The American Promise:A History of the United States

Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 25The United States and the Second World War

1939–1945

Peacetime Dilemmas • Roosevelt and Reluctant Isolation

– Franklin Roosevelt - domestic causes and consequences of depression important – active role in international affairs.

– Depression forced Roosevelt to retreat from internationalism and maintain neutrality.

– In 1933 formally recognized the Soviet Union, blind eye to Hitler began arming Germany.

• The Good Neighbor Policy – 1933 inaugural address - “the policy of the good neighbor” in Latin

America.– Exert economic influence in Latin America.

• The Price of Noninvolvement – Fascist governments in Italy and Germany - military aggression, in

Japan - militaristic government - invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

– Hostilities in Asia and Europe reinforced isolationist sentiments.– Nye Committee Report - greedy “merchants of death” dragged

the United States into World War I - Series of neutrality acts between 1935 and 1937.

– Neutrality Act of 1937 - “cash-and-carry” policy, warring nations to pay cash for nonmilitary goods and transport them in their own ships.

– Peace and lack of action from France, Britain, and the United States led Germany, Italy, and Japan to assume Western democracies lacked will to oppose them.

– In Spain - civil war in 1936 - fascist rebels led by General Francisco Franco supported by Germany and Italy, attacked democratically elected Republican government – U. S. supported neither side.

– Roosevelt - persuade Americans to moderate isolationism and support victims of fascist aggression.

– Protests from isolationists.– Roosevelt convinced of careful maneuvering.

The Onset of War • Nazi Aggression and War in Europe

– Americans watched Hitler’s campaign to dominate Europe.– In March 1939 Germany marched into Czechoslovakia.– In April 1939, Hitler demanded Poland return German territory it

received after World War I.– Britain and France assured Poland of war with Germany if Hitler

invaded - Hitler negotiated with his enemy, Joseph Stalin if Soviet Union refrained from joining Britain and France in opposing Germany’s invasion of Poland.

– On September 1, 1939, Hitler unleashed the blitzkrieg on Poland. – Nazis overran Poland - few months later westward blitzkrieg

through Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France.

– Mid-June 1940, France surrendered - signed armistice - gave Germany control of two thirds of the country - a collaborationist government at Vichy in southern France headed by Philippe Pétain.

– British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, vowed that Britain would never surrender to Hitler.

• From Neutrality to the Arsenal of Democracy – Nazi attack on Poland Prompted Roosevelt to issue official

proclamation of American neutrality.– November 1939 revised neutrality legislation - cash-and-carry

basis for purchase of military and non-military items.– Churchill pleaded for American destroyers, aircraft, and

munitions, but no funds - Roosevelt arranged for fifty old destroyers for American access to British bases in the Western Hemisphere –

– Roosevelt makes successful third term bid - maneuvered to support Britain short of entering the war.

– In January 1941, Lend-Lease Act – to support British - collision course with the Nazis.

– Hitler launches a surprise attack on the Soviet Union.– Roosevelt met with Churchill and signed the Atlantic Charter -

freedom of the seas; right of nations to self-government.• Japan Attacks America

– Hitler exercised restraint in directly provoking America.

– Japanese ambitions in Asia clashed openly with American interests and commitments.

– In 1940 - Japan signaled defensive alliance with Germany and Italy—the Tripartite Pact.

– Japan’s plan of invading oil-rich Dutch East Indies prompted U. S. trade embargo - no oil, scrap iron, and other goods essential for war machines.

– In October 1941 Japanese militarists, led by General Hideki Tojo seized control of the government, persuaded Emperor Hirohito for swift destruction of American naval bases in the Pacific.

– Decoded Japanese messages alerted American officials to an attack on United States in the Pacific – not sure when or where.

– December 7, 1941 Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor - sank or disabled 18 ships, killing more than 2400 Americans - stunning tactical success but colossal blunder.

Mobilizing for War

• Home-Front Security

– German submarines to hunt for American ships along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida - U.S. navy reduced direct threat.

– Patriotic vigilance against German and Japanese foes - Americans of Japanese descent targets of official and popular persecution.

– February 19, 1942, EO 9066 authorized sending Americans of Japanese descent to prison camps - “relocation centers,” in remote areas of the West.

• Building a Citizen Army – Selective Service Act - draft eligible men into the armed forces if

needed – no discrimination “on account of race or color” - million African American men and women, half million Mexican Americans, 25,000 Native Americans, and 13,000 Chinese Americans enlisted, Homosexuals in much smaller numbers.

• Conversion to a War Economy– Factories were converted from producing consumer goods to war

materials - War Production Board set production priorities and pushed for maximum output.

– Booming wartime employment swelled union membership - unions agreed not to strike during the war.

– Roosevelt’s ambitious goal of “overwhelming . . . , crushing superiority” in military goods and United States produced more than double the combined production of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

Fighting Back

• Turning the Tide in the Pacific– In the Pacific theater, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, ordered all-out

offensive in the southern Pacific - American stronghold in the Philippines in the way of progress - assault against Philippines in January 1942 – defeated them by May 1942.

– By the summer of 1942 to conquer the oil-rich Dutch East Indies and poised to strike Australia and New Zealand.

– United States launched two-pronged counteroffensive to halt Japanese advance.

– Victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942 reversed the balance of naval power in the Pacific in favor of the United States.

• The Campaign in Europe– Hitler’s eastern-front armies marched deeper into the Soviet Union

- western forces prepared to invade Britain.– The war in the Atlantic remained undecided but radar detectors and

destroyer escorts drove Nazi U-boats from North Atlantic in May 1943.

– Stalin’s demand - America and Britain mount massive assault into western France to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union, Roosevelt

and Churchill agreed - strike first in southern Europe and the Mediterranean.

– By May 1943 Allied armies defeated the Germans in North Africa, Mediterranean safe for Allied shipping, opened the door for an Allied invasion of Italy.

– In January 1943, Roosevelt in Casablanca to confer with Churchill and other Allied leaders - accept nothing less than “unconditional surrender” of Axis powers - not yet prepared for the invasion of France that Stalin demanded.

– Stalin to bear the brunt of the Nazi war machine for another year, - Churchill and Roosevelt invaded Italy - Italian government surrendered unconditionally, but not the Germans.

– Stalin denounced Allies – Stalin’s complaint - Soviet Army “which is fighting not only for country, but also for its Allies, to do the job alone, almost single-handed.”

The Wartime Home Front

• Women and Families, Guns and Butter

– Millions of American women working on assembly lines in defense industries.

– Majority of married women at home - contributed to the war effort - planting Victory Gardens, collecting tin cans and newspapers for recycling into war materials, and buying war bonds.

– Wartime prosperity and abundance of most Americans - hard- pressed allies.

• The Double V Campaign – Fighting against Nazi Germany and Aryan racial supremacy

forced Americans to examine racial prejudice.– In 1941, black organizations demanded federal government

require companies receiving defense contracts to integrate workforces.

– EO 8802 authorized a Committee on Fair Employment Practices to investigate and prevent race discrimination in employment.

– Black unemployment dropped by 80 percent during the war but war’s end average income of a black family half of that of a white family.

– Blacks’ migration to defense jobs intensified racial tensions - summer of 1943 242 race riots erupted in 47 cities.

– “Double V” campaign supported by the NAACP - limited

success against racial discrimination during the war.– Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942 -

organized picketing and sit-ins against Jim Crow restaurants and theaters.

• Wartime Politics and the 1944 Election– Nation’s massive wartime mobilization made it difficult for

Roosevelt to maintain his political coalition.– Republicans rolled back New Deal reforms, abolished the

Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

– June 1944, Congress unanimously approved the landmark GI Bill of Rights - veterans to receive government money for education, housing, health care, low-interest loans to start businesses and buy homes when they returned.

– Roosevelt, exhausted and gravely ill with heart disease.– Republican candidate - governor of New York, Thomas E.

Dewey, a tough crime fighter.

– Roosevelt’s failing health alarmed people but majority of voters not ready for a change of presidents during the war - dismissed Dewey’s charge that New Deal a creeping socialist menace.

• Reaction to the Holocaust – Political cross-currents in the United States tame in

comparison with Hitler’s vicious campaign to exterminate Jews.

– Hitler’s “final solution”: Jews and other “undesirables”— such as Gypsies, religious and political dissenters, and homosexuals—to concentration camps.

– Most Americans, including top officials -reports of the camps exaggerated – only 152,000 of Europe’s millions of Jews managed to gain refuge in the United States.

– The World Jewish Congress appealed to the Allies to bomb the death camps and the railroad tracks leading to them but Allied officials turned aside such requests - military missions more important.

– Russian troops in Auschwitz in Poland in February 1945 - truth revealed - by the end of the war, Nazi troops had slaughtered nine million victims—mostly Jews.

Toward Unconditional Surrender • From Bombing Raids to Berlin

– British and Americans delayed second front on the ground.– In November 1943, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met in

Teheran, Iran, to plan the Allies’ next step - Roosevelt and Churchill promised to launch massive second-front assault in northern France - Code-named Overlord in May 1944 - four million Americans in England along with fourteen divisions from Britain, three from Canada, and one each from Poland and France.

– General Erwin Rommel and Hitler’s armies halting the Red Army’s westward offensive – could not stop Allied soldiers waiting in England.

– Surprise amphibious landing and assault in Normandy - June 6, 1944—D Day—General Dwight Eisenhower.

– In February 1945 Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt met secretly at Yalta to discuss plans for the postwar future - Stalin’s promise to permit votes of self-determination in eastern European countries occupied by the Red Army and the “Big Three” agreed on creation

– of a new international peacekeeping organization, the United Nations (UN).

– In April, Soviets smashed into Berlin and so also Western Allies - Hitler committed suicide on April 30, and on May 7, a provisional German government surrendered unconditionally.

– Roosevelt did not live to see the end of the war - Harry Truman, his successor.

• The Defeat of Japan– Pacific - Americans and allies attacked Japanese strongholds

by sea, air, and land on island-hopping campaign toward the Japanese homeland starting August 1942 at Guadalcanal.

– In mid-1943, American, Australian, and New Zealand forces launched offensives in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, gradually securing the South Pacific.

– Japanese soldiers ordered not to surrender.– Island-hopping campaign kept pressure on Japanese forces -

Allies invaded the Philippines in fall 1944. – By June 1945, Japanese defenseless on sea and in the air -

but their leaders prepared to fight to death for their homeland.

• Atomic Warfare– In mid-July 1945, American scientists tested the atomic bomb near

Los Alamos, New Mexico - mushroom cloud of debris eight miles into the atmosphere.

– Persuade Japan to surrender by demonstrating bomb’s destructive power – never happened.

– At Potsdam Conference Truman knew about the bomb - saw no reason not to use it against Japan if it would save American lives.

– Truman recognized bomb gave the United States a devastating atomic monopoly - could be used to counter Soviet ambitions and advance American interests in postwar world.

– Japan refused to surrender unconditionally by deadline - Truman ordered bomb be dropped without warning on Japanese cities not already heavily damaged by American raids.

– Japan surrendered on August 14.

Pearl Harbor Attack Japanese Postcard

D Day Invasion

Yalta Conference

Marine Pinned Down on Saipan

Hiroshima Bombing

“Fat Man”