WWII and Cold War

Origin of WWII and date it started

started in 1941

WW1 peace settlement leaves many countries dissatisfied

Great depression makes democracy look bad

Mussolini controls fascist Italy and tries to control Africa and Balkans

Japan is aggressive toward China and seeks an empire

Hitler takes over Germany in 1933

League of Nations is supposed to stop this but didn’t

Charles Lindbergh

“America First'“ movement against getting involved in the war; many Americans agreed all of that wasn’t our problem

Lend-lease Act

Gives US the ability to send money and materials to their allies

US aids UK and eventually other allies against Germany because Germany is trying to starve them; US joins undeclared naval war against Germany in 1941

Pearl Harbor (make sure you know the date US joined WW2)

Dec 7, 1941 Japan surprise attacks the US accompanied by attacks on Phillipines, Guam, Wake Islands, and British and Dutch colonies in Asia

Forced US to get involved in the war; most people who were against it changed their mind; US joined WW2 in 1941

WW2 economic mobilization in US

rapid economic growth for US, practically 0 unemployment by 1944; the war is what got us out of the depression

Enormous increase in government spending: super high taxes, lots of loans from other countries

US produced more oil than the rest of the world combined, produced ships very quickly, production ramped up everywhere

Brief summary of fighting in WW2

US had huge naval ships in the Pacific

Harsh fighting on land in the Pacific, many soldiers got PTSD

US had air raids against Japan

US and Soviet Union fought on the same side for a bit

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 ended the war

D-Day

Allied invasion of France and did a lot to defeat Germany; June 1944

Casualties in WW2

US by comparison to the Soviets got off very easy and skipped the worst part of the war

US shipped Soviets supplies and oil, but Soviets took most of the casualties

Soviets had the highest death rates in the war, even though they won

Segregation in the army

American military is very segregated; lots of black soldiers just not in combat roles

Tuskegee Airmen

black WW2 fighter pilots

Executive Order 8802

June 1941; bans racial discrimination in the defense industry; didn’t apply to the actually military though

Bracero Program

US needed farmers, so they allowed Mexicans to work in the US temporarily

Zoot suit riots

violence against Mexican-American youth, 1943

Japanese Internment

1942-46; Japanese Americans were taken out of their homes and put into camps in remote desert areas for the last 2-3 years of the war

This was out of fear that they would help Japan invade the US

US economic state after WW2

US came out of the war richer than before, most economically dominant and thriving in the world

Had the biggest navy, produced the most oil, only one with atomic weapons

US was dominant superpower in 1945

Iron Curtain Speech

1946 given by Winston Churchill; said there’s an iron curtain separating Europe, and that Soviets and Allies are no longer on the same side

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

political and military alliance formed in 1949 to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means; Allied powers wanted to band together

Warsaw Pact

equivalent to Nato but for Axis powres; military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviets and Eastern European communist countries

President during WW2

Franklin Roosevelt, then he died so his vice president Harry S. Truman took office in 1945; Truman’s presidency was 1945-1953

Truman’s Fair Deal

National health insurance, permanent FEPC (civil rights in the job market), public housing, education aid; most don’t pass

Employment Act of 1946 does pass, creating the CEA, Council of Economic Advisors who advise the president of the US on economic policy

US’s containment

prevent communist expansion without going to war

Decolonization in the Cold War

US and Soviets tried to recruit newly independent “third world” countries to their side (Nigeria, India)

Communist victory in China 1949

Soviets turned China communist

Korean War

1950-53; Allies helped South Korea, Soviets helped North Korea

Joseph McCarthy

claimed to have uncovered a vast communist scheme that’ll infiltrate the US government

made wild accusation that people in the US were communist

lots of communist paranoia in the US

Executive Order 9981

1949 by Truman, desegregated the US military

Sputnik

the world’s first satellite launched by USSR 1957

started the space race

inspired National Defense Education Act (NDEA) 1958, which poured government money into higher education

GI Bill

1944, helps veterans get a college education and a mortgage

Dwight D. Eisenhower

republican; 1953-61, Nixon was his vp

Interstate highway system 1956

Baby Boom

1946-64; American birth rate increases; rise of youth culture: Disneyland, rock and roll, Elvis, James Dean

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 said racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional; overturned Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal”

Little Rock 9: school integration in Arkansas 1957

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955; Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery Alabama

MLK and other civil rights leaders organize a boycott

1956: supreme court ruled segregation in public transportation unconstitutional