Fighting for the Four
Freedoms: World War II
1941-1945
Chapter 22
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
 No control of major conflicts.
 No progress in disarmament.
 No effective military force.
I. Fighting WWII
A. U.S. foreign policy
2. Good Neighbor Policy: right to interfere militarily in the
international affairs of Latin America
- repeal of Platt amendment
- removal of troops
B. Aggression abroad
2. Hilter’s Germany
a. Nazism
b. Rearmament
c. “Race & Space”, Anschluss
e. Appeasement: giving in to an agressor’s demands
to keep the peace
ii. Munich Conference: allowed Hitler to take the
Sudetenland
3. Mussolini & Fascism
4. Franco, Fascism, & the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War: 1936 - 1939
Germany Invades the
Rhineland
March 7, 1936
Anschluss,
1936
The “Problem” of the
Sudetenland
Appeasement: The Munich
Agreement, 1938
Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr
Hitler is a man we can do business with.
Czechoslovakia Becomes Part of the
Third Reich: 1939
C. American isolationism
1. Sources
a. Pro-Nazi sentiment: fascism is better than communism
b. Business with Japan: trucks, aircraft, oil
d. Pacifism
2. Manifestations
a. Neutrality Acts: banned travel on warring ships, no
sale of arms to countries at war, nonmilitary goods sold
to warring nations must be paid for in cash
D. Outbreak of WWII
1. Nazi-Soviet Pact
2. Sept. 1, 1939
4. Nazi control of Poland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands,
June 14, 1940  France
6. London Blitzkrieg, 1940-1941
Timeline of Events Prior to the U.S. Entry into the War
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Sept. 1, 1939 – GB, FR declare war
April 1940 – Hitler attacks Denmark, Norway
May 1940 – Hitler’s “Blitz” on Belgium
Late May 1940 – Evacuation at Dunkirk
June 1940 – Hitler marches into Paris
June 1940 – Dec. 1940 – Battle of Britain or the London “Blitz”
Dec. – August 1941 – Hitler’s Russian offensive begins
Dec. 7, 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor
U. S. Neutrality Acts:
1934, 1935, 1937, 1939
The Nazi-Soviet
Non-Aggression Pact, 1939
German Troops March into Warsaw
Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan
Allied Powers or “Allies”: Great Britain,
France, Russia, United States (in 1941).
European Theatre
France Surrenders
June, 1940
The Battle of Britain
The Blitz
The RAF
E. America’s shifting response
2. Steps toward involvement
a. “cash and carry” arms to Britain
b. Rearmament industry  America First Committee –
noninterventionist group, 800,000 members
3. Reelection of FDR
a. Dangerous international and domestic problems
4. Toward intervention
b. Lend Lease Act: authorized military aid to any country
who’s defense was vital to American security so long as
countries promised to return it all after war
America First Committee
U.S. Lend Lease Act
Great Britain............................$31 billion
Soviet Union............................$11 billion
France.....................................$ 3 billion
China.......................................$1.5 billion
Other European.......................$500 million
South America.........................$400 million
The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000
Secret Atlantic Charter: FDR, Churchill meet off the coast of
Newfoundland, Canada in Aug. 1941. Agreed on creating safety
for all nations.
F. December 7, 1941
- U.S. suspended sale of resources (oil) to Japan
- Oct. 1941 General Tojo became prime minister (was pro-war)
- Nov. 1941 – U.S. intel learns Japanese fleet is moving to SE Asia
- To conquer Asia the U.S. Pacific fleet could not exist
- 7:00 AM radar officer spots planes. By 9:45 it was over.
- 2,000 American dead, 187 aircraft, 18 vessels, 8 battleships
- shattered the belief that oceans were a buffer zone
G. Pacific Theatre
1. Early setbacks
a. Early 1942: Burma, Siam, Indonesia, Guam, Philippines
b. Bataan: 78,000 Americans, Filipinos surrender, “death march”
2. Turning of the tide
a. Coral Sea, May ‘42 - both lost more than half their aircraft
Midway, June ’42 – damaged 4 carriers sunk, more offenses
Guadalcanal, Fall ‘42 – 1st major offensive on Japanese territory
Solomon Islands, Winter ‘42 – protect communication/supply lines
H. War in Europe
1. Allied advances
a. North Africa – May 1943, Morocco landing, pushed East
b. The Atlantic – convoys and “wolf packs”
c. July 1943 – Operation Avalanche (invasion of Italy)
d. June 6, 1944: 200,000 Allied forces, NW France
- 2 months later, liberation of Paris
Bataan Death March
April 1942
Midway: June 4-7, 1942
Operation Avalanche & Operation Torch
Battle of Iwo Jima: Nov. 1944, tiny island 700mi from Japan
- very rocky terrain, with caves.
- 74 days of heavy bombing (7,000 tons).
- Took 3 days to advance 70 yards, 1 month to take the island
- 25,000 casualties
D-Day
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12:00 am Airborne forces begin to land. Anti-aircraft fire causes them
to miss their drop zones.
2:00 am first Allied bombers head for German targets on the beach,
inland
3:09 am German radar spots Allied fleet
5:20 am first allied bombs are dropped
6:20 am Allied landing craft hit the beach
6:45 am Rangers take on Point du Hoc cliff, tank battalions land at
Utah
8:00 am Canadian Division lands at Juno
1:00 pm Utah and Omaha beaches are secured
4:00 pm Hitler orders Panzer tank divisions released
2. Eastern Front
a. 3 million German soldiers invade Soviets
b. Stalingrad: 5 month battle, Soviets surrounded, 800,000
Germans, 1.2M Russians died, Jan. 1943 German surrender
d. 10M Germans, 20M Russians died on Eastern Front
3. The Holocaust
- 1941, “The final solution”
- 1945, 6 million Jewish people dead
II. Home Front
A. Mobilization
1. War Production Board: organized the conversion of
peacetime industry to war good – stopped production of
consumer goods War
- regulate shipping, manufacturing, labor, wages, prices, rents
- 4 million federal workers
- only 2% unemployment
- 1944, ship every day, plane every 5 minutes
- $123B increase in GNP
B. Business in wartime
2. Achievements of wartime manufacturing
- low-interest loans, tax concessions, contracts
- 100,000 vehicles, 2.5M trucks
- research, radar, jet power, computers
i. West: shipbuilding, steel plants
ii. South: some industry, still rural – mining, lumber, oil, cotton
C. Organized labor in wartime
ii. Spread of union recognition – forced by fed govt, keep
production going
iii. Union leaders agreed not to strike
wildcat strikes: not endorsed by unions
2. New Deal Cut Backs: kept Soc Security, stopped CCC, WPA
D. Four Freedoms
3. Controversy
a. Freedom from want: protect the future “standard of living” for
workers/farmers
b. Office of War Info: mobilize public opinion
- a “people’s war” for freedom
- worked with radio stations, ad agencies, film, press
- right to fair pay, adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care
FDR’s Four Freedoms
E. Women in wartime labor
2. “Rosie the Riveter” – self reliant image
- 1/3 of labor force, 350,000 in military auxiliary
- forced unions for equal pay, maternity leave, childcare
- temporary necessity
Rationing: “meatless Tuesday”
“victory gardens”
Hollywood
III. Visions of Postwar Freedom
A. Alternative outlooks
1. Luce – U.S. must embrace role of superpower, imperialize
2. Wallace – international cooperation
B. Liberal Economics
1. National Resource Planning Board (NRPB): based on full
employment, expanded welfare, shared standard of living
2. Economic Bill of Rights: expand govt involvement to secure
NRPB terms
3. GI Bill: pensions, college, home mortgages
C. Economic Conservatism
a. No person has enough knowledge to direct econ. Activity
c. Called for mini wage, max work hours, antitrust enforcement,
guarantee of food, shelter, clothing
IV. Race and Ethnicity
A. Americanism is toleration of diversity & equality for all
B. Broad assimilation of ethnic outsiders
2. Patriotic assimilation: pluralism, harmony, brotherhood,
counterpoint to Nazism
D. Anti-semitism & racism: failure to accept Jewish refugees, failure
to bomb concentration camps, Harlem race riot
E. Mexican-Americans
1. Bracero program: 4.5M contract laborers entered the
U.S. for domestic/agricultural jobs; provided transportation,
food, medical care, shelter – no unions
4. Intolerance and discrimination
a. Zoot Suit Riots: 1943, sailors,
policemen clubbed MexicanAmerican youths in LA
5. Response
b. Workplace discrimination – FEPC complaint about lowest
wages in SW
Texas: Caucasian Race – Equal Privileges resolution: equal
treatment in public places
F. American Indians
1. Military: 25,000 in army, Navajo code-talkers, Iroquois
declared war against Hitler, many did not return to reservations
H. Japanese-Americans
2. Internment policy – Executive Order 9066 – Feb 1942
- 100,000 – 2/3 were citizens
- militaristic treatment, roll call, mess hall, armed guards
- no court hearings, no due process or habeas corpus
- supported by media
e. Korematsu v. U.S. – denied appeal to Fred Korematsu
who was arrested for resisting internment
- 1988 Congress voted to pay $20,000 to each remaining
survivors
Citizens were denied the fifth amendment: no imprisonment without
DUE PROCESS of the law (full legal protections granted by law)
I. African-Americans
- red cross would not mix blood
- 700,000 migrated to North & West
- Detroit, 1943 – 32 people died in city park after a mass riot
2. In the military – 1 million, segregated units
- navy – only waiters, cooks
- army – construction, transport, noncombat
- forced to give up seats for Nazi prisoners
3. Birth of Civil Rights Mvt
iii. Exec Order 8802 - banned discrim. in defense jobs,
est. Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to regulate
c. Growth of NAACP
- increased by 450,000
- Congress of Racial Equality held sit-ins
J. Broadening opposition to racial inequality
2. Organized Labor – CIO
- worked to organize black workers and get skilled work
- most racial integrated union
V. Toward Victory & Beyond
C. Atomic Bomb
1. Development, July 16, 1945 tested – Manhattan Project:
project to create a bomb by splitting an atom in a controlled
chain reaction.
2. Use on Hiroshima/Nagasaki
- 70,000 died immediately
- 70,000 more from radiation
- 2x’s the American deaths in the Pacific
“One must sympathize with any movement designed to reduce or eliminate human
slaughter. Nuclear warfare is indeed inhuman and ought to be banned. By the same token,
other forms of warfare, such as the dropping of fire bombs and the shooting of soldiers with
cannon and rifles, are likewise uncivilized and should be outlawed…The complaint that so
many were killed is answered by those who contend that the use of this terrible weapon
actually saved a million or more lives by shortening the war…Many Japanese lives would
have been lost if it had been necessary to invade the Japanese home islands. The people of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not have been spared because, had these cities not been
reserved for A-bombings, they certainly would have been destroyed by conventional
explosives or incendiaries…”
“In the more than 40 years since Hiroshima, I have received many letters from people all
over the world. Some have condemned me as a war criminal, but others have expressed
thanks that my crew dropped the bomb that ended the war. Many expressed their gratitude
in personal terms, acknowledging that they might not be alive today had it been necessary
to carry out plans for an invasion…”
“Today, it is clear that the existence of atomic weapons has been a war deterrent. Certainly
they are an equalizer in Europe against the Soviet Union. Nuclear disarmament on both
sides would leave the NATO Allies vulnerable if not helpless. It is widely hoped that future
war on a worldwide scale can be prevented by maintaining a balance of terror between the
potential adversaries. Yet the very existence of enormous stockpiles of these weapons is
enough to make the world uneasy. However unthinkable the prospect, one can never be
sure that someone may not, in a suicidal moment, someday push the button. This is why a
way must be found to eliminate war as a means of settling quarrels between nations.”
Tibbets, Paul. “The Return of the Enola Gay.” New Hope, PA: Paul Tibbets, 1998.
D. Postwar planning
1. Summit Meetings
- Casablanca (1943) “unconditional surrender”
- Tehran (1943) first meeting with Stalin
- Yalta (1945) outline division of postwar Germany, agree to
war crimes trial
- est. regulation of Germany & Nuremberg Trials
- distrust and resentment
E. Bretton Woods – July 1944, New Hampshire
- 45 nations
- dollar as main international currency
- World Bank – loans to developing countries
- IMF – help govt economies, improve trade
- set U.S. as global econ leader
Nuremberg Trials:
Nov. 1945 – Oct. 1946, military
tribunals to charge political, military, and economic Nazi leaders
with “crimes against humanity”
Herman
Goring, head
of Luftwaffe and
once head of
Gestapo.
Committed
suicide the night
before his
execution.
Adolf Eichmann, SS officer charged with formulating a plan for mass
execution of Jews in camps. Escaped to Argentina after the war under a false
Red Cross identity and hunted and captured by the Mossad (Israeli CIA) in 1961.
Brought to trial Jerusalem and executed in 1962.
“I was just following orders”
F. The U.N.
- 1944 near D.C.
- General Assembly – all nations, equal input
- Security Council – maintain peace, five permanent (GB, CH, FR,
SU, US), six rotating
- 51 sign charter that outlawed force to settle disputes
Casualties of World War II
Country
Military Dead
Wounded
Civilian Dead
Britain
373,000
475,000
93,000
France
213,000
400,000
108,000
Soviets
11,000,000
14,102,000
7,000,000
292,000
671,000
*
3,500,000
5,000,000
780,000
242,000
66,000
153,000
1,300,000
4,000,000
672,000
U.S.
Germany
Italy
Japan