World War II on the home front, post-war America Standards 7.1 through 7.6

Why did the Allies want to drive the Germans out of Africa before tackling the war in Europe? Roosevelt and Churchill believed it was important to secure access to the Suez Canal in Egypt. After this, they decided they would invade Italy

Who were the three leaders making these decisions? Joseph Stalin – USSR FDR – United States Churchill – Great Britain Tehran Conference

Decisions at Tehran Conference Stalin (USSR) wanted the Allies to launch an attack against Hitler by invading France. FDR and C reluctantly agree….D-Day becomes the objective. Eisenhower was made Supreme Allied Commander Decisions at Tehran Conference

Victory in Europe followed by the Yalta Conference – Big Three Stalin agrees to declare war on Japan after the defeat of Germany Stalin agrees to free elections and democratic governments in eastern European countries freed by Soviets marching from the east Roosevelt and Churchill will allow USSR to keep Poland FDR and C also agree to POSSIBLE certain islands and Chinese lands after Japan is defeated

Hitler? Hitler commits suicide at the end of the war to avoid capture FDR? Roosevelt died in April of 1945, did not live to see Allied victory in Europe.

President after FDR? Harry S. Truman

In the Pacific? The Philippines fell to the Japanese. MacArthur vowed, “I shall return.”

Battle of Midway A turning point in the war in the Pacific Japanese failed to detect location of U.S. air carriers U.S. planes attacked and crippled many Japanese carriers and destroyers (warships)

Island Hopping and Why?

The fighting in island hopping was fierce, especially on Iwo Jima and Okinawa – many American casualties

Manhattan Project U.S. scientists developed the atomic bomb in secret. President Truman found out after FDR’s death.

Why use the bomb against Japan? Japan refused to surrender Truman wanted to save American lives and avoid the invasion of Japan Truman possibly wanted to intimidate the Soviets with U.S. superior fire power.

War at Home

Selective Service Act The Selective Service Act of 1940 – Congress created the FIRST peacetime draft of American soldiers in the history of the U.S. This marks the beginning of the U.S. having a standing army in peacetime and during war. In fact, after this, the U.S. will always have an active military from this point forward.

War Production Board This board, created by FDR helped switch the U.S. economy from peacetime to wartime efficiently. The board re-directed raw materials and resources from the production of civilian consumer goods to the production of materials needed for waging war.

Why were posters created and designed by the government? These were created to encourage and maintain support for the war Create a sense of patriotism Present the war in a positive light

WPB – The War Production Board The government redirected raw materials and resources to the war effort instead of use for civilian consumer production. As car factories started to produce airplanes instead of cars and tanks instead of cars, the U.S. economy improved and many previously unemployed people found jobs.

Posters

Economic Result of the War? The War actually pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The U.S. economy boomed. Men who previously did not have jobs found themselves in the military or in factories producing goods for the war effort. People migrated to the North to fill jobs needed for the wartime effort.

Withholding tax $$$$ The 16th Amendment passed several decades earlier already established an income tax In WWII, the government needed money – with money withheld from paychecks and sent directly to the government – this helped the government have cash flow. Notice, withholding income tax from paychecks never went away!

War Bond Drives The government promoted the purchase of government bonds in order to raise money for war production. Bond drives were efforts by the government to create ads and posters to encourage people to buy war bonds. Sometimes, political cartoonists and Hollywood got involved!

War bond drives were used in advertisements, movie shorts, and even used movie stars to promote them.

Why were people encouraged to grow victory gardens and ration goods. People were encouraged to grow their own food so American farmers (like wheat growers) could devote more food to the war effort and to soldiers overseas. Rationing – Americans received ration books from the OPA to get grocery products, tires and gasoline, This meant more of these materials were sent to troops overseas.

How did rationing program work? Americans were assigned ration books with stamps for the products they needed. Once they had used up all of their stamps, for gasoline for example, then they could not obtain the items until they acquired more points.

Roles of Women? Women became an important part of the workforce – working in airplane factories and munitions plants. Many women signed up for military service and served as nurses and pilots. (question 25 on chapter 8 and 9 sheet.)

Women in the Military

“Rosie the Riveter” Rosie the Riveter became the symbol of women who entered the workforce to fill the gap left vacant by men who were away at war. Rosie also symbolized the war effort at home.

What led to the change to allow minorities to serve in combat? The numbers of casualties and the shortage of soldiers led to a change in military policy to allow minorities to serve in combat.

Roles of African Americans? Nearly 1,000,000 African American men volunteered or were drafted. Eventually, they gained more battle experience as the war wore on. Many served bravely and with distinction such as the “Tuskegee Airmen.”

Tuskegee Airmen All black squadron of combat pilots – they successfully protected every bomber plane they escorted during the war.

“Double V” With many African Americans serving in the military and in the war industries – they began to advocate “victory at home and abroad.” They were willing to do their part in the war effort but wanted there to be more equality here in America when the war was over.

Native Americans U.S. Marines developed a code based on the Navajo language. 300 Navajo Marines became “code talkers” in the Pacific Some Native Americans worked in defense industries – this meant they could leave the reservations for better jobs (Q. 31 on Q page.)

Mexicans and Mexican Americans Many Mexican Americans served bravely in the war in Europe and in the Pacific Many Mexicans were asked to come across the border into America to work as farm laborers Result? Sometimes there was racial aggression against Mexican farm workers on the west coast of the U.S.

Japanese Americans Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor fueled fears that Japanese Americans might be a threat to U.S. security FDR signs EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 Japanese Americans were forced to sell homes and businesses and move to internment camps Some of the men joined the military and served bravely in Europe – especially the 442nd – most decorated unit in U.S. history – they proved their loyalty

Korematsu vs. United States A Japanese American, Fred Korematsu challenged the executive order ordering the Japanese Americans to internment camps because he said his civil rights were violated. The court ruled that interment was NOT unlawful because military “urgency” justified government action.

Nuremberg Trials For the first time warring countries and their leaders are charged with “crimes against humanity” Nuremberg Trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany Many officers and government officials were tried for their participation in the Holocaust

Post War America Many inventions used in the War were used in post-war America. RADAR was used for commercial air travel Advances were made in computer technology Medical technology such as antibiotics were created such as penicillin, blood plasma,

Greatest Change? – the introduction of the Nuclear Age

Tension between U.S. and Soviets The U.S. and G.B. felt like the allies should NOT occupy territories conquered during the war Stalin wanted to keep control of the countries in eastern Europe to “MAINTAIN a BUFFER ZONE” between USSR and the west

Stalin’s plan to control eastern Europe Stalin set up communist regimes/govern ments in the eastern block countries – they answered to him West Germany

How was the continent divided? Western democracies in the west Soviet satellite nations in the East Germany was divided

Iron Curtain? The phrase came from a speech made by Winston Churchill. It came to mean the dividing line between Western and communist countries of Europe, especially since these borders were heavily guarded by the Soviets

Promise broken? At the Yalta Conference Stalin had agreed not to occupy European countries after the war

Containment The idea that the U.S. and the Western countries should focus on “containing” communism and not letting it spread. In other words, they would not try to get rid of it where it already existed, but try not to let it spread further.

Truman Doctrine The U.S. will intervene and help nations that are trying to resist communism U.S. sent aid to Greece and Turkey

Marshall Plan Provided financial support for nations in war torn Europe Sparked economic revival in Europe Helped stop suffering and hunger Stopped spread of communism

What two countries did Germany become and why? West Germany – the allies returned their occupied territories back over to Germany East Germany – the Soviets kept control of East Germany BERLIN the former capital city of Germany was also split into WEST BERLIN which was free and EAST BERLIN which was under SOVIET CONTROL

Berlin Airlift Stalin tried to force the former allies to give up WEST BERLIN TRUMAN refused to back down The U.S. airlifted supplies into WEST BERLIN Soviets gave up the idea of controlling all of Berlin in 1949

Define the term “Cold War.” The term Cold War was first used by one of Truman’s advisors named Bernard Baruch. It referred to the tensions that existed between the democratic nations of the west and the communist nations of the East, especially the Soviet Union.

China becomes communist In 1949, after a Revolution in China, China became communist. The leader of the revolution was Mao ZeDong.

Since both the Soviets and the United States helped liberate Korea from Japanese at the end of WWII, they each had different ideas about how the country should be run. Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel, North Korea became communist and South Korea had a pro-U.S. democracy Korean War

Korean War In 1950, War began when North Korean forces crossed the 28th parallel. The United Nations came to the aid of South Korea. (Truman Doctrine at work.) President Truman chose General MacArthur to command South Korean forces.

Purpose of the Founding of Israel Jews throughout the world and especially in Europe had always wanted their own “homeland.” This was called the Zionist movement. Because of the Holocaust, the allies felt after WWII that the Jews should have a homeland. With the help of the United Nations, the new state of Israel was created in Palestine.

Eisenhower’s Domino Theory

Eisenhower’s Doctrine

NATO and the Warsaw Pact – their purposes