2. The Road to War: Aggression
and Response
• International political instability arose from:
– Built-up resentments from WWI
– Worldwide depression of the 1930s
– Ultra-nationalist movements in Japan, Italy,
Germany
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
3. The Rise of Aggressor States
• Manchuria (1931)
– Manchukuo
• Hoover-Stimson Doctrine
• National Socialist (Nazi) Party
– Adolf Hitler
• Benito Mussolini
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
4. Isolationist Sentiment and
American Neutrality
• Nye committee
– Gerald P. Nye
– “Merchants of Death”
• Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937)
• “Cash and carry”
• Spanish Civil War
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
5. Growing Interventionist
Sentiment
• Spanish Civil War precipitated a debate
over foreign policy
– General Francisco Franco
– “Abraham Lincoln Battalion”
• Americans increasingly separated into
interventionists or isolationists
• Roosevelt tilts cautiously toward
intervention
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
6. The Mounting Crisis
• Marco Polo Bridge incident
• East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
• Panay (1937)
• Nanjing
• Axis Powers
• Sudetenland
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
7. The Outbreak of War in Europe
• Munich Conference (1938)
• Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
• Stalin-Hitler Pact
• World War II
– Occupation of Poland (1939)
– sitzkrieg
• Blitzkrieg: Hitler moves to take Denmark,
Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and
France
– Dunkirk
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
8. America’s Response to War in
Europe
• Roosevelt tries to mold American opinion against
Axis
• “Cash and carry"
• Selective Training and Service Act (1940)
• Destroyers for bases deal
• Robert Wood and the America First Committee
• American Anti-Semitism
• White Committee
• Election of 1940: Roosevelt vs. Wendell Willkie
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
9. An “Arsenal of Democracy”
• Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• Germany attacks Soviet Union
• U.S. occupies Greenland and Iceland
• Atlantic Charter (1941)
• Undeclared naval war vs. German “Wolf
Packs”
– Reuben James
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
10. The Attack at Pearl Harbor
• U.S. begins trade embargo against Japan (1940)
• Japanese assets in U.S. frozen (1941)
– Petroleum issue
• Pearl Harbor: Japan’s gamble (December 7, 1941)
• MAGIC
• December 8, 1941: U.S. declares war on Japan
• December 11, Germany and Italy declare war on
the United States
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
11. Fighting the War in Europe
• Axis doing well in 1942
• Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Pentagon
• ENIGMA and Ultra
– Ultra precursor to computers
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
12. Campaigns in North Africa and
Italy
• Europe first
• Soviets and “second front”
• Casablanca Conference
• North African operation (1942)
– TORCH
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Stalingrad
• The Italian Campaign
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
13. Operation Overlord
• D-Day (June 6, 1944)
– Normandy
• Liberation of Paris
• Elbe River
• Holocaust
• Hitler’s suicide
• Europe split
– Eastern Europe Soviet
– Germany and Austria Divided
– Western Europe British and American
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
14. The Pacific Theatre
• Fall of the Philippines
• Bataan Death March
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
15. Seizing the Initiative in the
Pacific
• Coral Sea (1942)
• Midway Island (1942)
• Guadalcanal
• “War without mercy”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
16. China Policy
• Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)
• Mao Zedong
• "China lobby"
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
17. Pacific Strategy
• Douglas MacArthur
• Chester Nimitz
• Iwo Jima
• Okinawa
• Strategic bombing
• Blockade
• “Unconditional surrender“
• Japan’s 3rd party peace “feelers”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
18. A New President
• Roosevelt’s death
• Harry S Truman
– “A little man from Missouri”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
19. Atomic Power and Japanese
Surrender
• Manhattan Project
– Albert Einstein
– Los Alamos, New Mexico
• Bomb decision
– Save lives compared to invasion
– End war before Soviets enter
• Hiroshima (1945)
• Nagasaki (1945)
• V-J Day
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
20. The War at Home: The
Economy
• Success for U.S. military efforts depended
on mobilization back home in America
• Great Depression finally came to a close
• The war transformed America’s political
economy
– Government, businesses, financial institutions,
and labor force
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
21. Government’s Role in the
Economy
• War Production Board
• War Labor Board
• War Manpower Commission
• Office of Price Administration
• Office of Scientific Research and
Development (R & D)
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
22. Business and Finance
• Increased government war spending
• War bonds
• Rationing and shared sacrifice
• Social programs withered as big businesses
flourished under government subsidies
– Cost plus contracts
• Anti-trust suits and legal challenges fell by
the wayside
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
23. The Workforce
• Labor shortage gives opportunities to
minorities and women
• Bracero program
• Fair Employment Practices Commission
(FEPC)
• African-Americans move North
• Wages of workers and farm income
increases
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
24. Labor Unions
• Unions discriminate against minorities and
women
• Racial conflict in the worklpace
• Smith-Connally Act (1943)
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
25. Assessing Economic Change
• Workplace became more inclusive
• Jobs seemed plentiful and personal savings
grew
• Big business, big government, big labor
expanded during war years
– Science and technology: linked mutual interests
among these 3 sectors
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
26. The War at Home: Social Issues
• By war’s end: 16 million Americans had
served
• Many people left their traditional homes
• Sacrifices on the home front
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
27. Wartime Propaganda
• War to preserve the “American way of life”
• Norman Rockwell
– Four Freedoms
• Frank Capra
– Why We Fight
• “Freedom” advertising
• Office of War Information (OWI)
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
28. Gender Equality
• WASPS (Women's Airforce Service Pilots)
• Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
considered
• “Pin up” mentality
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
29. Racial Equality
• Fighting Fascism challenges segregation
• "Double V" campaign
• A. Philip Randolph
• Military segregation and discrimination
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
30. Racial Tensions
• Racial discrimination in housing
• “Zoot suit" incidents
• Native-Americans and the war
• Committee (later, Congress) on Racial Equality
(CORE)
• Executive Order 9066: Japanese internment
• “Melting pot”
• Population movements erode regional distinctions
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
31. Shaping the Peace
• Harry S Truman (1945-1953)
• Builds on Roosevelt’s legacy
• United Nations
• New international economic institutions
created
• Important global political issues settled
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
33. Spheres of Interest and Postwar
Settlements
• Stalin and Churchill’s agreement
• Teheran Conference (1943)
• Yalta Conference (1945)
– Germany
– Berlin
– Poland
• U.S. and the question of colonies
– Support Britain and France retaking control
– Philippine independence
• Latin America
• Question of a Jewish homeland
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
34. Conclusion
• Wartime mobilization led to the end of the
Great Depression and shifted the New Deal
away from social reforms and toward
international issues
• U.S. most preeminent power
• 1940s: debates over nature of liberty and
equality
• Questions of post-war policies
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
