Transcript United States Reacts to War Debate 1940: Isolationist or

United States Reacts to War
Debate 1940:
Isolationist or Internationalist
• Isolationists
• America First
Committee
• Charles A Lindberg
• “Intervention is
detrimental to
American interests”
• Internationalists
• Committee to Defend
America
• Best way to keep US out
of war is to Help allies
fight the Germans
• Roosevelt is
sympathetic
FDR Aids the Allies
• Summer 1940 FDR asks congress to allow
trade of 50 destroyers in exchange for 99 year
leases for bases in the Atlantic
• Although population does not want to enter
the war, 73% support aid to Britain.
1941 Lend Lease
• 1941 Lend Lease:
• Program to offer aid to Brits
• FDR in a “Fireside Chat” “If a neighbor’s home were
on fire…”
• “lease, lend or otherwise dispose of” any items not
vital to the nation’s defense.
• US is closer to the War- (US Ships secretly were
supporting the British Navy by searching and
reporting on U-boat locations)
• Hitler afraid to attack American Ships
Atlantic Charter AUGUST 14, 1941
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The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill,
representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it
right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective
countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed
wishes of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which
they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those
who have been forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the
enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to
the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic
prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic
field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement
and social security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace
which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries,
and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in
freedom from fear and want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the
abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be
employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the
establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They
will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measure which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden
of armaments.
Election of 1940 then the Draft
• FDR decides to Run for a third term
• The Nation Needs emergency situation:
– War in Europe
– Problems in Asia
– Wants to protect New Deal reforms
• Ran against Wendell Willkie
• FDR Wins- then begins the process
• Prepare for War:
– Draft
– Armament build up
FDR Wins Unprecedented 3rd Term
Four Freedoms
• “The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere
in the world.
• The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his
own way--everywhere in the world.
• The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world
terms, means economic understandings which will secure to
every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitantseverywhere in the world.
• The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world
terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a
point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in
a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any
neighbor--anywhere in the world.”
Significance of “Four Freedoms” Speech
• Represents FDR’s view that America needs to
prepare for war and support Britain.
• FDR Prepares for War
– Increased Military appropriations
– Aliens are fingerprinted
– Peace time draft to raise 2 million troops
Key Ideas: America’s Response to Pearl
Harbor and War
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US had started to prepare 1940
Airplane production/design
Draft/Selective Service-1940
Build the “Arsenal of Democracy”-Harness the Industrial and
Economic power of the US- and focus it toward War.
• Focus on building War material- Speficially Air power,
Bombers, B17, B24, B29
• Germany was the biggest threat, Focus of first phase of War
• Then Japan
Meeting Before the War
• Before US enters War: August, 1941
Newfoundland
– Secret, FDR and Churchill meet to coordinate
– Create the Atlantic Charter (a statement of
principles agreed upon)
• Condemned Aggression
• Endorsed National Self Determination
Pearl Harbor
• American Reaction to Pearl Harbor
American reaction to Pearl Harbor was swift
and violent.
• Immediate calls for war and revenge were
heard throughout the country.
• Congress declared war and thousands of
soldiers volunteered to fight.
• Americans were mad and they would never
forget the treachery of the Japanese.
Japan Offensive
• Hitler and Mussolini both declared war on the United
States as a sign of support for the Japanese.
• Japan Attacks Polynesian Asia
Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese forces began a systematic invasion of the
Pacific. Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, French
Indochina, and the Philippines were
overrun. American forces in the Philippines were
outnumbered and overwhelmed by Japanese forces.
• 12,000 American prisoners were taken in the fall of
the last Philippine strong hold called Bataan.
• “Bataan Death March”
American “Arsenal of Democracy”
• America Mobilizes for War= (WPB)
• War Production Board- goal is to transform industrial
production to War production, organize all industrial
output
• Board had much power to control resources:
• Limited civilian goods- Rationing of food, fuel…
• Cars stopped being produced
• Conservation and recycle movement, rubber, metal,
grease,
“Arsenal of Democracy”
• $320 Billion government spending- 1940-1945
• Huge amount was 6 times that of Roosevelt’s
first two terms.
Financing the War
• Taxes increase
• Income
– 1941 7 million people file taxes
– 1944 42 million people file taxes
– Government starts a withholding $ from workers
• Loans/War Bonds
– $100 billion in bonds sold
Internment of Japanese Americans
• Japanese immigrants had increased in the
United States with the since early 1900
• When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor a great
backlash was directed at Japanese Americans
Japanese Relocation
• 120,000 Japanese lived on the West coast
• Were accused of potentially aiding Japanese
espionage
• Some people, racist, and wanted to use the
opportunity to take Japanese land
• February 1942 FDR signed an executive order
• “Remove any and all persons who might pose
a threat to national security.”
• Camps (Manzanar) were set up in the deserts
of
Japanese Internment Camps
• Japanese were relocated in
Camps:
• Some Japanese sued for
their rights:
• Korematus v. the United
States
• Supreme Court upheld the
• Internment of the Japanese
War in Europe
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Allies agreed that Europe was first priority
North Africa-November 1942
1942 Bombing campaign against Germany begun
1942- SicilySeptember 1943 Italy Surrenders (German Army occupies and
holds Northern Italy)
1944 Rome Falls
June 6, 1944 D-Day- Allied Invasion of Normandy France, the
Second Front is opened.
December 16, 1944 Battle of the Bulge (German counter
attack in the Ardennes Forrest, 200K Germans attack Allies)
May 7, 1945 Germany Surrenders (Hitler is dead, Russians
conquer Berlin)- May 8, 1945 V-E Day
War in the Pacific
• Strategy of Island Hopping: bypass some
islands controlled by Japanese and attack
specific islands, to obtain air bases in an effort
to bomb Japan more efficiently and to build
up forces in an effort to invade Japan.
• 1942 Major victory at Midway Island US takes
out Japanese aircraft carriers
• Timeline of WWII (everything you wanted to
know and more)
Women and the War
• Rosie the
Riveter:
• Women go to
work in
munitions
factories,
other jobs,
and the
military
Wartime Conferences
• FDR (and later Truman) will coordinate the effort with Allied
leaders Churchill, and later Stalin
• Casablanca-1943 FDR, Churchill, agreed on war aims: Sicily
invasion, Unconditional Surrender- of Japan and Germany
• Cairo-1943- FDR and Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek- discussed war
aims in Asia, Japan will lose all islands acquired, Korea
independent
• Teheran-1943 The “Big Three” discussed 2nd front in Europe
(France), Postwar Germany,
• Yalta-February 1945 “Big Three” Discussed the fate of Poland,
Stalin asserted need for “Buffer Zone” and sphere of
influence; Stalin promised to allow free elections; planned for
the division of Germany after the war; Stalin promised to
declare war on Japan in exchange for Japanese land/Kurile
Islands; (FDR is dying and will be criticized for being
manipulated by Stalin and “selling out” Eastern Europe to the
Russians.
• Potsdam- Germany, July 1945, FDR dead, Truman, Churchill
gone, new Brit- Clement Atlee, Stalin- discussed boundaries
for Germany, German resources would pay for the war,
“GI Bill of Rights”
• GI is the term used for American soldiers in
WWII. (G.I. means General Issue)
• The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
• Provided veterans a series of benefits:
– Low interest loans for homes, business, and farms
– Aid for education
FDR Dies April 12, 1945
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FDR dies and Harry Truman takes over
FDR was elected to an unprecedented 4 terms
He was a extremely beloved leader.
“Roosevelt had filled their lives through
depression and war for more than a dozen
years, allying their years and giving them
hope. Now he was gone…”
• Election of 1944 running mate Harry S.
Truman, from Missouri, a Democratic Senator,
becomes President.
Atomic Bomb Production
• FDR authorized a secret program code named
“Manhattan Project”
• 1943, J. Robert Oppenheimer, led the team of
physicists to develop and atomic weapon, to split the
atom
• Los Alamos, New Mexico
• July 1945, the bomb was ready (Truman had no idea
any bomb like this was being worked on, when he
took office)
• September 2, 1945 VJ Day
Nagasaki, Japan
• Before the
atomic bomb
• After the atomic
bomb