Download US History - Unit 6: WWII

U.S. History - Unit 6: WWII
I.
The Roots of War
A. Treaty of Versailles, 1918 – peace settlement after WWI
1. created a set of small new nations in Eastern Europe = vulnerable to aggression from larger neighbors
(Germany & Soviet Union)
2. Italy & Japan = failed to recognize their stature as world powers
3. Germany = betrayed rather than defeated, harsh war reparations and loss of lands
B. 1920’s & 30’s: economic crisis and political instability fueled the rise of right-wing dictatorships that
offered territorial expansion by military conquest as way to redress old rivalries, dominate trade, gain
access to raw materials (Hitler = Germany / Mussolini = Italy / Franco = Spain / Stalin = Russia / Emperor
Hirohito = Japan)
C. Japanese Nationalism = wanted to expel Europeans and Americans from Asia and create a Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere (Asia controlled by Japanese)
1. Japanese ambition in Asia was to create a Pan-Asian empire with Japan at the center as an imperial
power and a defensive ring of 500 miles to protect the homeland.
a. Most of Japanese territorial gains would focus on China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands
2. Earliest national aggression in WWII took place when Japan invaded Manchuria China in 1931
3. In 1937 = Japan launched a brutal invasion of China
D. European Nationalism = expansion of territories through military aggression
1. Italy: conquest of Ethiopia in 1935 & intervention in Spain in support of Gen. Francisco Franco
2. Germany: Hitler made himself the German Fuhrer, 1934 (absolute leader)
a. Thousand Year Reich – combined historic German interest in eastward expansion with tradition of
German racial superiority
1) Lebensraum (living space) created by taking land from the Russian Slavic peoples of the East
2) Genocide (systematic murder) of the Jewish people of Europe
b. Nuremburg Laws, 1935 = denied civil rights to Jews
1) NAZI government took Jewish property and excluded Jews from most jobs
c. Concentration Camps = prisons created by the Nazi’s to punish political dissidents, Jews, Gypsies,
homosexuals, and other ethnic groups considered undesirable
1) The camps evolved into harsh labor camps and finally into extermination camps
E. Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936 = alliance between Germany & Italy
1. Grew into the Tripartite Act, 1940 which included Japan
2. Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan became known as the Axis Powers (aggressor nations)
II.
Hitler’s War in Europe
A. Pre-War territorial expansion
1. 1936 – re-occupied the German Rhineland, violated terms of Versailles by re-militarizing Germany
2. 1938 – annexed (added) Austria
3. Sept. 1938 – Munich Agreement = forced Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany
4. March 1939 – Germany occupied the majority of Czechoslovakia
B. German invasion of Poland: Sept. 1, 1939 triggered start of WWII in Europe
1. Blitzkrieg invasion “lightening war” included armored divisions with tanks and motorized infantry
rapidly seized control of territory (new form of warfare which made trench warfare of WWI obsolete)
2. Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939 – cleared the way for Hitler’s invasion of Poland with Germany &
Russia splitting the country between them.
C. War in Europe: 1939-1941
1. May 1940 -German invasion of Denmark & Norway to the North
2. May & June 1940 – German invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, and France to the West
a. Defeat of France led to the narrow escape of British soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk back to
England
b. Vichy French (Pro-Nazi) government established under French Gen. Marshall Petain to govern
southern France during the war
c. General Charles de Gaul – continued to lead the French forces in exile in the war against Germany
3. Summer of 1940 –German aerial attack of Great Britain (Battle of Britain)
d. Failed to subdue Great Britain who would continue the war against Germany
4. May 1941 –Germany enlisted Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria as allies and conquered Yugoslavia and
Greece to the South in the Balkans
5. June 1941 = unable to knock Great Britain out of the war, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in the East
a. Invasion caught Soviets off-guard due to the non-aggression pact
b. Heavy losses by the Soviets coupled with deep penetration of German, Italian, and Rumanian forces
into the Soviet Union led to the near capture of Moscow and other strategic cities
III.
Trying to Keep Out of the War
A. Most Americans wanted to avoid foreign quarrels (Isolationism)
1. People who opposed intervention in the war considered themselves realist
2. Emotional appeal of neutrality came from disillusionment with WWI which failed to make the world safe
for democracy
3. Opponents of the war did want the US to protect its traditional spheres of interest in Latin America &
the Pacific
B. Edging Toward Intervention
1. Neutrality Act of 1939 – allowed arms sales to belligerent nations on a “cash and carry” basis.
a. In control of the Atlantic: France & Great Britain were the only expected customers
b. Isolationism, Anti-Semitism, and general support for strict immigration laws led to U.S. denial of
German Jewish refugees during the war.
2. Collapse of France in June 1940: America reacted by rearming
a. Congress voted to expand the U.S. army to 2 million men, build 19,000 new war planes, and add 150
ships to the navy, as well as to initiate the nation’s first peacetime draft.
b. “Destroyer deal” with Great Britain – trade of fifty old destroyers for the use of bases on British
territories in Caribbean, Bermuda, and Newfoundland.
3. Election of 1940: FDR became the first president in history to run for a 3rd term.
a. Arrogance or legitimate concern for continuity in a time of peril?
b. FDR won the election with 55% of the votes – defeated Republican Wendell Wilkie
c. FDR pledged no American would fight in a foreign war.
C. The Brink of War
1. Lend-Lease Program (1941): allowed Britain to “borrow” military equipment for the duration of the war
a. Opposition to the program: America First Committee – claimed the lend-lease would allow the
president to declare anything a “defense articles.”
2. FDR’s undeclared war: instructed U.S. navy to report German submarine sightings to the British
a. “shoot on sight” policy – U.S. ships should attack German subs when they make contact
b. U.S. naval escort of British convoys to within 400 miles of Great Britain
c. Germany responded by sinking 2 U.S. destroyers killing 100 men.
3. The Atlantic Charter: August 1941, provided a political umbrella for American involvement
a. FDR & Winston Churchill (GB) agreed that the first priority was to defeat Germany; Japan was
secondary
1) FDR wanted to eliminate Hitler without going to war if possible
4. U.S. decision to build a two-ocean navy (Atlantic & Pacific) – decision antagonized Japan
a. U.S. buildup would reduce Japanese naval strength
b. U.S. was gradually restricting Japan’s vital imports of steal, iron ore, and aluminum
c. July, 1941- Japan occupied French Indo-China = Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the U.S., blocked
petroleum shipments, and began U.S. buildup of forces in the Philippines.
5. Japanese objective: hoped by attacking American Pacific bases they would shock the United States into
letting Japan have its way in Asia or at least time to create impenetrable defenses in the central pacific.
a. U.S. expected Japanese attacks in Southeast Asia.
6. December 7, 1941 – Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor: sank 8 battleships, 11 other warships, and
killed 2,403 Americans.
a. President Roosevelt’s speech; “a date that will live in infamy” – U.S. declared war against Japan
b. Germany & Italy declared war on the U.S. on Dec. 11th
IV.
Holding the Line
A. Stopping Germany
1. War on 6 fronts: North Africa, Eastern Front, North Atlantic, China, Southeast Asia, Central Pacific
2. U.S. pledged to defeat Germany first
3. Eastern Front: German victories resulted in heavy losses for the Soviet Union
a. Battle of Stalingrad (Sept. 1942-Feb. 1943) – German army of 330,000 soldiers was cut off and
defeated by the Soviet Red army (major turning point of the war in eastern Europe)
B. Survival of Britain
1. 1940-1941: German submarines were extremely effective in destroying British merchant ships attempts
to supply Great Britain with vital imports.
2. The Battle of the Atlantic forced the British to reduce their reliance on the Atlantic supply lines
a. 1939-1944: planning & rationing cut Britain’s need for imports in half
b. protected convoys – grouping merchant ships into convoys with armed escorts
c. allied aircraft with radar & warships with sonar and depth charges reduced the effectiveness of UBoats in 1943.
3. Battle of El Alamein (Oct-Nov, 1942) – British tank forces under Gen. Bernard Montgomery defeated
the German force under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who were attempting to capture the Suez canal
and oil fields of the Middle East. (major turning point in the African theatre of war)
C. Retreat and Stabilization in the Pacific
1. Japanese attacks in Southeast Asia overwhelmed American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces
capturing control of the South Pacific
a. U.S. defeat in the Philippines – fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay was surrendered
1) Bataan death march – brutal forced march of U.S. prisoners by Japanese to prison camps
hundreds of miles away.
2. Battle of the Coral Sea (May, 1942) – 1st all aircraft naval battle where the U.S. halted the Japanese
advance toward Australia
3. Battle of Midway (June, 1942) – Japanese attack at Midway Island was an attempt to destroy the
U.S. carrier forces.
a. U.S. dive bombers sank or crippled 4 Japanese carriers ending Japanese efforts to expand in the
Pacific. (major turning point in the Pacific theatre of war)
V.
Mobilizing for Victory
A. The war effort gave Americans a common purpose that softened the divisions of region, class, and
national origin while calling attention to continuing inequalities of race.
B. Organizing the Economy
1. War Manpower Commission: allocated workers among vital industries and the military
2. War Production Board: invested $17 billion for new factories, $181 billion in war supply contracts
3. Office of Price Administration (OPA) – fought inflation with price controls and rationing of vital war
materials
a. convinced Americans to buy war bonds that financed half the war spending
4. Federal budget grew to $98 billion by 1945 = increasing the national debt
5. Major industries transitioned from producing consumer goods to building war machines
a. mass production techniques used to build thousands of warplanes and tanks
6. War-boom cities: developed due to war production (ie. San Diego)
C. The Enlistment of Science
1. Office of Scientific Research and Development: Vannevar Bush guided spending on research and
development which set the pattern of massive federal support for science that continued after the war.
2. Manhattan Project: U.S. program to develop an atomic bomb
a. Physicist Robert Oppenheimer directed the project to design a nuclear fission bomb at Los Alamos
b. 1st nuclear explosion on July 16,1945 – Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico
1) Oppenheimer “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds”
D. Men & Women in the Military
1. By 1945, 8.3 million men and women were on active duty in the army and army air forces and 3.4 million
in the Navy & Marine Corps.
a. Total 350,000 women / 16 million men served: 292,000 killed / 100,000 prisoners / 671,000
wounded
b. 25,000 Native Americans served (racially integrated forces)
1) Code talkers – Navajo Indians who’s language was unknown to the Axis powers
2. African Americans: approx.. 1 million served in the armed services during the war
a. Served in segregated (separate from white soldiers) units – usually in in non-combat, menial jobs
b. Faced discrimination on and off the base
c. All black units (761st tank battalion & 99th pursuit squadron) earned distinguished records for
combat action.
d. The war experience helped to invigorate postwar efforts to achieve equal rights.
3. Women in military – received mixed reactions by Americans
a. Armed services tried to not change established gender roles (primarily worked in clerical jobs)
b. Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) – civilian auxiliary of U.S. Army Air Forces
1) Women pilots: ferried military aircraft across the U.S., towed targets for anti-aircraft target
practice, tested new planes.
E. The Home Front
1. Residents in war production cities – had to cope with new workers (mostly unattached males, young
men waiting for their draft call, and older men without their families) = fear a sexually transmitted
diseases.
2. Lives put in fast forward: increase in marriages (better economy) = 1.2 million
3. Mixed effects on children: “latchkey kids” of working mothers had to fend for themselves, middle class
kids worked to support the war effort (fund raisers, salvage drives)
4. Government censorship to control war images and use of propaganda against enemy nations
a. The Office of War Information – wanted propaganda in feature films
F. New Workers
1. Women in the work force – replaced men in industrial workforce
a. Rosie the Riveter (journeymen jobs involving welding and skilled jobs)
b. Higher pay
c. By 1944 – 19 million women held paid jobs (up 6 million form 1940)
d. Women’s share of gov’t jobs increased from 22 to 33 percent
2. Mexican American Workers – primarily in farming
a. Bracero program – Mexican gov’t recruited workers to come to the U.S. on six to twelve month
contracts
3. Native Americans – 40,000 moved to off reservation jobs (worked in military supply depots)
a. War experience accelerated the fight for full civil rights
b. Congress made Indians citizens in 1924 – but several states continued to deny theme the right to
vote
c. National Congress of American Indians, 1944 – efforts led to Supreme Court decision to compel
states to allow Indians to vote
4. African Americans – found economic advancement through war jobs
a. Labor leader A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters worked with Walter
White of the NAACP to plan “Negro March on Washington” to protest racial discrimination by the
federal government
b. To prevent a major embarrassment: President FDR issued Executive Order 8802, June 1941 – barring
racial discrimination in defense contracts and creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee
1) (FEPC) “No discrimination on grounds of race, color, creed, or national origin.”
G. Clashing Cultures
1. Migration of men and women in search of work during the war led to clashes with traditional
boundaries of race and region
a. African-American migration from the South collided with white workers seeking the same jobs
1) Racial violence in over 50 cities in 1943 alone
b. Zoot Suit Wars: Los Angeles, Mexican Americans and Whites erupted into widespread violence
including over 400,000 people
2. Interment of Japanese Americans
a. Feb. 19, 1942: President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 – authorized the secretary of war
to define restricted areas and remove civilian residents who were threats to national security.
1) primary target - 112,000 Japanese Americans in California, Washington, Oregon & Arizona
2) outbreak of the war triggered anti-Japanese hysteria
b. April 1942 – Japanese in coastal states were given a week to report to assembly centers where they
were then moved to 10 internment camps located in remote areas of the western interior.
1) Japanese responses – some renounced their American citizenship , others sought to cooperate &
move to other parts of the country, many young men joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
(the most decorated American unit in the European war)
c. Korematsu v. United States (1944) – Supreme Court sanctioned the removal of Japanese Americans
to Internment Camps
d. Japanese Claims Act of 1948 – U.S. government officially recognized its liability to Japanese loses of
property as a result of Interment
1) 1988 – Congress approved redress payments to each of the sixty thousand surviving evacuees
H. The End of the New Deal
1. New Deal had run out of steam by 1938
a. Republican Congress in 1942 – started to undue FDR’s New Deal programs
2. Election of 1944: Republican candidate – Governor Thomas Dewey of N.Y.
a. Harry Truman ran as FDR’s vice-Presidential candidate
b. Roosevelt won his fourth term (432 to 99 electoral votes – but with only 54% of the popular vote)
VI.
War & Peace
A. Gathering Allied Strength
1. Allied victories in North Africa in 1942 & the invasion of Italy in 1943 secured western influence in the
Mediterranean Sea & Middle East
2. U.S & Soviet Union wanted full scale strike at Germany
3. Allied nations began to out produce Germany by 1943 in war materials
4. Casablanca, Jan. 1943 – Roosevelt & Churchill demanded “unconditional surrender” of the Axis Powers
5. Tehran Conference, 1943 – U.S & G.B. promised to invade France within 6 months
a. Stalin wanted control of eastern Europe
B. Turning the Tide in Europe
1. Operation Torch – Nov. 8, 1942: British & American forces under command of Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower attack German forces in North Africa
a. Battle of the Kasserine Pass – German counter offensive
b. Axis forces surrendered North Africa in May of 1943
2. July – August 1943: British (Gen. Montgomery) and American (Gen. Patton) attacked Sicily, Italy
a. Italian King & army forced Mussolini from power & negotiated peace with allies
b. Germany occupied most of Italy while allied forces landed in Southern Italy at Naples
c. bitter fighting lasted until the surrender of Germany in 1945.
3. Eastern Front: German offensive stopped at the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union
C. Operation Overload
1. D-Day: June 6, 1944 – major amphibious invasion at Normandy, beaches of Northern France
a. allied forces secured beachheads landing 500,000 men and 100,000 vehicles within 2 weeks
b. break-through of the German line at St. Lo – followed by the encirclement of German army at
Falaise
1)
Germans lost 250,000 men
2)
Allies liberated Paris on August 25th
2. Eastern Front: by end of 1944 – Red Army entered the Balkans & reached central Poland
a. Russians suffered over 20 million casualties
D. Victory & Tragedy in Europe
1. Allied air strikes – by end of 1944, bombing raids crippled German war production, transportation, and
its economy
a. Dresden – allied air raid using fire bombs destroyed the undefended city killing over 50,000 civilians
2. Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 16, 1944 – Hitler attempted to break British and American lines by capturing
the port city of Antwerp
a. German offensive ran out of gas before it could reach the allied fuel supplies
3. Collapse of German forces – allied armies crossed the Rhine river in March capturing the industrial
center of Germany
a. On April 25, 1945 – American and Soviet troops met at the Elba river
b. On April 30 – Hitler committed suicide
1) Berlin surrendered to the Soviets on May 2
2) VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) – May 8th: Nazi state formally capitulated
4. Holocaust
a. “final solution” to what Hitler saw as “the Jewish problem” – starting in 1942, Hitler’s SS began a
campaign of genocide which focused on the elimination of the Jewish population in Europe.
b. Death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka were used to murder over 6 million Jews and 1 million
Poles, Gypsies, and others deemed inferior by the Nazis
E. The Pacific War
1. U.S. war strategy in the Pacific divided responsibilities between Gen. Douglas MacArthur led forces in a
“Island hopping campaign from Australia to the Philippines, and Admiral Chester Nimitz who
commanded the Central Pacific fleet.
a. plan was to isolate japan from its southern conquests
b. British moved from India to retake Burma
c. With Japans army bogged down in China – Allies planned to bomb Japan into submission
2. Island Hopping campaign – American naval version of blitzkrieg: planes from aircraft carriers control the
skies while navy and land forces isolated and captured the most strategically Japanese-held islands while
by passing the rest
3. Racial hatred between American & Japanese forces intensified the fighting in the Pacific
4. Leyte Gulf – Allied invasion of Japanese-held Philippines and the destruction of the Japanese fleet
a. leaving the homeland of Japan undefended against invasion
5. U.S. naval blockade of Japanese imports and heavy bombing of Japanese cities continually weakened
Japanese war capabilities
6. U.S. capture of strategic Japanese islands: Iwo Jima & Okinawa (April-June 1945)
F. Searching for Peace
1. Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945) – Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin debated plans for the postwar world
a. American goal – to enlist the USSR in finishing off the Japanese
b. Stalin wanted control of Manchuria, China in exchange for joining the fight in the Pacific
c. Stalin would only give vague pledges to allow non-communist to participate in the coalition
governments in Eastern Europe
2. April 12, 1945 – FDR died of a cerebral hemorrhage
a. Harry Truman – Vice President succeed FDR
3. Potsdam Conference (July 1945) – British-Soviet-American conference where they debated the future of
Germany
a. Potsdam Declaration - Truman made it clear that the U.S. expected to dominate the occupation of
Japan
1)
goal was to democratize the Japanese political system and reintroduce Japan into the
international community - intended to give japan an opening for surrender
b. Sec. of state James Byrnes – urged Truman to use the new atomic bomb against Japan
1)
U.S. was convinced Japan would fight to the death in an invasion of the homeland
2)
using the bomb offered a quick end to the war and it might intimidate Stalin
c. Debate over using the bomb: page 294 chart
4. End of the war in the Pacific
a. U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima (killed approx. 80,000) and the
second on Aug. 8 at Nagasaki (killed approx. 40,000)
b. V.J. Day: Victory in Japan Day - Japan ceased hostilities on Aug. 14th and surrendered formally on
Sept. 2nd
1)
Japanese government signed the terms of surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri a battle
ship nearly destroyed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941