WORLD WAR II
THE GOOD WAR
THE RISE OF TOTALITARIANISM
• Economic Crisis 1920s
• Rise of Dictatorships
• U.S.S.R. – Joseph Stalin
• Militarism • Japan – Hirohito
• Fascism • Italy – Mussolini
• Nazism • Germany – Adolf Hitler

Hitler’s Europe

Policy of
Appeasement
◦ Anschluss
◦ Lebensraum
◦ Austria – March 1938
◦ Sudetenland – Oct.
1938
◦ Czechoslovakia – March
1939
◦ Danzig and Polish
Corridor – March 1939

Sept. 1, 1939 –
Invasion of Poland:
WWII begins!
Onset of WWII


Germany, Japan, and
Italy winning the war
U.S. pledges to be
Arsenal of
Democracy:
◦ Neutrality Act of 1939:
CASH only
◦ Destroyers for Bases:
1940
◦ Lend Lease Act: March
1941 


“sell, transfer title to,
exchange, lease,
lend, or otherwise
dispose of” defense
articles to the “gov’t
of any country whose
defense the President
deems vital to the
defense of the US.”
What does this
mean?
WWII: 1939-1941


U.S. embargoes
Japan
Dec. 7, 1941 – “A
Day that will Live in
Infamy”: Pearl
Harbor
◦ Aware of an
impending attack
Nov. 27.
◦ Why so unprepared?
Pearl Harbor

Our nation is currently engaged in war,
how has this impacted your life?
Bellringer
Economic
Activity
Social
Tensions
Remembrance
Luverne, MN
Sacramento,
CA
Waterbury, CT
Mobile, AL

Wartowns
◦ https://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_540
4.htm

Mobile
◦ https://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_538
2.htm
America: On the Homefront

How did American society change?
◦ Economically?
◦ Socially?


How did people respond to these changes,
particularly Mobile?
Life magazine called “Rosie the Riveters”
neither drudges nor slaves, but the heroines
of a new world order.
◦ What does this mean?
◦ What were attitudes towards this?
◦ How did it impact families? Women?
Discussion


Mobilization
Rationing Coupons
◦ Red Points and Blue
Points


Victory Gardens
Double V
◦ To defeat racism abroad
and racism at home
◦ Executive Order 8802

Japanese Internment
◦ Executive Order 9066 –
Feb. 1942
America: On the Homefront



Reactions?
Evidence of guilt…how many? __
Was FDR justified in his internment of
Japanese Americans?
◦ Does military necessity justify infringing upon
peoples’ rights?



Why were the Japanese the primary targets
and not Germans and Italians?
Does Trump make a strong argument?
Applying lessons learned from WWII, should
the US follow Trump’s suggestions? Why or
why not?
Using history to understand the
present…

1939-1942

USSR
◦ Allies losing WWII
◦ Taking bulk of attacks
Operation Torch (North
Africa) - 1942
 Soft Underbelly (Italy) 1943

◦ Battle of Anzio
 Tuskegee Airmen
Operation Overlord
(Normandy, France) – June
1944
 Island Hopping
 Iwo Jima and Okinawa
 Atomic Bombs

◦ Aug – 1945
◦ Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Military Strategy
Read the primary sources and compare
and contrast the Pacific Theater with the
European Theater
 Some things I want you to note:

◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Who fought in each front?
What was the fighting like?
What were the climates like?
What unique things occurred in each front?
Note AT LEAST 7-10 similarities and differences
Assignment

Choose one country on the map and write
down its Jewish population in 1933.
◦ Map 1 – Jewish population, circa 1933
◦ Map 2 – Jewish population, circa 1950
Holocaust


Look through the packet of photos
Select 6 photos that fulfill the following requirement:



Glue them on the paper in a logical order (ex.)
Label each photo with a word or phrase that explains the
reason it was chosen.
Give it a title that reflects the group’s theme.

Individually:
◦ Tells the story of the Holocaust
◦ Reflects an understanding of both how and why the Holocaust
happened.
◦ Write a short reflection:






Why you selected the photos you chose
Your group’s progress
A photo you had a hard time giving up
A photo you would have used
How well you feel this reflects your understanding of the Holocaust
Topics of interest for further exploration
Holocaust
Take a look at each group’s projects.
 Write any questions, observations, and/or
comments on a sticky note and place it on
the photo.


What are our perceptions of the
Holocaust?
Holocaust
The Cold War
1917-1991
The Origins
 Russia




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
– 1917
World War I
Large casualties
Depression
Starvation
People call for
change
Vladimir Lenin and
the Soviets
Comparing Ideas
Capitalism
Communism
Video Questions
 What
is “ism”?
 What character is chosen to represent the
salesperson for “ism”?
 What does “ism” promise”?
 What person in the U.S. does each
character represent?
 According to John Q. Public, what are the
realities of “ism”?
 Is this propaganda? Why or why not?
Post-War
 Who
made up the Allied Powers?
 What do you think they began to think
about as the war came to an end?
 What places might be argued over?
 What might they argue about regarding
these locations?
 For example…
Post War Germany
The Fears…

Russia feared
Germany would
attack again

How do they
respond?



Keep soldiers in
Poland, Germany
and other eastern
European countries
U.S., Great Britain,
and France fear that
Russia trying to push
take over eastern
Europe
Winston Churchill’s
Iron Curtain Speech 1946
Solutions???
 Policy
of Containment – What does this
mean?

Keep communism where it already existed
 Truman



Doctrine - 1947
Greece and Hungary
$400 million to each country
To prevent a communist take over
 Marshall


Plan – 1947
$7 billion to Western European nations
Prevent rising Communist Party
Why would the Marshall Plan be effective in
fighting the Soviets?
Road to Crisis – Berlin Blockade


Feb. 1948 – U.S. and
Britain merge their
zones of Germany
(France joins in April)
Stalin’s reaction?




Soviet interference
w/American and
British zones in Berlin
Why was it easy for
Stalin to do this?
What should the
response be to this
blockade?
Withdraw or Airlift (way
of supporting their
areas of Berlin)…you
decide!
Berlin Blockade/Airlift
 Group





1 and Group 2 directions:
Read the documents
For each primary source, answer the
following questions:
Are your people in favor of withdrawing
from Berlin or staying?
List all reasons each author gives for their
point of view
We will then switch groups, engage in a
silent debate, and then discuss as a class
Berlin Airlift



U.S. and Britain carry
out a successful airlift
to support West Berlin
until May 1949
Stalin backs down
What image does
this event give of the
U.S./Britain to the
world? The Soviets?
Assessment
 Did
President Truman make the right
decision in supporting West Berlin through
the airlift? Why or why not?
In the wake of Berlin…
 The
U.S. joins the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in April 1949
 Soviet Union creates Warsaw Pact
Cold War in Asia

China – 1949



Mao Zedong takes
over
Chiang Kai-Shek
forced to flee to the
island of Formosa
(aka Taiwan)
Korean War – 195052



38th Parallel, division
remains today
North Korea 
Soviets/China
South Korea  U.S.A.
Nikita Khrushchev and the
Berlin Wall



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
Nuclear Test - 1949
Sputnik - 1957
Takes over Soviet Union
in 1958
Distrusts U.S. after May
1960 U-2 Spy Plane
Incident
September 1960 –
Banging of the Shoe!
1961 – Builds Berlin Wall
after U.S. refuses to
leave West Berlin

Brain Drain
Cuba



1959 – Pro-U.S. Batista
Regime overthrown
by Socialist Fidel
Castro
Allied with Soviets
Bay of Pigs Incident –
April 1961



U.S. attempts to
overthrow Castro
Had promised not to
intervene
Complete failure
Cuban Missile Crisis





1962 – U.S. learns
Soviets have setup
missiles in Cuba (90 mi
from FL)
U.S. orders them
dismantled (U.S. had
missiles in Turkey)
Stand off for close to 2
weeks
Khrushchev backs
down
Why?
Cuban Missile Crisis








Let’s look at the issue…
Go to:
http://goo.gl/JmMlhM
Read the options that John F. Kennedy had.
Then read the opinions of your advisors – make
notes
Read the CIA report – make notes
Make a choice and explain why in ½-1 page
essay citing reasons from the advisors and/or CIA
report
Film
Iran-Contra Scandal




Nicaragua
Sandinistas overthrow US
supported Somoza
Dynasty in 1979
Sandinistas are left-wing,
Marxist/Communist
Sandinistas promise to
help peasants;
redistribute land; improve
education
Iran Contra Scandal




CIA trains Contras to
wage war against
Sandinistas
War Powers Act
Reinforced in 1984 –
Boland Amendment
Reagan administration
looks for other ways to
fund Contras
Thus…IRAN!!

1950s Iranian Revolution




1970s Iranian Revolution



Ayatollah Khomeni
1979 – Iran Hostage
Crisis


Mossadegh and the Shah
Ango-Iranian Oil Co.
CIA
Iran is an enemy
1983 – Al Dawa (Iraqi
militant organization)
members arrested for
truck bombings in Kuwait
In response, Hezbollah,
an ally of Al Dawa, took
30 hostages, 6 of whom
were Americans
Iran
Iran



Iran-Iraq War: 19801988
Iran is looking for
people to sell them
arms
The US sells Iran
arms so that Iran will
convince Hezbollah in
Lebanon to release
US hostages



Armaments are sold
from 1985-86; Profits
go to fund the
Contras
Hostages are not
released
November 3, 1986, a
Lebanese magazine
exposed the US sale
of arms to Iran
The Scandal



Reagan and VP Bush
never get in trouble
National Security Advisor
Robert McFarlane and
Colonel Oliver North take
the fall but never serve
time
Bill Breeden – only person
to be imprisoned for
“Contragate”
Grenada




October 25 - December
1983 – Coup d’etat by
Marxist regime allied to
Castro
US students in medical
school
Organization of Eastern
Caribbean States asked
US to intervene
US had drafted this order,
given it to Caribbean
leaders friendly to the US
and they in turn gave it
back to the US

Grenada



US installs a government friendly to its
policies
US shows Caribbean that it will intervene
when revolutions occur
European allies criticize US for this
unilateral invasion