American Response to World War II: From Neutrality to Active Engagement

1. Chapter 26 American During the Second World War Web

2. The Road to War: Aggression and Response • Rise of aggressor states • Japanese expansion in Asia • Nazi Germany • Fascist Italy • Isolationist sentiment and American neutrality • Nye Committee questioned motives for U.S. entry into World War 1 • Neutrality Acts (1935-37) to prevent another such scenario • Refusal to take sides in Spanish Civil War, 1936 • Growing interventionist sentiment • Domestic debates about international affairs • FDR quarantine speech, October 1937

3. Ominous International Developments • Creation of Axis Alliance, November 1936 • Germany, Italy, Japan all withdrew from League of Nations • Japanese invasion of China, summer of 1937 • Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere • Nazi land seizures • Austria • Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia • Steps toward war • Failure of appeasement • Munich Conference, September 1938 • Nazi-Soviet Pact, August 1939

4. ©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license. German Expansion at ItsHeight

5. Outbreak of actual war in Europe • German invasion of Poland, September 1, 1939 • Brought Germany into war with Britain • Springboard for seizure of almost all of Europe by mid-1940 • America’s response to war in Europe • FDR push for “all measures short of war” to aid the Allies • “Destroyers-for-bases” deal, September 1940 • Limits to how far the administration could go • America First Committee called for isolation • Anti-Semitism prevented aid to European Jews • Defeat of Wagner-Rogers Bill, 1939 • Some strong voices in support of aid to Allies • Military Training Camps Association • Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies • Presidential campaign in 1940 restrained in its rhetoric

6. Becoming the Arsenal of Democracy • Administration stepped up aid after FDR’s re-election • Lend-Lease, March 1941 • Atlantic Charter, August 19421 • Undeclared naval war in the North Atlantic • FDR convinced by autumn of 1941 that U.S. entry into war was inevitable

7. Attack at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 • Route to U.S. entry came in Pacific, not Europe • Administration efforts to halt Japanese expansion in Asia had failed • Applied economic sanctions in mid-1941 • Attack destroyed nearly entire U.S. Pacific fleet • Designed to cripple U.S. power and thereby avoid a long war • Act of desperation • Led to charges that administration had left Pacific fleet vulnerable • Evidence suggests confusion, but no true deviousness • Congress declared war on Japan, December 8, 1941

8. Fighting the War in Europe • Military strategy contentious issue for Allies • Agreed on Europe-first strategy • Otherwise disagreed on how to accomplish goals • Soviet calls for second front • British opposition repeatedly delayed such an operation • Campaigns in North Africa and Italy • Favored by British officials, and Americans went along • Casablanca Conference, 1943 • Delayed second front • Unconditional surrender

9. Fighting the War in Europe (cont.) • Operation OVERLORD, June 1944 • Opened second front in Europe • Came after Soviets turned tide of war in East at Stalingrad • D-Day landing turned tide of war in West • War in Europe ended in May 1945 • Soviet forces from East met with Anglo-American forces from West • Soviets militarily controlled Eastern Europe • British and Americans in control of Italy and Mediterranean

10. ©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license. Allied Advances and Collapse of German Power

11. The Pacific Theater • Seizing the initiative in the Pacific • Battle of Coral Sea (May 1942) first Japanese naval defeat • By 1943, Pacific and European Theaters receiving roughly equal resources • War reinforced racial prejudices on both sides • Pacific strategy • Decisions often product of compromise • Firebombing of civilian targets began in 1944 • Coupled with stories of Japanese atrocities

12. A New President, The Atomic Bomb, and Japanese Surrender • Harry S. Truman assumed presidency upon FDR’s death in April 1945 • Knew little of FDR’s intentions in foreign affairs • Manhattan project • First atomic weapon test July 1945 • Administration assumed weapon would be used against Japan • Atomic bombs used in Japan • Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 • Nagasaki August 9, 1945 • VJ Day August 15, 1945

13. ©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license. Pacific Theater Offensive Strategy and Final Assault against Japan

14. The War at Home: The Economy • Government’s role in the economy • War Production Board • War Labor Board • War Manpower Commission • Office of Price Administration • Business and Finance • Massive war-fueled increase in government spending • War production meant decline in availability of consumer goods • New Deal job-creation programs and other initiatives abolished in 1943 • War concentrated in the power in the largest corporation

15. The War at Home: Workers and Unions • Entry of new workers into workforce • As men went away to war, women and minorities found jobs in new industries • War also provided numerous volunteer activities • Fair Employment Practices Commission (1941) • To protect minorities in workplace • War brought long hours and high wages • Farmers enjoyed prosperity for first time in decades • War strengthened organized labor • Weak commitment to female and minority workers • Wartime no-strike pledged muted but did not destroy labor militancy

16. The War at Home: Social Issues • Wartime propaganda • Focused on protecting the “American way of Life” • Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series • Advertisers sold benefits of American freedom’ • Office of War Information (1942) • Wartime gender equality • Spurred by women’s entry into workforce • Disagreement over proposed Equal Rights Amendment • War widened gap between “femininity” and “masculinity”

17. The War at Home: Racial Issues • Racial equality • Growing popularity of belief that racial differences were culturally created • Helped to fuel postwar struggle against racial discrimination • Northward migration of African Americans accelerated demands for equality • Racial tensions • Racial disturbances in cities throughout the country • African Americans, Indians, and Latinos all involved • Growing commitment to addressing racial grievances • Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) • Worst wartime treatment meted out to Japanese Americans • Executive Order 9066 authorized internment

18. Shaping the Peace: International Organization • United Nations, 1945 • General Assembly with equal membership • Security Council to maintain peace • International Monetary Fund, 1944 • Maintain stable system of international exchange • International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, 1944 • Provide loans to war-torn countries • Promote resumption of world trade • General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1947 • International structure for implementing free and fair trade

19. Shaping the Peace: Spheres of Interest and Postwar Settlements • Allies all agreed that powerful nations would have spheres of influence • Eastern Europe • FDR sympathized with Soviet security concerns • But was worried about Eastern European voters in United States • Germany • Initially, U.S.supported its deindustrialization and dismemberment • Then supported division into zones controlled by Allies • Finally led drive to unify three non-Communist zones in west

20. Shaping the Peace: Spheres of Interest and Postwar Settlements(cont.) • Poland • Yalta agreements called for free and open elections • But Stalin believed his allies assented to the de facto Soviet control • Became highly contentious issue in Soviet-American relations • Asia • At Yalta, Soviets pledged to enter war against Japan once war in Europe had ended • U.S. didn’t want such entry once the atomic bomb became available • European colonies in Southeast Asia seized by Japan

21. Shaping the Peace: Spheres of Interest and Postwar Settlements • U.S. opposed immediate independence as halt to spread of leftist political movements • Philippines • U.S. Granted independence in 1946 • Latin America • Office of Inter-American Affairs (1937) fostered good relations during war • Palestine • European Jews flocked to Palestine after War • Created new state of Israel in 1948 Web