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A Survey of USA:
----- World War II
Prof. Niangen Huang
World War II
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The Depression that hit the United States in
the 1930s soon spread all over the capitalist
world. It was unquestionably a major factor
in bringing about Nazism and World War II.
The economic crisis ruined the confidence of
Europeans in their parliamentary institutions
and drove millions of them to despair.
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Making use of such a serious situation,
Mussolini and Hitler established Fascist
dictatorships in Italy and Germany
respectively.
Benito Mussolini had dreams of building
a Roman Empire while Adolph Hitler
embarked on a program of German
territorial expansion in Europe.
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These two dictators were destined to
destroy the Versailles system and to
eventually dominate Europe.
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The global depression also brought
Japan under the sway of its military
faction.
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They believed that the country's prosperity
and prestige in the world could be attained
only through force.
Their ambitious aim was to conquer China
and Southeast Asia, thereby to drive the
Western powers out of the Orient.
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In September 1931 the Japanese army
invaded Northeast China using a railway
bomb explosion as a pretext.
In 1937 the Japanese invaders enlarged
their aggression into North China and
this started the all-round War of
Resistance against Japan by the
Chinese people.
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As the aggressions of Germany, Italy,
and Japan were expanded, the U. S.
government tried to maintain its
isolationism.
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Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed
three Neutrality Acts which prohibited the
sale of munitions and the lending of money
to nations at war.
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These neutrality laws not only
abandoned America's traditional policy
of freedom of the seas, but soon proved
to be an aid to aggressor nations.
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In reality, the isolationism of the United
States encouraged Nazi Germany and
Adolph Hitler to believe
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that they could rely on American neutrality in the coming
war;
that this time their victims could not make loans or buy
munitions in the United States.
It also gave the leaders of Japan further reason to believe
that the flabby and pacifist United States would not fight for
the Open Door or the integrity of China.
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World War II finally erupted in 1939, when Hitler
invaded Poland.
The U.S. Congress repealed the arms embargo and
substituted a “cash-and-carry" policy:
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that belligerents trading with American merchants
transport their goods in foreign vessels
 that the goods be paid for before they left
American ports.
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In 1940, when Franklin Roosevelt won
his unprecedented try for a third term
as president was almost every country
in western Europe was virtually
defeated in a blitzkrieg by Hitler.
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In Asia Japan's invasion of China and
infiltration into Indochina had showed clearly
that Japan's expansionist policy aimed at
domination of the entire Far East and the
Pacific.
In September, 1940, the Tripartite Pact was
signed in Berlin binding Germany, Italy and
Japan together, and thus the formation of the
fascist military bloc was completed.
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All these events convinced most Americans of the need to bring
about Germany's defeat.
 In 1940, the United States began a gigantic naval program;
with 200 new warships she aimed at naval superiority in
both Atlantic and Pacific; In August of the same year, the
first peacetime draft in U.S. history was enacted, under
which about 1.6 million men were conscripted during the
following year.
 In March, 1941, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act,
authorizing $ 7 billion for supplies to aid the Allies.
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After Hitler attacked the Soviet Union
in June, 1941, lend-lease aid was
extended to the Soviets. In President
Roosevelt's words, this act made the
republic the arsenal of world democracy.
However, this act helped the fighting
against fascism.
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When the United States was taking
steps to help the Allies, Japan suddenly
attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbour in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
This made America formally enter the
war.
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This sudden blow gave the Japanese naval
control of, the Western Pacific. Quickly they
captured the Philippine Islands and most of
Southeast Asia, but they were checked by an
American fleet in June 1942 at the battle of
Midway. Thereafter they made no important
advances, while America gradually collected
strength for a counterattack.
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The Movie: Pearl Harbor
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Grand strategy, however, directed the main
American effort first against the Germans.
In November 1942, a joint U.S. - British force
landed in North Africa; by the following May
that region had been cleared of the enemy.
In July 1943, they invaded Sicily and, after
swiftly, overrunning that island, landed on the
Italian mainland in September
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In July 1943, the King of Italy, with
support of the army, had removed
Mussolini from his post as Italian Prime
Minister and the new government
quickly made peace with the allies and
declared war on Germany.
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On June 6, 1944, American and British
forces, under the supreme command of
the American General Eisenhower,
landed in Normandy on the coast of
France gradually pushed the Germans
back.
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Paris was liberated in August, and by the
beginning of 1945 the allied forces were
advancing into Germany itself.
From the east, the Russians were steadily
advancing.
By the middle of 1944 they had driven the
enemy form most of their own territory; and
by April, 1945, the Russian were outside
Berlin.
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On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed
suicide.
A week later the Germans surrendered.
The war in Europe was over.
Less than a month earlier, on April 12,
President Roosevelt had died of a stroke
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Beginning with the Potsdam ultimatum,
which ordered Japan to surrender or
face complete annihilation, a series of
significant events brought an early end
to the war.
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On August 6, 1945, the first atomic
bomb devastated the important
Japanese base at Hiroshima.
On August 8, Russia, fulfilling a
previous agreement, declared war upon
Japan, and a Soviet army of more than
one million men crossed the Chinese
border.
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On August 9, another atomic bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki. Next day Japan
offered to surrender, on condition that
the Emperor was to remain untouched.
The allies agreed.
The surrender was proclaimed on
August 14, and the Second World War
ended.
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During the war, the United States gave
the Allies many of the weapons and
supplies they needed to fight Germany
and Japan. From June 1940 until the
Japanese surrender, the United States
built over 300,000 aircraft and 86,000
tanks. About 50 million Americans
participated in the war; over a million of
them were killed or wounded.