Why did the explosion come as almost a complete surprise to the residents of
Hiroshima?
3. Describe the effects of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.
4. Compare the scale of destruction in Hiroshima with that in Nagasaki.
5. Explain the importance of the lack of scientific knowledge about the long-term
effects of radiation.
6. What lessons were learned from these atomic attacks?
7. Was the United States justified in its use of these two atomic bombs?
Truman Doctrine (1947) - Harry S. Truman
Introduction
In the aftermath of World War II, communists attempted to seize power in Greece and
Turkey. Those governments, backed by the British, resisted with military force. But in
1947, Britain informed the U.S. government that it could no longer maintain the expense
of aiding those nations. President Harry Truman personally appeared before a joint
session of Congress on March 12, 1947, to request that the United States abandon its
historic commitment to nonintervention in Europe during peacetime and extend full aid to
Greece and Turkey. Congress approved what became known as the "Truman Doctrine"
by huge majorities. Think about the role of the United States in the world political order
as you analyze this document.
Source
The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance
before a joint session of the Congress.
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The foreign policy and the national security of this country are involved. . . .
One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of
conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from
coercion. This was a fundamental issue in the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory
was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon
other nations.
We shall not realize our objectives, however, unless we are willing to help free peoples to
maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements
that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes. This is no more than a frank
recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed upon free peoples, by direct or indirect
aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of
the United States.
The peoples of a number of countries of the world have recently had totalitarian regimes
forced upon them against their will. . . . At the present moment in world history nearly
every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a
free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free
institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty,
freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the
majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed
elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own
way.
I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is
essential to economic stability and orderly political processes. . . .
It is necessary only to glance at a map to realize that the survival and integrity of the
Greek nation are of grave importance in a much wider situation. If Greece should fall
under the control of an armed minority, the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be
immediate and serious. Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire
Middle East.
Moreover, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a profound
effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great
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difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the
damages of war. . . .
Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far
reaching to the West as well as to the East.
We must take immediate and resolute action. . . .
The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow
in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a
people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive.
The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedom.
If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world—and we shall
surely endanger the welfare of this Nation.
Great responsibilities have been placed upon us by the swift movement of events.
I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely.
Questions to Answer:
1. Describe Truman's beliefs about the primary objectives of U.S. foreign policy.
2. Define totalitarian. What countries is Truman referring to when he discusses
"totalitarian regimes"?
3. Compare and contrast democracy and totalitarianism.
4. Why does Truman consider Greece and Turkey so crucial? Do you agree with his
assessment?
5. Why does Truman frame his request in the context of an international conflict?
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