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World War II
-Key Concepts-
I. The Pacific Theater
• The surrender of the
Philippine Islands
• Japanese “ran wild” for
six months
• Dolittle Raid (April, 1942)
• Battle of Coral Sea (May,
1942)
• Battle of Midway Island
(June, 1942)
• Battle of Guadalcanal
(Fall, 1942)
I. The Pacific Theater (cont.)
• Reasons for delay in
defeating the Japanese
--Kamikaze
• Efforts to recapture the
Philippines
--Battle of Leyte Gulf
(October, 1944)
• “Island hopping”
--Battle of the Philippine
Sea (June, 1944)
I. Pacific Theater (cont.)
• Iwo Jima and
Okinawa (1945)
• Conflict between
MacArthur and Nimitz
• American bombing
strategy
-- “fire storm”
technique
I. Pacific Theater (cont.)
• Reasons for decision to
use the atomic bomb
• Development and
production of the A-bomb
• “Little Boy” and “Fat
Man” (August 6 & 9,
1945)
• Soviet declaration of war
against the Japanese
• Japanese surrender
II. The War in Europe
A. Background
• European war was the focus of American attention
• Distribution of German firepower
• Effectiveness of German submarines off the east
coast in 1942
• 26 belligerents sign a declaration of United
nations (January 1, 1942)
• No US action in this theater until November of
1942
B. Differing Strategies for
Fighting the Germans
• British Strategy
-- “peripheral campaign”
• US Strategy
--Second front in France as soon as possible
• Soviet Strategy
--Second front in France as soon as possible
C. Land Operations: November,
1942-June, 1944
• Landing in North
Africa— “Operation
Torch”
--British General
Bernard Montgomery
--German General
Irwin Rommel
• The Battle of the
Atlantic
C. Land Operations: November,
1942-June, 1944 (cont.)
• Casablanca Conference
(January, 1943)
• Campaign against
Germans in Sicily and
then Italy
• No end to the war without
unconditional surrender of
all enemies
• The Italian campaign
(September, 1943-May,
1945)
D. “D-Day”: Allied Landing in
Northern France (June, 1944)
• American Bombing
strategy against Germany
• “Operation Overlord”
• George Patton used as a
decoy
• The “Breakout” at St. Lo
(late July)
• Assassination plot against
Hitler by German High
Officer Command
E. From D-Day to the German
Surrender
• Eisenhower’s decisionmaking in the fall of 1944
• Battle of the Bulge
(December, 1944)
• Hitler’s suicide (April 30,
1945)
• Capture of Berlin and
German surrender (May 8,
1945)
• News of the Holocaust
and the Nuremberg Trials
III. Mobilization at Home
A. Economic Conversion
• Mobilization was further along at the time of Pearl
Harbor than it had been when war was declared
during World War I
• Economy partially mobilized as well by lend-lease
and defense efforts
• Creation of War Production Board (WPB) in
January of 1942
• Use of rationing to conserve war resources
• “Big Inch” pipeline laid from Texas to New York
• Office of Scientific Research and Development
• Government spending increased dramatically
B. Financing the War
•
•
•
•
45% of World War II paid for with taxes
Institution of the automatic payroll deduction
$150 billion worth of bonds sold
Tremendous increase in the national debt—six
times the size of the debt at the time of Pearl
Harbor
• Finding workers is now the problem, not finding
jobs for unemployed people
C. Economic Controls
• Specter of inflation haunted the US economy
• The Office of Price Administration (OPA) created
by Congress in January of 1942
• Wages and farm prices were not controlled
• Farm prices rose 150% over 1914 levels
• Conflict between management and workers grew
during the War
• FDR’s “Hold the Line” Order (April, 1943)
D. Social Effects: Women
• Women in the armed
forces
• 6 million women entered
the work force
• Large numbers even in
heavy industry
• Larger proportion of older,
married women working
• Still, some vocal
opponents to the trend
E. Social Effects: Blacks
• The inflammable issue
of Black participation
in the defense effort
• Segregated units
• Tuskegee Airmen
• Threat of the march on
Washington (February,
1941)
E. Social Effects: Blacks
• The “Double V”
campaign (1942)
• Membership in the
NAACP grows
• Smith v. Allwright
(1944)
• Violence on Belle Isle,
near Detroit (June 2021, 1943)
F. Social Effects: JapaneseAmericans
• Better record overall
regarding American civil
liberties than during WWI
• Japanese “War Relocation
Camps”
• Racial prejudice stirred up
by Pearl Harbor
• Contributions to the war
effort by JapaneseAmericans
G. Domestic Politics
• Growing political conservatism marked the
wartime period
• Congress dismantles many of the remaining “New
Deal” programs
• Congress generally cooperated with the
Administration’s war efforts
--Senate War Investigating Committee led by
Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman
• Roosevelt’s Election to a Fourth Term
IV. The Yalta Conference
(February, 1945)
A. Background
• The relationship
between FDR,
Churchill and Stalin
• Reasons for tension
between the US and
the USSR
• United in the goal of
defeating the
Germans, but different
war aims beyond that
B. War Aims
• Russian War Aims
--Heavy Reparations and
sympathetic governments
in Eastern Europe
• British War Aims
--Balance of Power in
Europe
• American War Aims
--Free trade, Free elections
and Free governments
C. Resolution of the Issues
• Germany divided into “temporary” zones of
occupation
• Joint occupation of Berlin
• Reparation payments
• The status of Eastern European countries
--Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
• The boundaries and the government of Poland
--Lublin government = pro-Soviet
C. Resolution of the Issues
(cont.)
• The “Yalta Formula”
• Soviets demanded “friendly” governments
in Eastern Europe
• FDR needs Soviet assistance with the
Japanese
• The creation of the United Nations with
guarantees of American membership
D. Historical Controversy
Surrounding Yalta
• Was FDR healthy and in his right mind?
Did he give away too much?
• Soviet pledge to make war on Japan in
exchange for certain concessions
• Reasons for FDR’s bargain with Stalin to
gain Soviet assistance against Japan
• A defense of the Yalta decisions
V. War-Time Changes for
American Society and Politics
• Casualties and cost of
WWII
• Improvement in Medical
Technology
• Creation of a military
bureaucracy
--National Security Act
(July, 1947)
--Defense Department,
Joint Chiefs of Staff, CIA
V. War-Time Changes (cont.)
• Creation of the Atomic
Energy Commission
(August, 1946)
• Creation of a “militaryindustrial” complex
• Power of the American
presidency continues to
grow
• Presidential Succession
Act (1947) and the 22nd
Amendment (1951)
VI. Demobilization
• Not too bad after WWII
• Rapid demobilization and
the problems it creates
• The G.I. Bill (1944)
-- “52/20 Club”
--low interest home loans
--stipend plus tuition to
return to or go to college
• Impact of the G.I. Bill on
American society and
college campuses
VII. Inflation
• Inflation was not too big
of a problem during WWII
• Truman’s unpopular
attempt to keep the
controls on
• Inflation increased
dramatically between
1945-1948
• Truman criticized for
these woes
• Return of inflation later
VIII. The Changing Economic
Role of the National Government
• The “New Deal” and World War II brought greater
federal intervention in the national economy than
ever before
• The Full Employment Act of 1946
--Created an Office of Economic Advisors
• Truman’s problems with conservatives in
Congress
• Federal government would stay committed to
national economic health
IX. American Farming During
and After the War
• Farmers did well during WWII
• Number of farms and farmers steadily
decreased
• Burst in mechanized, large-scale farming
and agribusiness
• Centralization of farming was the clear
post-war trend in agriculture
X. The Labor Movement During
the War and After
• During WWII, the American labor movement was
strong and getting stronger
• Why did union strength begin to fall off after
WWII?
--traditional union members were already
organized
--unionization did not do well in the post-war
south
--post-war prosperity hurt the strength of unions
--Taft-Hartley Act (1947)