America Gets Ready For War!

1. America Gets Ready For War! FDR and the US after Pearl Harbor: “Dr. New Deal Becomes Dr. Win the War”

2. Pearl Harbor gives FDR new powers War Powers Act (December, 1941) • FDR is given complete emergency authority to create new executive agencies, establish trade controls, initiate defense contracts, and censor information • Supreme Court justice James F. Byrnes chosen to head the Office of War Mobilization (OWM) and become his “assistant president” ->

3. The military grows • Only 1.6 million Americans in the military before Pearl Harbor; 16 million men recruited after • 350,000 women served in WAC (Women’s Air Corps), WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service in the Navy)

4. Reorganizing for battle • Joint Chiefs of Staff: Army, Navy, Army Air Force • Pentagon opens in 1942 (world’s largest building) • Office of Strategic Services: intelligence activities in foreign countries

5. War and Industry • “If you are going to try to go to war in a capitalist country you have to let business make money out of the process or business won’t work.” • –Secretary of War Henry Stimson • Prior to Pearl Harbor, only 15% of industrial output was for the military.

6. War Production Board (WPB) Established in Jan. 1942 1. Allocate scarce materials to industry 2. Require companies to produce war supplies instead of civilian goods 3. Make war profitable for corporations guaranteed profits (cost-plus system) no prosecutions for anti-trust violations Examples: Car factories make planes and tanks Merry-go-round factory makes guns Pinball-machine factory makes bullets

7. The miracle of production • The U.S. makes twice as many war supplies than all of the Axis nations combined • Factories run 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk. • 300,000 military aircraft, 86,000 tanks, 2.6 million machine guns, 6 million tons of bombs, 86,000 warships • New technologies: synthetic rubber, faster processes for building ships (6 months down to 2 weeks), etc. • By June 1942, over HALF of everything produced in America is for the war!

8. Science and technology • “The wizard war” • Synthetic rubber • Office of Scientific Research and Development • Sonar and radar • Rockets • Jets • High-altitude bomb sights • DDT and insecticides • Penicillin mass production • MASH units (Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospital) • The Manhattan Project

9. The transformation of America • “Something is happening that Adolf Hitler does not understand… it is the miracle of production.” • The largest 100 corporations received 70% of the contracts; 500,000 small businesses closed • 10% of all defense spending in California; the southwest grows in population due to defense jobs • 60 new military bases in the South, the Manhattan Project in Tennessee

10. The rise of the Sunbelt

11. Paying for the war The U.S. spends $250 million a day on the war! Federal budget grows: • $9 billion in 1940 (Defense spending: 9% of GNP) • $100 billion in 1945 (Defense spending: 46% of GNP) War bond sales: • $135 billion Revenue Act of 1942: top tax rate raised to 90%; corporate taxes raised to 40%; by 1945 the federal government took in 20 times the taxes that it received in 1940; payroll deduction system introduced; 5% “Victory Tax” added on top of all incomes over $624.

12. Office of Price Administration (OPA) • Established in Apr.1942; mainly to reduce demand and limit inflation • Imposed price controls on products to stop the massive inflation brought on by higher incomes and a lack of consumer goods • Freezes on prices, rents, wages • Rationing program: gas, coffee, sugar, butter, cheese, meat, tires, etc. • Victory gardens, recycling cooking grease, scrap metal collection

13. Putting the people to work • War Manpower Commission (WMC) • Directed the mobilization of workers to ensure adequate labor supply • National War Labor Board (NWLB) • Settled disputes between labor unions and corporations, stopped strikes • Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) • Halted discrimination in defense industries and government- benefited African Americans and women (6 million new female workers) • Strong unions: wages of workers increase 50%; paid vacation time, health benefits, pensions, long workweeks, overtime pay • Later, the Smith-Connally Act (1943) gives FDR the power to seize factories/mines if war production was threatened by strikes; 30 days notice before a strike

14. An hour a day for the USA! • Office of Civilian Defense: civilian defense in case of a direct attack on American soil; air raid drills, first aid instruction, fire prevention, etc.

15. Thought Control? Office of Censorship • All letters going overseas examined • Worked with publishers and broadcasters to suppress information • No photos of American dead or wounded for first two years until “necessary” • Employed 14,000 people Office of Facts and Figures: agency that monitored the patriotic content of newspapers

16. Propaganda Office of War Information (OWI) June 1942 • Employed 4,000 artists, writers, and advertising experts • Created propaganda to inspire the American people to keep working and buy war bonds • Movies, songs, posters, cartoons, comics, newspapers, advertisements, radio shows all encouraged patriotism and a cheerful view of the war • Hollywood stars, musicians, and athletes • Make sure you do the homework!