Transcript America Gets Ready For War

America Gets
Ready For War!
FDR and the US after Pearl Harbor:
“Dr. New Deal Becomes Dr. Win the
War”
Pearl Harbor gives FDR new powers
War Powers Act (December, 1941)
 FDR is given complete
emergency authority to
create new executive
agencies, establish trade
controls, initiate defense
contracts, and censor
information
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Supreme Court justice
James F. Byrnes:
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The military grows
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Only 1.6 million
Americans in the military
before Pearl Harbor;
Reorganizing for battle
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Joint Chiefs of Staff:
Army, Navy, Army Air
Force
War and Industry
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“If you are going to try to go to
war in a capitalist country you
have to let business make
money out of the process or
business won’t work.”
–Secretary of War Henry
Stimson
War Production Board (WPB)
Established in Jan. 1942
1. Allocate scarce materials to industry
2. Require companies to produce war supplies
instead of civilian goods
3. Make war profitable for corporations
guaranteed profits (cost-plus system)
no prosecutions for anti-trust violations
Examples:
The miracle of production
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The U.S. makes twice as many war supplies than all of
the Axis nations combined
Factories run 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk.
300,000 military aircraft, 86,000 tanks, 2.6 million
machine guns, 6 million tons of bombs, 86,000 warships
New technologies:
Science and technology
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“The wizard war”
Synthetic rubber
Office of Scientific Research and Development
Sonar and radar
Rockets
Jets
High-altitude bomb sights
DDT and insecticides
Penicillin mass production
MASH units (Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospital)
The Manhattan Project
The transformation of America
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“Something is happening that Adolf Hitler does
not understand… it is the miracle of production.”
The rise of the Sunbelt
Paying for the war
The U.S. spends $250 million a day on the war!
Federal budget grows:
 $9 billion in 1940 (Defense spending: 9% of GNP)
War bond sales:
Revenue Act of 1942:
Office of Price Administration (OPA)
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Established in Apr.1942; mainly to reduce
demand and limit inflation
Imposed price controls on products to stop the
massive inflation brought on by higher incomes
and a lack of consumer goods
Freezes on prices, rents, wages
Rationing program:
Putting the people to work
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War Manpower Commission (WMC)
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National War Labor Board (NWLB)
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Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)
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Strong unions:
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Later, the Smith-Connally Act (1943) gives FDR the power to seize
factories/mines if war production was threatened by strikes; 30 days
notice before a strike
An hour a day for the USA!
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Office of Civilian Defense:
Thought Control?
Office of Censorship
Office of Facts and Figures: agency that monitored
the patriotic content of newspapers
Propaganda
Office of War Information (OWI) June 1942
 Employed 4,000 artists, writers, and advertising
experts
 Created propaganda to inspire the American
people to keep working and buy war bonds
 Movies, songs, posters, cartoons, comics,
newspapers, advertisements, radio shows all
encouraged patriotism and a cheerful view of the
war
 Hollywood stars, musicians, and athletes
 Make sure you do the homework!