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WWII
Lecture Notes
The American Mood: No More War
• Most Americans did not want
to intervene in European affairs
• Congress passed a series of
Neutrality Acts in 1935-37
– Isolationism
Germany Steps Towards War
• Hitler wanted to expand the German Empire
• Hitler meets with Austrian chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg
– Put Nazi’s in the Austrian government
– Germany “unites” with Austria, March 12, 2938
Going Against the Treaty of Versailles
• Germany retakes the Sudetenland
– Czechoslovakia
– Czech’s were “abusing Sudeten Germans”.
• Neville Chamberlain
– British Prime Minister
– “Peace in our time”
• Winston Churchill
– Appeasement
– “They chose dishonor. They will have war.”
Soviet Neutrality
• Nonaggression Pact
– August 23, 1939
– Agreement not to fight each other
– Secret agreement to split Poland
• Germany invades Poland September 1, 1939
– Blitzkrieg
– Official start to WWII
Jewish Refugees and America’s Response
• Nuremberg Laws of 1935
– outlawed marriage, stripped
Jews of citizenship, increased
restrictions on social and
economic life
• Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10,
1939)
• Thousands of Jews left for
the U.S.
– Rejected
From Isolation to Intervention
• Roosevelt administration
began to plan for war
– Defeat of France led to
peacetime draft
• FDR won 3rd term in
1940
• Roosevelt proposed the
“Lend-Lease” program in
Jan. 1941
The War Economy
• War Production Board
– managed war-supply contracts
– factories retooled to aid war
effort
• National War Labor Board
– mediated labor disputes
• Office of Price
Administration
– enforced price controls and
rationing
• American production won
the war for the Allies
The Home Front
• Vast internal migration occurred
during the war
– movement to the West, urban
areas
• Women found opportunities in
war industries
– “Rosie the Riveter”
– gender discrimination persisted
• Children assisted with the war
effort
– collected scrap metal, rubber
• American culture (movies, music,
literature, art) were influenced by
the war
Propaganda and Politics
• Office of War Information
was created to shape
public opinion
• Media cooperated with
the government to
present a positive image
of the war effort
– created posters and films
– Hollywood scripts were
submitted for approval
Noose Theory
• The Allied approach to taking back Europe is
sometimes referred to as the Noose Theory.
– 3 fronts were involved (Eastern, Southern,
Western)
• The idea was to push Axis forces back to their
homelands from all sides, effectively creating
a noose.
War in the Pacific
• Japan continued to gain in
the Pacific following Pearl
Harbor
– victories in Philippines,
Singapore, Burma
• Turning points came in spring
of 1942
– Battle of the Coral Sea (May)
– Battle of Midway (June)
destroyed four Japanese
aircraft carriers, ended efforts
to expand in the Pacific
The Pacific War
• Allies led an “island
hopping” campaign in the
Pacific
– air domination, capturing
strategic islands
• Japan, low on resources,
began resorting to
“kamikaze” tactics
• U.S. prepared for an
invasion of Japan
The Atomic Bombs
• Americans believed that Japan
would fight to the death
• Truman made the decision to
drop the atomic bomb, which
had been first tested just weeks
before
– Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
– Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
• Japan ceased hostilities on
August 14th