Mobilizing for Defense

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Mobilizing for Defense

• The United States in World War II 1

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I. Americans Join the War Effort

• A. Expanding the military
• 1. Army Chief of Staff George Marshall
  introduced the Womens Auxiliary Army Corps
  (WAAC).
• 2. Women would serve in non-combat positions.
• 3. Nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators,
  electricians, and pilots.

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• B. Other volunteers
• 1. 300,000 Mexican Americans joined the war.
• 2. 13,000 Chinese Americans, 33,000 Japanese
  Americans, and 25,000 Native Americans.
• 3. The Japanese served as spies and interpreters
  and the Navajo language became an unbreakable
  U.S. code.
• 4. Many African-Americans joined the war effort
  as well, but did not see action until the final
  year of the war due to widespread racism.

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II. A Production Miracle

• A. The Industrial Response
• 1. Shipyards and defense plants expanded with
  incredible speed.
• 2. 6 million new workers were women. (Rosie the
  Riveter)
• 3. Automobile factories started to produce tanks
  and planes.
• 4. Ships were being built in a record 4 days
• 5. However, women only earned as much as 60 of
  men and Blacks were often not allowed to hold
  certain jobs.

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• 6. A. Phillip Randolph, the nations most
  respected Black labor leader promised to lead
  100,000 Black protesters to Washington if FDR did
  do something to ensure their rights in the
  workplace.

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• To provide for the full and equitable
  participation of all workers in defense
  industries, without discrimination because of
  racism, creed, color, and or national origin.

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• B. Mobilization of Scientists
• 1. Office of Scientific Research and Development
  (OSRD).
• 2. The Manhattan Project was the secret project
  to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis did.

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III. The Federal Government Takes Control

• A. Economic Controls
• 1. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was
  designed to fight inflation by freezing the
  prices on most goods.
• 2. The War Production Board (WPB) ensured that
  the armed forces and war industries received the
  resources they needed to win the war.
• 3. The OPA also set up a system of rationing
  which is the establishment the fixed alloments of
  goods deemd essential for the military.

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