World War II
A.The Twisting Road to War
1. Foreign Policy in a Global Age
-Recog Soviet govt, hoping to gain market for surplus Am grain: tho this never happened, Soviet agreed to pay debts & extend rts to Am citizens in SU
-Continued to support dictators (Cent Am)- to promote stab & preserve Am econ int
-Cuba-revolutn threatened Am investmt, but FDR sent envoys, not troops, to work out agreemt w. rev gov; when rev gov overthrown, US recog Batista gov + offered large loan, agreed to abrogate Platt Amd in return for rts to Guantanamo naval base
-Trade Agreemts Act 1934 gave pres power to lower tariff rates by 50% àgov could negotiate agreemts that improved trade
-Mexico nationalized property of Am oil Co’s: Am businessmen urged interventn, but State Dpt worked out agreemt that included compensatn for companies
2. Europe on the Brink of War: WWI + Ger’s attempt to reverse peace settlemtà WWII
-Became leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party of Ger workers, led unsuccessful coup--> 192 jailed-->Mein Kampf (My Struggle): racial purity, hopes for Ger, hatred of Jews
-Became Chancellor--> Reichstag (parliamt) suspended const, making Hitler Fuehrer (leader) & dictator-->fascist regime centralized pol&econ power
-Ger pride restored--> ppl fail to notice dark side of regime: conc camps & anti-Sem
-College students protest: students joined orgs like Veterans of Future Wars & Future Gold Star Mothers, protested presence of Reserve Officers Training Corps on campus
3. Ethiopia & Spain
B. The Home Front
1. Mobilizing for War
C. Social Impact of War
1. Wartime Opportunitues
1. Foreign Policy in a Global Age
- Worldwide depression--> financial disaster in Eur, most Eur countries couldn’t pay back debt
- 1930s = isolationism (dom econ int > int’l econ coop)
-Recog Soviet govt, hoping to gain market for surplus Am grain: tho this never happened, Soviet agreed to pay debts & extend rts to Am citizens in SU
-Continued to support dictators (Cent Am)- to promote stab & preserve Am econ int
- Good Neighbor Policy to promote unity in W. Hemisphere in case of Eur war
-Cuba-revolutn threatened Am investmt, but FDR sent envoys, not troops, to work out agreemt w. rev gov; when rev gov overthrown, US recog Batista gov + offered large loan, agreed to abrogate Platt Amd in return for rts to Guantanamo naval base
-Trade Agreemts Act 1934 gave pres power to lower tariff rates by 50% àgov could negotiate agreemts that improved trade
-Mexico nationalized property of Am oil Co’s: Am businessmen urged interventn, but State Dpt worked out agreemt that included compensatn for companies
2. Europe on the Brink of War: WWI + Ger’s attempt to reverse peace settlemtà WWII
- Rise of Adolf Hitler & his plan to conquer Europe
-Became leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party of Ger workers, led unsuccessful coup--> 192 jailed-->Mein Kampf (My Struggle): racial purity, hopes for Ger, hatred of Jews
-Became Chancellor--> Reichstag (parliamt) suspended const, making Hitler Fuehrer (leader) & dictator-->fascist regime centralized pol&econ power
- German prosperity --> German nationalism --> rearmament in violatn of Versailles Treaty
-Ger pride restored--> ppl fail to notice dark side of regime: conc camps & anti-Sem
- Italy: Fascist Benito Mussolini was building powerful mil force & threatened to invade Ethiopia
- Pro-Peace reactions in US
-College students protest: students joined orgs like Veterans of Future Wars & Future Gold Star Mothers, protested presence of Reserve Officers Training Corps on campus
3. Ethiopia & Spain
- Italy invaded Ethiopia 1935 after rejecting LeagoNats’ offer to mediate
- Cong passed Neutrality Act 1935 authorizing pres to prohibit all arms shipmts
- Spanish Civil War broke out 1936- Gen. Francisco Franco, supp by Cath & large landowners, revolted agst repub govt, joined by Ger&Italy while Soviet Union aided anti-Franco loyalists
- US polarized- Caths/anti-Commies sided w. Franco, but Am radicals sided w. Loyalists--> 3000+ Ams joined Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight fascism in Sp
- Neutrality Act 1937 illegalized Am citizens to travel on belligerents’ ships, extended embargo on arms, made even nonmil items available to belligerents only on cash-and-carry
- Ger annexed Austria by Mar 1938, Sudetenland (Munich Conf), overrun rest of Czech, Nazi-Soviet pact ended Ams’ hopes that Ger & SU would fight, neutralizing each other in Eur
- Pol Invasion--> many Ams urged peace settlemt recognizing Ger/SU Pol occupatn
- Ger Blitzkrieg swept thru Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, finally France
- Maginot line, fortifications designed to repulse Ger invasion, useless; Ger just went around--> Fr surrendered in June as Brit army fled back across Eng Chann from Dunkirk
- Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies organized by William Allen White
- Most Ams, hwvr, suppted America First argued that US should forget abt Brit, only def US
- FDR approved shipmt to Brit of 50 overage Am destroyers in return for rt to est naval/air bases on Brit terr; Winston Churchill asked for much more
- FDR authorized $4bn to inc warships; Cong passed Selective Service Act- 1st peacetime draft
- FDR reluctant to aid Brit came from desire to keep US neutral, but also b/c he sought 3rd term
- Liberal wing of Dem party- farm economist Henry Wallace as running mate
- Reps nom Wendell Wilkie, charismatic but in int’l crisis, voters chose to stay w. FDR
- Aid to Brit w/o demanding paymt=”Lend garden hose to neighbor whose house was on fire”
- OH Sen Robert Taft- absurd to expect mil equipmt back after lending it
- FDR extended ~ to SU after Ger attacked SU & ordered shoot-on-sight
- Desperately needing natural resources, esp oil, Jp was willing to risk war w. China, SU, even US
- Jp invaded Manchuria 1931 & launched all-out assault on China 1937à Pacific War
- Jp leaders assumed US would fight if they tried to take Phil but tried to delay diplomatically; US also willing to delay to prevent 2-front war (Ger)
- US began to apply econ pressure July 1939: gave Jp 6mos notice regarding cancellation of 1911 comm agreemt-->1940 FDR forbade shipmt of airplane fuel/scrap metal to Jpàembargo expanded until by 1941, only oil allowed, hoping that threat of cutting this off would avert crisis
- But Jp wouldn’t withdraw from China as US demanded & occupied Fr Indochinaà Jul1941, FDR froze all Jp assets in US (embargo)
- Dec7, 1941: Jp attacked US fleet @ Pearl Harbor, destroying/disabling 19ships, 150 planes, killing soldiers & civilians while attacking Phil, Guam Midway, Hong Kong & Malaya (Brit)à Cong declares war & country united: even isolationists & Am First rallied behind war effort
- Pearl Harbor became symbol of unpreparedness that would teach a generation of mil/pol leaders to be prepared & ready to stop an aggressor before it had chance to strike
B. The Home Front
1. Mobilizing for War
- War Production Board,(WPR) appted Donald Nelson to mobilize nation’s resources for all-out war: offered businesses cost-plus contracts, guaranteeing fixed/generous profit
- Office of Scientific Research & Developmt (OSRD) to perfect new weapons/products: improved radar, developed high-altitude bomb sights, jet engines, penicillin, etc
- FDR appted business leaders to key pos & abandoned antitrust actions to woo businessppl, many alienated by New Deal--> Industrial prod & net corp profits doubled during war
- Office of Price Admin (OPA) set prices, rationed products, etcà regarded as oppressive
- Natl War Labor Board (NWLB) regulate work conds; could seize factories of uncoop owners
- Union membership soaredà NWLB allowed workers to retain un memb thru contract in return of no strike pledge--> labor leaders complained abt inc gov reg, arguing that wage controls unfair due to wartime inflation--> NWLB allowed 15% cost-of-living inc on some contracts, but didn’t apply to overtime pay, which helped drive up wages by 70% in some industries
- Revenue Act 1942 raised tax rates, broadened tax base, inc corp/excess profit taxesàredist wealth which New Deal failed to doàtop 5% = 23%disposable income in 1939 only 17% by 1945
- Nat’l debt grew $143bn (1943)->$260bn (1945)
- Full employmt, inc in 2-income families, forced savings provided capital for postwar expansion
- War stimulated growth of federal bureaucracy & accelerated trend toward gov’s central role in econ; inc coop b/w industry & gov, creating military industrial complex.
- Office of War Information controlled news & gov sold war bonds to sell war to Ams
- For Freedom’s Sake, Buy War Bonds: workers purchased bonds thru pay deduction plans & gov sold $135+bn--> made Ams feel that they were contributing to war effort
- Even small children purchased war stamps, collected old rubber, wastepaper, kitchen fats
- Racial stereotype of Jp--> only enemy ethnicity confined in internmt camps in large #s
- West Coasters urged War Dpt to evacuate Jp--> Executive Order 9066 authorizing evac
- Jp-Ams in 442nd Infantry Combat Team- most decorated unit in all mil service
- When US govt began drafting Nisei men in relocation centers, 10% resisted & sent to jail
- Chinese actively participated although Chinese Exclusion Act not repealed until 1943
- Filipinos served behind enemy lines in battle to recapture Philippines
- Koreans classified as enemy aliens but proved valuable b/c they could speak Jpnese
- US needed India as ally in Pacific War--> 1923Sup Ct decision denying Inds citizenship altered
- Blacks profited little from revival of prosperity; assigned menial jobs in mil or seg units
- A. Randolph convinced black leaders to join him in march in DC for equal rts--> alarmed, FDR issued Exec Order 8802 demanding “no discr in employmt of workers in defense industries/gov” (didn’t deseg army tho) &est Fair Employmt Practices Commision (FEPC) to enforce order
- Blacks improved econ con by continuing migration north/westward--> Detroit race riot broke out after Polish Ams protested public housing dev for blacks
- Mex Ams profited but alos faced racial prejudice: Mex gang members, pachuchos, wearing zoot suits angered servicemen--> violence but police looked the other way & arrested victims
C. Social Impact of War
1. Wartime Opportunitues
- 15+mn civilians move, including Nat Ams, who migrated to west & N cities for wartime opps
- Poured into industrial centers, e.g. Detroit, LA, Mobile ALàlived n shacks
- Change most dramatic in West: Gov $70+bn in CA to build army bases, shipyards, etc & private ind built so many facilities that region bec center of growing mil-ind complex
- Housing shortage, overcrowded schools, crime/prostitution/racial tension inc
- Many families had money to spend, but nothing to buy
- Households headed by women inc--> #marriages inc b/c man could be deferred if he had dependent (e.g. wife)--> birthrate & divorce rate climbed sharply but most wartime marr lasted
- Jobs in heavy industry; at first women rarely hired b/c men took jobs, but draft caused gov to suggest that women’s patriotic duty=take men’s place on assembly line
- Women’s Land Army replaced farm laborers in army
- Popular song- Rosie the Riveter…making history working for victory
- Women’s weekly wages avged less than men’s due to more menial tasks, low seniority, discrim
- Black women, despite much discrim, found factory work
- Many women left jobs after war ended; some by choice, but dismissals 2x as high for women--> war barely shook nation's notion that woman’s place was at home
- Ams tuned into live radio broadcasts of war in Eur--> commentators bec celebrities
- Attendance at movies: 100mn viewers/week
- Many movies had war themes- pictured Ams triumphing over devious Jp, outwitting Ger
- 30+%Ams said war strengthened religious faith
- Gov honored beliefs of half of those who claimed exemption due to “religios training/belief”
- Clergymen volunteered as chaplains
- Reinhold Niebuhr, Prot theologian attacked naïve faith in goodness of man & argued for use of force agst evilà Christian Realism had little real impact but influenced continuing debate over proper Am response to evil around world
- Press/Public turned GIs into heroes capable of defeating 20Jp/Ger easily
- Mex Ams drafted/volunteered, served more than many other ethnicities
- Nat Ams recruited for special service in Marine Signal Corps. Navajo code used, but ineligible for veterans benefits b/c they lived on public land--> canceled all advantages of other veterans
- 16+mn served in some branch of mil service; 322thou killed, 800thou wounded, 12thou missing
- Wounded of WWII 2x as likely to survive as those of WWI due to penicillin, blood plasma, etc
- Many women served as nurses, but not until Apr 1943 did women physicians win rt to join Army and Navy Medical Corps b/c of mil emergency & women could free men for combat duty
- Women’s Army Corps (WAC) & women’s branch of Navy (WAVES); 1+thou women trained as pilots: Womens Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flew bombers from factories to landing fields
- Men, uncomf w. women in nontrad roles, spread rumors about servicewom- sexual promiscuity