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America in the War

America in the War. SS10 Arnold. Converting the Economy. Started in 1940 (after Germany took France) 50,000 planes per year “Cost-plus” contracts = high profits Incentive for companies to convert RFC gave loans to convert

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America in the War

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  1. America in the War • SS10 • Arnold

  2. Converting the Economy • Started in 1940 (after Germany took France) • 50,000 planes per year • “Cost-plus” contracts = high profits • Incentive for companies to convert • RFC gave loans to convert • After Pearl Harbor most major industries and 200,000 companies had converted • What did they make before? What does it mean to “convert to wartime production”?

  3. Cars to Tanks • Car factories made • Trucks • Jeeps • Tanks • Guns • Helmets • Cooking pots • Airplanes • Coordinated by the • WPB- War Production Board (allocate resources and supplies) • OWM- Office of War Mobilization (resolve arguments between gov. agencies like WPB and Army)

  4. Creating an Army • 1940 First Peacetime Draft: “Selective Service and Training Act” • Had inadequate facilities and supplies (used sticks and rocks for guns and grenades)

  5. Women’s Roles • Non-combat, clerical and support roles. • Women’s Army Corp • Navy, Marines and Coast Guard followed • Also served as nurses • New kinds of jobs • 4 million clerical and support jobs • 2.5 million industrial and manufacturing jobs • Traditionally male dominated

  6. African American Roles • Segregated training facilities and units at the start of the war • Integrated bases in 1943 • African Americans were given combat roles at FDRs orders • Double V: Victory against Hitler’s racism and racism at home. • Industries reluctant to hire African Americans • FDR 1941: Fair Employment Practices Commission (First gov. civil rights agency since reconstruction) • Ensure no discrimination in defense industry or gov jobs • Race, creed, color or national origin • Continued “Great Migration” • Outbreaks of racial violence in the North

  7. Mexican Americans • 1942 Bacero Program: 200,000 Mexican immigrant farm workers needed for harvest. (continued until 1964) • Zoot Suit Riots • Popular clothing style- baggy suit pants and a long jacket • “unpatriotic” waste of materials • 2,500 sailors and soldiers attacked Mexican American neighborhood in LA. • Police did not intervene • LA banned “Zoot Suit”

  8. Life at home • Major Shortages of goods • Price and Wage controls • No Strike Pledges • Rationing • Meat, sugar, coffee • Gasoline • Processed foods • Victory Gardens • Scrap Drives • Increased Taxes • War Bonds (borrow from the people)

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