WORLD WAR II
America and the World
Underlying Themes

Nationalism

Economic Situations in every country pretty bad

Civil Unrest

Radical Measures

Propaganda
Italy

1919: Benito Mussolini creates Italy’s Fascist Party
 Fascism:
Nationalistic movement that considered the
nation to be more important than the individual
 Believe order in society comes through a strong
government/dictatorship
 Largely anti-communist…big role in getting support

1922: Mussolini threatens a march on Rome with the
Fascist militia the Blackshirts
 Leaders
resign, Mussolini named premier
Soviet Union

Communistic Party in charge
 One-party
rule, suppressed individual liberties, and
punished opponents
 Joseph Stalin: Soviet Dictator in WWII
 Massive industrialization; Huge loss of wages
 Collectives: Government-owned farms
 Usage of concentration camps
2
million people by 1935
 Most in Arctic and used as slave labor
 By 1953 (End of Stalin’s rule), between 8 and 10 million
people died
Germany

Many Germans disliked Allies and German
government that approved peace terms
Creation of National Socialist German Workers’ Party
 Nationalist and Anti-communist


Nov. 1923: Nazis tried to seize power (failed)


Hitler arrested—writes Mein Kampf in prison
New Strategy: Nazis in Reichstag

Works! Hitler named Chancellor in 1933, President by 1934
Japan


Very little economic growth…reliance on imports
Military leaders and civilian supporters believe
seizing territory the only option to get resources
 1931:
Manchuria invasion
 Japanese Prime Minister assassinated for negotiating
with China
 Nationalist policy of expansion begins
US Stays Neutral


Americans begin to support isolationism
Nye Committee: Investigated allegations that arms
manufacturers had tricked the US into entering World War I




Report shows huge profits by arms factories
Impression that gov’t was influenced by business
Neutrality Act of 1935: Illegal for Americans to sell arms to
any country at war
Neutrality Act of 1937: “Cash-and-Carry” for non-military
supplies
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1933: Takes office as US President


Views: Internationalism




First job: end the Great Depression
Idea that trade between nations creates prosperity and prevents
war
US should preserve peace in the world
Believed “Neutrality Acts” could drag us into war
Sold weapons to China in 1937 to stop Japan


Claimed to not violate Neutrality Act since no war was technically
declared
Warned US could not let an “epidemic of lawlessness” infect the
world
Major Players in the War
AXIS
ALLIES
GERMANY
GREAT BRITAIN
ITALY
SOVIET UNION
JAPAN
UNITED STATES
The Path To War

1935: Hitler announces German military expansion



1937: Unification of All German-speakers?



Violation of Treaty of Versailles; European appeasement
Why? Avoid war, demands reasonable, belief that peace could be
reached
Targets: Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc.
Hitler thinks force only means to unification
1938: Anschluss—unification of Germany and Austria


Hitler threatens to invade if Nazis not given gov’t posts
Austrian chancellor gives in, asks to let democracy work

Hitler sends in troops in fear of results
Sudetenland

Germany claims Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
Czech resistance
 France threatens to fight, Soviet Union promises aid to
Czechs; Britain says they will back France


Munich Conference (1938)
Britain, France, Italy, Germany meet
 Appeased Hitler; told Czechs to give land to Germany or
fight on their own
 Failed to protect peace as Germany sends troops to Czech
by 1939

Danzig and the inevitability of war

Hitler demands Danzig (city in Poland)
 90
percent German, but part of Poland since WWI
 Requested a highway and railroad across Polish
Corridor, which connected Germany and East Prussia

Britain and France realize demands not ending
 Attack
Poland, we back Poland in war
 Poland refused to cede lands, Hitler prepares for
invasion
 Hitler asks foreign minister to speak with USSR
Nazi-Soviet Pact

We all know the Soviets eventually fought the
Nazis…but at first Hitler needed a non-aggression
pact with the USSR to fight Britain and France
 USSR
agrees to non-aggression pact (reason: turn
capitalism against capitalism)
 Secret pact to divide Poland between USSR and
Germany

One week after pact, Germany invades Poland
(1939); Britain and France declare war
German War Ideas

Blitzkrieg: Lightning War
 Massive
amounts of tanks to break through enemy lines
and encircle enemy positions
 Support
tanks with bombings of enemy positions and
paratroopers cutting supply lines
 Strategy
month
used to defeat the Polish military in roughly 1
Maginot Line

Maginot Line: Line of bunkers and fortifications
along the German border with France
Fall of France

France opts to wait for Germany to approach
Maginot Line
 Problem:
allowed Germany to focus solely on Poland
first (no two front war)

Germany avoids Maginot Line with new blitzkrieg
 Sent
tanks into Belgium and Luxembourg
 France and Britain goes to Belgium to stop attack;
believes Ardennes Mtns natural defense
 Germans plowed through lines, roll through France, and
trapped British and French in Belgium
Operation Dynamo

Evacuation of Dunkirk
 338,000
British and French forces saved
 Goal was 45,000 troops
 Loss of almost all weaponry

French surrender; Petain leader of Vichy France
(puppet gov’t of Germany)
 Neutral,
but not actually
 De Gaulle (Free France) resists Vichy France gov’t and
works with Allies
Battle of Britain


Germany had few transport ships, thus crossing the
Channel was difficult even after the fall of France
Strategy: Defeat the Royal Air Force
 Luftwaffe
(German Air Force) attacks shipping vessels
in Channel; then focus on RAF
 Aug 23, 1940—Germans accidentally bomb London
 Britain
responds by bombing Berlin; Hitler responds by
stopping strategic bombing and attacking London
Battle of Britain (continued)

Hitler believed he could scare Britain into surrender

Advantages:
 Germany:
Number of Bombers
 Britain: Radar

October 12, 1940: Hitler ends invasion of Britain
Quiz

Name the 3 Major Axis Powers

Name the 3 main leaders of the Allied Powers


What was the fortified area along the France and
Germany border known as?
Which term means “lightning war”?
And here comes America…


FDR asks Congress to allow arms sales to nations at
war
FDR bypasses the laws?
 Churchill
needs destroyers to stop Germany
 US exchanges destroyers for bases on Newfoundland,
Bermuda, and Caribbean islands
 Legality:
No actual sale, simply a swap
Internationalism or Isolationism?




Destroyers for Bases Deal=Great Success in Public
Opinion…for most part
Fight for Freedom Committee: Get rid of neutrality laws
and use stronger action against Germany
America First Committee: Isolationist group who wanted
to US to give no aid to Allies
Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies:
Give only aid to Allies but no armed intervention
Lend-Lease Act

Lend or Lease Arms to any
country “vital to the defense
of the United States”


Allowed US to give weapons
as long as weapons or rent
were received
Passed in Congress by wide
margin

Ultimately, US lent billions in
weapons, vehicles, and supplies
to Allies
QUESTION TO THINK ABOUT
By giving economic and military aid to Great Britain
and other Allied powers (notably USSR), did the
United States make itself more likely or less likely to
enter into the Second World War?
The Great Debate

Today, you will be putting yourself into a debate to
defend the ideals of either isolationism or
internationalism in July of 1941.
 With
this in mind, you must not discuss any events that
happened after July 1941 (Pearl Harbor, US military, etc.)
Hemispheric Defense Zone

Questions about how to
transfer goods to Britain
U-Boats in Atlantic
 Size of British Navy


U.S. Navy unable to protect
British ships…why?


Neutrality
Hemispheric Defense Zone:
entire western half of
Atlantic is neutral, thus FDR
tells US Navy to patrol and
reveal German locations
The Atlantic Charter


August 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill meet outside
Newfoundland
Plans for postwar world
The Atlantic Charter (continued)

Basic Ideas:





Democracy
Nonaggression
Free Trade
Economic Advancement
Freedom of Seas


Churchill later says FDR
pledged to “force an
incident…justify opening
hostilities” with Germans
9/4/1941: Greer


15 anti-Axis nations joined US
& Britain

“Shoot-on-Sight”
Oct 1941: Reuben James
(115 dead)
Japan-US Relations

US-Britain relations play key role
 British
navy v. German U-boats…role with Japan?
 British possessions in Pacific

Japan needs US
 Strategic
Materials: fuel (80% of Japan supply), steel,
iron
 1940: Congress gives Roosevelt power to restrict sales

Japan allies with Germany and Italy
Japan-US Relations (continued)




Roosevelt aiding China to prevent
Japanese expansion (Lend-lease)
Japan expansion continues…FDR sends
MacArthur to Philippines, freezes
Japanese assets in US, reduces oil
exports even more
Embargo only ends with withdrawal
from Indochina and peace with China
Japan losing due to oil
shortage…attacks resource-rich Dutch
and British colonies
A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
The Home front and Industry
Impact of America’s Entrance

Industrial advantage
 2x
more productive than Germans; 5x more than
Japanese throughout war
 1940: Roosevelt declared emergency and planned on
building 50,000 warplanes a year; also requested
money for “two-ocean” navy
Armaments Production, 1940-1943
1940
1943
United States
$1.5 billion
$37.5 billion
Britain
3.5 billion
11.1 billion
USSR
5.0 billion
13.9 billion
Germany
6.0 billion
13.8 billion
Japan
1.0 billion
4.5 billion
War Production in America
Cost-Plus Contracts

Government agreed to pay companies whatever it
cost to make a product plus a percentage of the
costs as profit
 Speed
and quantity key to making money
 Very expensive for the government, but increased war
production in US
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) made loans to
help companies transition to war production
American Industry

Auto industry: producing trucks, tanks, jeeps,
aircraft, artillery, mines, etc.
 Ford:
8,600 B-24 Bombers
 Henry Kaiser: 3,000 Liberty Ships
Mobilization Issues



Which supplies and contracts
were most important?
War Production Board (WPB):
Set priorities and production
goals; control raw materials
and supplies
Office of War Mobilization
(OWM): Settled arguments
between government agencies
Military Build-up

1939: Army expanded to 227,000 soldiers
 Congress


and most Americans oppose peacetime draft
Sept. 1940 (after fall of France in June): first
peacetime draft in US history approved
1941: 60,000+ enlist after Pearl Harbor
 Shortages
in housing, equipment
African Americans in War



Double V Campaign: Victory over
Hitler and Racism at home
Tuskegee Airmen: African American
Air Force Unit
1943: Integration of Military Bases
and Expanded role for minority
groups
The Battles of World War II

You are responsible for
knowing each of the
following battles in some
capacity. I will briefly
review these in class but
you should have taken
notes on them from your
reading/webquest
 Bataan
Death
March/Doolittle Raid
 Battle of Midway
 Battle of the Atlantic
 Battle of Stalingrad
 D-Day Invasion
(Operation Overlord)
 Battle of the Bulge
 Battle of Iwo Jima
 Battle of Okinawa
Office of Price Administration

Created during WWII to control prices
 Price

ceilings on most goods
Best known for rationing
 Food
stamps
 Rationing of tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar,
gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats, processed foods, etc.
Victory Gardens in WWII

Idea: Plant your own fruit, vegetable, and herb
garden at home to help the war effort!
 Less
consumption of goods produced=more ability to
send to soldiers
 Less processing of foods saved on metal and other
wartime goods

Morale booster—everyone doing their share to
help the war, even at home
 First
lady Eleanor Roosevelt even planted one
US Debt Accrues during the war…

Over $300 billion in debt
 10
times more than WWI; equivalent to total US
spending since 1776
 FDR wants to raise taxes
 Congress limits his ability to raise them
WWII Propaganda

Consider each of the following:
 Message
 Reason
portrayed
poster was created
 Effectiveness
of poster
Casablanca Conference

January 1943 meeting between
mainly FDR and Churchill (some
French reps—including De
Gaulle—present as well)


Stalin invited, declined to attend
due to Stalingrad
Key points
European strategy: Make Germany
fight two front war?
 Unconditional surrender by Axis
 Allied aid to Soviets

Tehran Conference

November 1943

Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt all present

Tehran Declaration: Agree to fight Nazi Germany until Hitler
is defeated

Plan Operation Overlord (D-Day Invasion)

Divide Germany between Allies

USSR will help with fight against Japan
The War in Europe Ends

February and March, 1945
Soviets drive back Germans after Battle of Bulge
 US forces cross the Rhine River
 Soviets 35 miles from Berlin; US 70 Miles



April 21: Soviets enter Berlin
April 30: Adolf Hitler commits suicide and chooses
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz as his successor
Tried to surrender to the US and British, but not USSR
 Eisenhower insisted on “unconditional surrender”

V-E Day

May 8, 1945—Victory In Europe
Truman becomes President


April 12, 1945—Roosevelt dies of a stroke
Just weeks before the V-E Day; War in Japan still
ongoing
Controversial Decisions to be Made

Firebombing Japan with napalm (jellied gasoline)
 Questionable
because it would start fires that killed
civilians

Japan willing to surrender, but wants to keep
emperor
 US

looking only for unconditional surrender
Manhattan Project and the dropping of the bomb
V-J Day: August 15, 1945
The United Nations

50 Countries organized charter on April 25, 1945
1
delegate in the General Assembly
 11 Nation Security Council
5
permanent members (US, Britain, France, China, USSR)

Goal: Prevent future wars and preserve peace

Commission on Human Rights
 Headed
by Eleanor Roosevelt
 Lists 30 rights tat are said to be universal