The US and World War II

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The US and World War II
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Objectives

• Lecture and discussion of the US in WWII
• Description of the war and its aftermath

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• U.S. Neutrality Broke Down Soon
• 1937, Japan launched new attacks on China FDR
  sent aid to China
• The League of Nations was unable to stop war

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• 1939, Congress passed cash-and-carry provision
  (nations could buy from us as long as they paid
  cash and transported in their own ships).
• FDR wanted to help France and Britain to keep us
  out of war

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Destroyer Base Deal 1940, US traded old
destroyers for leases on Br. military bases in
the Caribbean and Newfoundland.
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FDR Press 1940 Conference

• No American boys will be sent into any foreign
  wars.
• I hate war. Eleanor hates war. We all hate war.

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• Roosevelt Ran for a Third Term
• FDR won against Wendell Willkie.

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• FDR feared the Axis Powers would conquer the
  world so, we must become an arsenal of
  democracy
• By late 1940, Britain had no more cash to buy
  U.S. arms

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• 1941, Lend-Lease ActU.S. lend or lease supplies
  for our defense

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• The Atlantic Charter Meeting 8/41
• FDR and Churchill met in the Atlantic to set war
  aims.
• They issued the Atlantic Chartertheir goals for
  war and peace.
• It became basis for A Declaration of the United
  Nations.

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• August 9,1941
• USS Augusta
• Placentia Bay,
• Newfoundland

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• 1941, Hitler invaded Soviet Union
• We sent lend-lease supplies to Soviet Union

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• Ger. Wolf packs (U-boats)groups of up to 40
  submarines patrol North Atlantic to attack supply
  convoys.
• FDR allowed navy to attack in self-defense

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• Germans fired on U.S. ship, FDR ordered navy to
  shoot on sight German U-boats
• U-boat attacks led Senate to repeal ban on arming
  merchant ships

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Shoot on Sight
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USS Reuben James

• Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben
  JamesManned by hard fighting men both of honor
  and fame?She flew the Stars and Stripes of the
  land of the freeBut tonight she's in her grave
  at the bottom of the sea.CHORUSTell me what
  were their names, tell me what were their
  names,Did you have a friend on the good Reuben
  James?One hundred men were drowned in that dark
  watery graveWhen that good ship went down only
  forty-four were saved.'Twas the last day of
  October we saved the forty-fourFrom the cold icy
  waters off that cold Iceland shore.It was there
  in the dark of that uncertain nightThat we
  watched for the U-boats and waited for a
  fight.Then a whine and a rock and a great
  explosion roaredAnd they laid the Reuben James
  on that cold ocean floor.Now tonight there are
  lights in our country so brightIn the farms and
  in the cities they are telling of the fight.And
  now our mighty battleships will steam the
  bounding mainAnd remember the name of that good
  Reuben James.
• Many years have passed since those brave men are
  goneThose cold Iceland waters are still and
  they're calm.Many years have passed, but still I
  wonder why --The worst of men must fight, and
  the best of men must die.
• --Woody Guthrie

• Escort Duty off Iceland
• Torpedoed and Sank by U-552
• 100 Killed

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• Problems with Japan
• Hirohito is emperor of Japan, allied with Tojo
• Japan seized parts of Indochina U.S. cut off
  trade of scrap iron, oil, etc. (war supplies)
• Japan began making plans to attack us..

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• 1941, U.S. broke Japanese codes learned of plan
  to attack us.
• Peace talks with Japan lasted about 1 month
• December 6, Japanese envoy instructed to reject
  all U.S. proposals

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• The Attack on Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941, Sunday morning
• 2,403 Americans killed 1,178 wounded
• Over 300 aircraft, 21 ships destroyed or damaged

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• Reaction to Pearl Harbor
• Congress declared war.
• This is the day that will live in infamy, FDR
• Germany, Italy declared war on U.S.
• U.S. unprepared to fight in both Atlantic,
  Pacific Oceans

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The END of Isolationism