THE UNITED STATES AND WW2

Ch 34 and CH 35

The Road to War in Europe

1922-Fascist Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy

1931-Japanese militarists invade Manchuria, League of Nations powerless to stop, US issues Stimson Doctrine-US would not recognize territorial gains made by force

1932-Japan bombs Shanghai in China 1933-Nazi Adolph Hitler seizes power in

Germany and pulls Germany out of League of Nations, begins rearming Germany

War in Europe

1935-Mussolini and Italy attacks Ethiopia in Africa, League tries to boycott goods, but not oil

1935-Congress passes first of a series of Neutrality Acts to keep us out of War 1935-banned the US from supplying nations

at war-set up arms embargo 1936-banned loans to such nations 1937-permitted trade with fighting nations for

non-military goods-(Cash and carry policy)

1936-Rome-Berlin Axis

1935-1939-Spanish Civil War Fascists under Francisco Franco

versus the Republican government Dress rehearsal for WWII-Nazis

supported Franco and the Soviets supported the Loyalists, US sat on the side

1937-Japanese launch full scale invasion of China FDR delivers Quarantine Speech in

Chicago

1936-1938-Hitler and the Germans militarize the Rhineland, annex Austria

1938-Munich Conference

British appease Hitler after he demands to get the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia

Anti-Semitism

1935-Nuremberg Laws November 1938-Kristalnacht in

Germany May 1939-937 Jewish refugees on

ship St Louis, refused entry into the US

1939-Non-Agression Pact signed by the Soviets and the Nazis

Sept 1939-WW 2 Begins

Sept 1939-Nazis invade Poland, WWII starts, Fall of France(1940) and Battle of Britain (Fall 1940), FDR looks for ways to help but is hampered by Neutrality Acts, 1939-Fourth Neutrality Act passed, ended arms embargo, allowed military goods, but forbade ships to enter danger zones

WW2 1939-1941

1940-Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

FDR risks releection

May of 1940-FDR orders secret military equipment to the British, kept secret FDR sends the British 500000 rifles, 900 field guns, and 130 million rounds of ammo

Sept 1940-Congress passes draft law by one vote (Selective Service Act)

“Destroyer-Deal”

FDR by executive agreement sends the British 50 destroyers, US obtains 99 year leases on 8 naval and air bases throughout the world, bases in Newfoundland and Bermuda, US gives “all aid short of war”, touches off huge debate in US, “US has one foot in the war, and the other on a banana peel.”

Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee 800000 members, urged isolationism

and an end to the aid for Britain, sympathetic to Nazis

1940 Election-FDR v. Wilkie FDR runs and wins third term The big issue is interventionism

versus isolationism, both promised aid to the allies, both promised to bolster the nation’s defenses, both agreed to stay out of the war, Wilkie establishes a Bipartisan Foreign Policy

3rd term!!

Lend-Lease proposed by FDR Dec 1940, GB out of money and supplies,

proposes US become the “great arsenal of democracy”, permitted FDR to aid any nation without payment whose defense he believed vital to American security, “If you neighbor’s house in on fire, you don’t sell him a hose. You lend it to him and take it back after the fire is out.”

Senator Taft-leading isolationist-“Lending war equipment is a good deal like lending chewing gum. You don’t want it back.” abandonment of neutrality by Congress

Battle of Atlantic

Spring and Summer of 1941-rages in the Atlantic Ocean as US starts escort duties in the North Atlantic

Operation Barbarossa

June 1941-Nazis invade the Soviet Union-FDR sends 1 billion in aid to Soviets

FDR and Churchill-Atlantic Charter

Pledged the US and GB would forgo territorial expansion

affirmed the right of every nation to choose its own form of government

called for freedom of international trade and equal access to raw materials

Japanese advance

1940-Japanese had invaded in French Indochina

1940-US imposes embargo on Japanese for oil, gasoline, steel, scrap iron

1941-US freezes Japanese assets in US

November 1941-tense negotiations

Dec 7, 1941-”Day of Infamy” Japanese attack on US Pacific Fleet in

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii US declares war on Japan

America at War 1941-1945

Koramatsu v United States

Executive order 9066-110,000 Japanese Americans herded into detainment camps-upheld by SCOTUS

(WPD) War Production Board- managed transition from

nonessential peacetime production to essential wartime production

40 billion bullets 300000 aircraft 76000 ships 86000 tanks 2.6 million machine guns

(OPI)-Office of Price Administration dealt with inflation with rationing for

essential food items such as butter and meat as well as gasoline

Selective Service Act and the draft 15 million men served(Army, Navy,

Marines, Coast Guard) and 216,000 women(WACS and WAVES and SPARS)

Women and the War

Rosie the Riveter-6 million women in work force

Most women still at home as mothers

After war 2/3rds went back home to start having babies

Financing the War

Taxes-income tax expanded and rates went up to maximum of 90%

Borrowing-huge patriotic bond drives netted billions-

Total cost of victory was more than $330 billion

War aims

ABC(Americans, British, Canadians)-Agreement

Germany first, Japan second Why-Hitler could knock the Soviets

and British out of the war, Japan could not

America needed to mobilize its vast population and resources before the Germans and Japanese crushed the allies

Allied Leaders

American Commanders

European theater of Operations

June 6, 1944-DDay

Operation Overlord DDday-2nd front in Normandy, France

opened by American, French, British, and Canadian troops

Defeating Germany

August-1944-Paris Liberated   December 1944-Soviets advancing in

the East

German counterattack-Dec 1944-Battle of the Bulge-0ver 100,000 Americans die

VE Day-May 8th, 1945

March 1945-Americans reach the Rhine River

April 1945-Americans and Soviets reach Elbe River

April 1945-Soviets reach Berlin April 12, 1945 FDR dies Hitler Commits suicide May 7, 1945-Germany surrenders

1944 Presidential Election FDR-Democrat-nominated for a 4th term Thomas Dewey-Governor of New York   Key Points…..   FDR the “forgotten man at the convention” Scramble for the “Vice-Presidency” “Ditch Wallace” Campaign-VP Henry Wallace-New Deal

Liberal FDR settled on Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri FDR won primarily because the war was going well-

Americans wanted continuity 4th term not an issue

1944 Presidential election

WW2 in the Pacific

Early Japanese Advances

Dec. 1941-Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines

The Philippines

General Douglas Macarthur and 20000 American troops finally surrender to Japanese-leads to Bataan Death march-Mac-“I Shall return”

Turning Point-Pacific

June 3-6, 1942- Battle of Midway-Turning Point of WW2 in Pacific-carrier based battle

Island-hopping strategy

Fight to the death

March 1945-Iwo Jima 4000 Dead Marines 20000 dead Japanese marines

April-June 1945-Okinawa 50,000 American casualties “Kamikazes”

The Destruction of Japan

March 9-10, 1945-Tokyo Fire Bombing 300 B-29 Superfortresses  250,000 building destroyed, 80,000

dead

The Manhattan Project

Top secret A-Bomb Program Led by J Robert Oppenheimer July 16, 1945 Trinity Explosion

Potsdam Conference-Berlin

Truman, Churchill/Atlee, Stalin Ultimatum to Japan to surrender

or face prompt and utter destruction

Post war German plans and no free election in Poland

A-Bomb

August 6, 1945-Hiroshima-A Bomb  August 8-Soviets declare war on

Japan, invade Manchuria August 9, 1945- Nagasaki-A Bomb

Surrender-VJ Day

August 14, 1945-America accepts Japanese S

  September 2, 1945-Surrender on

USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay