• Germany invades Poland (1 September
1939)
• Britain and France declare war on
Germany
– Mutual aid treaties with Poland
– Now both are forced into war and Hitler has gained the initiative

• “Lighting Warfare”
• Attack enemy at weakest point
• Combination of lateral and forward movements
• Large mechanized ground forces
• Coordinated use of airpower
• Speed, Speed, Speed!!!!

• Conquered in 3 weeks
• Russian invasion from East a major factor. They had invaded from the east.
• Showed power of offensive
• Balanced combination of motorized infantry, armor, and air under a single commander.
• Fast moving tanks and airplanes, followed by infantry, then crush the enemy with overwhelming force

• “Phony War”
• No “real” fighting for 7 months
• French Maginot Line opposite the
German Siegfried Line, but neither side attacks.
• April 9, 1940 Hitler attacks Norway and
Denmark
• Denmark falls in 4 hours
• Norway falls in 2 months
• Hitler then takes Belgium, Holland, and
Luxembourg

• A line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along her borders with Germany and Italy
• The fortifications did not extend through the
Ardennes Forest which was considered
“impassable”

• Allies expected the Germans to attack using a variant of the WWI Schlieffen
Plan
• The French expected the Germans to attack through the north part of Belgium and planned to counter it with the Dye
Plan
• Instead the Manstein Plan (German
Plan) called for an attack further south and anticipated the French plan.

• German’s 135 divisions, Allies’ 136 divisions; German divisions larger and better trained
• Hitler goes around the
Maginot Line, squeezing through the
Ardennes Forest, an area where no one could attack through
• 10 days later Germany is a the North coast of
France
• Were able to trap
French and British troops at Dunkirk
• GB sent 850 ships of all types to the rescue
• 338,000 troops rescued

• German army smashes through the Ardennes Forest and traps the French/British on the north coast of
Belgium/France.
• May 26, 1940- Allies trapped at Dunkirk. No way out.
Surrounded by the Germans, but they do not attack.
• This allows the British navy and merchant ships to rescue the Allies.
• Armada of 850 ships, yachts, lifeboats, etc. rescue
338,000 allied troops.
• Hitler’s 1 st Big mistake.

• On June 22, France signed an armistice with Germany, agreeing to German occupation of northern France and the coast.
– The French military was demobilized, and the
French government, now located at Vichy , in the south (and headed by Marshall Henri Philippe
Pétain), would collaborate with the German authorities in occupied France.
• Refusing to recognize defeat, General
Charles de Gaulle escaped to London and organized the Free French forces.
• Britain now stood alone against Germany.

• Hitler expected Britain to make peace, however,
Britain, led by a new Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill , refused to surrender.
• Hitler proceeded with invasion plans, Operation
Sea Lion.
• Germany must control air in order to successfully invade England.
• Despite 3,000 to 1,200 advantage in aircraft,
Luftwaffe is unable to defeat the RAF.
• Hitler calls off plans for invasion in Sept 1940 and shifts to bombing campaign (“The Blitz”).
• Radar and ENIGMA help the British to “win.”
• Britain held firm during the Blitz despite devastating destruction to English cities.
– The British resistance convinced Hitler to postpone the invasion but he continued the bombing attacks.
– Hitler calls of attacks on May 10, 1941

• Germans tried to control sea by attacking convoys
• Shifted attack to main land RAF bases; this was very effective
• Bomb London to break British morale; high civilian casualties
• British countered by destroying 200 barges gathered by Germans for attack on England
• This caused Germans to suspend
Operation Sea Lion

• British won the Battle
- Britain's will to win
- British radar and Enigma
• German abandon the attacks on Britain in order to prepare for invasion of
Russia

• Hitler is secretly planning to invade the Soviet Union
• Balkans are key to the plan
• Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary decide to cooperate and join the Axis
• April 6, 1941 – Hitler invade Greece and Yugoslavia
• Greece falls in 17 days
• Yugoslavia falls in 11 days

• Hitler believed the Russian Army could be destroyed in 3 months
• 22 June 1941 - Hitler attacked (wanted to win before U.S. involvement)
• Wanted Lebensraumliving space
• Initial German aims were to capture
Russian oil fields and industrial areas in order to;
– Support Germany’s war in the west
– Break Russian economic power so she could not attack at some later date

• Hitler gets tired of waiting for Great Britain to fall
– The obliteration of Bolshevism was a key element of Hitler’s ideology; however, it was a gigantic military mistake.
– Much violence and destruction
– Over 27 Million dead Russians
• Operation Barbarossa , consisting of an attack army of 4 million men spread out along a 2,000mile front in three massive offensives.
• The German army quickly advanced, but at a terrifying cost. For the next three years, 90 percent of German deaths would happen on the eastern front.
• Hitler attacks on June 22, 1941. Russia didn’t believe Germany would attack.

• Barter space for time; intended retreats
• Scorched earth policy; withdrew and forced the
Germans to overextend their lines of communications and supply. Forced Hitler’s exposed army to spend the winter in -40 degree weather. Summer uniforms
• Partisan organizations were to prey on
Germany’s lines of communications
• Supply lines were so long that they slowed the advance
• Vast area which had been taken was hard to control because of Partisan activity
• The massive size of Russia exhausted German troops
• The Russian winter set in and the Germans did not have adequate equipment to fight a winter battle

• Hitler initiated a major summer offensive in 1942 that was designed to destroy the Soviets' ability to resist.
• Hitler believed that the Red Army had used up much of its manpower and materiel in the winter fighting.
• If Hitler hadn’t interfered, Stalingrad might have been taken without a fight.
• Hitler vs. Stalin
• In early September, the German infantry started a mass attack on
Stalingrad.
• Temps plummet.
• The fighting was close-quarter combat from house to house.
• Tanks became useless due to the rubble.
• The Germans reached the center of the city a week later.
• By January 25 the Russians had overran the German 6 th Army.
• Nearly 1 million German Soldiers were captured by the end of
January.
• Of all the German soldiers captured by the Russians, only around
5,000 would return back to Germany after the war.
• Some historians believe that the victory at Stalingrad was the turning point.
• War in the East is basically lost for the Germans

• The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the war. The German Army
(Wehrmacht) had already lost 2 million men on the eastern front.
• In 1942-43, a German army of over 300,000 was defeated and captured at the Battle of
Stalingrad.
• The Germans then lost the battle of Kursk and began a long retreat.
• The Red Army crossed into Poland in
January 1944.

• Attempt by Germany to stop supplies reaching the Allies
• Essentially conducted in five phases
• Phase one (Sept. 1939 – June 1940)
- German U-boat operations led to the sinking of numerous Allied ships
• Phase two (June 1940 – March 1941)
– Germans build special bombproof submarine pens
– “Wolfpack” operations began against convoys
• Phase three (April – December 1941)
- Growth of US participation
- 50 destroyers given to Britain, this allowed
Russia to hold out against Germany
- Germans initiate unrestricted submarine warfare

• Phase four (January 1942 – April 1943)
-Germans attack shipping routes near US
Coast
- Air and surface-escorted interlocking
Allied convoy system
-Increased loss of German submarines, turning point of the battle
• Phase five (May 1943- May 1945)
- Germans shift attacks to Mediterranean
• Eventually U-boats are defeated because of close air cover escorts and advances in technology
• Allied victory shifted the balance of the war

• War takes its toll on Europe, FDR begins to change policy, Pro-British.
• Cash and Carry, a belligerent could pay in cash for U.S. arms.
• Selective Service Act, 1940, registration of all men ages 21-35 and to train 1.2 million men. Isolationists upset.
• Destroyers for Bases deal, U.S. gives
G.B. 50 older destroyers in exchange military bases in the Caribbean

• 6 January 1941 Four Freedoms, speech, religion, freedom from want, freedom from fear.
• Lend-Lease Act, March 1941, U.S. to extend credit to G.B. for buying weapons.
• Atlantic Charter, FDR and Churchill: War
Aims
– 1. No extension of territory.
– 2. Territorial self determination.
– 3. Destruction of Nazism.
– 4. International Organization to promote world peace.
• September 4, 1941 German U-Boat fires on US destroyer
– Roosevelt orders to fire on U-boats on sight

• Japan sought to control of “East Asia” for additional markets and sources of raw materials
– Invades China in 1931.
– Invades French Indochina in 1940.
• “Colonial” governments begin imposing embargoes to put brakes on Japanese expansion.
• Japanese armed forces argue that they must strike to relieve pressure of embargoes.
– Expect conflict, but buy time and surprise through negotiations.
• US and UK focused on war in Europe.

• December 7, 1941- 7:55 am- 1 st of 2 attacks on US
Fleet at Pearl Harbor
• 107 ships in harbor- 1/3 of fleet.
• 183 planes in 1 st wave.
Aircraft carriers are 1 st target, but they aren’t there.
• Battleship row is 2 nd target.
• 167 planes in second wave at 8:54 am.
• Third wave called off because Japan feels that the 1 st two waves were successful enough.
• 17 ships severely damaged
• 188 US fighters destroyed
• 3 ships completely destroyed (USS
Arizona)
• 2,403 Americans die
(1,177 on the Arizona)
• 29 Japanese planes shot down.

• Many feel that FDR knew of the attacks and wanted them.
– Most Americans did not want to get involved in the war unless attacked.
– He felt Japan was the answer
• Imposed trade embargos on Japan
(Metal and Oil)
• Japan had to fight or accept US’s demands
• With a puppet dictator and the military really in charge they chose war!

1.
In the summer of 1940 Roosevelt ordered the Pacific fleet to relocate to Pearl Harbor from California. Admiral
Richardson protested and was replaced.
2.
October 7, 1940 a Navy intelligence analyst wrote FDR an 8 point memo on how to force Japan into a war, including embargoing Japan’s oil. All 8 were accomplished.
3.
FDR’s advisor Harold Ickes wrote in his diary on Oct. 18,
1941. “For along tie I have believed that our best entrance into the war by way of Japan.
4.
60 years later the government refuses to identify or declassify pre-attack intelligence notices because of
“National Security.”
5.
On Nov. 26, 1941 both the Aircraft Carriers, the USS
Enterprise and USS Lexington were ordered out of Pearl
Harbor. With this order 40% of Pearl Harbor’s aircrafts.
6.
The same day the US issued Japan an ultimatum to withdraw from SE Asia and China. This was called the :The document that touched the button that started the war.”

December 6, 1941
• In Washington D.C. there was a top secret machine only known as “PurPle”.
• “PurPle” was a message decoder.
• On Saturday December 6, 1941
“PurPle” intercePted a message from Japan.
• It was a message telling a general in Hawaii that Japan was going to attack.
• The message was sent straight to Honolulu but it was received to late, before Honolulu had any time to tell pearl harbor what was going to happen Japan had already attacked.

• After the tragedy of Pearl Harbor,
Americans were eager to act on racial stereotypes
• Eventually, the government build special relocation centers in remote sections of the U.S. and evacuated about 110,000
Japanese (including 60,000 citizens of
Japanese heritage).

• The war effort required all of America’s huge productive capacity and full employment of the workforce.
– Government expenditures soared.
• U.S. budget increases
– 1940 $9 million
– 1944 $100 million
– Expenditures in WWII greater than all previous government budgets combined (150 years)
– GNP 1939 91 billion 1945 166 million

• War time Economy, consumer goods to war materiel
• War Production Board, managed war industries, set production priorities, pushed maximum output
• Office of Price Administration, froze prices, wages, and rents, rationed meat, sugar, gasoline, and tires.
• Financing the War, increased income tax, selling war bonds.
• Office of War Information, controlled news about troop movements and battles.

• World War II ended the Great Depression.
• Factories run at full capacity
– Ford Motor Company – one bomber plane per hour
• People save money (rationing)
• Army bases in South provide economic boom (most bases in South b/c of climate)
• The national debt grew to $260 billion (6 times its size on Dec. 7, 1941)

• African Americans- Double V Campaign, victory over fascism and victory for equality, over a million in the military
• Mexican Americans, over 300,000 in the military.
Native Americans, 25,000 in the military
• Japanese Americans, 20,000 served in the military,
Internment camps Wyoming, Arizona, and Colorado
• Women over 350,000 served in the military, close to 5 million joined the workforce.

• The turning point of the war came in
1942-43.
• Allied victory in North Africa was followed by an invasion of Italy, which stopped the Axis powers’ string of victories.
• The decisive theater of war, however, was the eastern front.

• Smashing the German war machine by bomber blitz similar to German tank blitz used in France and Poland
• Until A-bomb, not sufficiently destructive to end war
• 5 Main Targets
• Military group - tactical, not strategic
• Industrial group - would take years & many aircraft to achieve results
• Urban group - create demoralization & revolt
• Resources and energy group - coal, oil, etc.
• Transportation group - means to transport war materials, i.e., bridges, railroads, etc.
• Groups (4) and (5) became dominant targets

• D-Day was the turning point of the western front. Stalingrad was the turning point of the eastern front.
• The British, U.S., and Free French armies began to press into western Germany as the Soviets invaded eastern Germany.
• Both sides raced to Berlin.

• By spurious radio transmissions, the
Allies created an entire phantom army,
"based" in southeast England (opposite
Pas-de-Calais) and alleged to be commanded by Patton.
– In addition, on the night of the invasion itself, airborne radar deception presented to German radar stations a "phantom" picture of an invasion fleet crossing the
Channel narrows, while a radar blackout disguised the real transit to Normandy.

– At the same time, through the top-secret
Ultra operation, the Allies were able to decode encrypted German transmissions, thus providing the Overlord forces with a clear picture of where the German counterattack forces were deployed.

• Most massive and complex military endeavor in history
• Numerous beaches were studied
• Normandy or Pas de Calais

• Best air cover
• Shorter sea voyage
• Best beaches and conditions
• Close to Dutch and
Belgium forts
• Germans considered it the most likely avenue of approach
• Beaches were too narrow to support follow on operations

• Good beach conditions
• Somewhat sheltered
• Within air cover distance
• Defenses were not strong
• Port of Cherbourg could be quickly isolated and captured
• Exits from the beach were difficult
• Insufficient numbers of ports were readily available

• Eisenhower appointed Supreme
Commander
• Land on Normandy coast, build up and break out of beachhead
• Attack on a broad axis with two armies;
- one to attack east and north towards
Germany
- the other to link up with the southern
France invasion to the south

• After taking control of North Africa and the
Mediterranean, Allies are ready to invade
Europe.
• 1,000 British Bombers pound the coast, but do little damage.
• 23,000 U.S and British paratroopers were dropped in France to take strategic towns and bridges.
• 150,000 troops landed on the beaches of
Normandy. Largest amphibious assault ever.
• 5 beaches- Juno, Gold, Sword, Omaha, Utah
• 2,000 American casualties on Omaha

• Maintain an unrelenting offense for complete destruction of enemy west of the Rhine
• Launch a final attack – a double envelopment of the Ruhr
• Emphasis on the northern, left flank toward Ruhr and industrial Germany

• On 6 June, 1944 some 6,500 vessels landed over
130,000 Allied forces on five Normandy beaches: codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
• Some 12,000 aircraft ensured air superiority for the
Allies - bombing German defenses, and providing cover.
• On Utah beach 23,000 troops were landed, with 197 casualties.
• Most of the 4,649 American casualties that day occurred at Omaha beach, where the landing was significantly more difficult to achieve, meeting with fierce German resistance.

• D-day casualties: 2,500 KIAS, Allies expected 10,000
• Turning point in the European Theater
• By 18 June, the U.S. 1st Army sealed off Cherbourg Peninsula
• Caen fell to British on 8 July
• St. Lo to the U.S. 1st Army on 18 July
• The tide had turned.

• Hitler's troubles were compounded by a
Russian counterattack in June.
• This drove 300 miles west to Warsaw, and killed, wounded or captured 350,000 German soldiers.
• By the end of August the Russians had taken
Bucharest. Estonia was taken within months, and Budapest was under siege by the end of the year.

• The Battle of Ardennes,
(Belgium)
• 16 December 1944 – 25
January 1945
•
German forces intended to split the Allied line.
• G.B. and U.S. had 83,000 men.
Germany over 200,000
• G.B. and U.S.
• 80,987 casualties(10,276 dead,
23,218 missing,
47,493 wounded)
• Germany
• 84,834 casualties
(15,652 dead,
27,582 missing,
41,600 wounded
• Allies keep moving into German
Territory

• April 25, 1945 Soviet and U.S. troops meet at Torgau, on the Elbe River.
• April 30, 1945 Hitler Commits suicide
• May 2, 1945 Battle of Berlin ends
• May 7, 1945 Rheims, France, surrender documents signed.
• May 8, 1945 Victory in Europe. VE DAY

• Americans closing in from the West, Russians closing in from the East.
• 13.6 million Russians and 3 million Germans die in the East
• USSR- 27 Million civilian and military death.
• April 1945- Soviets push towards Berlin.
• 80% of city leveled
• U.S. pushed to the south.
• Hitler knows the end is near and commits suicide with his mistress, Eva Braun.
• Germany surrenders to US, not USSR

• Mussolini was captured and killed by Italian partisans and
Hitler committed suicide in
April 1945, as the Russian troops took Berlin.
• Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7,
1945 (V-E Day).
• Fighting in the Pacific would continue until August.

• Within 6 months of Pearl Harbor, Japan had a new empire.
– Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
• Japanese racial purity and supremacy
– Treated Chinese and Koreans with brutality.
• “Rape of Nanjing”Japanese slaughtered at least 100,000 civilians and raped thousands of women in the Chinese capital between Dec. 1937 and Feb. 1938.
– Could have consolidated
– “victory disease”
• After Pearl Harbor, American military leaders focused on halting the Japanese advance and mobilizing the whole nation for war.

• American Forces halted the Japanese advances in two decisive naval battles.
– Coral Sea (May 1942)
• U.S. stopped a fleet convoying Japanese troops to
New Guinea
• Japanese designs on Australia ended
– Midway (June 1942)
• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto hoped to capture
Midway Island as a base to attack Pearl Harbor again
• U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz caught the Japanese by surprise and sank 3 of the 4 aircraft carriers,
332 planes, and 3500 men.
– American cryptanalysts

• 1942 Japan Occupied: Korea, Eastern
China, the Philippines, British Burma,
Malaya, French Indochina, Indonesia, many islands west of Midway Island
• May 7 – 8, 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea
• Japan threatens New Zealand and
Australia, looking to maintain a stranglehold on the Solomon Islands
• United States and Australia hold off the
Japanese attack.
• No real victor, sets the stage for Midway

• The Japanese defeat at Midway was the turning point in the Pacific.
– Japanese advances stopped.
– U.S. assumes initiative.
– Japanese have shortage of able pilots.
• Censorship and Propaganda
– News of the defeat was kept from the
Japanese public.

• The United States
• Commanders: Chester
Nimitz, Frank Fletcher,
Raymond Spruance
• Strength: Three carriers, about 50 support ships
233 carrier aircraft,
127 land-based aircraft
• Casualties: 1 carrier,
1 destroyer sunk;
307 killed
• Destruction of 4 carriers means that the U.S. can now go on the offensive.
Crushing defeat for the
Japanese
• Japan, plan to destroy U.S. carriers, under the impression that they would only have to deal with two carriers.
• Commanders: Isoroku
Yamamoto, Chuichi
Nagumo, Tamon Yamaguchi
• Strength: Four carriers, about 150 support ships
248 carrier aircraft,
16 floatplanes
• Casualties: 4 carriers,
1 cruiser sunk;
3,057 killed

• Island Hopping Campaign- isolate Japanese strongholds using
Naval and air power, seize strategic islands along the Japanese supply line.
• Begins August 1942, Marines land at Guadalcanal, Solomon
Islands, Gilbert and Marshall Islands,
• 23-26 October 1944 Invasion of the Philippines, Battle of Leyte
Gulf, Japanese navy just about destroyed
• February and March 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima , Mount Suribachi,
U.S. Casualties 6,821 dead19,000 wounded Japanese
Casualties 20,500 dead 200 captured
• Battle of Okinawa , March – June 1945, largest sea-land battle in history, Last major battle of the war. U.S. Casualties : 12,500 killed or missing 38,000 wounded 33,096 non-combat wounded
38 ships lost 763 aircraft lost Japanese Casualties : 110,000 killed
7,455 captured 16 ships lost 7,800 aircraft lost

• 7 August 1942
• First offensive action of the war.
• Critical airfield.
– First plane makes emergency landing on 12
Aug.
– 2 USMC squadrons arrive on 20 Aug.
– Only one “healthy” carrier left by end of battle.
• Jungle causes significant casualties.
– Over 1k new cases of malaria per week.
• Island “secured” in Feb ’43.
• Japan suffers critical losses in all areas.
– 25,000 soldiers (1/2 in combat, ½ to illness)

• Yamamoto is assassinated by the U.S. (April
1943)
• Loss of Saipan (August 1944)
– “the naval and military heart and brain of
Japanese defense strategy”
– Political crisis in Japan
• The government could no longer hide the fact that they were losing the war.
• Tōjō resigns on July 18, 1944
• Intensive air raids over Japan
– Iwo Jima (February, 1945)
• American marines invaded this island, which was needed to provide fighter escort for bombings over Japan

• D-Day 9 Feb 1945
• Airfields again the objectives.
• 450 ships
• Pre-invasion bombardment shortened from 12 to 3 days.
– Weather limited effectiveness of even this.
• Southern half of island in US hands by D+2.
– Takes 34 more days to secure remainder of island (8 square miles total).
• Nothing fancy; simple but costly.
– “Throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.”
• 36 days, 26k US casualties including 6k KIA.
– 1 of every 3 US personnel that went ashore was wounded or killed.
• 1k of 20k defenders survived
• 2400 B-29s w/ 27k crewmen made unscheduled landings on island by the time the war ended.
• 27 Medals of Honor awarded.

• In 1945, the U.S. began targeting people in order to coerce Japan to surrender
– 66 major Japanese cities bombed
– 500,000 civilians killed
• Battle for Leyte Gulf
– Total blockade of Japan
– Japanese navy virtually destroyed
– Kamikaze (divine wind) flights begin
• Okinawa (April, 1945)
– All 110,000 Japanese defenders killed
– U.S. invaded this island, which would provide a staging area for the invasion of the Japanese islands.
– If it is this bad at Okinawa, how bad will it get in
Japan?

• Albert Einstein
– Developed the theory of relativity and set in motion the process of developing the atomic bomb
• Manhattan Project
– Committee that looked at the feasibility of an atomic bomb
– July 16, 1945 – they test the first atomic bomb in the desert at Alamogordo, New
Mexico
– The bomb left a huge crater in the earth and shattered windows up to 125 miles away

• The alternatives
– Invading main land Japan
– A naval Blockade and continued bombing
– Softening of the idea of unconditional surrender
– Dropping the bomb on a remote, deserted island to show its power
• The decision
– High casualties would result from invading Japan
– The bitterness that Americans felt towards Pearl
Harbor
– The U.S. wanted to “flex its muscles before the eyes of the communist rivals” and the rest of the world

• August 6, 1945, the first bomb, “Little
Boy,” was dropped on Hiroshima
• August 9, 1945, the second bomb, “Fat
Man,” is dropped on Nagasaki
• September 2, 1945, Japan surrenders

• The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base.
That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge
Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction.

• Some Japanese still want to fight after Abombs, but Emperor Hirohito urges them to stop.
• Surrender to General Douglas “god”
MacArthur.
• His goal was to demilitarize Japan (reduce their ability to fight)
• Second goal was democratization, creating a democracy
• Become a Parliamentary democracy similar to Great Britain, with Emperor as figurehead.
• Hirohito forced to admit that he was not God!
• Article 9- Japanes cannot make war. No
Army, only SDF. We are still responsible for
Japan.

• Germany - 3 million combat deaths (3/4ths on the eastern front)
• Japan – over 1.5 combat deaths; 900,000 civilians dead
• Soviet Union - 13 million combat deaths
• U.S.
– 300,000 combat deaths, over 100,000 other deaths
• When you include all combat and civilian deaths, World War II becomes the most destructive war in history with estimates as high as 60 million, including 25 million
Russians.

• Many historic cities like London and Berlin, destroyed.
• Countryside torn up. Crops?
• Warsaw
– 1.3 M before the war.
– 153,000 after the war.
• 95% of Berlin was rubble.
• 4,000 a day die in Berlin in 1945.
• Starvation, disease, etc.
• Communists (Russians) don’t leave Eastern Europe.
• Iron Curtain develops.
• Democracy v. Communism
• Cold War

• 22 Nazis put on trial for war crimes and
“crimes against humanity.”
• Hitler and many top Nazis dead, but some still remain.
• Reichsmarshall Herman Goering and Deputy
Fuhrer Rudolf Hess among those tried.
• 12 sentenced to death, Goering kills himself, escapes hanging.
• “I was just following orders.”
• Only 1, Hans Frank, the slayer of the Poles, expressed remorse.

• Truman Doctrine: I believe it must be the policy of the United
States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
• Containment: rather than liberating those countries already in the grip of Communism, the United States tried to keep it from spreading
• Creation of NATO: U.S., Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
G.B., Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and later Greece and Turkey; form a front against Soviet
Aggression.
• Korean War, 1950-53: Invasion of South Korea by North Korean communist forces in June of 1950

• New Challenges faced the United States
1. Safeguard its security and National interests against powerful and unfriendly nations
2. Help protect the sovereignty of the nations of Europe, Latin America, and Asia without provoking hostile relations with them or the
Communist Bloc
3. Establish ties to newly independent nations of Asia and Africa
4. Balance the cost of domestic programs with defense needs.

• U.S.A. and USSR have ideological differences. Capitalism v. Communism
• Wartime allies out of convenience, common enemy.
• Postwar goals
– U.S.A.- fought for democracy and economic freedom in Europe and Asian, wanted to see these continued.
– USSR- wants to rebuild to protect their interests. Create satellite nations- countries subject to Soviet domination.

• Communist regimes in
East Germany, Poland,
Czech, Hungary,
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.
• Churchill asks US for help from Russians closing the Iron Curtain around any more nations in Europe.
• Cold Warcompetition that developed between the US and the
USSR for power and influence throughout the world.
• Never directly fought, but almost.

• Containment- American policy of resisting further expansion of communism around the world, said that Eastern
Europe was already lost.
• GB can’t support its former colonies and allies, like Turkey and
Greece.
• Asks US for help.
• Truman gives speech that becomes known as
Truman Doctrine.
• US WOULD SUPPORT
NATIONS THAT WERE
BEING THREATENED
BY COMMUNISM
• Truman Doctrine and
Containment led to
Korean and Vietnam
Wars, Cuban Missile
Crisis, etc.

• US doesn’t want to make same mistakes as WWI.
• Wants to rebuild not punish Europe for war.
• Marshall Plan- program of American economic assistance to Western
Europe to rebuild
Western Europe and keep USSR out.
• Named for General
George C. Marshall

• UN is powerless to stop
• N. Korea
(communist) invades communism b/c Russia has
S. Korea veto power.
• Western European countries
• US and UN intervene. form North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
• MacArthur whips
Koreans, but
• If Russia attacks one, they all
Chinese volunteers join in. Problem?
push Americans
• Russia forms Warsaw Pact back.
with other communist nations
• MarArthur second
• Collective Security- policy in guesses the which nations agree to president and gets protect on another against an fired. attack.
• 38 th parallel

• Ike elected in 1952.
• Believed in Domino
Theory- theory that described the world as being overrun by
Soviet Communism, as one country falls, so does the next.
• If it starts, no way to stop it.
• Russia develops Abomb in 1949
• Arms race develops between the US and
USSR

st

Heats Up
• Soviets first in space
– Sputnik - First man-made satellite - 1957
– Yuri Gagarin - First man in space - 1961
• U-2 Incident - 1960
– Francis Gary Powers shot down over Soviet Union
• Khrushchev's speech at the UN “We will bury you!” - 1960
• Berlin Wall - 1961
• Kennedy’s speech “Ich bin ein Berliner” - 1963

Bay of Pigs
• Bay of Pigs Invasion - 17 Apr 1961
– 1400 invaders to overthrow Castro
– Cuban Nationalists/Insurgents trained and backed by CIA
– Poorly planned and poorly executed – complete fiasco
• No popular support in Cuba
• No US military support
– Total failure
• U.S. loss of face

 14 th – photographs of missiles on Cuba
 22 nd – Kennedy decides to blockade Cuba
 24 th – Soviet ships turn back
 24 th – message from Khrushchev saying must find peaceful solution
 25 th – U2 spy plane shot down
 26 th – 2 nd message from Khrushchev
 28 th – agreement reached

American Response
• “Quarantine”
– Actually a blockade
– Fleet directed to block further shipments
– Demand to remove missiles
– Soviet ships reverse course, 1 ship boarded
“We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked”
Dean Rusk, Secretary of State


October 25: At the UN, Adlai
Stevenson directly challenges the
Soviet ambassador to admit to the existence of missiles, when the ambassador refuses, Stevenson wheels out pictures of the missile sites
 http://www.history.com/media.do?action=clip&id=v2t16

• October 27: Soviets demand that Americans also withdraw missiles from Turkey; Major
Anderson’s plane is missing over Cuba, presumably shot down; U.S. recon plane strays over Soviet airspace…high tensions
• Kennedy tells Khrushchev that he will accept the proposal of the 26 th , Kennedy tells his brother to tell the Soviet Ambassador that though the Turkey missiles would not be part of the bargain, they would be removed in time
• October 28: USSR agrees to withdraw missiles