The United States in World War II

(America turns the tide)

● 3 Competing ideologies of WWII

○ Communism
○ Fascism
○ Democracy
● The Four Freedoms
○ FDR’s 1941 State of the Union Address

1. Freedom of speech
2. Freedom of worship
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear

● Selective Training & Service Act (1940)

○ First peacetime draft
● Lend-Lease Act (1941)
○ Lend or lease war supplies to nations vital to defend US
● December 7th 1941
○ Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
● Americans rush to enlist
○ After Pearl Harbour
■ 5 million enlist
○ Captain America
■ Enlistment tool
● Women
○ Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)
■ Nurses, drivers, radio operators
● All Americans fought
○ Minority groups contributed to the war effort
■ African Americans
● America’s Task
○ Sent vast amounts of food and munitions to allies
● A Production Miracle
○ War industry
○ Automobile plants → ships and planes
● Labor’s contribution
○ “We can do it” poster
● War production board
○ Overseas mobilization of industry
○ Decided which companies to convert to wartime production
● Fighting inflation
○ Office of Price Administration (OPA)
 ■ Encouraged the purchase of war bonds
● Rationing
○ Bought ration items with stamps
● National War Labor Board
○ Imposed ceilings on wage increases
● Labor Disputes Act of 1943 (Smith Connally Act)
○ Seize industries threatened by strikes
○ Bad for labors
● War propaganda
● Collection drives
○ nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags and cooking fat for recycling
● Mobilization of scientists
○ Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
■ radar and sonar to locate submarines
● Manhattan Project
○ Secret development of atomic bomb
○ Einstein wrote to FDR → warned him that Germans were developing such weapon
● V-E Day
○ General Eisenhower accepted the surrender of Germany
○ Victory in Europe Day
● Economic gains
○ Unemployment fell and wages rose
○ Farmers benefited from production and income increased
● Women make gains
○ Economic gains during the war → lost jobs after
○ Millions entered for the first time
● Population shifts
○ Triggered the greatest migration
● GI Bill
○ Provided education
● Allies take Berlin ⇒ Hitler commits suicide
○ Soviet Army entered Berlin
● Nuremberg War Trials
○ Nazi death camp
■ the Allies put 24 Nazi leaders on trial for crimes
■ Sentenced to death
● Internment of Japanese Americans
○
● Korematsu v. United States
○ The American Civil Liberties Union represented Korematsu
■ Forced removal violated the fifth amendment
○ Rule: Japanese relocation was constitutional
● US pays reparations to Japanese
○ US pays
● Wartime Conferences
○ Tehran conference
■ Focus on nazis
■ Stalin agrees to fight Japan after Germany is defeated
○ Yalta conference
■ Set up UN conference
■ Stalin wants to buffer Eastern Europe
● Promises fair elections
○ Potsdam conference
■ Post-war order
■ Nazis no longer a threat
● Soviets became a concern