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Explore how the U.S. transitioned from neutrality to active involvement in WWII, facing early setbacks and turning the tide in North Africa and the Pacific. Learn about key figures and pivotal battles.
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Objectives • Understand how the United States prepared for war and strengthened its ties with the Allies. • Discover why the United States finally entered World War II. • Learn how, after many early setbacks, the Allies began to turn the tide of battle in North Africa and the Pacific.
Terms and People • total war– conflict involving not just armies but entire nations • Dwight D. Eisenhower – a U.S. general who commanded troops in Africa and who forced the surrender of the army under the command of German general Erwin Rommel • Douglas MacArthur – a U.S. general who commanded troops in the Philippines
How did the United States move from neutrality to full involvement in the war? At first, the United States restricted its role to selling, lending, or leasing supplies to the Allies, while at the same time preparing for the possibility of joining the war. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States became fully involved in World War II.
Roosevelt promised to maintain American neutrality, but he sympathized with the Allies. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-Lease law, which let the United States lend or lease supplies to nations fighting the Nazis.
In July 1941, Japan invaded the French colony of Indochina. In response, Roosevelt banned iron and steel scrap exportsand restricted the sale of oil to Japan. Facing a shortage of fuel for their navy, Japanese leaders decided to attack the United States. On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers launched a surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor.
The attack took thousands of American lives and destroyed a great deal of equipment. U.S. leaders were caught off guard. They had not expected the Japanese to come as far east as Hawaii.
On December 8, Congress declared war on Japan. Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, then declared war on the United States.
In early 1942, the Allies faced a bleak situation on all fronts. • Germany controlled most of Western Europe and was advancing deep into Soviet territory. • Soviet losses numbered in the millions. Later in 1942, the Allies began to gain ground.
In December 1941, Soviet troops—assisted by the brutal Russian winter—halted the German advance just miles from Moscow. After months of fighting, the Soviets won the battle and pushed the Germans back westward.
In North Africa, German general Erwin Rommel won a number of quick victories. But British troops defeated the Germans in Egypt and then drove Rommel’s corps into Tunisia.
In November, the first American ground troops in combat landed in North Africa under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. U.S. troops occupied Morocco and Algeria, and Rommel’s army surrendered in May 1943.
In the days after Pearl Harbor, Japanese armies swiftly took control of Southeast Asia.
The Japanese attacked the island of Luzon, where General Douglas MacArthur commanded a Filipino-American force. As the Japanese closed in on Manila, the capital city, MacArthur withdrew his forces onto the Bataan peninsula.
President Roosevelt then ordered MacArthur to go to Australia and take control of all the troops in the region. On Bataan and the nearby island of Corregidor, Americans and Filipinos fought bravely. The defenders of Bataan surrendered in April,and Corregidor fell in May.
At Bataan, the Japanese captured nearly 70,000 soldiers and forced them to walk 65 miles to a prison camp. Along the way, many prisoners died of starvation, disease, or violence. Their trek became known as the Bataan Death March.
The tide began to turn in the Pacific with two historic naval battles. At the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States halted the Japanese drive to New Guinea. U.S. and Japanese forces launched planes from aircraft carriers to attack enemy ships.
A month later, the Japanese sought to take Midway, the island home of a key American military base. But the Americans destroyed many Japanese aircraft, aircraft carriers, and pilots. After the Battle of Midway, Japan’s navy no longer ruled the Pacific.
