1. Washington Disarmament Conference—1921-1922

• At this conference Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes proposed a halt to the naval arms race. Several agreements were signed. 

• The Five Power Treaty set limits for battleships and aircraft carriers in the following ratios—5 (US & Britain): 3 (Japan): 1.75 (Italy & France). In addition, the nations agreed to halt battleship construction for ten years. Britain and the US agreed to refrain from fortifying their Far East possessions (as compensation to the Japanese).

• The Four Power Treaty obligated the US, Britain, Japan, and France to respect each other’s territorial possessions in the Pacific and to refer any disputes among them to a conference for negotiation. 

2. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris)—1928

• In this agreement, the US and sixty-one other nations pledged to renounce war as an instrument of national policy. The only problem was that, except for the pressure of world opinion, there was no way to enforce it.

3. War Debts and the Dawes Plan—1924

• The Allies owed the US huge debts from the war. Britain owed $4 billion and France $3.5 billion. Germany owed Britain and France $32 billion in reparations. With the German economy in tatters, the Allies weren’t receiving their reparations and were having trouble paying their own debts.

• The Dawes Plan had US banks lend money to Germany. Germany then paid reparations to the Allies who made payments on their war debts to the US Treasury. 

• When the Depression struck, US bankers could afford no more loans to Germany. The Allies, except for Finland, defaulted on their loans.

4. Hitler & Austria—1938

• In February Hitler falsely claimed that Germans living in Austria were subject to various atrocities. Hitler called the Austrian chancellor to Germany, demanded a new Austrian government comprised of Austrian Nazis and threatened attack if Austria refused.

• In March Hitler, citing abuses of Germans in Austria and claiming that all German-speaking people belong in one nation, invaded Austria and annexed it. This was known as the Anschluss (union).

5. Hitler, the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, & the Munich Conference—1938

• In May Hitler attempted to arouse the ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia; rumors of a German invasion circulated through Europe. Russia, France, and England issued warnings to Hitler not to invade; Hitler assured the world he would not.

• In September Britain and France entered into discussions with Hitler. Hitler’s territorial demands were excessive, and the western powers prepared for war. Finally, Hitler invited British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Premier Daladier to meet in Munich. There Hitler promised that the Sudetenland would be his last territorial demand. Britain and France pressured Czechoslovakia to capitulate. Chamberlain returned to a hero’s welcome in Britain, claiming that the Munich Pact had secured “peace in our time.” 

• Labeling the agreement appeasement, Winston Churchill disagreed, saying “Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.”

• In March of 1939, Hitler broke the Munich Pact and took the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Allies again prepared for war.

6. German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact—August 1939

• This agreement surprised many people; fascism and communism were traditional enemies. But this freed Hitler to attack the West without fear of a two-front war. 

7. Japanese in Manchuria—1931

• Japan invaded China and took control of the province of Manchuria.

• The US refused to cooperate with a League of Nations economic boycott of Japan. Instead, the US issued the Stimson Doctrine, saying that the US would recognize no seizure of territory by force. Japan stayed in Manchuria.

8. Anti-Comintern Pact – 1936

• Although Germany and the USSR would agree to a non-aggression pact in 1939, Germany and Japan agreed to an anti-Communist pact in 1936. This set the stage for the Axis Powers alliance. 

9. Recognition of the USSR—1933 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Sixteen years after the Bolsheviks took power, the US finally granted them diplomatic recognition. FDR was motivated by the desire to increase trade and by the hope that a friendly Russia would help to counterbalance the power of Germany and Japan.

10. Invasion of China – 1937 – Eastern world start of WWII

• The Second Sino-Japanese War did not “technically” start until war was declared between China and Japan on December 8, 1941 (the coordinated Pacific attack that included Pearl Harbor. If you’re curious about days, remember China is nearly a whole day ahead of the US); HOWEVER, fighting between Japan and China started in 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria. Then, in 1937, Japan invaded China. The USSR and the US were providing supplies to China. 

• This is interesting because it challenges the start dates of WWII. The Western World contributes the start of WWII with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The Eastern World, if not influenced by Western education, views September 7, 1937 (or even 1931!) as the start of WWII. 

11. Quarantine Speech—1937 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Roosevelt presented his fears about the international situation with Germany, Italy, and Japan. He said the rest of the world should behave the way a community behaves during an epidemic, “It joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of disease.” Democratic nations should work together to isolate the aggressor nations. 

• Isolationists protested that this would move the US closer to a shooting war.

12. Rape of Nanjing (Nanking) 

• After falling to the Japanese military in December 1937, an estimated 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were massacred at Nanjing. Nearly 20,000 women were raped. 

13. Panay Incident—December 1937 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Japan attacked a US Navy vessel in Chinese waters. The attack was no mistake. Japan offered an apology, payment for damages, and punishment for those responsible. Seventy percent of the American public favored pulling out of China completely, revealing the strength of the isolationists at this time. 

14. The Nye Committee Report—1934  

• This congressional committee examined America’s entry into WWI. Its report noted that many corporations made lots of money from WWI. The report suggested that some large corporations urged Wilson to enter the war for business reasons. 

15. Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act—1934 (NOT in OpenStax)

• This act authorized the president to lower tariffs by as much as 50% on a country-by-country basis if the other nation was willing to make a similar reduction. These reductions did not need to be ratified by the Senate, bypassing the source of many of the huge tariff increases of the past.

• Secretary of State Cordell Hull negotiated agreements with twenty-one countries. The significance of this was that it changed the high tariff policy that the nation had followed since the Civil War and that it opened the door to the free trade era that followed WWII, an era marked by higher levels of international trade. 

16. Jewish Refugees & the Holocaust

• Prior to Hitler’s “Final Solution,” the Nazis’ goal with Jews was focused on forced emigration. In May 1939, a ship of mostly Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis left Hamburg for Cuba. Most applicants were planning to stay in Cuba until their visas had been approved by the US. However, during the voyage, Cuba’s political conditions had changed and the passengers were not allowed to leave the ship upon arrival. The St. Louis tried to stop in the US but were ultimately denied. Those aboard returned to Europe and were taken in by Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. 

• Although the nature of Hitler’s Final Solution was known in the US early in 1942, the US did not open its doors to Jewish refugees; immigration quotas limited the numbers admitted. Not until 1944 did the US establish a War Refugee Board to help rescue and relocate those condemned to concentration camps. Even at that point, the US military did not bomb rail lines leading to concentration camps, gas chambers, or crematoria. The WRB did save the lives of 220,000 people, but six million Jews and five million other “undesirables” died in the death camps. (It should be noted that the rest of the world combined accepted only 100,000 Jewish refugees.)

• The US had several reasons for not doing more. 1) There was a concern as to whether the country, in the middle of the Depression, could afford more poor and homeless. 2) The military did not want to divert bombs and other resources from military targets, arguing that this would lengthen the war. 3) America’s ally Britain was trying to pacify its Arab allies and did not want an influx of Jewish refugees into Palestine. The British concerns took precedence in Washington.  

17. Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936 & 1937

• Most Americans in the 1930s were isolationists and believed that US participation in WWI had been a mistake. Further, most assumed that the Atlantic and Pacific oceans would insulate the US from foreign wars. And the failure of allies to pay war debts angered many Americans. Wary of repeating earlier foreign policy mistakes, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts to prevent US entanglement in another European war.

• These acts said that during a foreign war, no American could make loans to a belligerent, sell or transport munitions to a belligerent, or sail on a belligerent ship. In essence, these acts gave up America’s traditional rights as a neutral power and for which America had fought the War of 1812.

• The effect of the Neutrality Acts was to aid the aggressors who had already built up their arms.  

18. Neutrality Act of 1939  

• When France and Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, it quickly became clear that they would need American arms. FDR pressed Congress to change the existing Neutrality Acts. 

• In an effort to aid France and Britain while still maintaining US neutrality, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939; it allowed belligerents to purchase munitions if they paid cash and transported them on their own ships (cash-and-carry).

• Though it was neutrally worded, this act aided the Allies because the French and British navies controlled the Atlantic.

19. Fall of France – April 1940 

• After the fall of Poland, there was a lull, dubbed “the phony war,” in Europe. Then in April 1940, Hitler struck. In six weeks, Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France. 

• America was stunned by the success of this blitzkrieg (lightning war). Congress appropriated a huge amount to build up the armed forces. Still, a large minority of Americans stuck to an isolationist position.

20. Export Control Act of 1940

• After France was invaded by Germany, Japan took advantage by closing in on French Indochina. The US responded with the Export Control Act which allowed FDR to prohibit or curtail the export of basic war materials (i.e., aviation fuel, oil, metals, etc.).

• By the end of 1940, the US had ceased exporting arms, ammunition, aviation gasoline, petroleum products (oil), machine tools, iron, steel, copper, zinc, aluminum, and various scrap metal. 

• Imagine if you were an island nation that relies on exports for precious resources. How would you respond? 

21. Hitler’s Declaration of War Against the Soviets—June 1941

• Hitler decided to discard his Non-Aggression Pact, knock out the Soviet Union with a quick blow, seize its oil and other resources, and then focus his attention on Britain. After Germany attacked Russia, the US sent aid to the Soviets, hoping they could hold out against the Germans.

22. Battle of Stalingrad—1942-1943

• Germany enjoyed initial success in its invasion of Russia, but the offensive bogged down at Stalingrad. A six-month battle led to a Russian victory, which was followed by a Russian offensive, pushing the Germans out of Russia.

• The Soviet Union suffered enormous losses in this and other battles on the Eastern Front. More Russians died in the battle of Stalingrad than the total number of Americans killed in the entire war. Twenty million Soviets died in WWII.

23. Havana Conference—1940 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Germany had conquered Denmark, France, and the Netherlands, all of whom had New World colonies. In Havana, the US and twenty Latin American nations pledged to uphold the principles of the Monroe Doctrine and resist further European intervention in the New World.    

24. The Battle of Britain – 1940

• Britain was the LAST major democracy in Western Europe that was actively fighting Nazi Germany (Sweden and Switzerland were neutral…but they were actively trading with Nazi Germany). 

• The Nazis were planning an amphibious invasion of Britain. They started with an all-out bombing campaign to soften Britain up. They would bomb London (and the rest of Britain) during the day and at night between July 1940 and October 1940. Most of London was unrecognizable. Despite this destruction, this had the opposite effect of “softening” up the Brits. Instead, the British held on and prevented the sea invasion. This resulted in Hitler turning his gaze towards the USSR (see above). 

• This battle is where US public opinion shifts dramatically towards joining the war. 

25. The Destroyer-Base Deal—September 1940

• FDR bypassed Congress with an executive agreement giving Britain fifty American destroyers in exchange for ninety-nine-year leases on valuable British island bases in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Caribbean. 

26. Presidential election of 1940 (NOT mentioned in OpenStax)

• Since George Washington established the tradition, no president had sought a third term. Roosevelt, with war approaching, felt he had to break that tradition. The Republicans nominated political newcomer Wendell Wilkie.

• Both candidates promised to keep the nation out of war. Wilkie did agree with FDR on the need to give Great Britain more aid. 

• Republicans argued that no one man was indispensable in a democracy and that the two-term tradition was a necessary safeguard against dictatorship. Nonetheless, voters stuck with Roosevelt.

27. Four Freedoms Speech—January 1941 (NOT explicitly mentioned in OpenStax)

• In his 1941 State of the Union address, FDR continued his efforts to persuade a reluctant American public that it was essential to aid Great Britain and to ramp up production in American war industries.

• Roosevelt explained the values that such efforts sought to protect: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear (by which FDR meant “world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point… that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor).

• Roosevelt made clear that these were universal freedoms that should be enjoyed by all people throughout the world.

28. Atlantic Charter—August 1941

• This agreement between FDR and Churchill established the principles for which the Allies fought: no territorial expansion, no territorial changes without the consent of the inhabitants, self-determination for all people, freer trade, cooperation for the improvement of other nations, disarming of all aggressors.

• Endorsed within a month by fifteen countries, including the Soviet Union, the Atlantic Charter became the basis for the United Nations. 

29. Lend-Lease Act—March 1941

• Aid in the form of munitions, tools, food, etc. granted under specified conditions to those countries whose defense was deemed vital to the defense of the United States. FDR said the US should be the “arsenal of democracy.”

• Roosevelt ordered that ships conveying lend-lease aid be accompanied partway across the Atlantic by the US Navy. When German submarines attacked, the US fought back, involving the US in a limited but undeclared war.

• The US provided aid to Britain and later to the USSR. FDR compared it to letting a neighbor use a hose when his or her house was on fire, to keep the blaze from spreading to one’s. On the other hand, Senator Taft compared it to lending someone chewing gum; you would not want it back.  

• Lend-lease was significant in that it helped sustain the Allied war effort, it moved the US away from its isolationist position, and it stimulated the production of war materiel, essential when the US entered the war. 

30. Sinking of the Robin Moor—May 1941 (NOT mentioned in OpenStax)

• When the Germans sank this US merchant vessel, the US retaliated by freezing all Axis assets (e.g., bank accounts) in the US, and Latin American firms with Axis connections were blacklisted. More importantly, the US Navy began convoying ships as far as Iceland (where British vessels took over).

31. USS Greer, Kearny, & Reuben James—1941 (NOT mentioned in OpenStax)

• In September, the US and Germany were still not at war. But when the destroyer Greer was fired on by a German sub, FDR ordered the navy to shoot German warships on sight.

• In October when the US warships Kearny and Reuben James were sunk, Congress modified the Neutrality Act of 1939 to allow the arming of merchant ships and to permit merchant ships to sail into combat zones carrying munitions for Britain.

32. US Policy with Japan—1940-1941

• The US hoped to prevent Japan from expanding its empire in the Far East but hoped to avoid war, at least until a two-ocean navy had been built. The US also wanted to force Japan out of China and thought it could do so with economic pressure. Japan’s military was dependent on purchases of steel, scrap metal, oil, and gasoline from the US.

• In 1940 the US banned the sale of oil and scrap metal to Japan and limited the sale of aviation gasoline to the Western Hemisphere. In June 1941, the US froze Japanese assets.

33. Pearl Harbor—December 7, 1941

• While this was a tactical success for Japan, wiping out the US Pacific battleship fleet, it effectively ended the isolationist resistance to US involvement in WWII.

34. Germany First

• The US declared war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor. Germany and Italy, the other Axis powers, declared war on the US three days later. Despite the fact that Japan had initiated hostilities, the US agreed with Britain that it was essential to focus on defeating Germany. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed that if the US turned toward Japan, Germany might defeat both the USSR and Great Britain and emerge as the unconquerable power in Europe. But if the US joined with Britain and the USSR to defeat Germany, Japan could be defeated by the Allies later.

The Home Front 

35. Neutrality Act of 1939 (Cash-and-Carry)

• When France and Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, it quickly became clear that they would need American arms. FDR pressed Congress to change the existing Neutrality Acts. 

• In an effort to aid France and Britain while still maintaining US neutrality, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939; it allowed belligerents to purchase munitions if they paid cash and transported them on their own ships (cash-and-carry).

• Though it was neutrally worded, this act aided the Allies because the French and British navies controlled the Atlantic.

36. Conscription Act—Sept. 1940

• AKA, the Selective Training and Service Act, this response to Hitler’s success in Europe was the Conscription Act, the nation’s first peacetime military draft.

37. America First Committee 

• The America First Committee, financed largely by Henry Ford and featuring spokesperson Charles Lindbergh, led the isolationist opposition to aid Britain in its fight against Germany. Their position was that the US should concentrate on defending its own shores, should Hitler attack America after conquering Britain.

38. Conscientious Objectors 

• COs were men who wanted to serve their country but refused to pick up a weapon to kill another human person. The 1940 Selective Service Act exempted any person who, “by reason of religious training or belief, is conscientiously opposed to the participation of war in any form.” 

• Desmond Doss, from Hacksaw Ridge, was a conscientious objector. Despite the movie exaggerating various aspects of the real story, Doss did save 75 men during the Battle of Hacksaw Ridge and he did kick a grenade, WITHOUT USING A FIREARM. Actually, most of the movie was TRUE. The only thing missing from the film was when Doss volunteered to climb the cliff side to hang up the cargo nets… 

39. Defense Plant Cooperation 

• Remember the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) from Hoover’s administration? The RFC was not only used by FDR during the New Deal but it was also exponentially expanded to finance the construction of industrial war plants. This is what contributed to the West Coast’s industrial/war production mentioned in Crash Course. 

• The DFC was a subsidiary of the RFC which focused on the building and funding of military production centers and industrial plants to aid the war effort. The majority of its efforts were seen on the West Coast, especially in Seattle, Portland, LA, and San Diego. 

• No, Hollywood did NOT make LA. WWII and the DFC made LA. By 1945, the RFC (through the Defense Plant Cooperation) owned 10-12% of the industrial capacity of the US. 

40. War Production Board (WPB)

• The WPB coordinated industrial production during the war. It halted the production of nonessential consumer goods, rationed key raw materials such as rubber, and distributing contracts to manufacturers.

• The US alone managed to produce more war material than the Axis nations combined.

41. Office of Price Administration (OPA)

• This was started to prevent inflation from sky-rocketing. It fixed rents, set a maximum price on goods, and had the power to ration goods. Staple goods (sugar, meat, gasoline, etc.) could only be bought if one had stamps from ration books. Inflation stayed below 30 percent—half the increase that took place during World War I.   

42. Victory Gardens, Food Rationing, Clothing, Recycling, Cars, War Bonds, V-Mail, & Women in Industry 

• This information is in more depth on the linked handout. 

43. Women and War

• More than 6 million women took jobs outside the home during WWII; half had never worked for wages before. 

• But most women did not work in war industries, and most Americans did not approve of such work for women. A 1945 poll showed that only 18% approved of married women working. A majority of American women said they would not take a job in a war plant if it were offered.

• At the end of the war, two-thirds of the women in war industries left their job, most voluntarily.

44. Why We Fight – Frank Capra 

• This is not something you necessarily need to know for the APUSH exam; however, if you are interested, the series is available on YouTube and Netflix. 

45. A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington—1941

• Blacks faced discrimination in war industries; the military was segregated. Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, called for a march on Washington to demand equal treatment. 

• To head off this march, Roosevelt issued an executive order banning racial discrimination in war industries and establishing the Fair Employment Practices Committee. As a result, the proportion of blacks in war industries increased from 3% to 9%.

46. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

• Established by James Farmer in 1942, CORE was an interracial organization whose goal was to improve race relations and end discriminatory policies through direct-action activities. 

• CORE is significant because Farmer saw it as the driver of a nonviolent approach to combat racial prejudice. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.

47. Double V Campaign

• This was a campaign slogan, started by the Pittsburgh Courier on February 7, 1942. The Double V(ictory) would include the evils that African American soldiers are fighting overseas and the ones they are fighting at home. Segregation and racial discrimination were no longer tolerable. 

• The Double V Campaign’s message and support would ignite into the 1950s and 60s Civil Rights Movement. 

48. Bracero Program – 1942-1964

• The Bracero Program grew out of a series of bi-lateral agreements between the US and Mexico which allowed millions of Mexican laborers to come to the US on short-term, primarily agricultural labor contracts. 

• Although the program was designed to offset labor shortages during WWII, the bracero program lasted much longer than anticipated. In 1951, with the Korean War well underway, the program was formalized by Congress via Public Law 78. 

• Despite safeguards being in place requiring employers to provide adequate room and board (sanitary conditions as well), these regulations went unchecked and most braceros lived in squalid conditions. 

• Between 1942 and 1964, 4.6 million contracts were signed, making the program the largest labor program in US history.

49. Zoot Suit Riots – June 1943

• During the late-1930s and 1940s, many Mexican-American youths wore zoot suits. Known as zoot suiters by white folk, pachucos worse these suits as a symbol of rebellion against both the Mexican and American cultures. 

• With tensions rising in LA due to the war, the influx of Mexican labor from the bracero program, homefront rationing, and deeply-rooted racial tension, the pachucos were targeted as dangerous gang members.

• These tensions boiled over in June 1943 when a group of sailors claimed they were attacked by a gang of zoot-suiters. The following day, uniformed servicemen (Sailors and Marines) proceeded to the nearby Mexican-American community. Various conflicts broke out over the next few days. Many Mexican-Americans were arrested over the course of the riots, while few servicemen were arrested. In fact, LA papers referred to the servicemen as heroes. 

• Governor Earl Warren (future Supreme Court justice) ordered a citizens’ committee to investigate the causes of the riots. The committee determined racism, bias by the LAPD, and inflammatory new reporting led to the riots. LA Mayor Fletcher Bowron, who was obviously concerned about the image of LA, issued a counter-report stating racism had nothing to do with the riots and the core cause of the riots was juvenile delinquency. 

50. Relocation of Japanese-Americans

• Following the attack by the Japanese military on Pearl Harbor, the American military became concerned about an assault on the West Coast where 120,000 Japanese-Americans lived. Numerous reports were made to the military of suspicious activity, e.g., Japanese-Americans sending coded radio messages to Japanese boats off-shore. These reports were found to be false. No Japanese-Americans was charged with sabotage or spying during WWII.

• On May 9, 1942, Executive Order 9066 required all Japanese-Americans to leave the West Coast and southern Arizona. A total of 120,000 people (70,000 of them US citizens) were given a few days to sell or store their possessions, houses, and businesses and report to relocation centers. From there they were shipped to ten internment camps.

• In 1944 in the case Korematsu v. US, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the relocation order as a wartime necessity.

Victory in the European Theater

51. Germany First

• The US declared war on Japan the day after Pearl Harbor. Germany and Italy, the other Axis powers, declared war on the US three days later. Despite the fact that Japan had initiated hostilities, the US agreed with Britain that it was essential to focus on defeating Germany. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed that if the US turned toward Japan, Germany might defeat both the USSR and Great Britain and emerge as the unconquerable power in Europe. But if the US joined with Britain and the USSR to defeat Germany, Japan could be defeated by the Allies later.

Major WWII Allied Conferences – 1941-1945 

• Atlantic, Casablanca, Tehran, Bretton Oaks, and Dumbarton Oaks, Yalta, and Potsdam

• Read the handout (from HJ # 16) to fully grasp the significance of each conference.

52. Casablanca Conference – Jan. 1943 

• FDR and Churchill agreed that the US would hold off on an invasion of northern France for now and instead invade Italy, through Sicily. 

• They also agreed on the only way to ensure postwar peace was to ONLY accept unconditional surrender from the Axis powers. 

• Stalin, who was not at this meeting, accepted the idea of unconditional surrender; however, he was not pleased with the decision to invade Italy first (see below). 

53. Stalin’s Demand for a Second Front

• Stalin pressed FDR and Churchill to attack Germany from the west. He hoped this would divert German resources to the Western Front and ease the pressure on Russia. In Stalin’s mind, the terrible losses the Soviet Union was suffering made this essential. Churchill remembered how the Allies had become bogged down in France in WWI and resisted. FDR supported Churchill’s position. Allied efforts were focused instead on northern Africa and eventually Italy. Not until June 1944 did the British and Americans attack through France.

• Stalin’s suspicions that England and the US were content to let the USSR do most of the fighting and dying against Germany hardened eventually into the Cold War. 

54. Teheran Conference—1943 

• Here Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to open a second front through France in coordination with a Soviet push on the Eastern Front. In addition, the Big Three decided to divide post-war Germany into zones of occupation.

55. D-Day Invasion—June 1944

• Led by US General Dwight Eisenhower, the US and Britain landed at Normandy, France, in the largest amphibious invasion in military history and finally opened a second front against Germany in 1944. By the end of summer, the Allies had driven the Germans out of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

56. Battle of the Bulge 

• Taking place between December 1944 and January 1945, the Battle of the Bulge was the last major Nazi offensive, an attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two and destroy their ability to supply themselves by taking the huge port of Antwerp.

• The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle fought by the Americans in WWII. 600,000 American troops were involved in the battle. The Americans lost 81,000 men.

• But Hitler paid an exorbitant price. German casualties were about 100,000 men; at least 800 tanks and about 1,000 planes were destroyed. These losses were irreplaceable. The Ardennes had hurt the Allies, but, in the words of one historian, it had literally “broken the backbone of the (German) western front.” Hitler’s desperate gamble in the West had invited disaster in the East and hastened his final and inevitable defeat.

Major WWII Battles to Know

• Again, make sure to read the handout regarding major WWII Battles (HJ #16). 

57. “Confronting the Holocaust” – Read carefully, please.

• Please note there are some glaring issues in this section from OpenStax. I am making a note of this to send to them. 

• The textbook is glossing over the issues for dramatic effect, which we will talk about in class (please see slides for March 13, 2019). Dachau was built in 1933 but NOT for the purposes of killing Jews. Kristallnacht did not occur until 1938. This is when Jewish oppression became explicitly apparent in Nazi Germany. Dachau was built in 1933 for political opponents, Communists, and criminals. It would later (post-1937) be used to imprison Roma and Jews, but not in 1933. 

58. Bretton Woods Conference—1944 (NOT mentioned explicitly in OpenStax)

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established to regulate and stabilize international currency exchange rates and thus to encourage world trade.

• The World Bank was set up to provide for economic development projects in less developed countries.

59. Yalta Conference—February 1945

• At this meeting of the Big Three to plan for the end of the war, FDR pressed Stalin to enter the war against Japan, the invasion of which promised huge casualties. Churchill and FDR made territorial concessions regarding Manchuria to Stalin who promised to enter the war against Japan three months after the surrender of Germany. Stalin also promised free elections in Eastern Europe which Russia controlled.

• Critics have condemned FDR for not forcing Stalin to promise to leave Eastern Europe free of Soviet control, of allowing the Iron Curtain to be drawn across the continent. But the reality was that the Soviet army already controlled Eastern Europe; FDR could only force Stalin out by declaring WWIII.

60. Potsdam Conference—July 1945

• At this meeting, Truman joined Churchill and Stalin. With Germany defeated, Japan was the main focus. The Allies threatened Japan with destruction if it did not surrender.

• Regarding Germany, the Big Three agreed to joint occupation of Germany.

The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bomb

61. The Battle of Midway and Island Hopping

• Japan enjoyed early success in the Pacific, taking the Philippines, Guam, Malay, and Burma. But following the US victory at Midway Island in June 1942, the Americans began moving towards the Japanese home islands. 

• Midway— June 4-7, 1942— was the turning point in the Pacific. The Japanese had planned to entrap and destroy US naval forces, but code-breaking by the US gave the Americans the element of surprise. Japan lost four aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes and experienced pilots, military resources Japan was not able to replace. After Midway, Japan was not able to mount another serious attack in the Pacific.

• Island hopping meant leaving in place some of the islands most heavily fortified, capturing nearby but less strongly defended islands, building airfields there, and then bombing the enemy bases and Japan itself.

62. Manhattan Project

• In 1939, Albert Einstein, a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany, warned FDR that German scientists were working to develop an atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project was the U.S. Army project begun in 1941 to research and develop an atomic bomb to be used in warfare.  Research headquarters in Alamogordo, New Mexico, reported the first successful atomic denotation on July 16, 1945.

63. Hiroshima & Nagasaki—August 1945

• Despite a US fire-bombing raid on Tokyo in March 1945 that killed 84,000 civilians, the Japanese showed no sign of surrender. Allied war planners estimated that an invasion of the home islands of Japan would result in one million US casualties, along with British, Russian, and Japanese casualties.

• After the US captured Okinawa, the Japanese emperor sought to negotiate an end to the war. The Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender as had been required of the Germans.

• When Japan ignored Truman’s ultimatum to surrender or face “utter destruction,” the president made the decision to use the atomic bomb. Hiroshima was hit on August 6; 130,000 people died from the blast or from burns and radiation sickness. On August 9, Nagasaki was attacked with a second bomb; 80,000 were listed as killed or missing. Japan surrendered on August 14.

The End of the War (a lot of people died…)

64. The United Nations—1945 

• Intended to be a more robust version of the League of Nations, the UN has a general assembly and a Security Council with five permanent members (US, USSR, Britain, France, and China) who can veto Security Council actions. 

65. Bernard Baruch & Atomic Energy—1946 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Baruch, US delegate to the UN, called for an international organization run by the UN to oversee and control atomic energy and research. The US offered to destroy its own atomic weapons and share its technical expertise with the rest of the world on two conditions: 1) an international agency be set up to ensure that nuclear technology be used only for peaceful purposes and 2) this agency have the power to conduct unlimited inspections and punish offenders without the restrictions of Security Council vetoes.

• The Soviets rejected this. The US rejected a Soviet counter-proposal, and the two nations spent the next fifty years in a nuclear arms race (THE COLD WAR!). 

66. Nuremberg War Trials—1945-1946 (NOT explicitly mentioned in OpenStax)

• Nazi leaders were charged with waging aggressive war and violating generally accepted rules of how to treat prisoners of war and how to behave toward civilians in occupied territory.  Twelve of the twenty-two were sentenced to death and three were acquitted. 

• In Tokyo top officials were also charged, and Premier Hideki Tojo, along with several others, was sentenced to death. 

• Critics protested that these trials were unfair because many of the accused were charged with offenses that had not been clear-cut crimes before the war began.