Chapter 12 Lesson 1
Wartime America
Guided Reading Help
You DO NOT need to copy these notes
in your notebook, just use them to
help you complete the guided reading.
Building the Military
• Question 1
• Within days of Germany’s attack on Poland in
1939, President Roosevelt expanded the army to
227,000 soldiers. Before the spring of 1940, many
Americans had opposed a
peacetime draft. Opinions changed after France
surrendered to Germany in June 1940. In
September of that year, Congress approved the
Selective Service and Training Act—a plan for the
first peacetime draft in American history—by a
wide margin.
Building the Military
• Question 2
• At the start of the war, the U.S. military was
segregated.
• In early 1941, the air force created its first African
American unit, the Tuskegee Airmen.
Commanded by Lt. Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.,
the squadron helped win the Battle of Anzio in
Italy. Three other Tuskegee squadrons protected
American bombers as they flew to their targets.
Building the Military
• Question 3
• Many women were unhappy that WAAC was not
part of the regular army, however. About a year
later, the army replaced the WAAC with the
Women’s Army Corps (WAC).
• The coast guard, navy, and marines followed suit
and set up women’s units. About 300 women
serving as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)
made more than 12,000 flights to deliver planes
to the war effort.
American Economy in Wartime
• Question 4
• War production increased rapidly after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, helped by existing
government plans to build thousands of
warplanes and a “Two-Ocean” navy.
American Economy in Wartime
• Question 5
• The government asked businesses to work with
them in getting ready for the war. Because this
was a slow process, the government signed costplus contracts, agreeing to pay a company the
cost to make a product plus a guaranteed
percentage as profit. Under the cost-plus system,
the more—and faster—a company produced, the
more money it made. Although not cheap, the
system got war materials produced quickly and in
quantity.
American Economy in Wartime
• Question 6
• The automobile industry was uniquely suited
to mass-producing military goods. Automobile
plants began making trucks, jeeps, and tanks.
Mass production was critical because the
country that could move troops and supplies
most quickly usually won the battle.
American Economy in Wartime
• Question 7
• Ford’s remarkable achievement in aircraft
production was more than matched by Henry
Kaiser’s shipyards. German submarines were
sinking American cargo ships at a terrifying
rate. Kaiser’s shipyards built many kinds of
ships, but they were best known for basic
cargo ships called Liberty ships.
American Economy in Wartime
• Question 8
• As war production grew, controversies
between business leaders, government
agencies, and the military increased. President
Roosevelt created the War Production Board
(WPB) to direct priorities and production
goals. Later he set up the Office of War
Mobilization to settle disputes among the
different agencies.
Life on the Home Front
• Question 9
• When the war began, American defense
factories wanted to hire white men. With so
many men in the military, however, there
simply were not enough white men to fill all of
the jobs. Under pressure to produce,
employers began to recruit women and
minorities.
Life on the Home Front
• Question 10
• Factories hired women, but they resisted hiring
African Americans. Frustrated by the situation, A.
Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters—a major union for African
American railroad workers—decided to act. He
informed President Roosevelt that he was
organizing a march on Washington “in the
interest of securing jobs . . . in the national
defense and . . . integration into the . . . military
and naval forces.”
Life on the Home Front
• Question 11
• On June 25, 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive
Order 8802, which stated, “there shall be no
discrimination in the employment of workers in
defense industries or government because of
race, creed, color, or national origin.” To enforce
the order, he created the Fair Employment
Practices Commission, the first federal civil rights
agency since Reconstruction.
A Nation on the Move
• Question 12
• The wartime economy created millions of new
jobs, leading 15 million Americans to move to
find work. The growth of southern California
and cities in the Deep South created a new
industrial region—the Sunbelt.
A Nation on the Move
• Question 13
• When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, many Americans turned
their anger against Japanese immigrants and Japanese
Americans. Most of the West Coast was declared a military
zone, and people of Japanese ancestry were evacuated to
10 internment camps farther inland.
• All unnaturalized residents of German and Italian descent
aged 14 years or over were deemed enemy aliens and
subject to regulations including travel restrictions and the
seizure of personal property. More than 5,000 were
arrested and sent to live in military internment camps.
Daily Life in Wartime
• Question 14
• High demand for raw materials and supplies
created shortages. OPACS began rationing, or
limiting the purchase of, many products to
make sure enough were available for military
use.
Daily Life in Wartime
• Question 15
• The federal government spent more than $300 billion
during World War II—more money than it had spent
from Washington’s administration to the end of
Franklin Roosevelt’s second term. Congress raised
taxes, although not as high as Roosevelt requested due
to public opposition to large tax increases. As a result,
the extra taxes collected covered only 45 percent of
the war’s cost. The government issued war bonds—
more than $100 billion worth was sold to individuals,
banks, and other financial institutions—to make up the
difference.
Summary and Reflection
• Question 16
• In order to fully answer the question make
sure you include in 3-4 sentences:
– What Roosevelt did to prepare for war.
– Peacetime draft
– How were businesses involved?
– Who worked when the men went to war?
– How did the government raise money?