APUSH (Part 4; Great Depression to Early Cold War) (Please study Part 3 as well)

Causes of Great Depression

• Republican policies during 20s

  • Easy credit policies

  • Farm surpluses (lowering prices)

  • Wealth gap

  • High speculation

  • Dust Bowl

  • Short money supply

  • Weakness of unions

  • High tariffs

  • Excess Production

• Results in 1929 stock market crash and widespread bank failures

Hoover’s response to Great Depression

• Reconstruction Finance Corporation

  • Giving money to businesses so they can hire more workers

• “Bonus Army”

  • Suffering veterans demand bonus payments now

  • Hoover sends the army, quells the protests

• Popularity plummets, loses election

Banks and the onset of the Great Depression (what happened to them and the effect of that)

• Banks through margin buying had stakes in the stock market (using the money of their users)

• Once stock market crashed, banks failed and lost all savings accounts

3 big Great Depression issues

• Bank failures, Americans have no more savings or money

• evictions, many left without a home

• Unemployment, 25% of the nation without a job

What’s going on in Europe and Asia during the 30s?

• Great Depression in Europe has led to the rise of Hitler in Germany

• Japan has invaded Manchuria, starting a war of expansion with China

  • Hoover-Stimson Doctrine

    • America will not recognize any claims taken by force

    • Opposing wars with words, for now

Dust Bowl

• Series of droughts and dust storms destroy farms in the great plains, motivate migration of the Oakies to California

  • Oakies = immigrants to California

FDR response to Great Depression

• New Deal

• Addressing unemployment, evictions, bank failures

• Relief, Recovery, Reform

• "Fireside Chats” boost Americans’ confidence in and transparency with government

“Banking Holiday”

• One of FDR’s responses to the Great Depression’s bank failures

• Mach 1933

• No banks can operate

• Gives USA time to break from the gold standard, launch fiat currency

FDIC

• FDR and New Deal

• Federal protection of savings accounts

• Boosts confidence in banks

Glass-Steagall Act

• Banks can no longer gamble with Americans’ money (margin-buying ended)

Important New Deal job-creation programs (the “alphabet soup”)

• Job Creation

  • CCC (natural park work)

  • CWA (urban work)

  • TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

    • Basically socialism

    • Most successful program

    • Brings hydroelectric power to ~7 states

    • government taking control of and fixing poor areas

What did the New Deal “alphabet soup” programs actually do?

• Didn’t directly boost the economy, but they circulated money

NRA (New Deal)

• Voluntary gov. association of businesses

• Wage controls (minimum and maximum)

• Work hours set

• Collective bargaining for unions protected

• Many businesses join due to social pressure

Wagner Act (1935)

• Protections for Unions (right to organize, collective bargaining, etc.), empowering them

• Leads to strikes across the USA

John L. Lewis

• Leading labor figure, leader of the CIO (large labor union), which eventually merged with the AFL to form the AFL-CIO, the most successful labor union in the USA

Social Security Act (1936)

• New Deal

• Money taken from paycheck to pay for the less fortunate (senile, homeless, etc.)

• Highly controversial at the time

Major opponents of the New Deal

• Supreme Court

  • Believes New Deal programs are unconstitutional

  • FDR responds with 1937 Court Packing Plan, which failed

• Charles Coughlin

• Francis Townsend (argues it doesn’t go far enough)

• Racist opposition to FDR’s “black cabinet” of African-American advisors

• American Liberty League (1934) in Congress sees it as socialist

• Huey Long

Huey Long

• Governor of Louisiana

• Major opponent of the New Deal

• Populism, extremely popular and dangerous to FDR’s president

• Assassinated in 1935 before presidential run

How did US foreign policy in general change from 1933-1953?

• Total isolationism, to minor intervention in the form of aid during WW2, and then to total intervention post WW2

Differentiate between Neutrality Acts of 1935-37 and 1939

• 1935-37: Restricting trade with all warring nations

• 1939: Cash and Carry, USA can trade with the Allies as long as they pick up the supplies themselves

American reaction to Japanese invasion of China

• America embargoes Japan

• Japanese assets in USA frozen

• American public still hostile to war

German-American Bund

• Pro-Nazi group in USA, hold massive 1939 rally

America First Committee

• Isolationist political group

• All aid short of war

Lend-Lease (and how does it differ from Cash and Carry)

• Allies can borrow any piece of equipment from the USA

• Shift from Cash and Carry, instead of buying equipment the Allies can now just take it (Allies becoming more desperate and losing money, USA leaning more into aid in response)

• Helps British fend off Nazis, win the Battle of Britain

• Nazis, having lost Britain, turn to the Soviets

Atlantic Charter (1941)

• Formation of UN

• FDR intends for the Soviets to join (it can only survive with both of the world’s superpowers, think League of Nations failures)

War Production Board

• Wartime transition to command-economy

• Wartime economy also nearly eradicates unemployment

Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943)

• No union action during war effort

• Growth of conservative-dominated congress

FDR’s Four Freedoms

• Freedom of Speech

• of Worship

• “from Want”

• “from Fear”

• Norman Rockwell creates art representing these

GI Bill (1944)

• Free college for veterans

• Low-interest loans for housing

• Assimilating returning veterans into the market, creating middle class (leading to baby boom)

• Black Americans largely excluded from many benefits (red-lining prevents purchasing of homes)

Women during WW2

• Changing gender roles due to work in factories, typists, etc.

• Women serve roles in the military via emergency volunteer service, though not usually in direct combat

• Will eventually be pushed out of factories in favor of returning men

Black Americans during WW2

• Segregated units

• 2nd Great Migration north

• Tuskegee Airmen, successful Black fighter pilots

• Truman desegregates military post-war

• Mistreatment post-war sparks renewed civil rights movement

Japanese Americans during WW2

• Internment

• Surge in racism due to fears of Japanese invasion

• Korematsu v. USA, SCOTUS upholds internment

Hispanics during WW2

• Brought to USA from Mexico via bracero program as another source of labor

• Many forcibly deported after war

• Zoot Suit Riots (1943)

  • White sailors attack Hispanics wearing flashy suits, see it as a waste of resources and thus unpatriotic

Casablanca Conference (1943)

• Allies agree that Axis will have to agree to an unconditional surrender

The Second Front Controversy

• The Soviets needed a second front opened in Western Europe to relieve the Nazi offensive into the USSR

• Americans also begin to desire a second front as the Soviets push deeper into Nazi territory, threatening to take all of Europe (USA must secure their own sphere of influence)

• Second front opened in Normandy, France at D-Day, 1944

Tehran Conference (1943)

• Allies agree to open 2nd front in exchange for Soviets declaring war on Japan

Race to Berlin and what battle halted the Americans

• After D-Day, Soviets and Allies squeezing Germany on both sides, racing to Berlin

• Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945) halts American advance

Yalta Conference (1945)

• Soviets promise free election in Eastern Europe, agree to join UN

• Nazi war criminals will be prosecuted

Japanese ideology during WW2

• Never surrender (honorable suicide = kamikaze and banzai charges)

• Superior “Yamato Race”

• Absolute obedience to authority (the Emperor)

• leads to brutal warfare in Pacific Theatre

Bataan Death March (1942)

• Japanese capture Philippines

• American and Filipino POWs forced to march long distance north, thousands killed or die along the way

Battle of Midway (1942)

• American navy destroys most of core Japanese navy, giving them the advantage in the naval war

Battle of Okinawa (1945)

• Mass suicides amongst civilians and soldiers (banzai charges)

• American victory, allowing invasion of Japan (but said invasion could cost over a million lives, and we have the Atomic Bomb, so what do we do?)

• heavy casualties

Potsdam Conference (1945)

• Atomic Bomb revealed to Stalin, but he already knew (spies)

• Post-war reorganization of Germany

• Unconditional Surrender

Beginnings of Cold War (what’s going on in Europe and differences between USSR and USA)

• “Iron Curtain” speech by Churchill

  • Soviets have subjugated Eastern European occupation zones and propped up puppet governments

• USA returns to interventionism

• Soviet v. USA

  • Atheism v. Christianity

  • Authoritarian v. Democracy

  • Communism v. Capitalism

Truman Doctrine

• USA will support “anti-totalitarian” forces in any way possible

• Millions of dollars of military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to prevent the spread of communism

• Rise of “Containment”, end to isolationism

containment

• Soviet Union will collapse eventually, so all the USA has to do is prevent the spread of communism

• Leads to US military or economic intervention is many nations, especially in Latin America and Africa

American Economic Explosion

• USA is a global manufacturing powerhouse post-war, other developed nations are destroyed and cannot compete

• Baby boom

• Suburbs

• Demand-Side Economics

  • Citizens have more money + more production = more money in circulation

what was so special about the 1948 election? (what split the democratic vote? who won and why?)

• racist conservative wing of Democratic party breaks off and forms Dixiecrats, who gain 4 states but lose election

• Democrat Truman wins, unexpectedly beating Dewey

  • His anticommunist position and strong economy win him the election

HUAC

• House Un-American Activities Committee

• Mass investigations of suspected communists

• Hollywood blacklists

• Imprisonments of “convicted” communists, socialists — accused of being spies

Julius and Ethel Rosenburg

• Convicted Soviet spies, executed

NATO and Warsaw Pact

• Military defense pacts

• NATO, 1949, Western alliance

• Warsaw Pact, 1955, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe alliance

Japan under US occupation (what did the US do? how did it contribute to Japan’s success?)

• No military allowed, therefore more money can be allocated towards research and development = skyrocketing Japanese economy

• New constitution

Marshall Plan

• USA wants to contain communism, make capitalism look good and prevent other nations from defecting

• tons of aid to Western Europe to help rebuild, also expands American markets into Europe

McCarthyism

• Senator Joseph McCarthy begins a witch hunt for suspected communists

• claims he has “lists” of known communists in government

• hearings blacklist and put many out of a livelihood

• McCarthy eventually disgraced during a hearing, the tirades end

Berlin Blockade and how does USA respond

• Stalin blockades West Berlin in an attempt to secure it for the Soviets

• Truman responds with Berlin Airlift of supplies to West Berlin, Stalin lifts blockade in 1949

The Arms Race

• Soviets test first nuclear bomb in 1949, beginning massive arms race between USA and USSR, who can make the most bombs

What happens in China in 1949?

• Mao Zedong wins Civil War, KMT (anti-communists) flee to Taiwan

• China is now communist

Korean War (1950-1953), what happened and how did it affect the power of the president

• North Korea invades South Korea

• UN authorizes invasion force led by USA to repel North Korea

• UN almost wins, but China intervenes on behalf of North Korea, causing a stalemate

• Armistice achieved by President Eisenhower, but President now has more power to engage in undeclared wars, paving way for Vietnam

National Security Council Doc. 68

• Dramatic increase in defense spending to contain communism

Space Race

• Soviets initially winning with first satellite (Sputnik), first man in space

• Americans hope to beat Soviets by passing education reform, more efforts in STEM education for teens