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Ava Lieb
Jonathan Hebertson
History 1700
October 28, 2015
America in World War II
The Facts
America's economy performed great feats during World War II. Manufacturers retooled
their plants to produce war goods but this alone was not enough. Soon huge new factories, built
with government and private funds, appeared around the nation. Millions of new jobs were
created and millions of Americans moved to new communities to fill them. Annual economic
production, as measured by the Gross National Product (GNP), more than doubled, rising from
$99.7 billion in 1940 to nearly $212 billion in 1945.
The war virtually ended unemployment in America. The need for workers led
manufacturers to hire women, teenagers, the aged, and minorities previously excluded by
discrimination from sectors of the economy. Plentiful overtime work contributed to rising wages
and increased savings.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called upon the United States to be "the great arsenal of
democracy," and supply war materials to the Allies through sale, lease, or loan. The Lend-Lease
bill became law on March 11, 1941. During the next four years, the U.S. sent more than $50
billion worth of war materials to the Allies.
When war broke out in Europe, US President Franklin Roosevelt recognised that the
conflict threatened US security, and looked for ways to help the European democracies without

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direct involvement in the war. Churchill did not have to wait long. After the bombing of the US
Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, only one congressman opposed the declaration
of war. Hitlers declaration of war on the US, which came four days later, was actually a blessing
in disguise for Roosevelt; it enabled him to legitimately pursue a Germany first strategy. In
November 1942, Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, became the first US military
offensive of the war in the West. Allied troops slowly cornered German forces in North Africa,
who surrendered in Tunisia in May 1943.
About 16 million Americans served in World War II from late 1941 to 1945. The total
population of the country at that time was only 130 million so this was a major investment for
the United States. More than 400,000 soldiers did not return. Another 670,000 were wounded on
foreign soil.The involvement of the United States and the Soviet Union in the war gradually
turned a successful German military campaign into a disaster for the German forces. In 1942 and
1943, the German forces lost many battles and it became clear that they would be defeated. The
Japanese forces also started to lose ground. But the Holocaust, the systematic murder of Europes
Jews, continued without delay. It became a high priority for a Nazi government that realized it
was going to lose the war.

Timing is everything
When war broke out, there was no way the world could possibly know the severity of this
nightmare. Fortunately, one country saw and understood that Germany and its allies would have
to be stopped. Americas Involvement in World War two not only contributed in the eventual
downfall of the insane Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich, but also came at the precise time and
moment. Had the United States entered the war any earlier the consequences might have been
worse.

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Over the years it has been an often heated and debated issue on whether the United States
could have entered the war sooner and thus have saved many lives. To try to understand this, we
must look both at the peoples and governments point of view. Just after war broke out in
Europe, President Roosevelt hurriedly called his cabinet and military advisors together. There it
was agreed that the United states stay neutral in these affairs. One of the reasons given was that
unless America was directly threatened they had no reason to be involved. This reason was a
valid one because it was the American policy to stay neutral in any affairs not having to with
them unless American soil was threatened directly. Thus the provisional neutrality act passed the
senate by seventy-nine votes to two in 1935. On August 31, Roosevelt signed it into law. In 1936
the law was renewed, and in 1937 a comprehensive and permanent neutrality act was passed.
The desire to avoid foreign entanglements of all kinds had been an American foreign
policy for more than a century. A very real geographical Isolation permitted the United States to
fill up the empty lands of North America free from the threat of foreign conflict. Even if
Roosevelt had wanted to do more in this European crisis (which he did not), there was a factor
too often ignored by critics of American policy-American military weakness. When asked to
evaluate how many troops were available if and when the United States would get involved, the
army could only gather a mere one hundred thousand when the French, Russian, and Japanese
armies numbered in millions. We were clearly outnumbered. Its weapons dated from the first
World War and were no match compared to the new artillery that Germany and its allies had.
American soldiers were more at home with the horse than with the tank. The air force was just as
bad if not worse. In September 1939 the Air Corps had only 800 combat aircrafts again
compared with Germanys 3600 and Russias 10,000. American military Aviation (AMA) in
1938 was able to produce only 1,800, 300 less than Germany, and 1,400 less than Japan. Major

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Eisenhower, who was later Supreme commander of the Allied forces in the second World War,
complained that America was left with only a shell of military establishment. As was evident to
Roosevelt the United States military was in no way prepared to enter this European crisis.
Another aspect that we have to consider is the peoples views and thoughts regarding the
United States going to war. After all let us not forget that the American government is there for
the people and by the people and therefore the peoples view did play a major role in this
declaration of Neutrality. In one of Roosevelts fireside chats he said We shun political
commitments which might entangle us In foreign warsIf we face the choice of profits or
peace-this nation must answer, the nation will answer we choose peace, in which they did. A
poll taken in 1939 revealed that ninety-four per cent of the citizens did not want the United
States to enter the war. The shock of World War one had still not left, and entering a new war,
they felt, would be foolish. In the early stages of the war American Ambassador to London was
quoted saying Its the end of the world, the end of everything. As Richard Overy notes in The
Road To War, this growing estrangement from Europe was not mere selfishness. They were the
values expressed by secretary of state, Cordell Hull: a primary interest in peace with justice, in
economic well-being with stability, and conditions of order under the law. These were principles
here on which most Americans (ninety-four percent as of 1939) agreed on. To promote these
principles the United States would have to avoid all foreign entanglements, or as Overy puts it
any kind of alliance or association outside the Western Hemisphere. Instead the United States
should act as an arbiter in world affairs, encouraging peaceful change where necessary and most
and for all discouraging aggression.
Why risk going to war, when it is contrary to American policy which most if not all
Americans were in agreement with and not mentioning the fact that the American military was in

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shambles. Yet another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was
the American Economy. The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized whatever
was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelts view that the United States would fare well
(economically speaking) whether Europe went to war or not. Gold was flowing in from Europes
capitals; orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds; America was
building a battleship for Stalin, aero-engines for France. For most of the 1930s the United States
traded as openly with Germany and Japan, as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel
oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of the United States most important markets
during the 1930s. American investments in Germany increased by forty per cent between 1936
and 1940. America was steadily regaining the prosperity that had diminished during World War
1. The real concern of American business was not the rights or wrongs of trading with fascism
but the fear that commercial rivals such as Japan and Germany would exclude American goods
from Europe and Asia altogether.
It is very easy to point and accuse the united states of being selfish, but one has to
understand that any negative actions made would have resulted in the United States being almost
if not completely out of the economic race. Would the United States have been as prosperous as
it is today had they intervened any earlier? They probably would have not because at that time in
history America needed a boost to return to its earlier status of being economically stable which
Germany and its allies so adequately provided. Therefore President Roosevelt was not about to
go to war with all axis powers thereby jeopardizing not only the safety of the American people
but also the American economy which was so essential to a large and complex country that the
United States was at the time. Unless American interests were directly threatened, Roosevelt
hesitated to push the button.

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On December 6, 1941 the Japanese Air Force led a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor,
completely eradicating the port. Finally President Roosevelt could wait no longer. America was
now involved and not going to war would only endanger the United States more than it already
was. On the following day Roosevelt argued that the attack had given us an opportunity.
Congress approved the declaration of war with only one dissenting voice. Eleanor Roosevelt
noted that the effect of the Japanese attack was to release my husband from months and pent-up
tension and anxiety. Andrew Wheatcroft says in his book The Road To War, It is tempting to
see Pearl Harbor as the crisis that Roosevelt was waiting for and did nothing to prevent.
Americas most vital interest, defense of American soil, had been challenged. At last America
had to go to war and eventually bring an end to the rule of nazi Germany.
The Americans upon declaring its Neutrality, gave additional encouragement to Japan and
Germany to in a way take over the world, and to Nazify it. Hitler had convinced himself that
America had declined in the 1930s because of social crisis. This misconception also led Japan to
confront the United States in 1941. Had the United States entered the war any earlier or later the
consequences could have been much worse, if possible. Towards the end of the war Walter
Lippmann reporter for the Herald Tribune recalled his experience:
When I attempt to compare the America in which I was reared with the America of today, I am
struck by how unconcerned I was as a young man with the hard questions which are the subject
matter of history. I did not think about the security of the republic and how to defend it. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt did think about the security of the republic and defended it magnificently.
Leading the United States every step of the way President Roosevelt did a superior job in
bringing America into war when he did. Evidently America entered World War 2 at the precise
time and moment to once and for all take down Adolph Hitler and the third Reich.

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Bibliography
"America in the Second World War." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d.
Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

"Military History of the United States During World War II." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

"US Entry and Alliance." HISTORY. N.p., 03 Apr. 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

"US Involvement in the Second World War" . N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

"World War II." World War II. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

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