CHAPTER 28 WWII

756-767
n)The Retreat from Reform
i)FDR wanted to shift priority from reform to war effort and victory
ii)With massive unemployment no longer an issue + Republican gains, Congress
dismantled relief programs and other New Deal programs
iii)In 1944 Pres election Repubs nominated Thomas Dewey; Dems re-nominated
Roosevelt but w/ new, less liberal VP candidate Harry Truman
iv)Despite deteriorating health Roosevelt was popularly elected; Dems maintained
control of both Houses of Congress
3)The Defeat of the Axis
a)The Liberation of France
i)By 1944 devastating Allied strategic bombing against German industry at Leipzig,
Dresden, Berlin reduced production + complicated transport; German Luftwaffe forced to
retreat to bases w/in Germany itself, weakened it
ii)After 2 year buildup in England Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower
ordered invasion across English Channel into Normandy, France on “D-Day” (June 6,
1944); Allies drove Germans from the coast, by September forced them to retreat from
France, Belgium
iii)In December Germany counter-attacked during Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes
Forest, but soon repelled; with Soviet advances on Eastern front, Allies began moving
into Germany across Rhine
iv)April 30 Hitler commits suicide; May 8, 1945 full surrender + “V-E” Day
b)The Pacific Offensive
i)Thru 1944 American navy crippling Japanese shipping and economy in Pacific; on
mainland Asia Japan attacking thru Chinese interior trying to cutoff Gen Stilwell’s
Burma Road for supplies
ii)June 1944 Americans captured Mariana Islands, in September Battle of Leyte Gulf
Japanese navy decimated by US sinking of its aircraft carriers; in next few months
Japanese fought desperate battles of resistance in Feb at Iwo Jima, in June at Okinawa
(used Kamikaze suicide bombers throughout)
iii)Many feared bloody island battles would ensue w/ invasion of Japanese mainland, but
 by 1945 Japanese weakened by firebombing in Tokyo, shelling of industrial centers;
moderates in govt trying to sue peace against will of military leaders wanting to continue
fight
c)The Manhattan Project
i)After news in 1939 that Nazis pursuing atomic bomb, US and +GB began race to
develop one before them; work based on discovery of uranium radioactivity by Enrico
Fermi 1930s, Einstein’s theory of relativity
ii)Army took over control of research and poured billions of $ into Manhattan Project
which gathered scientists to create nuclear chain reactions w/ a bomb
iii)On July 16 1945 the plutonium bomb Trinity, created by scientist Robert Oppenheimer
at the Los Alamos Laboratory, successfully tested
d)Atomic Warfare
i)Pres Truman issues ultimatum to Japanese for “unconditional surrender” by Aug 3rd or
face annihilation; after Jap moderates unable to convince military leaders to accept
Truman ordered use of atomic weapon
ii)Some argue atomic weapon unnecessary b/c in time Japs would have sued for peace;
others argue only atomic bomb could convince radical military leaders that surrender
necessary. Truman saw weapon as military device that could end war quickly, but some
say he used it to intimidate Stalin and Soviets
iii)August 6, 1945 bomber Enola Gay dropped atomic weapon on Japanese city
Hiroshima, killing 80,000 civilians; because Jap govt didn’t respond, on August 8 second
atomic  bomb dropped on city of Nagasaki killing 100,000
iv)By Aug 14 emperor agreed to surrender; September 2, 1945 Japan signed articles of
surrender (“V-J Day”) marking end of WWII
v)14 million combatants had died during war, even more civilians; threat of nuclear war
loomed between two emerging super-powers in US and Soviet Union