APUSH chapter 33-34

Banking Holiday

Banking Holiday

-closed banks for one week; “time-out” to stop the bleeding

-Emergency Banking Relief Act: only banks that were financially stable could reopen

recovery

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

-Young men were hired to work in national forests (lived in camps and cleared land, blazed trails, drained swamps, etc:.)

-provided some experience, adventure and a wage to send home

relief

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

-to help curb unemployment and help improve the nations infrastructure

relief

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

-to build a series of dams along the Tennessee River (provide jobs, help with housing via jobs and provide electricity)

relief (?)

Social Security

-set up a payment plan for old age, the handicapped, delinquent children and other dependents

-payments were funded by taxes placed on workers and employers, then given to the groups above

reform

Securities Exchange Commission

-the stock “watch'-dog”

-regulate the stock market

recovery

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

-it ensured peoples money in the bank up to $5000

-there was no need to fear one’s money in the banks anymore

reform

Describe the New Deal’s impact on labor.

Roosevelt had no hesitation about using federal money to help unemployed labor. \n \n Various organizations, like the CCC, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and CWA, gave workers temporary jobs. \n \n Individual industries were to work out codes of "fair competition" which would reduce labor hours and thus spread employment to more people \n \n Labor, under the NRA, were formally guaranteed the right to organize and bargain collectively through representation of their own choosing

Why did some critics complain that the TVA was “creeping socialism in concrete?”

Utility corporations disliked the expanding government control and charged that the low cost of TVA power was due to dishonest bookkeeping and the absence of taxes.

Explain the Supreme Court’s hostility to many New Deal programs. How did FDR react to this hostility?

FDR viewed the old men on the SC as standing stubbornly in the way of New Deal progress \n \n In 9 major case involving the ND, FDR had been thwarted 7 times \n \n The court was ultraconservative. 6 out of 9 of the judges were over 70 years old and not a single member had been appointed by FDR in his first term. \n \n The SC members felt it was their patriotic duty to curb FDR "socialism" \n \n The "court packing" failed because Roosevelt did not realize the SC was "sacred" in popular opinion and he was vilified for attempting to "break down" the checks and balances of the US gov. \n FDR was accused of grooming himself as a dictator by trying to browbeat the judiciary. To conservatives, it seemed like basic liberties were in jeopardy. \n \n FDR lost a lot of political goodwill.

Describe the problems and criticisms facing Roosevelt in 1937.

Unemployment persisted, and progress/recovery were slow \n \n In 1937, the economy took a downturn (in part due to New Deal policies) \n \n Congress was growing more conservative and resistant to FDR's perceived "leftist" policies. \n \n It was difficult for FDR to pass new legislation amidst accusations that he had autocratic ambitions (especially with the SC) \n \n International crises in 1938-1938 shifted attention away from domestic reform. \n \n New Dealers were accused of having the richest campaign chests in history (which was sort of true) and had to pass legislation that would regulate campaign funding.

Describe the changes the New Deal underwent in the late 1930s and explain the growing opposition to the programs.

The New Deal was criticized as an example of "bureaucratic meddling" and of the federal government overtaking state control. \n \n Critics claimed the New Deal was wasteful, incompetent, confusing, contradictory, and that it led to graft. \n \n ND was also criticized as leftist, communist, Bolshevik-esque. \n \n Some argued that the ND produced only "busy work" and that it was not actually progress (it failed in curing the overall depression and only relieved certain aspects) \n \n Businessmen disliked the ND, feeling that it was too favorable towards labor. \n \n The ND had lost its promise of balancing the national budget (the national debt had risen, drastically, from 1932-1939)

Conservative Critics: did not like the gov. regulation and increase in size of the government, critical of deficit spending

Liberal Critics: ND not doing enough for minority communities and poor

Analyze FDR’s “balance sheet.” Successes? Failures?

SUCCESSES: \n The New Deal relieved the worst of the crisis. \n \n He purged capitalism of some of its worst abuses. \n \n He promoted the philosophy that the government was morally bound to prevent mass suffering by managing the economy. \n \n FDR deflected popular resentments against business; in doing so, he may have saved the US system of free enterprise. \n \n He may have actually lessened the development of extreme leftist views and possible communism in the US (by enacting "socialist" policies that were, in reality, actually pretty mild.) \n \n Better prepared the US for the eventual difficulties of WWII. \n \n ------- \n \n FAILURES: \n Roosevelt Recession \n \n The left accused him of not going far enough in his policies; the right accused him of going too far. \n \n "Court Packing" scheme

Fireside Chats

Name for FDR's 30 radio addresses to the nation. About 35 million people listened to his first one, in which he assured them it was now safe to keep money in a reopened bank. This led to banks unlocking their doors and a surge of confidence in the American people.

Huey Long

An outspoken, left-leaning Louisiana senator who proposed a "share the wealth" program that would grant every family $5000 at the expense of the prosperous. He initially supported FDR, but came to believe the New Deal was insufficient and didn't properly help the poor. Long was assassinated in 1935.

Dust Bowl

grim nickname for the Great Plains region devastated by drought and dust storms during the 1930s; the disaster led to the migration into California of thousands of displaced "Okies" and "Arkies"

Roosevelt Recession

Name for the 1937 economic downturn within the GD. The name was used to critique FDR because certain government policies (like social security) were actually responsible for the nosedive.

John Maynard Keynes

British economist who came up with the concept of Keynesian Economics (which said that economic output is influenced by the total spending in an economy). After the 1937 "Roosevelt Recession," FDR consulted Keynes' economic policies.

Why was the London Conference symbolic of the US’s isolationist policy. Describe the consequences of this failed conference.

It was a sixty-six-nation economic conference organized to stabilize international currency rates; FDR originally planned to have the US participate, but then ultimately decided to pull out of the negotiations and keep his focus on domestic inflationary policies, deepening the world economic crisis by doing do. \n \n CONSEQUENCES: Worsened world economic crisis, extreme nationalism, strengthened American isolationism, the conference fell apart and accomplished nothing.

US “going it alone” in war and the economy

To what extent did FDR follow an isolationist policy toward Latin America? Asia?

ASIA: FDR withdrew from Asia; the Great Depression called for less direct involvement in countries like the Philippines. The Tydings McDuffie Act of 1934 provided for the independence of the Philippines after a 12 year period of economic and political tutelage (so, in 1946) and the US relinquishing army bases in the area. But this was more about freeing the American people of the Philippines and the political/economic situation in Asia, not about restoring democracy or independence to the Filipino people. \n \n LATIN AMERICA: FDR pursued nonintervention in LA with his Good Neighbor policy, as the Great Depression had cooled off Yankee economic aggression and war-thirsty dictators in Europe could easily threaten a contentious North America. Eager to line up Latin America to help defend the western hemisphere, FDR had the US delegation at the Pan American Conference in Uruguay formally endorse nonintervention. Overall very successful in improving America’s image in Latin America

Describe how the Neutrality Act of 1939 was a shift in foreign policy (away from neutrality).

The NA of 1937 had established an arms embargo that would prevent the US from providing Britain or France with airplanes or weapons. \n \n The NA of 1939, in contrast, said that European democracies could buy American war materials, but would have to transport the munitions in their own ships. \n \n Congress loosened former restrictions in response to interventionist cries, but FDR was now also authorized to proclaim danger zones where US merchants were forbidden from entering

How and why did U.S. foreign policy change after September 1, 1939?

After France fell, the US realized that Britain was the last standing major constitutional government in Europe and wanted to provide aid. \n \n FDR called upon the debt-burdened nation to build huge airfleets and a two-ocean navy which could also check Japan. \n \n Congress appropriated $37 billion and passed a conscription act (calling for a peacetime draft)

Describe the perspective given by the America First Committee.

The committee was isolationist and contended that America should concentrate its strength on defending its own shores, fearing Hitler would otherwise be able to plot a transoceanic assault. Their philosophy was essentially "the Yanks are not coming" and their best spokesperson was Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator.

Why does the American Pageant say that the Lend-Lease Act was “one of the most momentous laws ever to pass Congress?”

(1941) based on the motto, "Send guns, not sons," the Lend-Lease Act abandoned former pretenses of neutrality by allowing Americans to sell unlimited supplies of arms to any nation defending itself against the Axis Powers. It was a challenge to dictators, as America pledged to bolster the nations indirectly defending it. In effect, the Act was an economic declaration of war.

Describe the causes and consequences of the Atlantic Charter.

CAUSES: Allies feared that the surrender of the Soviet Union (which had broken with Hitler and was working to halt Hitler's invaders at the gate of Moscow) was still a dread possibility. The charter was intended to outline the future path toward disarmament peace, and a permanent system of general security. \n \n CONSEQUENCES: its spirit would animate the founding of the United Nations and raise awareness of human rights of individuals after World War II

To what extent were the U.S. and Germany at war in the Atlantic Ocean in 1941 (before the Pearl Harbor attack)?

Roosevelt, in July 1941, had made the decision to "convoy" (have US warships escort freighters with munitions to Britain) \n \n This resulted in "inevitable" clashes with German submarines (though German boats were ordered to strike at American warships only in self defense.) \n \n After the US destroyer "Greer" (which had been provocatively trailing a German U-boat) was attacked, Roosevelt proclaimed a "shoot on sight" policy. This policy led to further altercations in the Atlantic. \n \n In November 1941, Congress pulled out of the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing American merchant ships to be legally armed and enter combat zones.

Good Neighbor Policy

a departure from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy stressed nonintervention in Latin America; it was begun by Herbert Hoover but associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ethiopia

Italian dictator Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in 1935, seeking glory and empire and bringing brutal bombers and tanks. The League of Nations could have put a stop to Mussolini by embargoing oil, but chose to quail rather than risk global hostilities.

Gerald Nye and the Nye Report

Leader of the senate committee in 1934 that investigated "the blood business" (merchants benefiting from war industries). By sensationalizing evidence regarding America's entry into World War I, the senatorial probes shifted blame away from German submarines to American bankers and manufacturers. This is turn led to the reasoning that if profits could be removed from the arms traffic, the country could steer clear of any world conflict that might erupt in the future.

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

short-sighted acts passed in 1935, 1936, and 1937 to prevent American participation in a European War; among other restrictions, they prevented Americans from selling munitions to foreign belligerents

Quarantine Speech

(1937) an important speech delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in which he called for "positive endeavors" to "quarantine" land-hungry dictators, presumably through economic embargoes. The speech flew in the face of isolationist politicians

Munich Conference

Meeting of European powers held in 1938, with the leaders of Britain and France eager to appease Hitler. People hoped that the concessions made to Germany at the conference would bring peace.

Appeasement

(1938) the policy followed by leaders of Britain and France at the 1938 conference in Munich; their purpose was to avoid war, but they allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia

Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact

(1939) treaty signed on August 23, 1939 in which Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to fight each other; the fateful agreement paved the way for German aggression against Poland and the Western democracies

Havana Conference

At this meeting, the US agreed to share with its 20 New World neighbors the responsibility of the Monroe Doctrine. In theory, the Monroe Doctrine would be shared amongst Latin America and the US.

Fortress America

One option for Roosevelt in the face of attacks on Britain. The US could hunker down in the western hemisphere and assume a defensive position, letting the rest of the world go it alone.

Arsenal of Democracy

The slogan used by FDR in a radio broadcast delivered in 1940. Roosevelt promised to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by giving them military supplies while the United States stayed out of the actual fighting.