Download Diplomacy and World War II, 1929-1945

AFP and World War II, 19291945
During World War II, American foreign
policy changed from disengagement to
neutrality and finally to total
involvement.
Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy
• Hoover reaffirmed the
country’s belief that the U.S.
should not enter into firm
commitments with other
nations (against Woodrow
Wilson’s League of Nations)
• Isolationism
Japanese Aggression in Manchuria
• Early 1930s, Japan defied the
League of Nations by invading
Manchuria in 1931
• League of Nations condemned
the attack, but did nothing else
• Japan walked out
• The League showed its
inability to keep peace
FDR’s Policies, 1933-1938
• Crisis at home prevented
Roosevelt from focusing too
much on foreign policy
• Good Neighbor Policy: tried to
improve relations with Latin
America
• Roosevelt recognized the
Soviet Union in 1933
Fascism and Aggressive Militarism
• Economic hardship,
nationalism and bitterness
over the outcome of WWI
• Italy: Benito Mussolini (Il Duce)
and the Fascist Party -1922
• Germany: Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party, policy of antiSemitism – 1933
• Japan: Militarists, emperor is a
puppet, invaded China and SE
Asia for raw materials
American Isolationists
Lindbergh joins the America First
Committee
Many Americans, disillusioned
with WWI, do not want to be
drawn into another conflict
Neutrality Act of 1935
Neutrality Act of 1936
Neutrality Act of 1937
America First Committee: formed
by isolationists in 1940 and
warned countries against the
folly of getting involved in
Europe’s troubles
Prelude to War
• Late 1930s, the policy of
appeasement allowed Hitler to
build a powerful army and use
it
• Munich Conference: 1938,
country gives into Hitler to
avoid war (Czechoslovakia’s
Sudetenland)
• Italy: invaded Ethiopia in 1935
• Japan: entered into a full scale
war with China in 1937
• FDR argued for neutrality/arms
buildup and Congress agrees
Outbreak of War
• Sept. 1939, Hitler invaded
Poland
• Britain and France declared
war
• Soon most of Europe was
under Nazi control/influence
• Great Britain remained free
• Americans sympathetic to
Britain, but still neutral
• FDR believed British survival
was crucial to U.S. security
U.S. and Neutrality
• FDR chipped away at the
neutrality laws to give aid to
Britain
• “Cash and Carry”: allowed the
U.S. to sell aid to Britain (but
transported on British ships)
• Selective Service Act: 1940,
peacetime registration of
males for a draft
• Destroyers for bases: U.S.
gave Britain older destroyers
for military bases in Caribbean
Election of 1940
• Roosevelt breaks the two term
tradition (later term limit with
22nd amendment in 1951)
• Republicans nominated
Wendell Willkie
• FDR won with 54% of popular
vote
Election of 1940
Arsenal of Democracy
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Dec.1940 fireside chat: “We must
be the arsenal of democracy”
Roosevelt promised to help the
United Kingdom fight Nazi
Germany by giving them military
supplies while the United States
stayed out of the actual fighting.
Lend-Lease Act: 1941, gave
Britain arms it needed on credit
(neighbor’s house on fire)
Japan joins Axis (Germany & Italy)
in 1940, relationship is strained
with U.S.
U.S. cut off trade of vital resources
(oil) to Japan
U.S. wanted Japan out of China
Negotiations did not work
America Joins the War
• Pearl Harbor, December 7,
1941
• 2,400 Americans killed
• FDR addressed Congress the
next day and said Dec. 7th “a
date that will live in infamy”
• Congress agreed and declared
war
• Three days later Germany and
Italy declared war on the U.S.
The Home Front
• Hitler invaded Russia in 1941
• Allies: U.S., Britain and Soviet
Union
• U.S. government organized a
number of agencies to
mobilize the war effort
• War Production Board (WPB)
was established to manage
war industries
• By 1944 unemployment
virtually disappeared
• U.S. output was twice that of
Axis powers
The Home Front
• Govt. set production priorities
and controlled raw materials
• Office of Price Administration
(OPA) froze prices, wages and
rents
• Rationing of meat, sugar,
gasoline and auto tires
• War bonds to raise $
• Shortage of goods made it
easier for Americans to save
Home Front
The War’s Impact on Society
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Like WWI, jobs were available for
African-Ams. and women
Discrimination and segregation
“Double V” – V for victory over
fascism and V for victory for
equality at home
Mexican immigrants came for
jobs, met resentment
25,000 Native Americans served
5 million women entered work
force, Women took factory jobs –
for less pay than men
“Rosie the Riveter” song
Propaganda
• Government’s war propaganda
was everywhere
• Posters, songs, and news
bulletins
• Maintain public morale,
encourage people to sacrifice
and conserve resources and
increase war production
• Office of war Information
controlled news about troop
movements and battles
• Patriotism!
Japanese Americans
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Suspected of being potential
spies/saboteurs for Japan
Japanese invasion of West
Coast?
1942 – U.S. government ordered
+100,000 to leave their homes
and reside in interment camps
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) the
Supreme Court upheld the
interment policy of the government
as justified in wartime
1988 – financial compensation
was awarded
20,000 Japanese –Americans did
serve in WWII
Japanese-Americans
Japanese-Americans
Election of 1944
• Many felt that, in the war
emergency, there should be no
change in leadership
• FDR’s running mate was Harry
S. Truman
• NY governor Thomas Dewey
ran for the Republicans
• Roosevelt and Truman won
53% of popular vote
• 432-99 in electoral college
• FDR died several months into
his fourth term
World War II: The Battlefronts
D-Day
• Two fronts or “theatres of
operation”
• Pacific and Europe
• Europe:
• Driving Germans out of North
Africa (Operation Torch)
• Sicily and Italy
• 1944 – Nazi occupied France
• U.S. troops learned of the
Holocaust as they pushed into
Germany
• 6 million Jewish civilians died
World War II: The Battlefronts
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Pacific Theatre
Battle of Midway
General Douglas MacArthur
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
Manhattan Project directed by
Robert Oppenheimer built the
atomic bomb
• Truman decides to have it
used on Japan – Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
Germany and Japan Surrender
• Germany surrenders on May
7th 1945, Hitler committed
suicide on April 30th
• Japan was still in the war
• August 6th and 9th 1945 the
atomic bombs were dropped
and Japan surrenders
Wartime Conferences
• During the war the Big Three
met several times to discuss
war and post-war plans
• Casablanca in 1943
• Teheran in 1943
• Yalta in 1945:
• Germany divided into zones
• free elections in liberated
Europe
• United Nations to be formed
The War’s Legacy
Most destructive war in history
300,000 American dead
800,000 wounded
Total in the world: 50 million
civilian, 25 million soldier
Excluding the Civil War, more
Americans died in WWII than
all other wars combined
National debt grew to $250 billion
Cities unscarred
U.S. emerges as a superpower
New rivalry emerged between
communist Russia and
democratic U.S.
The United Nations
• Unlike the League of Nations
after WWI, Congress accepted
the peacekeeping organization
that was created after WWII
• In April, 1945, delegates from
50 nations met in San
Francisco, where they drafted
a charter for the United
Nations
• The Senate quickly voted to
accept U.S. involvement in the
U.N.