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11/10/10 CHAPTER 9—WORLD WAR II (1941- 1946) In many ways, the period of the New Deal was also the period of World War II, as the preliminary skirmishes were fought both in military and in politics, reflecting the continuing division in the US over involvement in European/foreign wars while hoping for economic riches and more employment by providing war materiel to the nations in conflict. It is also important to remember that the Soviet Union as a country, and communism as an ideology, were the principle “enemies” for the governments of the industrialized countries, especially England (Churchill) and the US—FDR had opposed isolationism as far back as 1913, when he became asst Secretary of the Navy—as president, FDR had agreed to recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933 but was really focused on domestic issues and the economy The Good Neighbor Policy (1933) changed US policy in Latin America—was tested by Expropriation of US oil refineries/holdings in Mexico by President Lazaro Cardenas on March 18, 1938—Mexico, which provided 20% of US oil, had tried to negotiate with Royal Dutch shell and stand Oil of NJ, but was not successful to the government established PEMEX—Britain broke off diplomatic relationships—Mexico also continued to recognize The Republic of Spain even after Franco took power—after 1941, Mexico exported pill to Germany but eventually reached a agreement to sell only to the allies Cuban “revolt of the sergeants” led by Fulgencio Batista, who became the power with support from US 1

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11/10/10

CHAPTER 9—WORLD WAR II (1941-1946)In many ways, the period of the New Deal was also the period of World War II,

as the preliminary skirmishes were fought both in military and in politics, reflecting the continuing division in the US over involvement in European/foreign wars while hoping for economic riches and more employment by providing war materiel to the nations in conflict.

It is also important to remember that the Soviet Union as a country, and communism as an ideology, were the principle “enemies” for the governments of the industrialized countries, especially England (Churchill) and the US—FDR had opposed isolationism as far back as 1913, when he became asst Secretary of the Navy—as president, FDR had agreed to recognition of the Soviet Union in 1933 but was really focused on domestic issues and the economy

The Good Neighbor Policy (1933) changed US policy in Latin America—was tested by

Expropriation of US oil refineries/holdings in Mexico by President Lazaro Cardenas on March 18, 1938—Mexico, which provided 20% of US oil, had tried to negotiate with Royal Dutch shell and stand Oil of NJ, but was not successful to the government established PEMEX—Britain broke off diplomatic relationships—Mexico also continued to recognize The Republic of Spain even after Franco took power—after 1941, Mexico exported pill to Germany but eventually reached a agreement to sell only to the allies

Cuban “revolt of the sergeants” led by Fulgencio Batista, who became the power with support from US Ambassador Sumner Welles—Batista was officially elected president in 1940

In Nicaragua, the US Marines withdrew in January, 1933, after fighting against Sandino for six years--Anastasio Somoza supported the assassination of Sandino (June, 1934) and then seized power in June, 1936

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (1934)—the first “free trade” agreement in the western hemisphere—a lowering of tariffs to support domestic production by expanded exports—

The Nye Committee (also known as the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry)—headed by Sen. Gerald Nye (R-ND), with Alger Hiss as secretary, and met from 1934-1936—Nye’s family grew up in WI, and his father was a strong supporter of LaFollette--examined the causes of US involvement in WWI--examined the profits made by US manufacturers in WW I and created “merchants of death”—found that US bankers had loaned Great Britain $2.3 billion so the US had to make sure that England survived so the bankers could collect—

Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1937—supported by Nye, who later headed the American first anti-war campaign and claimed after Pearl Harbor that "this was just what

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Britain had planned for us" and that "we have been maneuvered into this by the President” but voted the next day in support of the declaration of war—

PEARL HARBOR—one of the most recognizable historical references—“a date that will live in infamy”--war between Japan and the United States had been a possibility each nation had been aware of (and developed contingency plans for) since the 1920s, though tensions did not begin to grow seriously until Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war in 1937. In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China, and as a first step to improve her access to resources in Southeast Asia. This

move prompted an American embargo on oil exports to Japan, which in turn caused the Japanese to initiate their planned takeover of oil production in the Dutch East Indies. Furthermore, the transfer of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from its previous base in San Diego to its new base in Pearl Harbor was seen by the Japanese military as a preparation for conflict--Several writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett, author of Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (2001), and former United States Navy Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, author of The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor - The Washington Contribution to the Japanese Attack (1954) have argued that various parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force America into war via the "back door."

HOMEFRONT—while most histories focus on the military aspects of the war, social relations in the US went through major changes, especially involving women, civil rights (including the internment camps) and unionism

Patriotism and security—“loose lips sink ships”—“Buy bonds, bomb Berlin”--

Internment—on February 19, 1942, Congress passed that Executive Order 9066 was issued, subsequently enforced by the criminal penalties of a statute enacted March 21, 1942, to relocate more than 110,000 Japanese living on the West Coast (62% were US citizens) into camps, often with the loss of all property, which was seized by vultures, as Germans had done to displaced Jews—columnist Westbook Pegler proclaimed "The Japanese should be under armed guard right now, and to hell with habeas corpus!" A farm leader said, "It's a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown man." Amidst fear of Japanese invasion, the 1941 Rose Bowl game was moved to North Carolina. 15,000 coastal Japanese migrated east, often over the objections of local authorities. (Idaho's Attorney General: "We want to keep this a white man's country.")--many white farmers looked on the Japanese farmers as competition and supported their removal--created the War Relocation Authority—allowed military commanders to designate “exclusion zones” which included the whole state of California and most of Washington and Oregon—after Pearl Harbor, the FBI concluded that there was no security

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threat but on January 2, the Joint Immigration Committee of the California Legislature sent a manifesto to California newspapers which attacked "the ethnic Japanese," whom it alleged were "totally unassimilable”----the manifesto was backed by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West and the California Department of the American Legion, which in January demanded that all Japanese with dual citizenship be placed in concentration camps--the Executive Order was finally revoked by Gerald Ford in 1976! and in 1988, Reagan formally signed a bill of apology--—the Library of Congress site with great documents is http://archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/japanese-internment.html

o Ironically, the official in California responsible for enforcing the internment program was state Attorney-General Earl Warren, a very popular political figure--following Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, Warren organized the state's civilian defense program, warning in January, 1942, that, "The Japanese situation as it exists in this state today may well be the Achilles heel of the entire civilian defense effort.”—later, Warren was Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court in the Brown v Board of Education decision

Defense production—the whole configuration of US industry changed as the defense industries expanded—During 1939-1945, the aircraft industry became the largest single industry in the world and rose from 41st place to first among industries in the United States. From 1939, when fewer than 6,000 planes a year were being produced, the industry doubled production in 1940 and doubled it again in 1941 and 1942. In the first half of 1941, it produced 7,433 aircraft, more than had been produced in all of 1940. From January 1, 1940, until V-J Day on August 14, 1945, more than 300,000 military aircraft were produced for the U.S. military and the Allies—with almost 275,000 after Pearl Harbor. In the peak production month of March 1944, more than 9,000 aircraft came off the assembly lines. By the spring of 1944, more aircraft were being built than could be used and production began to be curtailed. By the end of 1943, 81 production plants were in operation for aircraft bodies (airframes), engines, and propellers, with another five plants in Canada. Total factory space, including engine and propeller production, was 175 million square feet (16 million square meters). Peak workforce, reached at the end of 1943, was 2,102,000. The dollar value of the industry's 1939 output rose from $225 million to some $16 billion for 1944.

o Walter Reuther suggested his “500 planes a day” plan that would have, in effect, merged the major auto companies in Detroit—they were horrified—“patriotic” but not interested—

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o Huge internal migrations of non-military workers into towns like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh with desperate need for defense workers

o Women in the workforce—Rosie the Riveter—the term developed from a song recorded in early 1942, based on Rose Will Monroe, who moved from Kentucky to work at Willow Run, a huge airplane factory--on May 29, 1943, a cover on The Saturday Evening Post by Norman Rockwell created the icon of the Rosies—by the end of the war, more than 18 million women were working outside the house, an increase of 50% over 1939—their income, and the lack of consumer goods or products like washing machines, created a pent-up demand that exploded after the war, based on the sense of entitlement--

Women in traditional men’s role—in the movie League of Their Own, a significant change is portrayed. For more information, here is the obituary of Dotty Kamenshek, the real-life figure that was the basis for Geena Davis’ character—in another obituary, Wally Pipp of the New York Yankees calls her the best first baseperson ever! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/sports/baseball/22kamenshek.html?scp=1&sq=womens%20baseball%20league%20&%20dotty&st=cse

The draft--A total of 10,110,104 men were drafted between November 1940 and October 1946, drawing from the pool of men born on or before 1927—30% of men drafted got deferments for physical defects, classified as 4-F—there was a social stigma and women did not want to be seen with “the 4-Fers”----here is an intriguing site listing men who got draft deferments— note the famous figures, some of whom (Feller, Williams and Jimmy Stewart) later volunteered and served in the military: http://www.nndb.com/event/807/000140387/

Federal withholding tax--Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments, Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to impose a 100% tax on all incomes over $25,000 to help with the war effort

Inflation and price controls Rationing—began as the method for supporting the war effort by

restricting purchases of critical materials--a great site at http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/events/rationing.htm

Mass communications—to the war efforto Edward R. Murrow

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o William Shirer--Shirer became famous for his broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II—left Germany in 1940 after he learned that the Gestapo was building a case against him—smuggled all of his notes out, and they became the basis for his famous book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, published in 1960—Shirer had been blacklisted since 1947, when Murrow and CBC ended his news show because of complaints from its sponsor, the J.B. Williams Co., maker of shaving soap (Mennen “Soapy” Williams was part of the family and later became governor of Michigan) over Shirer’s critical remarks about the Truman Doctrine—Shirer later appeared in Red Channels and could not find regular work--

War movies—the huge effort to build up support for the war effort—by 1942, Hollywood was totally supportive and classics like Casablanca appeared—the early movies, like A Yank in the RAF, showed Americans in foreign armies—by 1943, there were dozens of “combat” movies, mostly about the battles in the Pacific against the Japanese—many of the early movies were directed by people like Herbert Biberman, Edward Dmytryk or Irving Pichel, all of whom were blacklisted after the war—many of the great war “heroes”—John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn—never were in combat but portrayed military men and, in come cases, almost deluded themselves into thinking that they had really served in combat----for a great list of war movies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_films#1940

Excellent PBS production, The Perilous Fight: America’s World War II in Color http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/

LABOR POLICIES—the critical issue was a shortage of workers, as men went into the military and as the industrial system began to produce enormous amounts of war materiel—in both industrial and agricultural areas, there were dramatic changes in the workforce and in the laws that covered them—the culture also changed as women came into the heavy industrial workforce for the first time—many historians state that women were working for the first time, showing their ignorance of the Lowell mills and every industry afterward--

War Labor Board—originally created by Woodrow Wilson in April, 1918 during WWI, it was revived by FDR on January 12, 1942 setting a pattern of federal control over labor relations—a tripartite administration to prevent strikes in the national manufacturing industries—the strikes of 1941 had disrupted key industries.

In the strike at North American Aviation at Inglewood CA in 1941, the plant was seized by 2500 soldiers June 9 and deferments cancelled.

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John L. Lewis called a UMW strike 1941 against captive mines owned by steel companies and returned to work Dec. 7.

In 1942, the WLB followed the Little Steel formula of 15% wage increase per year, and Leon Henderson's General Maximum Price Regulation, called "General Max" that put a cap on prices.

The WLB in June 1942 issued the "maintenance-of-membership" rule that all new employees would be covered by any existing union contract, and therefore sanctioned the closed shop. When Montgomery Ward refused the rule, Attorney General Francis Biddle sent in soldiers and Sewell Avery (nicknamed “Slavery”—get it?) was photographed being carried out of the building.

John L. Lewis defied the Little Steel formula and demanded $2-a-day wage increase in 1943--ordered a strike of 500,000 miners that continued even when troops occupied the mines. The UMW finally won the wage increase and the strike ended in 1944. Here is FDR’s speech denouncing the strike http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/050243.html

In June 1943, Congress passed the Smith-Connally War Labor Disputes Act to curb defense industry strikes.

10,000 new workers were added in the war. Shipyard worker wages went from 40 cents per hour to $2.75 per hour. Farmer income rose 250% during the war. The inflation rate was a modest 28%, and real wages increased 27% in war, and corporate profits doubled.

in an early decision, the NLWB insisted on equal pay for equal work for women, unless the job had been “substantially lightened” by the manufacturer--http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5144

great documents on the NLWB at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05298.html

The Bracero program—in the continuing issue of finding more workers and dealing with the issue of immigration, in August, 1942, a reciprocal agreement was signed between the US and Mexico to allow temporary contract workers from Mexico to come into the US to work as migrant workers in the agricultural areas, mainly California—named for brazo, the Spanish word for “arm,” the program continued until 1974—revered the Mexican Repatriation movement of 1929-39—started by bringing in several hundred “guest workers’ to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton, CA, area—there was also a “railroad bracero” program for unskilled workers to maintain tracks but eventually Mexicans were imported to

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work in a variety of railroad jobs-- for the imported labor--the bracero program mandated a certain level of wages, housing, food and medical care for the workers (to be paid for by the employers) that kept the standard of living above what many had in Mexico. Not only did this enable many to send funds home to their families, but it also had the unintended effect of encouraging illegal immigration when the USA's workers quotas were met

”Zoot suit riots—part of a surge of race riots in 1943—white servicemen chased Mexican-American “draft dodgers”--

Anti-war activities-the issue of a “European war” was a constant debate during the 30s as both the right and the left agitated the federal government over policies—

Popular Front—on the left, the Communist Party, and the returning veterans of the Spanish Civil war, advocated US detachment from the European war— in the Poplar Front, the CP was inconsistent and its policies changed dramatically to reflect the interests of the Soviet Union—in the 1939-41 period, the CP accused Congress of taking needed funds away from the federal low-rent housing program and other social programs to subsidize war preparations. Once the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war, CP made a complete about-face and urged affiliates to "Assist the Work of Civil Defense" and participate in "Help Win the War Activities"--the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 24, 1939) solidified the anti-war position which abruptly changed to a support for US involvement after German invaded Russia on June 22, 1941

America First— the “America Firsters” on the right were a mix of anti-war people and Nazi sympathizers, who thought that Hitler was the strongest opponent of revolution and would (hopefully, in their eyes) destroy the Soviet Union--often regarded as a pro-Nazi movement--AFC was established September 4, 1940 by Yale University law student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., along with other students including future President Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, Gore Vidal (as a prep school student), Norman Thomas, e.e. cummings, Walt Disney, Robert Wood, the Chairman of Sears-Roebuck and a major funder, and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. At its peak, America First may have had 800,000 members in 650 chapters, located mostly in a 300 mile radius of Chicago

Pacifism--Unlike World War I, in which some British and American women's suffragists were also pacifists, there were few pacifists in Allied countries during World War II. A notable pacifist was Jeannette Rankin, who was the only person in Congress to vote against the US entering both World War I and World War II. She cast her vote in 1941 against American entry,

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saying "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

Conscientious Objectors--Nationwide during World War II, there were 34.5 million men who registered for the draft. Of those, 72,354 applied for conscientious objector status. Of those COs, 25,000 served in non-combatant roles and 27,000 failed to pass the physical exam and were exempted. There were over 6,000 men who rejected the draft outright and chose to go to jail instead of serving the war effort. And then there were 12,000 men who chose to perform alternative service. Their work was supervised by the Civilian Public Service (CPS) program. At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Ansel Keyes — the inventor of K-ration meals for GIs — was commissioned to find out how millions of starving refugees in Europe and Asia could be brought back to health after the war. He asked for volunteers from CPS conscientious objector units. The volunteers would be starved, studied and then fed back to health. Two-hundred COs volunteered, and 36 were chosen for the project. The results of the research have been used by relief workers in hunger crises ever since.

CIVIL RIGHTSLed by A. Phillip Randolph, civil rights supporters pushed FDR to end segregation in the military and threatened a march on Washington of 100,000 people to support the demand—in response, FDR on June 25, 1941, established The Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) by signing 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”-- In 1943, Roosevelt greatly strengthened the FEPC with a new executive order, Executive Order 9346. It

required that all government contracts have a non-discrimination clause. During the World War II the federal government operated airfields, shipyards, supply centers, ammunition plants and other facilities that employed millions. FEPC rules applied and guaranteed equality of employment rights. Of course, these facilities shut down when the war ended. In the private sector the FEPC was generally successful in enforcing non-discrimination in the North, it did not attempt to challenge segregation in the South, and in the border region its intervention led to hate strikes by angry white workers but Congress had never enacted FEPC into law.

In 1948, President Truman called for a permanent FEPC, anti-lynching legislation, and the abolishment of the poll tax. The conservative coalition in Democratic-controlled Congress prevented this. In 1950, the House approved a permanent FEPC bill. However, southern senators filibustered; the bill failed. Five states enacted and enforced their own FEPC laws: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington. The war effort also changed the attitudes of blacks when they returned from

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the service because, like many veterans, they believed they had fought the war and were now entitled—entitled!!—to some of the benefits

Hate strikes-- The CIO had to confront deep racial divides in its own membership, particularly in the UAW plants in Detroit where white workers sometimes struck to protest the promotion of black workers to production jobs, but also in shipyards in Alabama, mass transit in Philadelphia, and at Sparrows Point in Baltimore.

Clarence Mitchell represented some black workers at The Point in 1943, who walked off work when the company stopped training black workers for riveting jobs after white workers struck--http://books.google.com/books?id=Sn4v5HoKM5cC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=hate+strikes+%26+sparrows+point&source=bl&ots=srq1IQvd19&sig=pgOjYx16skWao0_OULoC2c1Vciw&hl=en&ei=Dc7FS_7HJYjG8wTe1M2qDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=hate%20strikes%20%26%20sparrows%20point&f=false

Rod Ryon’s article on the hate strikes at Sparrows Pointhttp://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-08-11/news/1993223043_1_riveters-shipyards-seams

The CIO leadership, particularly those in further left unions such as the Packinghouse Workers, the UAW, the NMU and the Transport Workers, undertook serious efforts to suppress hate strikes, to educate their membership and to support the Roosevelt Administration's tentative efforts to remedy racial discrimination in war industries through the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Those unions contrasted their relatively bold attack on the problem with the timidity and racism of the AFL.

In 1944, the Philadelphia Transportation Co. (PTC) strike was a test for FDR—white workers walked out in protest over the promotion of a black workers to the position of trolley driver and FDR sent in several thousand federal troops to break the strike—black workers used the strike to demand that the country live up “to its ideals” while white workers claimed that federal intervention was un-American “coercion” and “interference,” and submitted a petition with 1,776 names opposing the promotion of the black worker—in the 1944 election, PTC white workers handed out cards reading:

Franklin to Eleanor: You kiss the niggers and I’ll kiss the JewsAnd we’ll stay in the White House as long as we choose.”

http://www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/asslh/wolfinger.html

Mike Quill—claiming to have been a dispatch rider for the IRA in the 1919-1921 Treaty War, Quill came to NYC in 1926 where his full day in New York was St. Patrick's Day in 1926 and his early jobs were digging tunnels for the IND line and working at the New York Interborough Transit Company (IRT) and became the president of the Transport Workers Union, which grew out of a unique mixture of two revolutionary traditions: the Irish insurrectionary history of James Connolly and the IRA and the Communist Party. The IRT was, in fact, filled with veterans of the recent Troubles in Ireland, to the point that some jokingly referred to it as "Irish Republican Transit"—on March 10, 1941, the TWU struck several bus companies and got the support of the city’s black leaders— on March 20, the TWU agreed to arbitration and returned to work on the

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24th--the 12-day strike was successful but the boycott continued-- when the Harlem bus boycott began in several days before the TWU strike ended, Quill agreed with the community leaders, especially Adam Clayton Powell, to support the hiring of black workers (reflected in the “Jobs for Negroes” movement) and to accept blacks as full members so long as “they had clean records and had never been scabs”—at one point, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia stated that 2,000 black men “could start the bus lines in 5,10 or 20 hours”—Quill stated: "I believe in the Corporal Works of Mercy, the Ten Commandments, the American Declaration of Independence and James Connolly's outline of a socialist society … Most of my life I've been called a lunatic because I believe that I am my

brother's keeper. I organize poor and exploited workers, I fight for the civil rights of minorities, and I believe in peace. It appears to have become old-fashioned to make social commitments - to want a world free of war, poverty and disease. This is my religion."

Quill was effective in blocking some of the other TWU hate strikes and in creating a mixed-race union with strong ties to the black communities--

Adam Clayton Powell—[see Dominic J. Capecci, Jr. “From Harlem to Montgomery: The Bus Boycott and Leadership of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Martin Luther King, Jr.” The Historian. (1979)]—Powell was the charismatic minister of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, who lead rent strikes in Harlem and supported the strike led by transit union leader, Mike Quill, with whom Powell forged an alliance of convenience. Powell led the first “bus boycott” in New York in 1941 over the refusal of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to hire blacks and the tactics and wide community support were duplicated in 1956 in Montgomery, AL—there were only 16 black workers out of a workforce of 3,500, mostly as janitors and none as drivers or mechanics--with union backing Powell won a seat on the City Council in 1941. A few years later he elbowed A. Philip Randolph out of the way by announcing his own candidacy for Congress at what was supposed to be Randolph's campaign kick-off—he became a famous (or infamous) figure who was indicted for various crimes, was elected to Congress as one of two black representatives, supported Eisenhower in 1956 because he thought the Democrats were too weak on civil rights, was expelled from Congress several times (and won re-election) and died in Bimini in 1970—

1942 ELECTION—Republicans made gains in Congress, their most successful campaign since losing control in1930, because servicemen were not able to vote and many civilians were angry about price controls and rationing—began to attack the New Deal, and abolished the WPA (1943) and the CCC—some commentators compare the

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1942 election, which expressed resentment against growing federal bureaucracies, and by the frustration with military defeats, with the 2010 election--1944 ELECTION—

Even though FDR was noticeably frail, he campaigned and made certain that servicemen overseas could vote—passed the GI Bill in June, 1944, just after D Day so the frustrations of 1942 over federal policies and military defeats were reversed—in many ways, D Day was like Gettysburg, providing a strong case for the re-election of a president—also successful battles at Leyte Gulf and the liberation of Paris in august, 1944--defeated Thomas E. Dewey—even though southern reactionaries who opposed the New Deal were against FDR, they did not dare to openly oppose him but because FDR’s health seemed so bad, they fought to dump Henry Wallace for being too radical—proposed Harry Truman, who took the spot and, as anticipated, became president when FDR died a year later—FDR gave the famous “Fala” speech during the campaign, and Dewey accused Roosevelt of being "indispensable" to corrupt big-city Democratic organizations and American Communists

The next crucial historical period began, in effect, with these letters from Albert Einstein to FDR in 1939 about the potential for atomic power—Einstein was a pacifist and socialist but the emergence of Nazism pushed him, as the letters show, to thinking about the unthinkable: http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml#first

The discussion about the availability of enriched ore in the Belgian Congo (which became Zaire after independence in 1960s and is now The Democratic Republic of the Congo) shows how the development of atomic capabilities put the US even more into the global economy—

The Smith Act—passed in 1940, with Howard W. Smith and the support of the AFL, who felt the NLRB was controlled by leftists (=industrial union supporters)—Smith had opposed the NLRA, and unionism generally, and used sensationalistic hearings to undermine support for the NLRB, and for the New Deal generally—after delay, FDR conceded to the hysteria and appointed more conservative members to the NLRB, which began to issue decisions favoring management—the Act began the anti-communist/anti-subversive movement that led to the post-war red scare

Loyalty oaths were common during World War II. In support of Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration, 100,000 school children marched to Boston Common and swore a loyalty oath administered by the mayor, "I promise as a good American citizen to do my part for the NRA. I will buy only where the Blue Eagle flies."

The GI Bill (The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) was signed into law by FDR on June 22, 1944, 16 days after the D Day landing, and represented a major social policy—designed to avoid another Bonus March, though there were debates about how the money might sap the self-reliance of the returning veterans--under the GI Bill, all veterans could

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Collect one full year of unemployment compensation (at $ 20/week) when they were discharged and while they were looking for work—became known as the 52/20 Bill--this was the most controversial part of the bill and passed by one vote—less than 20% of the funds were ever collected

Low interest, zero down payment home loans for veterans, a subsidy which dramatically hastened the move to the suburbs

Veterans could enter college and tuition/books/fees and some living expenses were paid directly by the federal government--within the following 7 years, approximately 8 million veterans received educational benefits. Of that number, approximately 2,300,000 attended colleges and universities, 3,500,000 received school training, and 3,400,000 received on-the-job training. By 1951, this act had cost the government approximately $14 billion--in the peak year of 1947, veterans accounted for 49 % of college admissions

According to Jennifer Brooks, “Unexpected Foes: World War II Veterans and labor in the Postwar south” (Labor, Summer 2010), the GI Bill “flowed to veterans along local channels predetermined by race, class, gender and politics,” as designed by reactionary Congressmen like John Rankin (D-MS)—blacks and women faced discrimination in trying to attain the benefits, especially in the south--He supported racial segregation and opposed civil rights legislation. During World War II, Rankin alleged that the US Army's loss of a certain battle was due to the cowardice of black soldiers. Fellow Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas replied that many black soldiers had been decorated for bravery despite serving in a segregated Army. When African American Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was elected to Congress in 1945, Rankin vowed to never sit next to him

The original GI Bill did not included merchant marine sailors even though they were considered “military personnel” after 1936—FDR hoped for additional legislation to include “similar opportunities to members of the merchant marine who have risked their lives time and time again during war for the welfare of their country" but none was ever passed

The GI Bill, by offering low-interest home loans, supported by FHA financing, created a social policy which lasted until 2008, that every American, by right, could own a single-family house—under IRS code, interest on home loans was tax-deductible, another incentive—by the beginning of the 21st century, as wages declined and housing took a higher percentage of worker’s incomes, some conservative social commentators claimed that the policy was misguided and that there are “some Americans who are just not meant to own a house”—the subprime loans were a reflection of the original social policy so that people who might not have qualified but who really wanted to be “Americans”—that is, to own a single-gamily house, preferably in the suburbs, were able to borrow—it was also anticipated that housing values would continue to increase substantially every year so that a single-family house would be not only a nest but a nest egg--obviously, by 2007 or so, both policies ha collapsed, leaving once again the question: what does it mean to be an American?

By 1966, when the bill was amended, the basic provision was to extend the bill to

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all servicemen, even in peacetime—Eisenhower had opposed such a change in 1959 because “military service should be “an obligation of citizenship, not a basis for government benefits”—

YALTA (February, 1945)—FDR, Churchill and Stalin met with the certainty of German defeat after the Battle of the Bulge (January, 1945)—made Stalin pledge to permit votes of self-determination in Europe countries occupied by the red army and to support Chiang Kai-shek in China—also agreed to create the United Nations—in February, the Dresden bombing

April 11, 1945, FDR died in Warm Springs, GA of a cerebral hemorrhage--'We have only fifteen minutes”—

The Atomic Bomb—dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945—also planned by Truman to warn the Soviet Union that the US would rule the post-war world--

November 20, 1945—Nuremberg Trials begin, held at the ceremonial home of Nazism as a kind of symbol of the party’s destruction—had been planned as early as 1942 by FDR and Churchill to punish the Germans—establishes the principle of “accountability,” which would later become an issue in the My Lai trials—200 Germans were tried for “war crimes” and 1,600 others for similar offenses under the authority of the Instrument of Surrender of Germany—

By the end of the war, the US was—for better or worse—still the dominant country in the world and took the responsibility for maintaining military forces around the world, leading to the contested areas of Viet Nam, the Middle East—as Cong. Barney Frank noted in July 2010, the US still maintained—and paid for—15,000 troops on Okinawa, one of the most famous military battles of WWII—http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01FOB-q4-t.html?scp=3&sq=okinawa&st=cse

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