History Exam

American's Isolation, Neutralitty, and Entrance - Impact on the Economy and Society - Americans in Europe and Asia - Yalta, Postdam and Post War World

Neutrality

• Not taking sides or participating in a conflict

Isolationism

• American interests would best be served by staying out of other nations’ conflicts

• Supported by MANY

  • WWI - Did we really do anything?

  • Own problems at home: Economy

Charles Lindbergh

• Colonel and American Aviator

• Made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927

• Inspected germans aircraft facilities and said that Hitler could never be conquered in the air

• Believed in American isolationism

Totalitarian Government

• RISE OF DICTATORSHIP MAIN IDEA

• Little or no freedom; the government controls almost every aspect of life.

• Seen in both communist and fascist countries at the time

• Fascist:

  • Importance of the nation over individual

    • Italy

      • Benito Mussolini

    • Germany

      • Adolf Hitler

• Communist:

  • Soviet Union

    • Josef Stalin

  • Japan

    • Hirohito: Emperor

    • Hideki Tojo: Supreme Military Leader and Prime Minister

Appeasement

• Giving in to someone’s demands in order to keep the peace

  • September 1938: Munich Conference

    • Britain and France meet with Hitler to attempt to avoid war

• Total goal is to DETER WAR!!!!

Neutrality Acts

• Neutrality Acts (mid 1930’s, 1935/37)

  • Laws that declared the US would withhold weapons and loans from all nations at war

Cash and Carry

• Required that nonmilitary goods sold to nations at war be paid for in cash and transported by the purchaser

Neutrality Act of 1939

• Permitted Britain and France to purchase weapons on a cash and carry basis

Lend Lease Act

• Authorized the President to aid any nation whose defense he believed was vital to American security

Attack on Pearl Harbor

• Diplomatic negotians with Japan were breaking down (from the US refusing to send Japan oil) so a Japanese attack was expected, but nothing was done to increase security at the naval base at Pearl Harbor

• On a sunday morning (december 7th 1941) many military personal had been given passes to attend religious service off base

• Then at 7:02 a.m. two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight towards the island, but since a flight of B- 17s was expected at the time no alarm was sounded

• It was a devastating surprise to the naval base, and much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless

  • 5 of 8 battleships, 3 destroyers, 7 other ships were sunk or severely damaged and 200 aircrafts were destroyed

  • 2400 Americans were killed, 1200 wounded

• Japan only lost 30 planes, 5 midget submarines, and less than 100 men

• Luckily all 3 Pacific fleet carries were out at sea for the US

Japanese Internment Camps

• By 1940, over 125,000 people of Japanese origin or descent lived in the contiguous 48 states

  • The highest populations in states on the West Coast and over 150,000 lived in the territory of Hawaii.

• in 1942, more than 110,000 people of Japanese origin/ancestry in the designated military areas were forced to leave their homes and were imprisoned without trial.

  • There was no evidence that any of these individuals were disloyal or posed a threat to the US

  • 2/3 of the imprisoned people were American citizens

• They were initially told to go to assembly centers, were given little time to prepare, and were only allowed to bring what they could carry to the centers (so their other belongings were abandoned or sold for cheap prices)

  • After months in the makeshift centers they’d then be transfered to one of the ten permanent incarceration camps

  • These camps were surrounded by fences with guard towers, provided simple barracks-style living quarters, and provided basic services such as schools and hospitals

Fred Korematsu

• A Japanese American civil rights activist

• He defied the US governments order to move into an incarceration camp in WWII

  • the supreme court ruled against him

  • it was overturned in 1983

• he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998

Why did WWII begin?

• As an effect of Pearl Harbor

  • citizens finally were on board because it affect American citizens

• FDR recognizes congress

  • Requested for a declaration of war on Japan and its allies

  • Congress quickly accepted

  • All members except one

    • Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a dedicated lifelong pacifist.

    • Montana

    • Thought FDR provoked Japan

Why did FDR want to repeal the Neutrality Acts?

• he belived that the act became dangerous to American neutrality and peace because it ended up giving nations aid

• it allowed the US to give aid anyway, which made them less neutral as a country

What did FDR mean when he pledged “No Foreign War“?

• he said he’ll promote neutrality by improving the defense of the US only by trying to recruit troops

• he says their purpose if their defense only

Why was there tension with Japan?

• Americans cracked a code: Japan’s plans for SE Asia

  • Build an “Empire”

  • France fell to Germany - go after their colonies

  • American controlled Philippine Islands and Guam

• US sent Aid to China to strengthen resistance against Japan

  • July 1941: Japanese overran Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

  • Roosevelt cut off oil shipments to Japan

U.S. was now seen as a threat to Japan

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

• Roosevelt cut off oil shipments to Japan

  • U.S. was now seen as a threat to Japan

• Wanted to destroy their pacific naval fleet to avoid a long war

“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy“

• A speech delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt

• Talking about the attack on pearl harbor, how horrible it was

• Pushes the US to enter the war

Why did FDR issue Executive Order 9066 (internment camps)? Were his actions justified?

• From when President Roosevelt addresses Congress on December 8th

• Talking about Pearl Harbor- how horrible it was and how they need to retaliate

• Requested for a declaration of war on Japan and its allies

  • Congress quickly accepted

What were the effects of the Internment Camps?

• Mass loss of homes and businesses

• Dehumanizing living conditions

  • Psychological and Physical Trauma

• Longterm negative cultural impacts

  • Racism towards Japanese Americans

What constitutional rights do Internment Camps violate?

• 5th amendment (due process)

  • they detained individuals without a trial

• 14th amendment (equal protection)

  • targeted people based on race

• 4th amendment (searches)

  • warrantless searches

Mobilization

• “Getting ready for war”

• the action of a country or its government preparing and organizing troops for active service

• The Military:

  • Conscription

• Civilians:

  • workers: Ended the massive unemployment of the 1930’s

  • office of war information: Hired writers and artists to create patriotic posters and ads

  • “work or fight”: Rationing and shortages of many everyday items

  • victory gardens

Conscription/Draft

• The Draft

• Selective Training and Service Act 1940

• Started with “citizen soldier”

• Then continued through the war

Office of War Mobilization

• New government Agencies were set up to support this

  • High demand for supplies

  • Coordinate the production of American businesses

Liberty Ships

• Cargo ships built in the US during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program.

• Simple, low-cost construction, Mass-produced on an unprecedented scale

• Came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output

Rationing

• The controlled, restricted distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services to ensure availability because of the shortages of many items

• Office of Price Administration (OPA)

  • Keep shortages from sending up prices and rents causing inflation

  • Oversaw rationing of scarce sources

• War Production Board (WPB)

  • direct the conversion of peacetime industries to those that made war goods

  • quickly halted the production of hundreds of civilian consumer goods, ex: cars, lawnmowers

  • set priorities and allocated raw materials

Victory Gardens

• Gardens planted (primarily by women) on private residences to grow their own food during rationing times

Propaganda

• Wanted to promote conservation, industrial production, and security

• Rosie the Riveter - to promote woman’s involvent in labor

• Demonizing the enemy

• promoting war bonds

• encouraging operational security

Rosie the Riveter

• Popular song from 1942

  • Fictional young woman who worked in a defense plant while her boyfriend Charlie served in the marines

• Government used her image to attract women into the workforce

  • Motive: Patriotism

  • Do your job on the home front while your boyfriend is off fighting

• Young, white, middle class

War Bonds

• government savings bonds to finance the war

  • $156 Billion

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• founded in 1942

• May 1943 organized the first sit in at a restaurant

• Paved the way for later Civil Rights actions

The Bracero Program

• American government worked with Mexican government to bring in laborers from Mexico to work on American farms

• Often faced discrimination

March on Washington

• Discrimination continues against African Americans

  • Jim Crow

  • Workplace discrimination

  • Soldiers are segregated

• Called for a March on Washington

  • Organized by A. Philip Randolph

  • Goal: abolish discrimination in defense industries and the military, aiming to end Jim Crow practices in federal employment

A. Philip Randolph

• Organizer of the March on Washington to desegregate defense industries

• The threat of 100,000 protesters made FDR issue Executive Order 8802, which banned discriminatory hiring in defense jobs and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC)

How did industries convert during war time?

• Production of consumer goods stopped and factories converted to war production

  • Shirt factories = mosquito netting

  • typewriter plants = machine g uns

  • automobile factories = b ombers

    • Ration out cars to people who really needed them

How did the government, military, economy, and civilians prepare for the war?

• Conscription

  • The Draft

  • Selective Training and Service Act 1940

  • Started with “citizen soldier”

  • Then continued through the war

• Workers

  • Ended the massive unemployment of the 1930’s

  • Office of War Information

  • Hired writers and artists to create patriotic posters and ads

  • “Work or Fight”

  • Rationing

  • Shortages of many everyday items

  • Victory Gardens

How was the war financed?

• Federal Spending increased

• Higher taxes paid for 41% of the cost of war

• Borrowed from banks, private investors, and the public

• War Bonds:

  • government savings bonds to finance the war

  • $156 Billion

What were the overall effects of the war on the economy and society?

• Discrimination continues against African Americans

  • Jim Crow

  • Workplace discrimination

  • Soldiers are segregated

• FDR signs Executive order 8802

  • Banned discrimination in the defense industry

  • assured fair hiring practices in any job funded with government money

  • established the Fair Employment Practices Committee to enforce these requirements

• Randolph calls off the March

• NAACP grew

• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded in 1942

  • May 1943 organized the first sit in at a restaurant

• Paved the way for later Civil Rights actions

Impact/Challenges the war had on women and minorities:

• Mexican Americans

  • The Bracero Program

  • American government worked with Mexican government to bring in laborers from Mexico to work on American farms

  • Often faced discrimination

• Japanese Americans

  • 20,000 served in the armed forces

• Zoot Suit Riots

  • a series of violent racial clashes in Los Angeles, attacked young Mexican American, Black, and Filipino men wearing popular, baggy "zoot suit" clothing

• Woman

  • Reality: American women of all ages, ethnic, and economic backgrounds went to work in the wartime economy

  • Impact

    • As men went off to war, women filled their jobs

    • Recruitment campaign

      • Married/single

  • Challenges

    • African American women still faced prejudice and discrimination : Gender and race

    • Wages

    • After the war

What were the effects of the attempted March on Washington?

• Got FDR to issue the executive order 8802

• established the fair empolyment practices committee (FEPC)

GI

• “Government Issue” stamp that appeared on all shoes, clothes, weapons and other equipment provided by the military

Tuskegee Airmen

• A group of specially trained African-American combat pilots who studied at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama

  • Context

    • Black Americans served in every U.S. war but were placed in segregated units

    • Black officers were not allowed to command white troops

  • 1938: Civilian Pilot Training Program created (initially whites only)

  • 1939: Program expanded to include Black students

    • Tuskegee Institute selected as a training site

    • First Black pilots trained but initially denied entry into Army Air Corps

• Pressure from NAACP and leaders pushed for inclusion

• 1940: FDR approved the 99th Fighter Squadron

  • all-Black unit

  • Additional squadrons: 100th, 301st, 302nd known collectively as the Tuskegee Airmen

• Goal: Fight fascism abroad AND racism at home

Navajo Code Talkers

• Navajo Indians recruited to transmit and receive secretly coded radio communications for the U.S. Marines

  • enemy forces intercepted and listened to radio transmissions pertaining to Marine maneuvers and combat

• Developed a secret code of communication based on the Navajo language

• The enemy was unable to decode the Navajo language

  • This made the Navajo Code Talkers essential to the success of the Allies during World War II

Latin Americans

• Over 500,000 Latinos (including 350,000 Mexican Americans) served in World War II

  • Unlike African Americans, they were not segregated into separate units

• Latino soldiers who were fluent in Spanish served an important role in fighting in the Philippines

  • Their knowledge of Spanish was invaluable when serving with Spanish speaking Filipinos

WASP

• (Women Airforce Service Pilots)

• American civilian organization of trained women pilots tested and transported aircraft and trained male pilots

Winston Churchill

• Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (during WW2) and again from 1951 to 1955

• FDR and Churchill met and agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of Italy, Germany, and Japan

• At the Yalta Conference Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin planned for the postwar world

Stalin

• Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1929 until his death in 1953

  • Communism

    • Soviet Union

      • Josef Stalin

Mussolini

• An Italian dictator who led Italy as Il Duce from 1922 until his overthrow in 1943.

• He founded the fascist movement in 1919

  • Fascism

    • Italy

    • Benito Mussolini

D-Day

• Largest landing by sea in history

• Attack on German defenses at Normandy

• Allied forces continued to push Germans back through France (east)

  • Liberate

  • Meanwhile the Soviets were pushing to Germany on the West

Yalta Conference

• February 1945

• Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin

• Plan for the postwar world

Unconditional Surrender

• May 7, 1945

  • General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Germany from the German military.

• President Roosevelt

  • died suddenly on April 12

  • Roosevelt’s successor, Harry Truman, received the news of the Nazi surrender.

• May 9

  • Surrender was officially signed in Berlin

  • V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day.

Harry Truman

• The Manhattan Project

  • Top secret project to develop the Atomic Bomb (A Bomb)

• Truman warned the Japanese if they did not surrender, they could expect a “rain of ruin from the air”

• August 6, 1945

  • Hiroshima

• August 9, 1945

  • Nagasaki

• Japanese finally surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur on September 2

  • US State battleship: Missouri

  • Tokyo Bay

Holocaust

• Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of European Jews

• America

  • Immigration quotas were not raised and existing quotas for Jews were not filled

  • War Refugee Board 1944

    • Created by FDR to help those threatened with murder by the Nazis

• Nazis began to abandon the camps in 1944

  • American soldiers helped to liberate the camps

• Nuremberg Trials

V-E Day

• May 9

• Surrender was officially signed in Berlin

• V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day.

War Refugee Board

• 1944

• Created by FDR to help those threatened with murder by the Nazis

Manhattan Project

• Top secret project to develop the Atomic Bomb (A Bomb)

Atomic Bomb

• A weapon of mass destruction

Paris Peace Treaty

• September 1951

  • The United States and 47 other nations signed a formal peace treaty with Japan

• Officially ended the war

What were the impacts of the Tuskegee Airmen and Navajo Code Talkers?

• Tuskegee Airmen:

  • Assigned the task of escorting American bomber planes flying missions over enemy territory in Europe

  • Deployed in 1943 to North Africa and later Europe

  • Only 27 bombers lost under their protection (far better than average)

  • Proved skill, discipline, and effectiveness in combat

  • Helped push momentum for military integration

  • 1948: President Truman issued Executive Order 9981

    • abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces and mandated equality of treatment and opportunity

    • Legacy: Helped advance civil rights and equality in the U.S.

• Navajo Code Talkers:

  • The code was never broken by the enemy

  • Transmitted messages during major battles like Battle of Iwo Jima

  • Sent thousands of messages without error

  • Helped coordinate troop movements, attacks, and logistics

  • Provided a major advantage against Japanese forces

  • Over 400 Navajo men served as Code Talkers

Diversity/women in the armed forces:

• 275,000 volunteered

• Used in all areas except combat

  • Clerks, typists, airfield control tower operators, mechanics, photographers, drivers, AirForce Service Pilots (practice targets), nurses, camps

• WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots)

  • American civilian organization of trained women pilots tested and transported aircraft and trained male pilots

• Diversity in the armed forces

  • Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, Women

• In 1993 woman had been permitted to fly in combat roles

• Woman were cleared to serve in all direct ground combat roles in the U.S. military in 2013 (full integration completed in 2016)

Fighting in Europe/North Africa:

• Britain had suffered greatly at this point

• Dwight D Eisenhower led the American forces in North Africa (alongside British forces)

  • Germans and Italians surrendered

• FDR and Churchill met and agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of Italy, Germany, and Japan

• Italy 1943-1944

  • General George Patton

  • Sicily

  • Mussolini is overthrown

    • Executed by an Italian firing squad in 1945

    • Body is hung in Milan for all to see

Fighting in the Soviet Union:

• 1941-1942

• Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and invades

  • Unexpected

• Scorched Earth Policy

• Stalin asks FDR for help

  • Lend Lease

  • Congress blocks the request until 1942

• Battle of Stalingrad

  • Soviet win that forced the Germans to surrender

  • Weather

Why did Truman make the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb?

• Japanese raids and the desire for a new Empire

• Fall 1944

  • Allies moved in on Japan

  • Many allied ships and planes were destroyed by Japanese Kamikazes

• An invasion of Japan would potentially cost the Allies half a million lives

• How to put an end to the war the quickest way possible???

  • the atomic bomb

Was Truman justified in making the decision to drop the atomic bomb?

• Highly debated!

  • Arguements for:

    • Saved American lives

    • Ended the war quickly

    • Prevented more casualties

  • Arguements Against:

    • Japan was already failing- should’ve just let it keep going

    • Killed lots of people

    • Some people thought it was a power move shown by the US to the USSR instead of a move to end the war

    • Its immoral to use such a destructive weapon on civilian populated cities

Effects of the Paris Peace Treaty:

• Japan and U.S. became allies

• Soviet Union and U.S. emerged as World Powers

  • Post war goals were different

Yalta Conference in more detail:

• While Germany and Allies were still at war, FDR and Churchill planned to meet with Stalin to confer on Soviet territory

• They had previously met in Iran where they discussed plans to defeat the Axis

  • Stalin inquired as to when the Western allies would divert Hitlers attention from the eastern front by opening up a second front in france

• As Germany was about to be defeated, the leaders met to determine the nature of the post-Axis peace

• They would redraw the world map and decide boundary lines of countries in Europe and Asia

  • Specifically crucial decisions on Germany, Poland, Eastern Europe. Japan and the formation of the United Nations.

• Resulted in:

  • Agreements:

    • Division of Germany

    • A New International Peacekeeping organization

  • Disagreements:

    • Stalin demanded $20 billion repayment from Germany

    • Soviet war on Japan

    • Polish government

The Big Three

Joseph Stalin

Winston Churchill

Harry Truman

Postdam Conference

• Big three met in Germany to negotiate terms for the end of WW2

• They had determined to meet after the yalta conference to determine post war boarders in europe

• Germany surrendered may 8th, 1945 and the big three agreed to meet at Potsdam in the summer to continue the conversations at Yalta

• Even though the allies were committed to fighting a war in the pacific, having no common enemy in europe made it difficult to make plans on postwar reconstruction in europe

• This was Trumans first meeting with Stalin, he hoped to intimidate him using the information of the development of the Atomic Bomb.

Division of Germany

• Divided into four parts

• Disagreed a lot so they became east Germany (communist) and west Germany (democratic)

• The Soviet Union kept pushing communist ideas through many countries on the east

UDHR

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948

• Made a statement on fundamental human rights to be universally protected

• 30 core articles

Why was there tension between the US and Soviet Union following the end of the war?

• Wartime cooperation was temporary – defeat common enemy: Germany

• Russian Revolution 1917

  • America supported anti communist resistance

  • Did not recognize Soviet government until 1933

• WW II

  • Disagreed about battles and postwar plans

What were the conflicting post war goals between the Americans and the Soviets?

• The American View:

  • Bring democracy and economic opportunity to nations of Europe and Asia

    • Particularly Poland

  • Economically and politically strong world would help Americans by providing new markets for products

• The Soviet View:

  • Rebuild to protect their own interests

  • Establish Satellite Nations

    • countries subject to Soviet domination on the western borders of the Soviet Union

    • Friendly to Communist goals

  • Spread communism throughout the world

  • Supported totalitarian government in Eastern Europe

What happened to Germany at the end of the war?

• Germany and its capital Berlin were divided into four parts

• These zones would be controlled by Britain, US, France, and the Soviet Union

• The western allies disagreed with the soviet union a lot, so the country became divided into east (communist) and west (democratic) Germany

  • Berlin was also divided into an east and west

• Austria was divided by the four allies as well from 1945 to 1955