American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
Background: Twenty years after the Great War, an even larger and more destructive global
conflict, and the last Congress-declared war in American history—World War II (1939-1945)—
scarred the earth and effected deep change. Sixty million people died in World War II—six
times more than in the carnage of the “War to End All Wars”—and over half of them were
civilians. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics lost 20-25 million, China lost 15 million,
Poland lost six million, Germany lost four million, Japan lost two million, Great Britain lost
450,000, and the United States lost 400,000, making World War II the second deadliest war
in American history (behind the American Civil War). Joseph Stalin murdered five to ten
million political enemies in the USSR, and Adolph Hitler extinguished the lives of six million
Jews throughout Europe. German aggression in Austria (1938), Czechoslovakia (1938-39), and
Poland (1939, which brought France and Britain into the war against Germany) in defiance of
the vindictive Treaty of Versailles (1919), and Japanese aggression in China (1937, which began
the Sino-Japanese War), had begun the war as a ruthless imperialist conquest. By June 1941,
the conflict pitted the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) against the Allied powers
(Britain and Russia; France had fallen), and, by August 1945, following four years of invaluable
American military participation in two theaters of operation (the European and Pacific), the
Allies would defeat Germany and Japan, and the United States would emerge as the world’s
preeminent economic and military power—and the leader of the free world—which it would
remain for the next seventy years.
Between September 1939 and December 1941, while France fell and Britain and Russia fought
alone against Germany, Franklin D. Roosevelt made the United States into the “Arsenal of
Democracy.” Though Roosevelt promised that America would “remain a neutral nation” in the
European conflict, he believed neutrality allowed the U. S. to provide armaments to the Allies.
In September 1939, he asked Congress to revise the Neutrality Acts, which forbade the U. S. to
sell arms to belligerent nations. Though isolationists protested, Congress passed revisions that
allowed nations at war to purchase arms on a cash-and-carry basis. In September 1940,
Roosevelt encouraged Congress to pass the Burke-Wadsworth Act to begin the first peacetime
draft in American history, and, in December 1940, Roosevelt asked America to become the
“great arsenal of democracy” in two ways: by providing war materials to Britain (which fought
alone at that point) and by building up American military stores in preparation for a defense of
the U. S. and possible entry into the war. In January 1941, Roosevelt asserted that “the future
and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far
beyond our borders” and said that he looked forward to a world “founded upon four essential
human freedoms”: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want,
and freedom from fear, which would become aims of the international peacekeeping and
human rights organization—the United Nations—for which he pushed prior to his death in
1945. To further these ends by his support of virtually bankrupt Britain, in March 1941,
Roosevelt championed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the U. S. to lend or lease for the
promise of future reimbursement—instead of just sell—armaments to any nation deemed “vital
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
to the defense” of America. Following Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941,
Roosevelt extended Lend-Lease aid to the USSR. As Roosevelt continued to claim that
America’s fate was tied to the fate of the Allies, he began sending American ships to escort the
British vessels that transported Lend-Lease supplies to Britain. In April 1941, American and
British military officers met secretly to discuss possible joint strategy, and, in August 1941,
Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which
asserted principles and objectives for a “better future for the world”, including the “final
destruction of the Nazi tyranny.” American entry into the war looked inevitable. In the fall of
1941, Roosevelt ordered the American navy to fire at German submarines, armed American
merchant ships, and directed American vessels to sail into war zones to reach Allied ports,
which effectively began a naval war against Germany. After Roosevelt’s cancellation of a
longstanding commercial treaty with Japan, freezing of Japanese assets in the U. S., and
creation of a complete trade embargo led to a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii, which resulted in 3,000 American casualties, Congress declared war on Japan (8
December 1941) and Germany and Italy (11 December 1941). No other single event would unify
the American people behind the war effort, a goal for which Roosevelt had worked for two
years, more than the tragedy at Pearl Harbor.
For most of the next four years, the U. S. would lend decisive military aid to the Allied war
effort against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in Europe and North Africa and fight the
Japanese in the Pacific virtually alone. Over 16.4 million Americans joined the armed forces—
though only 34 percent of the men who served saw combat—and, between 1942 and 1945,
theirs would be the sacrifices of the so-called “Greatest Generation” of Americans. With
Britain and Russia on the brink of defeat and the Japanese navy steamrolling opposition in the
Pacific, beginning in the summer of 1942, the American navy scored a tremendous victory at
Midway (June 1942), which established Allied control of the central Pacific, and then won a
savage six-month affair at Guadalcanal (August 1942-February 1943), which asserted Allied
dominance in the southern Pacific. Between November 1942 and May 1943, Anglo-American
forces fought their way across North Africa to victory at Tunis, Tunisia, which secured Africa
for the Allies. In the summer of 1943, Anglo-American troops invaded Italy, capturing Sicily
and forcing Benito Mussolini’s government to collapse, before running into a German
defensive wall south of Rome. After harsh battles at Monte Cassino (May 1943) and Anzio
(January 1944), the Allies finally liberated the Italian capital on 4 June 1944. Two days later,
on D-Day, three million Allied troops, and the largest number of naval vessels and armaments
ever assembled for an invasion, crossed the English Channel to invade German-occupied
France at Normandy. Within a week, the Allies had secured the Normandy coast, and, on 25
August 1944, the Allies, with Charles de Gaulle’s exiled Free French forces in the lead, liberated
Paris. By mid-September, the Germans had abandoned the great majority of France and
Belgium and, following the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945), in which
Hitler’s desperate counteroffensive failed, they retreated back to Germany. On 8 May 1945,
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
after being encircled by Allied forces and learning of Hitler’s suicide, Germany surrendered
unconditionally. In the Pacific, brutal combat in the Mariana Islands (June 1944), the Battle of
Leyte Gulf (October 1944, the largest naval engagement in history, which crippled the Japanese
navy), and costly, to-the-last-man battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa (February-March 1945,
April-June 1945) led to the firebombing of Tokyo and, ultimately, to the introduction of atomic
warfare to the world. On August 6, the U. S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and, three
days later, another on Nagasaki, killing over 200,000 Japanese civilians. Emperor Hirohito
called for surrender on August 14, and, on 2 September 1945, Japanese surrender became
official. President Harry Truman, who had succeeded Roosevelt upon his death on 12 April
1945, confidently claimed that the decision to drop the bomb had saved lives and ended the
war quickly; others have not been so sure. Had Truman dropped the bomb to gain the upper
hand in the initial stages of the cold, diplomatic war with the USSR that he anticipated? Would
Japan have surrendered shortly even if atomic force had not been employed? Would Truman
have used such horrific technology against a European foe? These are questions for the ages.
While war raged in Europe and the Pacific, the American home front changed considerably.
The war—not Roosevelt’s New Deal—brought the U. S. out of the Great Depression.
Government spending had a multiplier effect on the economy, as contracts with industry
rapidly increased the gross national product, and the rise in production provided full
employment. After 1940, the American economy enjoyed a prolonged boom, and industrial
production increased fourfold. By 1944, the U. S. produced more than twice as much as all of
the Axis powers combined. A huge consumer boom, matched by a baby boom, was the result of
such widespread prosperity, and, while Europe and Asia, and much of North Africa and the
Pacific, were in shambles, the U. S. flourished. By the end of the war, America had 6 percent of
the world’s population and over 50 percent of the world’s wealth, making it, by far, the richest
nation on earth. Coupled with the country’s rise to the most powerful military nation in
history, this mind-boggling wealth profoundly changed America’s role in the world, allowing its
leaders to make it a global powerbroker and exporter of freedom for the next seven decades.
World War II also saw the number of women in the workforce increase by 60 percent. By 1945,
women were one-third of all paid American workers. Most of them were married and older
than women who had previously entered the workforce. Many of them had children. Though
some of them became “Rosie the Riveter” and worked at industrial jobs previously reserved for
men, most were “Government Girls” and worked as clerks, secretaries, and typists. One
hundred forty thousand women also volunteered for the Women’s Army Corps, and 100,000
offered their services to the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency
Service). Women who maintained the traditional gender role of homemaker during the war
had even more to do, as wartime shortages led to rationing, collecting and saving scraps and
metals, planting “victory gardens”, and buying war bonds. African Americans fought for the
“Double V”—victory against the enemy abroad and racial discrimination at home—throughout
the war. By 1944, the number of blacks in the army soared from 5,000 (in 1940) to 700,000,
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
with 187,000 more in the other branches of the military. They fought mostly in segregated
units and were overwhelmingly excluded from the best-paying jobs in the defense industry,
despite protests that “a Jim Crow army cannot fight for a free world.” Under intense pressure
from civil rights leaders, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (1941), which created the Fair
Employment Practices Commission to ensure that blacks and women received the same pay as
white men for doing the same work. Though the order addressed de jure (in law)
discrimination, it was almost impossible to remedy de facto (in practice) discrimination, and
the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) mobilized mass popular resistance to the racial
discrimination that continued in the defense industry and beyond. Perhaps more than any
other group, Japanese Americans experienced the greatest changes during the war. In 1942,
Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 excluded over 100,000 of them from “military areas” in the
West and suspended their civil rights. Both first-generation Japanese in America (Issei) and
second-generation Japanese-American citizens (Nisei)—regardless of their past
demonstrations of loyalty—were forced to leave their property and were shipped to “relocation
centers” in western mountains and deserts to become “Americanized.” Ten internment camps
in seven states, with barbed wire and armed guards surrounding them, housed the exiles in
cramped wooden barracks, where entire families lived in one room only. Japanese Americans
lost $500 million in property as a result of internment. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that
relocation was permissible but barred “loyal” citizens from being interned anymore. By the
end of 1944, most of the relocated Japanese Americans had been allowed to return to the West
Coast—but they faced intense persecution upon their arrival. Was the internment program
necessary to protect the American war effort from sabotage—or was it an unnecessary
manifestation of racism? The debate still rages today. Nevertheless, after securing victory in
Europe and the Pacific, American soldiers came home to a changed nation. As poet Archibald
MacLeish understood in 1943, “This war is not a war only, but an end and a beginning—an end
to things known and a beginning of things unknown.” The seeds of change that the war
planted in American society, culture, politics, and economics have grown and matured over the
past seventy years, and opinions vary widely as to whether the nation has become more or less
“American” since the conflict: an event that historian Alan Brinkley argues “changed the world
as profoundly as any event of the twentieth century, perhaps of any century.”
Questions to Consider as You Read:
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According to FDR, what is the role of the American home front in World War II?
What does Roosevelt say about American progress in the Pacific against Japan?
What does Roosevelt say about American progress in Europe against Germany?
Research: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat (12 June 1944)

As you read, don’t forget to mark and annotate main ideas, key terms, confusing
concepts, unknown vocabulary, cause/effect relationships, examples, etc.
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
It goes almost without saying that we must continue to forge the weapons of victory—the
hundreds of thousands of items, large and small, essential to the waging of the war. This has
been the major task from the very start, and it is still a major task. This is the very worst time
for any war worker to think of leaving his machine or to look for a peacetime job…. And it goes
almost without saying, too, that we must continue to provide our Government with the funds
necessary for waging war not only by the payment of taxes—which, after all, is an obligation of
American citizenship—but also by the purchase of war bonds—an act of free choice which every
citizen has to make for himself under the guidance of his own conscience…. Although there are
now approximately sixty-seven million persons who have or earn some form of income, eightyone million persons or their children have already bought war bonds. They have bought more
than six hundred million individual bonds. Their purchases have totaled more than thirty-two
billion dollars. These are the purchases of individual men, women, and children…. There is a
direct connection between the bonds you have bought and the stream of men and equipment
now rushing over the English Channel for the liberation of Europe. There is a direct connection
between your bonds and every part of this global war today….
While I know that the chief interest tonight is centered on the English Channel and on the
beaches and farms and the cities of Normandy, we should not lose sight of the fact that our
armed forces are engaged on other battlefronts all over the world, and that no one front can be
considered alone without its proper relation to all…. We are on the offensive all over the
world—bringing the attack to our enemies. In the Pacific, by relentless submarine and naval
attacks, and amphibious thrusts, and ever-mounting air attacks, we have deprived the Japs of
the power to check the momentum of our ever-growing and ever-advancing military forces. We
have reduced the Japs' shipping by more than three million tons. We have overcome their
original advantage in the air. We have cut off from a return to the homeland tens of thousands
of beleaguered Japanese troops who now face starvation or ultimate surrender. And we have
cut down their naval strength, so that for many months they have avoided all risk of encounter
with our naval forces. True, we still have a long way to go to Tokyo. But, carrying out our
original strategy of eliminating our European enemy first and then turning all our strength to
the Pacific, we can force the Japanese to unconditional surrender or to national suicide much
more rapidly than has been thought possible.
Turning now to our enemy who is first on the list for destruction—Germany has her back
against the wall—in fact three walls at once! In the south—we have broken the German hold on
central Italy. On June 4, the city of Rome fell to the Allied armies. And allowing the enemy no
respite, the Allies are now pressing hard on the heels of the Germans as they retreat
northwards in ever-growing confusion. On the east—our gallant Soviet allies have driven the
enemy back from the lands which were invaded three years ago. The great Soviet armies are
now initiating crushing blows. Overhead vast Allied air fleets of bombers and fighters have
been waging a bitter air war over Germany and Western Europe. They have had two major
objectives: to destroy German war industries which maintain the German armies and air
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
forces; and to shoot the German Luftwaffe out of the air. As a result, German production has
been whittled down continuously, and the German fighter forces now have only a fraction of
their former power. This great air campaign, strategic and tactical, is going to continue—with
increasing power. And on the west—the hammer blow which struck the coast of France last
Tuesday morning, less than a week ago, was the culmination of many months of careful
planning and strenuous preparation. Millions of tons of weapons and supplies, and hundreds
of thousands of men assembled in England, are now being poured into the great battle in
Europe…. We have broken through their supposedly impregnable wall in northern France….
Americans have all worked together to make this day possible.1
Notebook Questions: Reason and Record
•
According to FDR, what is the role of the American home front in World War II?
•
What does Roosevelt say about American progress in the Pacific against Japan?
•
What does Roosevelt say about American progress in Europe against Germany?
Notebook Questions: Relate and Record
•
How does the document relate to FACE Principle #7: The Christian Principle of
American Political Union: “Internal agreement or unity, which is invisible, produces an
external union, which is visible in the spheres of government, economics, and home and
community life. Before two or more individuals can act effectively together, they must first be
united in spirit in their purposes and convictions”?
1
SOURCE: Roosevelt, Franklin D.. Fireside Chat (12 June 1944). en.wikisource.org. Accessed 9 June 2011.
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
•
How does the document relate to Alma 61:9-15?
Record Activity: Multiple Choice Comprehension Check
1. Background: All of the following are true about World War II (1939-1945) except which
one?
a. It was even larger and more destructive than World War I.
b. Civilians accounted for over half of all of the deaths of World War II.
c. It remains the last Congress-declared war in American history (through August
2011).
d. German and Japanese aggressions began the war as a ruthless imperialist
conquest.
e. At one time or another in the war, the Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy,
and/or Japan, while the Allied powers consisted of Britain, France, Russia,
and/or the United States.
f. The United States emerged from World War II as the world’s preeminent
economic and military power—and the leader of the free world—which it would
remain for the next seventy years.
g. As the “Arsenal of Democracy”, the U. S. fought Germany in bloody campaigns in
France and Britain between 1939 and 1941.
2. Background: Which of the following lists contains correctly matched names and
descriptions?
a. Iwo Jima and Okinawa: 1941, declaration of war; Leyte Gulf: 1942, control of the
central Pacific; Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 1943, secured Africa; Battle of the
Bulge: 1944, secured the Western Front (west of Germany); Midway: 1944, the
largest naval engagement in history; Rome and Paris: 1944-45, desperate
German counteroffensive; Pearl Harbor: 1945, to-the-last-man combat; Tunis:
1945, atomic endgame
b. Midway: 1941, declaration of war; Pearl Harbor: 1942, control of the central
Pacific; Leyte Gulf: 1943, secured Africa; Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 1944, secured
the Western Front (west of Germany); Tunis: 1944, the largest naval engagement
in history; Iwo Jima and Okinawa: 1944-45, desperate German counteroffensive;
Battle of the Bulge: 1945, to-the-last-man combat; Rome and Paris: 1945, atomic
endgame
American Military History, Topic 8: World War II and FDR’s Fireside
Chat (12 June 1944)
c. Pearl Harbor: 1941, declaration of war; Midway: 1942, control of the central
Pacific; Tunis: 1943, secured Africa; Rome and Paris: 1944, secured the Western
Front (west of Germany); Leyte Gulf: 1944, the largest naval engagement in
history; Battle of the Bulge: 1944-45, desperate German counteroffensive; Iwo
Jima and Okinawa: 1945, to-the-last-man combat; Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
1945, atomic endgame
d. Rome and Paris: 1941, declaration of war; Hiroshima and Nagasaki: 1942, control
of central Pacific; Iwo Jima and Okinawa: 1943, secured Africa; Pearl Harbor:
1944, secured the Western Front (west of Germany); Battle of the Bulge: 1944,
the largest naval engagement in history; Midway: 1944-45, desperate German
counteroffensive; Tunis: 1945, to-the-last-man combat; Leyte Gulf: 1945, atomic
endgame
3. Source: In his fireside chat, FDR says all of the following about the American home front
except which one?
a. The home front is needed to forge weapons of war.
b. Workers on the home front are needed in the defense industry.
c. Taxes from the home front are needed to fund the war.
d. The purchase of war bonds on the home front is needed to fund the war.
e. There is a direct connection between a supportive home front and the successful
liberation of Europe.
f. There is a direct connection between the war bonds of American men, women,
and children and every part of the global war.
g. Government spending, women in the workforce, African Americans in defenseindustry jobs, and Japanese internment camps are necessary parts of protecting
the home front.
h. Americans have all worked together to make the successes of D-Day possible.