Americans and a World in Crisis

1
Chapter 25

• Americans and a World in Crisis
• 1933-1945

2
Introduction

• 1.) How did President Roosevelts Good Neighbor
  Policy affect U.S.-Latin American relations?
• 2.) How did the American people and their govt.
  respond to the international crises of the
  1930s?
• 3.) How did President Roosevelt and Congress
  mobilize the country for war?

3
Introduction (cont.)

• 4.) What impact did the war have on the U.S.
  economy?
• 5.) How did the war change American society and
  affect minorities and women?
• 6.) What were the different goals of the U.S.A.,
  G.B. and the U.S.S.R. and how did these goals
  affect their combat strategies?
• 7.) Why did President Truman decide to drop
  atomic bombs on Japan, and was he justified in
  doing so?

4
The United States in a Menacing World, 1933-1939

• Introduction
• During FDRs fist 2 terms, he improved relations
  with Latin America
• Meanwhile, aggressive, militaristic fascist
  regimes came to power in Italy, Germany, and
  Japan
• The U.S.A. reacted to these developments abroad
  ambivalently
• Torn between dislike of fascism and even stronger
  desire for peace

5
Nationalism and the Good Neighbor

• The Good Neighbor policy
• Agreed that no state has the right to intervene
  in the affairs of another
• Applied in Latin America
• Withdrew forces from Haiti and Dominican Republic
• Ended the Platt Amendment
• Refrained from using force against left-wing
  govts. in Cuba and Mexico
• FDR did apply economic pressure to influence
  events
• FDRs restraint in using military force improved
  U.S.-Latin American relations

6
The Rise of Aggressive States in Europe and Asia

• Italy
• Benito Mussolini
• Took control in 1922
• 1938--invaded Ethiopia

7
The Rise of Aggressive States in Europe and Asia
(cont.)

• Germany
• 1933
• Adolf Hitler
• Became chancellor of Germany
• Absolute dictatorship
• Preached racism, aggressive nationalism, and
  anti-Semitism

8
The Rise of Aggressive States in Europe and Asia
(cont.)

• Hitler (cont.)
• Persecuted the Jews
• Military buildup
• Conquest of other countries
• 1936--Rhineland
• 1938--Austria
• 1938--Sudetenland
• Munich Conference--appeasement by France and
  Great Britain

9
Map of Europe up to 1938
10
The Rise of Aggressive States in Europe and Asia
(cont.)

• 1931--Japanese imperialists seized Manchuria from
  China
• 1937--began a war of conquest to take over all of
  China

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12
The American Mood No More War

• Americans disliked these actions in Europe and
  Asia but were determined not to be pulled into
  another war
• U.S.A. participation in WWI as a mistake
• Nye Committee
• Reveled the roles played by bankers and weapons
  suppliers in WWI
• In the 1930s, novelists and playwrights
  condemned war

13
The American Mood No More War (cont.)

• Neutrality Acts
• 1935
• Prohibited the U.S. from making loans or selling
  arms to belligerent nations
• Banned Americans from traveling on the ships of
  nations at war
• U.S. Dept. of State link

14
The Gathering Storm, 1938-1939

• Hitler seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia
• Threatened to attack Poland
• Signed the German-Soviet Non-Agrresion pact
• Ensured Russian neutrality during the planned
  German invasion of Poland
• Mussolini took over Albania

15
The Gathering Storm, 1938-1939 (cont.)

• Many Americans grew alarmed and started to feel
  that the U.S.A. should take a more active role
• FDR sent messages to Hitler and Mussolini asking
  them to pledge not to invade any other nation
• They were responded with ridicule
• Roosevelt asked Congress to appropriate much more
  to build up U.S. defenses

16
America and the Jewish Refugees

• Throughout the 30s, German persecution of the
  Jews intensified
• 1935--Nuremberg Laws
• Stripped German Jews of citizenship and rights
• 1938--Kristallnacht
• A wave of Nazi violence against Jews
• Attacked their homes, synagogues, and businesses

17
America and the Jewish Refugees (cont.)

• Tens of thousands of European Jews fled and seek
  countries that would admit them
• Among the refugees were
• Distinguished musicians
• Architects
• Writers
• Scholars
• Many would enriched the cultural life of their
  adopted nation
• Physicists Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi would
  play key roles in developing the atomic bomb for
  the U.S.

18
America and the Jewish Refugees (cont.)

• Congress would not amend discriminatory laws to
  offer a haven to hundreds of thousands of
  additional Jews needing a safe home
• FDR did not exert pressure on Congress to do so
  either
• The majority of Americans opposed letting in more
  Jews
• Isolationist
• Anti-immigrant
• Anti-Semitic attitudes

19
America and the Jewish Refugees (cont.)

• 1939--the U.S. stopped a ship carrying Jewish
  refugees and forced it to return to Europe
• There the countryless refugees were soon murdered
  by the Nazis

20
Into the Storm, 1939-1941

• The European War
• Sept. 1, 1939
• WWII began
• Hitler attacked Poland
• GB and France declared war on Germany
• They were committed by a treaty to defend Poland

21
The European War (cont.)

• The U.S.A. revised the Neutrality Acts
• Now permitted was the sale of weapons to
  belligerents on a cash-and-carry basis
• Many saw this as a way to help Britain and France
  without having to fight

22
The European War (cont.)

• April 1940--German armies turned on Denmark and
  Norway
• May 1940--they conquered Netherlands and Belgium
• mid-June 1940--they captured France

23
The European War (cont.)

• The Battle of Britain
• July 10 to Oct. 31, 1940
• German bombing raids over cities in England
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealed to FDR
  for help
• The majority of Americans favored a stepped-up
  weapons shipments to GB
• An articulate minority feared that such aid would
  weaken U.S. defenses and needlessly pull the
  U.S.A. into war

24
From Isolation to Intervention

• In 1940, FDR decided to run for a 3rd term
  because of the situation in Europe
• Republican opponent was Wendell Willkie
• During the campaign, Roosevelt continued his
  interventionist position
• Signed an executive agreement with Churchill
• Gave Britain 50 overage U.S. destroyers in
  exchange for leases on air and naval bases in
  British possession in the Western Hemisphere

25
From Isolation to Intervention (cont.)

• America First Committee
• Organized by isolationists
• Preached that we must not give any aid to
  belligerents or become involved in the struggle
  against Hitler
• Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented 3rd term

26
From Isolation to Intervention (cont.)

• Lend-Lease Act
• Passed Congress in March 1941
• Permitted the president to lend or lease military
  equipment to any country whose defense he thought
  vital to American security
• June 1941--Hitler attacked U.S.S.R.
• Roosevelt gave lend-lease aid to the Soviets and
  British

27
From Isolation to Intervention (cont.)

• Constant sinking by German U-boats sent most of
  the supplies to the bottom of the Atlantic
• To prevent such losses, the U.S.A.
• Began to convoy British ships as far as Iceland
• tracked German submarines
• Notifying the British of the location of Germany
  submarines

28
From Isolation to Intervention (cont.)

• By the fall of 1941, the U.S. and Germany were
  engaged in an undeclared naval war
• Atlantic Charter
• Summer of 1941
• Meet off the coast of Newfoundland
• Moved Roosevelt and Churchill closer to an
  alliance
• A joint proclamation declaring that they were
  fighting the Axis powers to ensure life,
  liberty, independence and religious freedom and
  to preserve the rights of man and justice."

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Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War

• Japan expanded its aggression from China to the
  resource-rich British, Dutch, and French colonies
  in Southeast Asia
• Japan wanted to dominate all of Asia
• This clashed with the Open Door policy
• Roosevelt applied economic pressure on Japan

31
Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War (cont.)

• By 1940, Washington prohibited the sale of
  aviation gasoline to Japan
• Tokyo occupied northern Indochina and signed the
  Tripartite Pact with Germany and ItalyRoosevelt
  placed an embargo on all items Japan needed
• July 1941--Japan seized the rest of
  IndochinaU.S. froze Japanese assets in the
  U.S.ended all trade

32
Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War (cont.)

• Japan made a last-ditch effort to persuade
  Washington to reopen trade and recognize Japans
  conquests
• If that failed, Japan would attempt to destroy
  the U.S. Pacific fleet with a surprise attack on
  Pearl Harbor
• Washington knew its refusal would provoke an
  attack somewhere in the Pacific
• Roosevelt would not yield
• He sent warnings to all base commanders

33
Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War (cont.)

• Dec. 7, 1941
• Japan struck Pearl Harbor
• History Channel video
• Dec. 8
• Congress recognized that a state of war existed
  with Japan
• Roosevelt speech
• Dec. 11
• Japans 2 allies (Germany and Italy) declared war
  on U.S. and the U.S reciprocated

34
Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War (cont.)

• In the months after Pearl Harbor, the United
  States faced a bleak situation
• Nazi submarines prowled off the east coast and
  took a heavy toll on Allied ships
• Hitlers armies had pushed to the outskirts of
  Leningrad and Moscow
• Germany was launching new offensives in the
  Crimea, Caucasus, and North Africa

35
Pearl Harbor and the Coming of War (cont.)

• Japan took over
• Philippines, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam,
  Wake, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, and most of
  the island chains in the Western Pacific

36
America Mobilizes for War

• Organizing for Victory
• To plan the military effort FDR created
• the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Office of
  Strategic Services (would later become the CIA)
• To mobilize the economy Roosevelt
• Established hundreds of special wartime agencies
• War Production Board
• Allocated scarce materials, limited manufacture
  of civilian goods, and awarded military
  production contracts

37
Organizing for Victory (cont.)

• The U.S. produced more armaments than Germany,
  Italy, and Japan combined
• Govt. contracts guaranteed handsome profits to
  the giant corporations that received most of the
  defense contracts
• Federal authority and the federal budget grew
  rapidly
• The influence of the military and big corporation
  on American life grew also

38
The War Economy

• Between 1941 and 1945, the U.S. govt. spent
  nearly twice as much as it did from 1789 to 1940
• Fueled by this expenditure, the economy boomed
• During the war
• Purchasing power of industrial workers went up
  50
• Corporate profits climbed by 70
• Unemployment vanished as 17 million new jobs were
  created

39
The War Economy (cont.)

• Many of the poor moved into the middle class
• Most labor leaders gave no-strike pledges
• John L. Lewis led his miners on repeated work
  stoppages
• An increasingly conservative Congress retaliated
  with the antilabor Smith-Connally Act
• Office of Price Administration imposed price
  controls and rationing
• Done to curb inflation
• As a result, the cost of living only rose by 8
  during the last 2 years of the war

40
The War Economy (cont.)

• The govt. raised the huge sums needed to fight
  the war with
• the sale of bonds
• Provided half the money
• Steeply increased federal taxes
• Provided the rest of the

41
A Wizard War

• The govt. also employed thousands of scientists
• Manhattan Project
• A secret project
• Designed to beat the Germans in the race to
  develop nuclear weapons
• Led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer
• Spent about 2 billion
• July 16, 1945--tested the first nuclear bomb

42
Propaganda and Politics

• Office of War Information and the Office of
  Censorship
• Jobs were to unify Americans and prevent
  dangerous security leaks

43
Propaganda and Politics (cont.)

• Full employment and prosperity led to a
  politically conservative trend
• In 1942--more Republicans and conservative
  Democrats were elected to Congress
• Cut welfare programs
• Abolished New Deal agencies
• Halted any further reforms
• The role of the federal govt. in peoples lives
  grew larger
• Supervised the economy
• Funded research
• Molded public opinion

44
The Battlefront, 1942-1944

• Liberating Europe
• The British and Americans concentrated on beating
  Hitler first, then Japan
• Stalin pressed his 2 allies to launch an invasion
  of Europe as quickly as possible
• Churchill convinced Roosevelt that they should
  land in North Africa first
• By May 1943--they had defeated German and Italian
  armies
• Soviets turned the tide of the war in the east
• Won at Stalingrad
• Held out at Leningrad
• Attacked the German invaders along a
  thousand-mile front

45
Liberating Europe (cont.)

• The British and Americans then captured Sicily
  and started a slow march up the Italian peninsula
• Mussolini was deposed in July 1943
• The new Italian govt. surrendered
• Allies encountered stiff opposition from Germany
  troops

46
Liberating Europe (cont.)

• 1944-1945--the Soviets cleared the Germans out of
  the U.S.S.R.
• The Soviets continued to pursue them across
  eastern Europe
• June 1944--British and Americans landed on the
  beaches of Normandy
• Battle of the Bulge
• Dec. 1944-Jan. 1945
• Nazis temporarily stopped the Allied drive
• By early 1945, the Americans and British reached
  the Rhine

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War in the Pacific

• The Japanese advances in the Pacific were first
  halted in the spring and summer of 1942
• Battle of Coral Sea and Battle of Midway
• U.S.A. Navy and Army assaulted Japanese
  strongholds in
• Solomon Islands
• Gilbert Islands
• Marshall Island
• Mariana Island

49
War in the Pacific (cont.)

• The U.S. Navy largely destroyed what was left of
  the Japanese fleet at the Battles of the
  Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf

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51
The Grand Alliance

• Great Britain, Soviet Union, and the U.S.A.
• Created out of military necessity
• All 3 had different goals for the postwar period
• Roosevelt wanted to
• defeat fascism
• Establish a new world order strong enough to keep
  the peace
• Open trade
• Protect national self-determination

52
The Grand Alliance (cont.)

• Churchill hoped to
• Keep the British colonial empire
• Maintain a balance of power in Europe against the
  Soviets
• Stalin hoped to
• Weaken Germany permanently
• To protect his country against any future attack
  from the west
• Impose Soviet domination over eastern Europe

53
The Grand Alliance (cont.)

• FDR attempted to reconcile these differences with
  personal diplomacy
• He held top-level wartime conferences with the
  Allied leaders at
• Casablanca
• Cairo
• Tehran
• The first meeting between the Allied leaders
  concerned the details of the Normandy invasion
  and other military and political problems were
  discussed

54
The Grand Alliance (cont.)

• Roosevelt was reelected to a 4th term in 1944
• Harry S Truman was his VP
• Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey
• FDR won by the smallest margin of his career

55
War and American Society

• Introduction
• About 15 million Americans served in the armed
  forces
• Another 15 million moved from one place to
  another
• More women than ever before entered the paid
  labor force

56
The GIs War

• GIs saw death and brutality all around them
• Some troops in all of the armies committed
  atrocities
• Some suffered lasting psychological damage
• Others became hardened and cynical

57
The GIs War (cont.)

• For many their war service opened new vistas
• They experienced foreign cities and countries
• Learned to be more tolerant of other Americans
• Different religions, classes, ethnicity, regions,
  etc.
• About 1 million of them married women they met
  overseas

58
The Home Front

• 15 million Americans moved from one location to
  another for family and economic reasons
• People left rural areas to seek jobs in
  war-production centers
• Terrible shortages of housing and other
  facilities developed
• Urban blight and many social problems
• The West grew in population

59
The Home Front (cont.)

• High school enrollment dropped
• More teenagers took full-time jobs
• The armed forces sent nearly a million people to
  college campuses for special training
• Americans went to the movies to watch films that
  entertained them
• The public received war news from periodicals and
  the radio

60
The Home Front (cont.)

• Millions of women went to work in defense plants
• High wages
• Patriotism
• Govt. encouragement

61
The Home Front (cont.)

• By 1945--women constituted over 1/3 of the labor
  force
• Took on formerly male-dominated work
• Welding
• Riveting
• Operating cranes
• Running lathes
• They only earned about 65 of what men received
  for the the jobs

62
The Home Front (cont.)

• More than 1/3 of the women had children under 14
• There were few day-care centers
• Children were often left on their own
• Juvenile delinquency increased alarmingly
• Marriage, birth, and divorce rates soared
• About 300,000 women joined the armed forces

63
The Home Front (cont.)

• After 1945, most women left their wartime
  occupations
• Women gained a new sense of their own
  capabilities

64
Racism and New Opportunities

• During WWII, African-Americans demanded that the
  nation fight racism at home as well as abroad
• NAACP and CORE led the struggle for civil rights
• 1941--A. Philip Randolph planned a massive march
  on Washington
• FDR signed an executive order prohibiting racial
  discrimination in hiring and promotion by govt.
  agencies and defense contractors

65
Racism and New Opportunities (cont.)

• The Fair Employment Practices Commission
• Created by FDR
• Actually had very little power
• Wartime labor shortages opened many new jobs for
  African-Americans
• About 1 million African-Americans served in the
  armed forces
• Generally in segregated units commanded by white
  officers

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Racism and New Opportunities (cont.)

• In civilian life, tensions developed between
  African-Americans demanding equality and
  resistant whites
• Race riots erupted in dozens of cities
• More than 700,000 African-Americans left the
  South to settle in cities of the North and West
• The move opened up greater opportunities and
  potential political power

69
War and Diversity

• 25,000 Native Americans served in the armed
  forces
• Another 50,000 left reservations to work in
  defense industries
• Many returned to the reservations after the war
• Conditions on reservations had deteriorated badly
  because Congress had slashed appropriations for
  Indian programs

70
War and Diversity (cont.)

• Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans entered the
  United States during WWII
• Some legally, some illegally
• Worked on the big farms in the western states
• Mexican-Americans left migratory farm labor to
  seek better jobs in cities

71
War and Diversity (cont.)

• Zoot-suit riots
• During WWII
• In LA
• Between sailors and soldiers and Hispanic youth

72
War and Diversity (cont.)

• About 350,000 Mexican-Americans served in the
  armed forces
• Emerged from the War with a heightened
  consciousness and demands for equality

73
The Interment of Japanese-Americans

• The govt.s treatment of Japanese-Americans
  during WWII was one of the worst violations of
  civil liberties in U.S. history
• The govt. uprooted 112,000 Japanese-Americans
  living on the West Coast and placed them in
  internment camps in remote interior regions
• Atmosphere of hysteria over Pearl Harbor
• Fear of Japanese invasion of the mainland
• Traditional prejudice against Asian-Americans

74
The Interment of Japanese-Americans (cont.)

• Korematsu v. United States
• 1944
• Supreme Court case
• Upheld the constitutionality of evacuation
• Korematsu decision

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The Interment of Japanese-Americans (cont.)

• In the 1980s, the govt. finally admitted that
  its actions had been unjustified
• The govt. apologized to Japanese-Americans
• The govt. agreed to pay compensation to them for
  property losses they suffered when they were
  detained

79
Triumph and Tragedy, 1945

• The Yalta Conference
• Feb. 1945
• The Big Three all meet
• Roosevelt and Churchill had to make concessions
  to Stalin
• Stalin promised to declare war on Japan shortly
  after Germanys surrender
• Western leaders agreed to the Soviets regaining
  the territory Japan had taken from them in 1905

80
The Yalta Conference (cont.)

• Roosevelt and Churchill settled for Stalins
  vague promise to allow free election in Eastern
  Europe
• He never allowed them
• Stalin agreed to the formation of the United
  Nations in April 1945
• History Channel video--Yalta Conference

81
Victory in Europe

• April 1945--American and Soviet troops met at the
  Elbe River
• History Channel audio--Elbe River report
• April 12--FDR died
• History Channel speech--Truman on FDR's death
• April 30--Hitler committed suicide
• May 2--Berlin fell to the Soviet
• May 8--Germany unconditionally surrendered
• V-E Day

82
Victory in Europe (cont.)

• Harry S Truman became the new president
• Truman distrusted the Soviets
• He accused them of breaking their Yalta promise
  to allow free elections in Eastern Europe

83
Victory in Europe (cont.)

• Stalin responded angrily and tightened his hold
  on eastern Europe
• April to June 1945--San Francisco conference
• Framed the United Nations Charter
• History Channel speech--United Nations formed
• High tensions between Big Three
• July 1945--meeting at Potsdam
• The Big Three agreed on very little at the meeting

84
The Holocaust

• Nazi genocide of Jews during WWII
• Extermination camps
• Mass murders and torture
• Roosevelt administration was more concerned with
  winning the War as quickly as possible rather
  than destroying the camps
• Very little attempts to rescue European Jews
• Congress and the public did not want to admit
  large s of Jewish refugees to the U.S.A.

85
The Holocaust (cont.)

• By 1945--Nazis murdered
• 6 million Jews
• About 3 million gypsies, communists, homosexuals,
  etc.
• Allies liberated the death camps in the last
  months of the War
• Took pictures of the horror they saw

86
The Atomic Bomb

• The fighting in the Pacific continued in 1945
• U.S. captured Iwo Jima and Okinawa
• U.S. suffered heavy causalities at both battles

87
The Atomic Bomb (cont.)

• July 1945--U.S. successfully tested an atomic
  bomb
• History Channel video--atomic bomb tested
• Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration
• Called on Japan to surrender unconditionally or
  face prompt and utter destruction
• Japan rejected the warning
• Truman ordered the use of nuclear bombs

88
The Atomic Bomb (cont.)

• Aug. 6--Hiroshima
• History Channel video--Hiroshima
• Aug. 9--Nagasaki
• Japan then surrendered
• Many historians have debated if the U.S.A. needed
  to use the atomic bombs
• Was it justified?
• Motives?

89
The Atomic Bomb (cont.)

• Fifty million people died in WWII
• More than 1/2 were civilians
• Soviet Union lost 20 million
• About 400,000 U.S. servicemen died
• Much of Europe and Asia was ruined
• U.S. was physically undamaged
• There were profound changes had occurred in
  American life

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Conclusion

• The U.S. used isolationism in the the 1930s as a
  response to the aggressions of Germany, Italy,
  and Japan
• After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Congress voted
  for war on Japan
• Hitler and Mussolini then declared war on the
  U.S.A.

91
Conclusion (cont.)

• Once in the War, the country engaged in total war
• The powers of the federal govt. (especially the
  president) expanded mightily to mobilize the
  American economy fully
• U.S. became more productive and prosperous than
  ever before
• The Depression ended
• Fully employment returned
• The majority of people earned good

92
Conclusion (cont.)

• Allied armies defeated the enemy
• Americans faith in capitalism and democratic
  institutions rebounded
• Confidence and optimism about our future and
  national strength grew
• America then locked horns with its former ally
  the Soviet Union in a Cold War