Transcript Global War and Confrontation

Global War and Confrontation
Recommendations
Overview
America and the World in the 1930s
 War at Home
 War Abroad
 Emerging Cold War

Isolationism and Neutrality


Public opinion - General disillusionment with Europe
and European politics
Administration:






muted criticism of Anti-Jewish laws in Germany
diplomatic recognition of Soviet Union (1933)
no interest in reorganizing global economy
“good neighbour policy” towards Latin America
Promise to effect Philippine independence within the next
decade
Construction of warships
Congress: Neutrality Acts (1935-1937)





No weapons and munitions deliveries to aggressors
and victims
No loans to belligerent countries
No weapons and munitions deliveries to countries
suffering from civil war (Spain 1936-39)
Americans should not travel on ships owned by
companies from belligerent countries,
Purchase of military hardware and munitions only on
a ‘cash and carry’ basis.
Turn-Around
Fascist aggression in Europe
 Japanese aggression in China
 FDR: America can no longer be indifferent
towards “international lawlessness”

FDR: Deceiver and Preparer



Aim: to prevent Hitler from dominating
Europe
New conception of national security
Steps:







Declaration of Panama (1939) establishes
„Security Zone“ in the Americas
Loosening of Neutrality Acts
June 1940: FDR declares „state of
nonbelligerency“
Sept. 1940: Destroyer-for-bases deal with
Britain
Ogdensburg Agreement with Canada
Introduction of the draft in peace time
Promises to turn the US into „the arsenal of
democracy“
The Four Freedoms
(January 1941)
freedom of opinion and speech
 freedom of religion
 freedom from want
 freedom from fear

Preparations for War
Lend-Lease Agreement
 Manhattan Project

The Atlantic Charter
(August 1941)






No territorial aggrandizements
Self-determination (US: also for
colonies; GB: designed for Europe)
“Open Door” and international
economic cooperation
Just peace
Disarmament
Freedom of the seas
Japanese Expansion






Raw materials
Expansion in China
Expansion in Southeast Asia
(Indochina)
Embargo against Japan by
Netherlands, Britain and US after
July 1941
Pearl Harbor December 1941
Japanese invasion of Southeast
Asia (fall of Singapore February
1942)
The Home Front

Overwhelming support for the war
Internment of JapaneseAmericans

Strong commitment to all partners

Mobilization and Propaganda
Economic Mobilization




War financing
Increase in wages, net income
(135%), consumption and
production
Mobilization of labor (esp.
women)
Character of economy:
corporate liberalism
Aircraft and Armaments Production
(left graph: aircraft – right graph: total armaments)
180000
160000
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
70
Germany
60
Britain
50
Allies
Axis
USSR
40
30
United States
20
Total Allied
Combatants
Japan
10
0
1939
1941
1943
1945
1940
1941
1943
Total Axis
Combatants
Politics and Strategy
Germany-first strategy
 Conference at Teheran 1943: grand coalition
agrees not to make separate peace treaties.
 Unconditional surrender

Military Strategy




Early creation of a
western front (therefore:
landing in North Africa in
November of 1942,
landing on Sicily in the
summer of 1943)
Decision to invade France
in 1944
Successes were evident at
first against Japan (naval
battle at Midway, June
1942)
Battle in the Atlantic: high
point in 1943
Legacy of FDR



Believed wrongly
that cooperation
with Stalin would
be possible
Death of FDR on
12 April 1945
Successor: Harry
S. Truman
The Decision to Drop the Bomb








Japanese cities already heavily destroyed
American scientists suggest a demonstration detonation
Tokyo signals willingness to end the war but under
“honourable conditions”
Secretary of War Stimson warns of “race war” in the event of
U.S. landing on Japanese territory
Truman: wanted to save American lives
A very expensive project had to be successfully concluded
Helps to bring about world peace in the future
Warning to the Soviets (developing cold war)
Global War and Confrontation
Results of the War (U.S. Perspective)








Lowest number of casualties produced highest degree of success
300.000 dead and 670.000 wounded
Only country which emerged economically strengthened from the war
Only country which had weapons of mass destruction
Isolationism in the US was dead
Strengthening of the office of the Presidency (executive leadership)
Bureaucratization of politics (from 1.1 million to 3.4 million federal
officials)
More government interference in private and public life
Results of the War: Promises and Challenges






Victory seemed to confirm the superiority of liberal capitalism and
American-style democracy
Charta of the U.N. seemed to promise world peace
System of Bretton Woods established dollar as leading currency and
reserve currency of the world economy
Growing problems with the Soviet Union over Eastern Europe, Germany
Growing problems in China and in South- and Southeast Asia
War solved many problems of the international system but created new
ones
The Onset of the Cold War









Growing distrist in Soviet
policies
Increasing problems in
Germany
Truman Doctrine
Containment policy
Marshall Plan
Problem of Eastern Europe
Founding of NATO
Civil war in China
Korean war