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Lesson 3: WWII
US Foreign Policy after WWI had two goals:
- #1 US avoided alliances or collective security pacts that might lead to war
o US failed to ratify Versailles Treaty and join the League of Nations over objections to
collective security
o Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
Agreement among 62 nations to outlaw war (unless in self-defense)
Meaningless because it had no enforcement provisions, such as collective
security
- #2 US promoted trade and investment in foreign countries
o Washington Disarmament Conference (1921)
Goals: Preserve the Open Door in the face of expanding Japanese power in
China
Result:
Nine Power Treaty: continuation of Open Door
Five Power: prevented arms race in Asia
o Limited battleships in a ratio of 5:5:3 among the US, GB, and
Japan
o US and GB agreed to stop fortifying Asian territories
o Dawes Plan (1924)
Causes:
European
governments owed
US $10B in war
debts; want US to
forgive debt
Germany owes Allies
$33B in war
reparations; wants
them reduced
Plan:
Reduced Germanys reparations
US lent money to Germany allowing it to make reparations payments
to Allies
Enables Allies to pay back US
Result: US made $$$
Ends as a result of the banking crisis in 1929
o FDRs Good Neighbor Policy (1933)
Renounced the Roosevelt Corollary (i.e. the right of the US to intervene in the
affairs of nations in the Western Hemisphere
In accordance with this, he withdrew US soldiers from Latin American
countries and terminated the Platt Amendment
Note: US still had the same goal of political and economic dominance of the
Western Hemisphere; it is only changing the strategy
Road to WWII
- Settlement of WWI and the worldwide depression of the 1930s set the stage for international
political instability.
o In Japan, Italy, and Germany, economic collapse and rising unemployment created
political conditions that nurtured fascists (i.e. extreme nationalistic) movements
promising recovery through military buildup and territorial expansion.
o Elsewhere in Europe and in the US, economic problems led to isolationism
Isolationism: when a government turns inward focusing on domestic problems
and avoiding foreign entanglements
Result: League of Nations, based on collective security, failed to stop
Japanese, Italian, and German expansion
- First challenge came from Japan
o Japan expanded to obtain raw materials and overseas markets for its goods in order to
become an industrial power
o In 1931, Japan seized Manchuria, a province in northern China
League of Nations condemned Japans actions but did nothing to stop it.
- Germany:
o Reparations and depression fueled the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
o His goal was to unite German people throughout Europe in a new empire that he
called the Third Reich
o In 1935, Germany began enlarging its military in violation of the Treaty of Versailles
- Italy:
o Led by Benito Mussolini, Italy engages in overseas expansion and military buildup
o 1935: colonized Ethiopia
- American Isolationism:
o Causes:
Nations traditions
Depression overshadowed foreign affairs
Disillusionment with WWI
Most Americans believed WWI had been a mistake
From 1934-1936, the Nye committee, a Senate committee led by
Republican Gerald P. Nye, investigated charges that the US had been
manipulated into WWI so that munitions makers (called the
merchants of death) could make enormous profits.
o Similar ideas were being advanced by historians and movies,
such as All Quiet on the Western Front.
During the 1930s, college students and professors annually walked out
of class to attend massive antiwar rallies in which demonstrators
carried signs reading Abolish the ROTC and Build SchoolsNot
Battleships.
As a result of these attitudes, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts and
the Ludlow Amendment was proposed.
o Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, and 1937)
o Lend-Lease (1941)
Great Britain is broke and can no longer pay for arms
The law allowed the president to lend arms to any country whose defense
was vital to US security
Significance:
Ended any pretense of neutrality
Unofficial entrance of the US into the war
Makes the US the great arsenal of democracy
o Atlantic Charter (1941)
Even though the US has not officially declared war FDR and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill meet to set postwar goals
Agree to support free trade, self-determination, and a new world
organization based on collective security
o Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)
Japanese expansion:
1931: Manchuria
1937: China
Once WWII began, Japan took over European colonies in SE Asia
US responded to this expansion with economic sanctions
Halted the sale of petroleum and scrap metal to Japan, to vital raw
materials needed for their war effort
Froze Japanese assets in the US: depriving them of $$$
Faced with economic strangulation, Japan attacked destroying much of the
Pacific Fleet stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI
Assault ended American isolationism by providing public support for the war
December 8: FDR asked Congress to declare war
o Labeled December 7th a date which will live in infamy
Congress declared war with only one dissenting vote
Home Front:
- Economy:
o Allies won because of the ability of the US to out-produce the Axis
Americans produced 2x as much as Germanys and 5x as much as Japanese
Constructed ships faster than German subs could sink them
Economy is the great arsenal of democracy
o Government controlled the economy to aid the war effort
War Production Board oversaw conversion of industry to military production,
allocated resources, and enforced production priorities
Office of Price Administration regulated prices to control inflation
In contrast to the voluntaristic approach in WWI, the OPA subjected
nearly everything Americans ate, wore, or used to rationing.
National War Labor Board established wages, hours, and working conditions
o Economic mobilization required close cooperation between business and government,
solidifying a partnership that had been growing since WWI
To encourage business to convert to war production, the government ensured
profits
FDR feared this would embarrass the country and disrupt war production.
In return for cancelling the march, FDR issued Executive Order 8802, which
prohibited discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries
or government on the basis of race.
o NAACP membership increased 9 fold
o Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) Formed
Advocated nonviolent resistance to segregation
Staged sit-ins
Japanese Internment (1942)
o After Pearl Harbor, West Coast residents worried that Japanese-Americans would aid
the Japanese in sabotage or further attacks.
Fear encouraged by local politicians and newspapers
Part of the West Coasts long history of racism toward Asian-Americans
o Despite a lack of evidence of disloyalty, FDR issued Executive Order 9066 requiring
the interment of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.
130,000 were interred in camps in desolate areas of CA, AZ, UT, CO, WY,
and ID
Forced to abandon their possession or sell them for a pittance
o In Korematsu v. United States (1944), the Supreme Court upheld internment.
o Ways out of the camp:
Labor shortage in faming led the government to release agricultural workers
4,300 college students were allowed to resume their education outside of the
West Coast military zone
Enlistment in the armed services
o In HI, where the presumed danger of subversion might have been greater, internment
did not take place because people of Japanese ancestry made up 37% of the
population and their labor was essential to the economy.
In the meantime, the USSR turned the tide against Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
o Operation Overlord directed by Eisenhower
o Goal: open up the second front in Western Europe by landing the military in France
Allied double agents and diversionary tactics fooled the Germans into
expecting a landing at the narrowest part of the English Channel rather than in
the Normandy region.
Prior to D-Day, the navy bombarded Normandy and paratroopers were
dropped behind enemy lines to disrupt German communications
On June 6, more than 4,000 Allied ships landed troops and supplies on
Normandys beaches.
First American troops to land at Omaha Beach met especially heavy
German fire and took enormous casualties
o Successful; within 3 months, US, British, and French forces entered Paris
Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945)
o Germanys last-ditch offensive push failed
o Battle is named for the bulge 80 miles long and 50 miles wide that Hitlers troops
drove into the Allies line before being pushed back
US and Great Britain moving east and USSR moving west advance toward Germany
o Soldiers discover evidence of the Holocaust
May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered
o Called V-E Day for victory in Europe
o But the war in the Pacific was not over
Pacific Theater
o Battle of Midway (June 1942)
Japan amassed 200 ships and 600 planes to destroy what remained of the US
Pacific Fleet and to take Midway Island, a strategic location for Hawaiis
security.
US learned of the plan when Naval Intelligence broke the code
Surprising the Japanese navy, the US sunk 4 Japanese carriers and destroyed
over 300 planes.
Turning point in the Pacific because it left Japans fleet so damaged that its
offensive capabilities were destroyed
o Island-hopping: from the Battle of Midway, US forces advanced slowly toward
Japan, taking one island after another in the face of bitter Japanese resistance
Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945)
Japanese soldiers fight to the death inflicting enormous casualties on
the US
o Kamikaze
Significance: US strategists predict millions of casualties will occur
when the US invades Japan
Firebombing of Japanese cities:
Goal: destroy Japanese cities to end the nations capability to fight war
and to win its unconditional surrender
Inflicts unprecedented civilian casualties