Download - Kennedy HS

By: Phoebe Lee and Christy Kim
 The

Great Depression:
Devastating impact on the
economy during the 1930s
→ New Deal Policies of
FDR

Did not successfully end the
economic crisis
 Unemployment rates
were still high
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/
Main/TheGreatDepression

Cash and Carry Policy (1939)
 Problem: converting
manufacturing companies →
war production industries.
 “Conversion” - key to
economic growth during the
1940s = the goal of the public
officials and labor leaders.
 Walter Reuther of United Auto
Workers labor union convinced
car-company executives &
many federal officials to
convert to war production.
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/1
50377-alwyn-scott-turner?tab=ARTWORKS


Car companies converted to aircraft production
industries – required a major shift in both
technique and manpower
Military & carrier ship production - easy to convert
= produced as many as 106 ships between 19381940 and the same amount in 1941.

Needed to transport goods to Great Britain and France
 Maritime
Commission shipyards transported
goods (Lend-Lease Act) - contributed to the
heavy, post-war economic burden.

Lend-Lease Act: called for aircraft, ships, military
vehicles, munitions, and also food (esp. to Britain)
 Pearl
Harbor → enter war as the “Arsenal of
Democracy”
 War

1939: Several mobilization
agencies closely directed and
influenced the operation of private
companies and industries.



Administration
Manufacturers - not trusted to stop
producing consumer goods & fully
contribute to the war effort.
Stakes were too high to keep the
laissez-faire policy
Military services - unlimited
demands for equipment and
personnel

Caused major problems for the
manufacturers because it decreased
the products available to the public
(i.e. for textiles, cars, food)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We
_Can_Do_It!.jpg

War Production Board(Jan 1942)


Aim: to balance the demands of the
civilians & the military
Led by Donald Nelson - convinced the
military to reduce its “Olympian
demands” & establish a plan of war
production to meet most military and
some civilian needs


Social living & economic standing of the
people increased dramatically
Taxation and War bonds:

Department of Treasury generated money
to pay for war through various methods:

1st general income tax (applicable to
everyone) - collected by continuous
withholdings from paychecks
 Government took $45 billion in 1945 to
$8.7 billion in 1941
 Revenue continued growing as the tax
rate started to increase until the peak in
1944 to 20.9%
https://broeder10.wordpress.com/2
012/05/09/snap-shot-in-timemilwaukee-journal-april-1943-part2/

War bonds



Expanded to cover $167.2 billion.
Treasury Department created famous “war bonds”
featuring celebrities & values of the public (i.e. “Doing it
all you can, brother?”)
By 1946: 85 million Americans bought > $185 billion worth
of war bonds despite reduced paychecks due to the
income tax.
 Inflation:

Price controls on food and merchandise created to
resist inflation, but inflation soared 28.0% in 1946


Wage increase = improved quality of life & stability of
families
However, the deep south’s economies worsened

Expansion of Employment:

Fed Gov’t ruled
“maintenance-ofmembership” - required
employers to accept unions



Labor Unions grew;
unemployment rates dropped.
1944: unemployment dropped
to 1.2% of the civilian labor =
near “full employment”
status
Population shifts:

Need for more industrial
workers = great rural-urban http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Belt
migration (esp. to the west &
southwest)

Trend of growth in Sun Belt
cities (i.e. Houston, Miami,
Albuquerque, Phoenix, & Los
Angeles)

Scientific and Technological
Innovation:

Key aspect in WWII contributed greatly to Allies
victory
 Manhattan Project:



Cost ~ $2 billion & employed
> 100,000 professionals
Product: positively reflected
the war economy &
accelerated the surrender of
Japan after the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Postwar: War Production
Board Chairman (Nelson)
reconverted war production
industries back to
manufacturing companies in
favor of civilian production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon

Postwar economy = prosperous

Gross National Product jumped from
$200 thousand-million (1940) to
$300 thousand-million (1950) to >
$500 thousand-million (1960) due to
the production of goods & services
 Automobile industry: annually
quadrupled between 1946-1955
 Real estate: more affordable
mortgages
 Security: defense spending
increase due to the Cold War
 Major corporations merge: variety
of large and small industries (i.e.
telephone, hotels, bakeries,
insurance, and fast food, like
McDonald’s)
 The business market now not sold
products, but service.
http://soyandmilkfreelife.wordpress.com/20
12/03/03/mcdonalds-soyland/
http://econperspectives.blogspot.com/
http://xpda.com/junkmail/?issue=214
Government deficit more
than its own revenue
causing the federal deficit
to reach a level several
times higher than that
during the Great
Depression and increase
public debt.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1930_2010&view
=1&expand=&units=p&fy=fy11&chart=H1total&bar=0&stack=1&size=m&title=&state=US&color=c&local=s
http://thecurrentmoment.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/was-there-austerity-is-there-still/
The graph portrays a huge drop in government consumption
especially when the war was over. Consumption rates fell,
but the graph shows a significant difference between the
time of the great depression and that of the post war
period, which means the economy is still burgeoning with
new life.

Neutrality Acts of 1935,
1936, and 1937: no
Americans on belligerent
ships, no selling or
transporting munitions to
belligerents, no loans to
belligerents

Neutrality Acts of 1939:
cash and carry policy
(munitions for European
Western democracies)
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~le20j/NeutralityAfterWar.html
http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=418991
 Move

Fall of France




from Isolation to Intervention
FDR → Two-ocean navy and construction of huge air
fleets
Congress appropriated $37 billion within a year
Congress → America’s first peacetime draft on Sept.
6, 1940 to train 1.2 million troops and 800,000
reserves.
German Threat led to the Havana
Conference of 1940:

US met with Latin America, agreeing to uphold the
Monroe Doctrine.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/06/francesecond-word-war-de-gaulle

German air attacks in Britain
split isolationist and
interventionist Americans


Sept. 2, 1940: 50 US Destroyers for
8 British Bases
Financial Weakness of Britain →
Lend-Lease Bill (March 1941)
 Provided supply of munitions to
belligerents
 By 1945: $50 billion worth of
munitions sent
 German submarines begin to sink
US ships (limited) US navy
escorts shipments (July 1941)
 Clashes with German Uboats → shoot-on-sight
policy
http://blogs.cfr.org/patrick/2011/08/16/rememberi
ng-the-atlantic-charter/


German Attack on USSR → US Repeal
of Neutrality Act of 1939, supporting
the USSR through the Lend-Lease
policy to keep the war in Europe
 Atlantic Conference (August 1941)
 Churchill and FDR draft 8-point
Atlantic Charter→ call for selfdetermination and a new League
of Nations.
Late 1940: Embargo on Japan → push
toward joining WWII
 Pearl harbor (Dec. 7, 1941)
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945
3,000 American causalities
 Destroyed aircrafts, the US
battleship fleet, and numerous
small ships.


Intervention:
US declares war in support of
the Allies (Britain, France,
and USSR) on December
11,1941 on Axis powers
(Germany, Italy, and Japan)
 US and Britain agree on
“getting Germany first” in
the ABC-1.
 General Douglas MacArthur:
US commander leading the
defense in the Philippines
against Japanese; kicked out,
but returns in 1944
 US: Island-hopping strategy in
the Pacific War (1942-1945)

http://theinquisitiveloon.blogspot.com/2012/04/retri
bution-battle-for-japan-1944-45.html

Casablanca Conference (Jan
1943)



FDR and Churchill in Casablanca,
Morocco. Stalin was unable to attend
due to USSR military engagement
with Germany.
Developments: finalized strategic
plans & “unconditional Surrender”
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937
-1945/Casablanca
Tehran Conference (Nov. 28 – Dec.
1, 1943): Stalin, Roosevelt, and
Churchill agree on broad plans for
launching simultaneous attacks on
Germany:


USSR from the east
US and Britain in northern France - May
1944 (Operation Overlord)
http://history.state.gov/milestones/19371945/TehranConf

Bretton Woods Conference (July 1944)
United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference of 44 countries in Bretton
Woods, New Hampshire.
 Creation of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD)


http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937
-1945/BrettonWoods
Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945): Stalin,
Churchill, Roosevelt agreed on:
Crushing Germany
 Occupation zones in Germany
 Allowing Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania
to have a representative government
based on free elections
 A new international peace
organization(United Nations)

http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937
-1945/YaltaConf

United Nations Conference succeeds
the L of N (Apr. 25, 1945)



Actions could not be taken against
Participating nations without the
consent of the U.N.
Leaders: US, Britain, USSR, France,
China
Potsdam Conference (July 1945):
Truman, Stalin, and Churchill agree
on:



An ultimatum for Japan to surrender or
be destroyed.
Est. 4 occupation zones in Germany
that were demilitarized and occupied
by Britain, France, US, and the USSR
Revised German-Polish-Soviet border
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937
-1945/UN
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937
-1945/PotsdamConf



Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August
6th and 9th 1945.
The formation of UN, 1945
 Oct. 24, 1945: 29 nations ratified the Charter for the
creation of the UN
Emergence of US as a world superpower.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm
"Milestones: 1937-1945." U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. United States Department
of State, 3 Dec. 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945>.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A History of the
Republic. Thirteenth ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2006. 800-81. Print.
Tassava, Christopher J. "The American Economy during World War II." Economic History Services.
EH.net Encyclopedia, 5 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.
<http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tassava.WWII>. “
The Postwar Economy: 1945-1960." United States History. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
2012. <http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-114.htm>.