AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II

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AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II

• CHAPTER 36

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The Allies Trade Space For Time

• After Pearl Harbor, the free world was on the
  edge of disaster
• Japan running amok in Pacific and Germany might
  drive England to the wall before US aid could
  stem the tide.
• ABC-1 agreement
• Why is stopping Hitler a bigger priority?.
• Plan Devote enough energy to Japan to keep them
  from getting any more and begin to try to drive
  them back, but make Europe the first priority.
• This strategy criticized by public, pacific
  commanders, China and far-east allies, but was
  sound.

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Revving the Economic Engine

• US had massive economic potential but needed
  time.
• England in desperate shape.
• America needed to time to convert factories to
  all-out war production.
• German scientists would come up with dramatic new
  weapons.
• US had to feed and arm itself and allies.

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The Shock Of War

• Pearl Harbor had silenced isolationists.
• US communists and socialists fully backed the
  war. Why?
• No government witch hunts against American
  Germans or most Japanese-Americans.
• Exception West-Coast Japanese,
• 110,000 interned in concentration camps. Why?
• Most interned were well integrated into US
• Lost millions in earnings and property.
• Upheld by Supreme Court in Korematsu v. U.S.
• Apologize in 1988 and pay reparations.

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Japanese Internment
Waiting for the Signal From Home
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Building The War Machine

• War snapped US out of the depression.
• Full employment.
• War Production Board.
• Henry J. Kaiser -Ship-building king

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Rationing

• War production board halted manufacture of
  non-essential items
• War industries had first priority in transport
  and raw materials
• National speed limit and gas rationing.
• Food Rationing
• Farmers have bumper crops and boom time.

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Do Your Part
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Economic Bumps

• War caused Inflation.
• WPB response.
• Unions gave no-strike pledge, but hated wage caps
  and some staged labor stoppages.
• Mine workers under John L. Lewis were the worst.
  
• Roosevelt took a tough stance.
• 1943 Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act

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Manpower Shortage

• 15 Million men served in WWII.
• 216,000 women served in military in one capacity
  or another
• WAACS (Army) WAVES (Navy)
• Severe manpower shortage at home.
• Braceros.

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Rosie the Riveter

• 6 Million women took jobs outside the home over
  half had never worked before. Rosie the Riveter.
• Effect on Womens movement
• 2/3 left or lost their jobs after war.

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Wartime Migrations

• Reason for wartime migrations.
• Detroit and LA, Dallas
• 1.6 million blacks moved from the south.
• New race problems in northern cities.
• Blacks resent their treatment.
• FDR issues executive order prohibiting
  discrimination in defense industries
• Fair Employment Practices Commission.

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Internal Migration in the United States During
World War II
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Blacks Demand Fairness

• Blacks adopt the Double V slogan.
• Military segregation
• NAACP membership shoots up and Congress for
  Racial Equality is established (CORE)
• Move north continues after the war.
• Creation of Sun Belt

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Economic Effect of War

• Americans at home suffered very little from the
  war, especially when contrasted to the Brits and
  Russians.
• War invigorated the US economy to an
  unprecedented level.
• GNP doubled from 1940 to 1945 and pay checks went
  way up.
• Disposable income more than doubled, but not much
  to spend on because all factories devoted to war.
• The war, even more than the New Deal, leads to
  the Big Government of the second half of the 20th
  Century.

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Federal Spending

• All the federal spending finally cures the
  depression.
• War cost 330 billion.
• Where did money come from?
• Forced US to borrow at unprecedented level and to
  raise taxes.
• Top brackets went as high as 90.
• National debt goes from 49 Bill in 1941 to 259
  Bill. in 1945.

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Figure 36.1 The National Debt, 19301950
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Fighting in the Pacific

• Japanese very successful
• Turning point at Midway

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The Allied Halting Of Hitler

• Battle of North Atlantic
• German subs were sinking merchant ships faster
  than they could be built..
• Rommel in runs roughshod over Brits inNorth
  Africa
• 9/42 Russia stalls the German steamroller on the
  outskirts of Stalingrad High-water mark for Hitler

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The North African Second Front

• Soviets are begging the allies to open second
  front. Allies recognize they need to.
• Stalins concerns and fears
• Allies concerns
• Americans are willing to make a cross-channel
  invasion in 1942 but Churchill and Englands high
  command are against this.
• British argue for an attack at the underbelly of
  Europe in the Mediterranean.

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Operation Torch

• Invade North Africa 11/42.
• Ike in command.
• Biggest sea-born invasion up to that time.
• American troops get pummeled by Germans in first
  battle at Kasserine pass. Patton takes charge.
• U.S. and Brits begin to drive Germans East.
• Forced Germans to surrender in Tunisia 5/43

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Casablanca

• Churchill and Roosevelt Jan. 1943.
• Agree to invade Sicily. The plan
• Many on American staff dont like this idea.
• Churchill and Roosevelt agree to insist on
  unconditional surrender of Germany.

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Sicily

• Sicily invaded and falls 8/43.
• Mussolini is deposed soon thereafter and Italy
  unconditionally surrenders.
• Germans dont leave and carry on fight in Italy

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Invasion of Italy

• 9/43 Allies invade toe of Italy and start
  fighting up the boot.
• Bogs down amphibious invasion along the Western
  coast at Anzio.
• Is very slow going in Italy fighting through the
  mountains.
• Allies finally get Rome 2 days before D-Day.
• Do not finish in Italy until 5 days before German
  surrender.

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Italy Assessed

• Benefits
• Does divert some German troops and provides us
  with air bases from which we can easily bomb
  Germany.
• Does open the Mediterranean to Allies greatly
  restricting Germans.
• Problems
• Delayed the cross-channel invasion by many
  months, giving Soviets a chance to get further
  into Eastern Europe before the war ends.
• Increased Soviet suspicion

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Tehran Conference

• Late Nov. 1943
• Purpose
• First meeting of Roosevelt and Stalin
• Roosevelt attempts to placate Stalin

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Eisenhowers D-day Invasion Of France

• Eisenhower is given command of D-day landing.
• June 6, 1944. Biggest sea-borne invasion in
  history.
• Land near Normandy.
• Five beaches. Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, Omaha

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D-Day

• Very hard fighting
• Have to break out before Germans bring in
  reinforcements and drive invasion back into the
  ocean.
• US has Air superiority.
• US has used paratroopers the night of the D-day
  invasion
• Hitler dithers on the day of the invasion.
• August, 1944, invasion of southern France opens a
  second front.
• Patton breaks out and races to the German border,
  but is forced to stall when he cant get enough
  supplies.

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Election of 1944

• Election of 1944 comes at a bad timethe war is
  reaching its climax
• Republicans nominate Dewey, popular governor of
  New York. He is only 42 and is very liberal for
  a Republican.
• FDR is renominated as a matter of course.
• Roosevelt is in very poor health.
• VP, Henry Wallace, dumped and replaced by Truman.
  Why?
• Roosevelt relationship with Truman.

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Roosevelt Again

• FDR stays in the White House running the war for
  most of the election. Henry Wallace out
• Dewey young, popular, honest, Gov of New York
• against New Deal
• FDR wasteful spending.
• Commies in Administration
• Dewey VP candidate was a staunch isolationist.
• FDR wins by 3 Million votes and 432-99 in the
  Electoral College.

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Battle of the Bulge

• December 1944, Germany was wobbling.
• Dec. 16, 1944 Hitler unleashes a powerful all-out
  counter-offense in the snow-shrouded and foggy
  Ardennes forest. Battle of the Bulge.
• Allies are thrown back in disarray.
• German target is port of Antwerp. Goal?

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Battle of the Bulge

• ProblemGermans are very low on fuel and lack air
  support.
• 101st Airborne is surrounded but refuses to
  surrender at Bastogne.
• Constantly shelled, low supplies, no winter
  clothing.
• Patton drives north in record time and relieves
  Bastogne.

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V-E Day

• March 1945 American Troops reach the Rheine
• April, 1945 just outside Berlin, US forces meet
  up with Soviets who have been driving in from the
  East.
• Discover the concentration camps.
• April 12, 1945, Roosevelt dies.
• Truman, who is totally out of the loop, is
  hastily sworn in.
• April 30, 1945, Hitler commits suicide as Berlin
  is falling around him.
• May 7, 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally.

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Japan Dies Hard

• American subs devastate Japans merchant fleet.
• Massive fire-bomb raids of Japanese cities.
• March, 1945, destroy ¼ of Tokyo and killed over
  80,000. As devastating as later Nuclear attacks.
• MacArthur recaptures New Guinea.

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Leyte Gulf and Philippine

• October, 1944, biggest naval battle in history.
  Leyte Gulf.
• Japans naval power is destroyed.
• First Kamikazes.
• Jan. 1945, recapture Philippine mainland.

Douglas MacArthur returns to Philippines
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Okinawa and Iwo Jima

• Spring 1945 vicious battles on Okinawa and Iwo
  Jima.
• Japanese fight to the last man, inflicting severe
  casualties.
• Impact on US strategic thinking?

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Atomic Bomb

• Invasion of Japan is assumed will cost America
  thousands of casualties.
• Japan is sending out peace-feelers, but does not
  appear willing to surrender unconditionally.
• Potsdam conference July 1945 Allies agree again
  to unconditional surrender.
• Japan wants to keep the emperor.
• Manhattan project. Very secret.
• First atomic bomb in New Mexico July 1945.

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Atomic Bomb

• Nagasaki and HiroshimaJapanese surrender.
• Hiroshima70,000 instant deaths and 60,000 more
  over next months due to radiation.
• Soviets enter the war just after the first bomb
  and overrun Manchuria and Korea (hence North
  Korea)
• Japan surrenders August 10, 1945

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Why Does Truman Use the Bomb?

• Avoid US casualties, but clear Japan would likely
  surrender before Invasion.
• To show Soviets what we have
• To prevent Soviets from being involved in Pacific
  longer and grabbing more territory and having a
  say in rebuilding of Japan.
• Probably most important

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