U.S. and WWII

U.S. and WWII

“Good Neighbor Policy”

Roosevelt Announced during his inaugural address (1933)

We would oppose armed intervention in Latin American affairs

In response to increasing tensions/conflicts We will “respect the rights of others”

“This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well.”

- Franklin Roosevelt, 1939

Neutrality Tested No question that U.S. favored Allied Powers

What would it take for the U.S. to assist them?

At the very least, Roosevelt believed we should make armaments available to Allied armies

Neutrality Acts (1935-36-37) Only trade non-military goods with nations

at war President to warn Americans from travelling

in hostile waters (1937) “Cash-and-Carry” Policy

Lend-Lease Agreement (1941) The U.S. could lend or lease armaments “to

any nation deemed pivotal to the defense of the United States.”

They would be returned after the war

The Atlantic Charter, Aug.1941 Called for “certain common principles” on

which to base “a better future for the world.”

Openly called for “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny.”

Statement of war aims?

$$$ War Spending $$$1941

Budget $9 Billion

GNP $91 Billion

Debt $49 Billion

1945

$100 Billion

$166 Billion

$259 Billion

Zoot-suits

D-Day Invasion• June 6, 1944 – Invasion to retake France

•Thousands of planes, ships, tanks, landing craft, and 3.5 million troops

•American, Canadian, French and British forces

•Among the Americans alone, 3,000 died

June 6, 1944 – D-Day

Aug 25, 1944 – Paris Liberated

By September – France, Belgium,

and Luxemburg Liberated

Dec 44-Jan 45 - Battle of the Bulge

May 8, 1945 – Victory in Europe (VE) DayGeneral Eisenhower accepted the unconditional

surrender of the Third Reich

Yalta Conference

Early Feb 1945, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt met

Decided upon unconditional surrender for Germany4 Occupation zones

demilitarization

Soviet Union would enter war with Japan3 months after the fighting in Europe ended

Stalin would join the newly formed United Nations

Dresden, Germany

February 13, 1945

4,000 tons of explosives dropped

35,000 – 135,000 dead

Strategic, or payback for blitz?

Hitler greeting his “soldiers” in Berlin, April 20, 1945

Berlin Falls May 2, 1945 (VE Day May 8)

United Nations

June, 1945

50 nations signed the UN Charter which pledged “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”

The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of 5 permanent members–China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States–and 10 non-permanent members, currently:

Azerbaijan, India, South Africa, Colombia, Morocco, Togo, Germany, Pakistan, Guatemala, and Portugal

War in the Pacific endsJuly 26, 1945 – Potsdam Declaration issued

August 6 – First bomb dropped on Hiroshima

August 8 – Soviet Union invades Manchuria

August 9 – Second bomb dropped on Nagasaki

August 15 – Emperor Hirohito gives radio address declaring acceptance of Potsdam Declaration terms

- (VJ, Victory over Japan Day)

September 2 – Japan surrenders in Tokyo Harbor to General Douglas MacArthur

Truman Doctrine 1947 U.S. must help “free peoples who are

resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

Offer of financial and military support to Greece and Turkey (prevent instability)

Beginning of “containment” philosophy

Marshall Plan June 1947(European Recovery Program)

Sec. Of State George Marshall

We will offer financial aid to countries in Europe who want it

Equal aid was offered to the Soviet Union

Basketball reads: “European Recovery.” Caption: “Can he block it?”

The Second Red Scare / McCarthyism

• Berlin Blockade (led to Airlift in 1948/49)

• Russia Detonates Bomb 1949

• Communist Victory in China (1949)

Korean War 1950-53

Espionage + Subversion

-Hiss Case

-Ethel & Julius Rosenberg

Politics – Dems week on communism