US and the period of appeasement

1. US and the period of appeasement

2. America’s response to the rise of Dictators in Europe • The rise of dictatorships in Europe after WWI made Americans feel like everything they had fought for during WWI was pointless. • Favor isolationism

3. The Neutrality Acts -1935 • Response to Hitler’s rearming of Germany • Based on the idea that arms sales to the allies during WWI had help bring the US into the war the act made it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war. • Is anyone at war?

4. Neutrality Acts of 1937 • Continued to ban weapons sales • Added that if nations wanted non-military goods from the US they had to buy them on a “cash-and-carry” basis. • Nation would have to send its own ships to pick up the goods, and it had to pay cash. • Loans were not allowed.

5. Neutrality Acts of 1939 • In response to Britain and France declaring war on Germany • FDR wanted to support our Democratic allies. • FDR had Congress Revise the Neutrality Acts to allow for nations to buy military arms on a “cash-and-carry” basis. • However businesses continued to sell other goods to BOTH sides before the US entered the war. • See Reading/Clip

6. World War Breaks out in Europe 1939-1945

7. Hitler’s Lightning Attack • September 1st 1939 Hitler invaded Poland • Blitzkrieg (lighting war) used fast moving planes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces. • Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd. • Poland had already fallen to Nazi Germany. • Hitler annexed the Western half of Poland

8. The Fall of France • Hitler invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. • With everyone’s attention on Hitler’s sweep of these nations he sent an even larger force into France through the Ardrennes Forest, avoiding the Maginot Line - a system of fortifications along France’s border with Germany. Allied forces and German forces stared at each other. Became known as Stizkrieg

9. The Fall of France Cont. • By June 14 Germans had taken Paris • French surrendered on June 22, 1940. • Germans controlled the North and set up a puppet government in the south. • “capital” in Vichy and headed by Marshall Petain • Charles de Gaulle- set up a government-in-exile in Britain. • April 9th 1940 Hitler launched attack on Denmark and Norway.

10. The Soviets make their Move • On September 17 1939, Stalin sent troops to occupy the Eastern half of Poland • Stalin then moved to annex Lithuania, Latvia both fell without a struggle. • Finland resisted- surrendered in March1940. • Hitler turns his attention to Great Britain (1940-1941)

11. Hitler prepares to Invade the Soviet Union • Hitler was planning an invasion as early as 1940 • Hitler needed to control the Balkan states in order to set up bases from which to attack the Soviet Union • Through the threat of force Hitler pressured Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary to join the axis • Yugoslavia and Greece resisted due to pro British government, Yugoslavia fell in 11 days Greece in 7 days.

12. America and WWII 1941-1945

13. US begins mobilizing for war • FDR wins 1940 Presidential election (3rd term) • Moves towards further intervention in WWII. • Four-Freedoms speech US and Britain stand for • Freedom of Speech • Freedom of Worship • Freedom from Want • Freedom from Fear

14. Mobilizing for War • When Hitler took France in 1940 FDR began mobilizing the army for war. • August 1940 - Selective Service and Training Act- peacetime draft.

15. Lend-Lease Act • 1940 Britain ran out of money to wage war • Lend-lease act would allow the US to lend or lease arms to any country considered “vital to the defense of the US.” • US could send arms to Britain if Britain promised to return them or pay for them after the war. • US contributed over $50 Billion to Lend lease • US should become “The Great Arsenal of Democracy”

16. Hemispheric Defense Zone • Lend-lease Act did not make provisions of getting the arms to Britain. • German submarine patrolling the Atlantic Ocean were sinking British ship. • US response – Roosevelt declared that the entire western half of the Atlantic was part of the Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral. • US navy patrolled the Atlantic and told the British where the German submarines were.

17. The Atlantic Charter • Secret Meeting between Churchill and FDR • Committed the two nations to a postwar world of • Democracy • Non-aggression • Free trade • Economic advancement • Freedom of the seas Foundation for United Nations

18. Undeclared Naval War in the Atlantic • German U-boat fired on an American destroyer. • FDR responded with a “shoot-on-sight” policy. • Germans began targeting American Destroyers

19. US and Japan • Japan’s goal was to build a Southeast Asian empire. “Asia for Asians” • Posed threat to US territories of the Philippines and Guam. • US aided the Chinese (unsuccessful) • Japan took over French colonies of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

20. US aids Britain the Pacific • Britain had a naval presence in the Pacific to protect its empire In Asia. • As German U-boats sank British ships in the Atlantic they had to move their ships from the pacific to fight Hitler. • This left Britain vulnerable to Japanese Attack • US helped the British by putting economic pressure on Japan.

21. US Pressures Japan • 1940 Congress passed the Export Control Act. • Japanese respond by formalizing their alliance with Germany and Italy. • FDR would lift embargo only if Japanese would pull out of Indochina.

22. Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor • American intelligence knew that their was plans of a Japanese attack but the question remained -- where? • December 7, 1941 Surprise attack on Pearl Harbor . • December 8th Congress declared war • December 11th Germany and Italy declared war on the US

23. Japanese Victories • Japan swept through the pacific • Acting as conquerors not liberators • Take the Philippines (Bataan death March)

24. The War at Home

25. How do you get business to make war materials in a capitalist nation? • by convincing corporations to build war materials i.e. warplanes. • Cost-plus contracts – The government paid the cost of the product plus a guaranteed percentage as profit to companies. • RFC – allowed to give loans to companies to pay for the new equipment they needed in order to produce war materials • By summer 1942 almost all major industries and most corporations converted to war production.

26. Daily Life during WWII Cont. • Scrap drives – stations set up to collect vital war materials such as tin, aluminum, pots, rubber etc. • Mostly done to make people feel like they were part of the war effort. • Victory gardens • Paid for the war by raising taxes and selling Victory Bonds

27. Creating an Army • Men were given shots and Issued Uniforms “Government Issued” GI • Draftees were sent to basic training for eight weeks to learn how to handle guns, read maps, dig trenches etc. • Army was segregated- African Americans were separated from whites, usually under white commanders. Wanted to keep them out of combat.

28. Race, ethnicity and Gender during WWII

29. “Double V” • African American leaders argued that blacks should join the war effort to fight for a double victory. • Victory over Hitler’s racism abroad and a victory over racism at home.

30. FDR Responds to African American Pressure • African Americans in the North voted for FDR • FDR ordered The Navy, Marines and Air Force to recruit Blacks. • Tuskegee Airmen –sent in to combat in Italy • Did NOT integrate the military but it did expanded roles of blacks and integrated military bases.

31. A. Philip Randolph and the Sleeping Car Porters Strike • Businesses still refused to hire African Americans • Randolph threatened FDR with a fifty thousand man March on Washington if FDR did not open up defense jobs to blacks. • FDR executive order 8802 stated “there shall be no discrimination in the employment if workers in defense industries… because of race, creed , color or national origin.” • Fair employment Practices Commission- First piece of civil rights legislation since the end of the Civil War

32. Women and the War • Women could enlist in army but could not fight • Companies needed so many laborers to produce for war they could not discriminate. • Break-down of the married women syndrome if you were married you should stay home. • 2.5 Million women began working in shipyards, aircraft factories etc. • “Rosie the Riveter”

33. Daily Life During WWII • Government controlled prices, wages and brokered between Unions and Owners. • Rationing – constricted consumption to make sure there was enough for the army. • Every month each household would receive a coupon book. • Blue coupons – controlled processed food • Red Coupons- controlled meats, fats and oils • Other coupons controlled things like sugar and coffee

34. The Zoot-Suit Riots • A type of suit that had a knee-length Jacket, wide lapels and baggy pants • Seen as unpatriotic because it used so much fabric. • Worn by Mexican American Teenagers • Upon hearing a rumor that A group of zoot-suit teenagers attacked several sailors about 2,500 soldiers and sailors stormed into Mexican-American neighborhoods. • They cut their hair and tore off their suits. No police intervention occurred

35. Zoot-Suit

36. The Japanese Internment • After Pearl Harbor many Americans in the West began discriminating Japanese Americans • Mobs attacked Japanese businesses and homes. Banks wouldn’t cash their checks • Feb. 12 1942 – FDR singed executive order 9906. • See Reading

37. Japanese Internment and the 5th Amendment • No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentation or indictment of a grand jury, except in the cases arising… in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.

38. Japanese Internment Cont. • No Japanese American was ever tried for espionage or sabotage, • 1988 President Regan apologized and paid each surviving member of the interment camps $200,000.

39. Ending WWII • V-E Day May 8th 1945 –Victory in Europe • The Manhattan Project – secret plan to build a nuclear bomb. July 16th 1945 US detonated the first Atomic bomb in Los Alamos New Mexico. • After the success of the Okinawa • Does the US invade Japanese Mainland? • Do you risk losing 500,000 lives or do you use the newly designed A-bomb?

40. Ending WWII • August 6 1945 – US Drop the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima • August 9 1945 – Soviets declare war on Japan and the US dropped a second A- bomb on Nagasaki • V-J day – August 15th 1945 Japan surrendered. • Nuremburg Trials were set up to try German military leaders for war crimes – 36 Germans and 7 Japanese were executed.