Transcript Notes part 3

WW2 & ITS AFTERMATH
Victory in Europe & the Pacific


March 1945, Allies crossed the Rhine
Soviets enter in East
April 25, 1945, Elbe River
Axis armies begin
to surrender


April 28, 1945
Mussolini was
executed


April 30, 1945
Hitler commits suicide in
underground bunker
V-E Day


May 7, 1945 – Nazis
surrendered
May 8, 1945 – Official, V-E
Day
Reasons for Allied Victory

Germany’s location
 Fought

on multiple fronts
Hitler took almost complete control of military
 Made
some poor decisions
 Underestimated Soviet Union

Strength of the USA
 1944,
US was producing twice as much as all Axis powers
combined

Allied bombing
 Hindered
German production
 Made oil very scare (almost grounded German air force)
Struggle for the Pacific


Until mid-1942, Japan won all battles
Controlled much of Southeast Asia &
Pacific islands
By May, 1942, Japanese
gained Philippines
Bataan Death March
(65 miles)
“A macabre litany of
heat, dust, starvation,
thirst, flies, filth,
stench, murder,
torture, corpses, &
wholesale brutality
that numbs the
memory.”
Defeat for Japan

“Island-hopping” campaign
 Recapture
some islands,
bypass others
 Use as steppingstones to next
objective

US forces, lead by General
Douglas MacArthur
gradually moved towards
Japan
Defeat for Japan




Mid-1945, most of the
Japanese navy & air force
had been destroyed
… But Japanese still had an
army of 2 million
1945, Battles on Iwo Jima &
Okinawa proved Japanese
would fight to the death rather
than surrender
Kamikazes

Suicide pilots
Manhattan Project


Allied scientists (some German & Italian refugees)
Understood that by splitting an the atom, they could create
an explosion far more powerful than any known to man
July 1945, successfully
created it

“If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the
annihilation of contemporary German science, we
shall do without science for a few years” - Hitler
Invasion or the Bomb?


Operation Downfall
Harry Truman
 FDR


died April 12, 1945
Terrible new force of destruction
But how many Allied lives could be saved?
Allies issued warning to Japan, “Surrender or face
complete destruction & utter devastation”
Hiroshima



August 6, 1945
Killed 70,000 people &
flattened 4 square miles
instantly
Many more died of radiation
Little Boy
j
August 8, Soviet Union declares war on Japan
Invades Manchuria
Japanese leaders don’t respond
Nagasaki


August 9, 1945
40,000 people
killed
Fat Man
August 10, 1945
Emperor Hirohito
surrendered
V-J Day

September 2, 1945
Japanese sign formal
peace treaty
End of WWII
Battle Deaths
15,000,000
Battle Wounded
25,000,000
Civilian Deaths
45,000,000
End of WWII
End of WWII




Germany, Poland, Soviet Union, Japan, China, & other
countries in ruins
Total war
More than 20,000,000 refugees in Europe
Devastation, hunger, disease, mental illness
Allies faced some
difficult decisions

War Crimes





Horrors of the Holocaust
Allies charged Axis leaders with “Crimes against humanity”
Top Japanese & Nazis received death sentences or were
imprisoned
How could all of this happen?
Western Allies helped set up democratic constitutions
protecting the people in Germany & Japan
United Nations


April 1945
Delegates from 50 nations
 Each

get one vote in General Assembly
5 permanent members
 Security
council
 Much more power
 Can veto any decision


Peacekeeping
Today: prevent disease, ensure education, help
refugees, help economies

2 countries emerge as world
leaders

2 countries emerge as world leaders
 USA

US abandons policy of isolationism
 To

& Soviet Union
battle communist threat
Mutual distrust, different ideologies,
disagreement on German reparations &
Cold
governments of E. Europe
War

2 countries emerge as world leaders
 USA

US abandons policy of isolationism
 To

& Soviet Union
battle communist threat
Mutual distrust, different ideologies,
disagreement on German reparations &
Cold
governments of E. Europe
War
Cold War Begins

Stalin’s goals in E. Europe
 1.
Spread communism
 2. Create buffer from
Germany
Truman Doctrine



March 12, 1947
“I believe that it must be the policy of the
United States to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures.”
Containment
 Limiting
communism to the
areas already under
Soviet control
Marshall Plan

USA offered massive aid packages
Strengthen democratic governments (mostly in Western
Europe)

Billions of $

 Helped
war-shattered Europe recover
quickly

Offered help to everyone
 Stalin
forbade countries to accept
Normandy
New Alliances

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
 USA, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal,
1949 Denmark, Iceland, Luxemburg & Netherlands
 Pledged

28
members
today
Norway,
to attack if any member is attacked
Warsaw Pact
 Soviet
Union & 7 satellites in E. Europe
 People’s republic of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland,
1955
Romania, Czechoslovak republic,
& German Democratic Republic
Propaganda War


USA defending capitalism and
democracy against communism &
totalitarianism
Soviet Union claimed moral high
ground in the struggle against
Western imperialism
"The people's of the world do not want a
repetition of the deprivations of poverty.
-Stalin."