Chapter 34 & 35 – Flashcards

The good neighbor policy was officially endorsed by the US at the Seventh Pan-American Conference in Uruguay. FDR made it very clear that armed intervention would be renounced, as well as the vexatious Roosevelt Corollary. With dictators seizing power in Europe and Asia, FDR was eager to line up the Latin American countries to help defend the western hemisphere. He recognized that angry neighbors could be potential tools of foreign aggressors. An example of the Good Neighbor Policy in effect is when Cuba was officially released from the Platt Amendment, although the US retained its naval base at Guantanamo. Another example is seen when the last marines officially departed from Haiti in 1934. The Good Neighbor Policy is seen again when the US gradually released its grip on Panama in 1936. This policy had spectacular success. FDR's attempt to bring in an era of friendliness, though hurting some US bond holders, paid off in goodwill among Latin American citizens. No other US citizen has ever been held in such high esteem in Latin America during their lifetime than FDR.

The neutrality acts were created because of the isolationist and anti-interventionist views and were created in the 1930s in hopes to keep the US out of foreign entanglement. Ultimately, it kept the US from aiding Britain, France, and Germany. The 1935 act stated that the US couldn't trade arms or materials for war with another nation who was involved in war at the current time. The 1936 act stated the US couldn't make loans to belligerent nations. The act of 1937 stated that US citizens were forbidden from traveling on belligerent ships, and American ships were prevented from transporting arms to belligerents. The act gave the president the authority to ban belligerent ships from US waters. The 1937 act also created the "cash-and-carry" clause that said we could deliver materials (non-arms/war materials) for immediate pay and on non-american ships.

In 1937, Japan invaded China, but FDR didn't declare this incident as a war, so the Chinese were still allowed to get arms from the U.S., as well as the Japanese. In Chicago of that year, FDR made the famous "Quarantine Speech." He told the people that the aggressors should be quarantined through economic embargoes. FDR never specifically said which countries should be quarantined, but it was assumed to apply to Germany, Italy, and Japan. The Quarantine Speech asked for America to stay neutral but to morally side against the fascist nations. This speech, however, angered many isolationists because they thought a moral quarantine led to a shooting quarantine, so FDR backed down a bit from any more direct actions.

The Soviet Union and Germany agreed to sign a nonaggression pact on August 23. 1939, stating that they wouldn't attack each other. Before the pact was signed, the French and British were negotiating with Moscow, and Stalin singing the pact shocked the whole world. Hitler gained many things from signing this pact. He was now able to take over Poland, and he didn't have to fear a war from the Russians, therefore making Germany fight on two fronts. With the signing of the pact, Hitler declared land from Poland that was taken from Germany, Poland didn't satisfy, so he attacked. Because of the alliance between Poland, Britain, and France, Britain and France had to declare war. Russia gained Poland after they were taken over. The treaty was broken about two years later when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

During the Depression, America became very pro-isolation. We didn't want to mess with Europe because we saw how crazy they could get and we had our own problems to worry about. Isolationists didn't want us to get involved in Europe when Hitler and Mussolini took power or with the Spanish Civil War. Interventionists wanted the opposite. Here's a bunch of reasons why America was pro-isolation. First, the Neutrality Acts of 1935-37 said that we couldn't sail on ships from countries at war. We couldn't loan money to them either. So, we weren't getting into anyone's business for a while. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) the US said that they wouldn't do anything, even though the countries whose governments we had problems with (Germany, Italy, and Russia) were aiding Fascist general Franco. Also, FDR cowardly sent notes to Hitler and Mussolini asking them to stop expanding. That was pretty lame. What are we going to do to them? We can't do anything. We're isolationists. The Neutrality Act of 1939 changed our stance on isolationism. It stated that Allied countries and China could buy our weapons but they had to use their own ships and pay in cash. When Russia invaded Japan and France fell, Americans leaned slightly to towards intervention. However, Pearl Harbor ended any talk of isolation.

Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States". Roosevelt thought of this because, he had bitter memories of the wrangling over the Allied debts of World War I, and he was determined to eliminate "the silly, foolish, old dollar sign." When all the shooting was over, the guns and tanks could be returned, just as one's next-door neighbor would return a garden hose when a threatening fire was put out. There were some who were opposed to this, like isolationist Senator Taft, who said that lending arms was like lending chewing gum: "You don't want it back." Who wants a chewed-up tank? The act sprung on the country after the election was safely over, it was praised by the administration as a device that would keep the nation out of the war rather than drag it in. The underlying concept of this was "Send guns, not sons" or "Billions, not bodies." President Roosevelt promised that America would be the "arsenal of democracy". It would send limitless supply of arms to the victims of aggression, who in turn would finish the job and keep the war on their side of the Atlantic. But, a lot of opposition came, most of the people who opposed were isolationist, like Senator Taft, and anti-Roosevelt Republicans. The Lend-lease act was one of the most momentous laws ever to pass Congress; it was a challenge hurled squarely into the teeth of the Axis dictators. When the huge operation ended in 1945, America had sent about $50 billion worth of arms and equipment, much more than the cost to the country of World War I, to those nations fighting aggressors. The passing of this act was in effect an economic declaration of war, it marked the abandonment of any pretense of neutrality. It somewhat had the result of gearing U.S. factories for all-out war production. Hitler eventually recognized the lend-lease act as an unofficial declaration of war and up until then, Germany had avoided attacking U.S. ships. But after the passing of the lend-lease, there was less point in trying to curry favor with the United States.

FDR and Churchill met secretly on a battleship near Newfoundland. Churchill wanted a military commitment from the US so FDR said he would "try to force an incident" only then could he declare war on Germany. They also talked about goals for the end of the war. These included collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas. The document signed was known as the Atlantic Charter and it later became the basis for the United Nations.

Between the wars, American and many European countries became isolationist. A series of treaties were made as well as a pact. The five power naval treaty included France, Italy, Britain, U.S. and Japan which agreed to stop building battleships for 10 year. The ratio was five to five to three for U.S. Britain and Japan. The U.S. and Britain also agreed not to take any more Asian possession. The four-power treaty was between Britain, U.S., France and Japan which agreed to respect each others territories. The nine power treaty was between Britain, U.S., France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, China, Netherlands, and Portugal which said China would not lose territory from these countries and the open door policy will continue. The Kellogg-Briand Pact was between 62 nations where they pledged to not use war as an instrument of foreign policy. In the 1930's Germany, Japan, and Italy expanded their influences and dropped out of national treaties. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and established a puppet state. They also broke the Naval treaty and quit the league of nations. In 1933, Hitler took over Germany and secretly began rearming the nation. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and conquers it. Italy and Germany also adi Fascist General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil war. IN 1937, Japan begun all out invasion of China. By this point, these three countries put the isolationist views behind them and began expanding at the expense of other nations.

From October 3, 1939 to November 5, 1941, a series of polls were taken by the American public on opinion of war-join or continue isolationism. Up until the very last poll in November, 1941, public opinion remained very solidly on the isolationist side. When asked if they thought the US should continue helping England and France without joining the war, about ⅔ of the American public voted yes. When presented with the hypothetical situation of Germany defeating England and France, the public was asked if the US should declare war on Germany. The public responded with a strong 71% voting no on October 3, 1939, and when asked again in January, 1940, the "no" was even stronger at 77%. The result of these polls stayed the same (isolationist) until the last poll in November, 1941 when the public was asked that if it became necessary to send troops to Europe in order to defeat Germany, would they favor that step, 47% said yes they would and 46% said no they would not and 7% had no opinion. This was toward the end of the isolationist policy right before Pearl Harbor which ended isolationism for good.

The Japanese needed materials from America like steel, scrap iron, oil, and aviation gasoline in order to wage war. Many Americans were upset about the materialistic assistance they received through us. We had political and economical ties to East Asia, which had been under invasion by the Japanese for some time. In 1940, an embargo was put on supplies headed to Japan. Followed in 1941 by freezing Japanese assets in the US and going beyond the embargo to simply ban shipments of war materials to Japan. Negotiations were held where the US tried to get the Japanese out of China in return for some trading rights. They chose to try and take the resource rich territories of Southeast Asia, knowing at the same time they chose war with the US. The Japanese did not want the US entering the war with a strong navy. They hoped by bombing our navy they would render us unable to really put up a fight. We were lucky in that half the fleet happened to be away from Pearl Harbor when they attacked.

After the first World War when Germany was blamed for everything, most of their material things were taken away from them. So when Germany was rearmed, it was necessary to supply a new, complete set of materials to all of their soldiers. As a result, Germany had an entire army equipped with the most modern weapons. Additionally, nearly 10% of Germany's population (6.8 million) were trained and ready for war as opposed to America's less than 5%.

Eleanor Roosevelt had a higher approval rating than her husband at the time because she was basically his "conscience" and his "legs". Because of FDR's disability, Eleanor often went places that he couldn't. She could be considered the public face of his presidency. Eleanor often spent time with African Americans, the poor and championed women's rights groups, racial minorities, the homeless, and tenant farmers. This was the first time that the First Lady had been so involved and influential to the time period of her husband's presidency. This was revolutionized the role of the First Lady, since she put so much of her energy into helping to fix the issues in the country. Eleanor was a very independent woman, and wasn't exactly happy to become the First Lady, but she still was highly involved with all the matters that the president had to attend to. FDR would send Eleanor places, such as insane asylums, places of poverty, and even to Puerto Rico, in order to better understand how the people of his country needed to be governed.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, America became very fearful of the many Japanese-Americans that were living in the US. Even though many were born in the US, top commanders of Washington feared that these Japanese citizens would sabotage America during a Japanese invasion. This fear led to the creation of internment camps, where the Japanese in America were forced into concentration camps. This act of hysteria was unnecessary, and unfair, but the relocation of the Japanese was considered constitutional after the wartime Supreme Court declared it in the case Korematsu Vs. U.S. Decades later the government apologized for its actions and paid reparations to any camp survivor.

The War Production Board was an agency that FDR established in 1942 and furbished the war with goods. The WPB turned already existing factories into weapon making machinery. Instead of building passenger cars, they built tanks and planes. This also employed many workers, making the argument that the WPB and the shift to building war things got America out of the Great Depression. In addition, many resource companies benefitted from this switch to military building. Resources, such as steel and rubber, were vital to the mass production of war goods. Farmers would also mass produce their goods in order to send it overseas, getting farmers better tools and methods of farming. (They also encouraged families to grow victory gardens in order to send the majority of the food that the farmers grew overseas).

During World War 2, the War Production Board was created to halt the manufacture of nonessential goods. It assigned companies specific things to produce. This caused many economic strains, one of them being a large inflationary surge in 1942. The Office of Price administration was created under FDR, and its main goals were to "stabilize prices and rents and prevent unwarranted increases in them; to prevent profiteering, hoarding and speculation; to assure that defnese appropriations were not dissipated by excessive prices; to protect those with fixed incomes from undue impairment of their living standards; to assist in securing adequate production; and to prevent a post-emergency collapse of values" (http://www.history.com/). The Office of Price Administration basically brought the prices down and controlled them using extensive regulations. The Office of Price Adminsitration rationed everything it could in order to keep the prices down during World War 2.

The Battle of Midway was a crucial naval battle of June 1942, in which U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz blocked the Japanese attempt to conquer a strategic island near Hawaii. Americans discovered that the Japanese were planning to attack Midway, a strategic island which lies northwest of Hawaii. Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of American naval forces in the Pacific, moved to defend the island. On June 3, 1942, his scout planes found the Japanese fleet. The Americans sent torpedo planes and dive bombers to the attack. The Japanese were caught with their planes still on the decks of their carriers. The results were devastating. by the end of the Battle of Midway, the Japanese had lost four aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes. In the words of a Japanese official, at Midway the Americans had "avenged Pearl Harbor."

Island hopping, or leapfrogging was a strategy that was used heavily in the battles of WW2 located in the Islands of southeast asia and hawaii and in the Pacific. The idea was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan. The Allies used submarines and air attacks to isolate Japanese bases so that they could not be resupplied. Leapfrogging had a number of advantages. It would allow the United States forces to reach Japan more quickly and not expend the time, manpower, and supplies to capture every Japanese-held island on the way.

General Dwight Eisenhower was five-star general of the United States army and supreme commander of the Allied army. He led the Allies to victory in World War Two and later ran for president in 1952 on the Republican ticket. Eisenhower won handedly running on a campaign against Communism, Korea, and corruption. As commander-in-chief, Eisenhower used nuclear threats to end wars with China and Korea. He wanted to use more inexpensive nuclear weapons rather than conventional military personnel and weaponry to keep pressure on the Russians during the Cold War. It is noteworthy that under his administration the Interstate Highway System began construction.

The United States presidential election of 1944 was the 40th presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought his fourth term in office; he was challenged by Republican Thomas E. Dewey. The election was set in the backdrop of World War II, which was going well for the United States and its Allies. Roosevelt had already served longer than any other president, but remained popular. Unlike in 1940, there was little doubt that he would run for another term as the Democratic candidate. Dewey, the Governor of New York, campaigned against the New Deal and for a smaller government, but was ultimately unsuccessful in convincing the country to change course. Rumors of Roosevelt's ill health, though somewhat dispelled by his vigorous campaigning, proved to be prescient; Roosevelt would die and be replaced by his new Vice President, Harry S. Truman, within a half-year of winning re-election. Dewey was picked by the republicans even though his beliefs did not quite fit there ballot and he couldn't knock the foreign policy of FDR because it would make him lose a lot of popularity

On February 19, marines landed on the southeastern end of the island and started working toward the 550 foot dead volcano that was transformed into an underground fortress. We had been bombing the island's defenses for 2 months before the attack. The bombing just caused Japan to start digging deeper into the mountain. US solders were constantly under fire from the moment they landed. It took 4 days to advance 1000 yards and scale the mountain and plant a flag. 7,000 Americans were killed before we finally took Iwo Jima

Okinawa was an important air strip for the island-hopping strategy the Allies were using in the war. Much of the island was covered in jungle. The Japanese's had multiple lines of defense but after the first one fell and they retreated to the second line they foolishly charged the Americans in an attempt to drive them off the island. Suicidal attacks became one of Japan's more important strategies. They even sent a full warship to try and ram one of the American aircraft carriers. It did not succeed and was destroyed prematurely. In order to take the island it cost us a total of 12,000 dead Americans and 35 damaged ships. The Japanese lost 100,000 men in the battle.

The idea for the atomic bombs first began when albert Einstein told FDR that germany may be working on such a project. The U.S. then began the manhattan project in 1939 in which they spent 6 years and around 2 billion dollars researching and developing a nuclear weapon. We developed a couple bombs using heavy radioactive elements and in July 1945 we tested the first nuclear bomb ever at trinity site in the new mexican desert. We realized the power of this device and created 2 bombs which we were ready to use at any moment. After Germany surrendered, we told Japan that they needed to surrender or they would face terrible destruction. They were stubborn and did not surrender, so on August 6, 1945 we dropped a uranium atomic bomb called little boy on the city of Hiroshima. The destruction was devastating as we believe that between 90,000-160,000 people died from being burned, crushed by falling buildings, or radiation sickness. Everything for a mile or so around ground zero was flattened. The U.S. then decided that one bomb wasn't enough so three days later we dropped a plutonium atomic bomb on Nagasaki called fat man. This city was more industrial and didn't have as many civilians but still 60,000-80,000 people died in this bombing. Six days later Japan surrendered because the emperor wanted no more destruction and deaths. Many people debate whether we should have used the bombs or not but an invasion would have caused as many and most likely even more deaths. These bombs were the knockout punch to Japan and to this day remain the only nuclear bombs used in a war.

-216,000 women enlisted in the army performing noncombatant jobs, such as nurses. -The nation lacked many agricultural and industrial workers, as many were torn from their duties by the draft, thus any women took their place. Over 6,000,000 women apply for jobs to fuel the wartime economy. -With the men off to war, women gained control of the household during this time, fueling a future feminist movement.

After the end of the war, having seen many new sights and places, many of the fifteen million men and women in uniform decided not to return to their homes after the war. Many cities like LA, Detroit, Seattle and BAton Rouge("boom towns") saw a drastic growth in population after the wars end due to their war industries. In the south, about 1.6 million blacks left in search of jobs on war plants in the north and west. Not only that, the war also prompted an exodus of Native Americans from reservations. Thousands of indians left reservations and found war workin major cities and joined armed forces. With the war, many americans migrated upward from the south.

Compared to other warring countries, America was pretty stable over the course of the war. The gross national product increased by $100 billion over the period of war. Additionally, inflation rose greatly in the post war times. However, at the same time we were greatly increasing our national debt. It's like today, Americans buy things with credit cards, thinking they have plenty of money to spend, yet they are in deep debt, still keeping the buyers lifestyle. That was post WW2 America. Income tax expanded and became an American savior, but only 40% of the war debts was paid off. This is truly the "price of victory".

For the defeated of WW2 an unconditional surrender meant that they would have to comply with whatever terms the Allies had set for them and wouldn't be able to make any arguments in their favor. At first, General Jodl, a German general, hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies, but General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the closing Soviet forces. Jodl contacted Hitler's successor, with the terms and was ordered to sign. So they were defeated on paper. Fighting would still go on in the East for almost another day. But the war in the West was over.

We finally infiltrated the Nazi territory with an enormous amount of troops. The invasion of Normandy was considered a turning point in the war because it was the first time the Nazis had lost any important territory during the war. It gave the Allies the chance to move in on the Nazi territory, most importantly Nazi France, and it also an indication of the collapse of the Falaise pocket, a battlefield that led into Axis territory defended by Army Group B, consisting of the German Seventh and Fifth Panzer Armies, named after the pocket around the town of Falaise. We had a gateway on the Western front of the Axis territory. The battle was also important for the amount of troops utilized in one assault, as well as being the largest seaborne invasion in history. Thousands of troops were killed during this battle on both sides.

The Japanese surrendered (almost) unconditionally after the dropping of two atomic bombs. Before the bombs were dropped, American officials learned that the Japanese were sending out peace feelers to Moscow. But bomb scorched Japan still showed no outward willingness to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. On August 10th, 1945, Tokyo sued for peace on the condition that Hirohito be allowed to remain emperor of Japan. This would allow the island country to save their exalted ruler and what was left of their native land, though losing face in the process. Despite their "unconditional surrender" policy, the Allies accepted this condition on August 14, 1945. The Allies all wanted the war to come to an end, with its great cost in money and lives. Letting Hirohito remain emperor was a small concession that still allowed them to accomplish their end goal- having Japan surrender and the war come to an end.

After reading the selection I do not think the Americans did all they could to help with the holocaust. The Americans had claimed that they had not known what was going on and that they didn't know about the concentration camps, but clearly they did. I think if we would've joined the fight sooner we could've helped the situation better. But I also think that if we fought back more directly than we did, it could've gone worse and caused a bigger problem. So, although the Americans didn't do all they could, I think they did try to keep things from getting any worse.

The article says, "...Every Jewish leader, the Jewish communities in America, in Britain, in Palestine, and yes, anyone who had a radio or newspaper in 1942 knew that Jews in colossal numbers were being murdered" (pg 235). One way people knew was because of the telegram sent by Gerhart Riegner, who at that time was a representative of the World Jewish Congress. The telegram contained information about the death camps, mainly Auschwitz when its gas chambers and crematoria were being built in 1942. The details of the camp and the name of Auschwitz weren't known to the Allies until 1944 when two prisoners escaped. Unfortunately for the Allies, there were no videos or photos from the camps, so no one knew if the information was correct or if it was just anti-German propaganda, like the kind from WWI. In 1942, FDR told Hitler that him and the Germans were responsible for murdering the Jews; this blame was repeated a lot during the war, so if people already knew who to blame for the genocide that means they knew it was happening. FDR thought destroying the Nazis was the most effective way to end the war because it would be getting rid of the root of the problem, not just the weeds. Historian Gerhard Weinberg said that winning the war as quickly as possible saved more Jews than could have been saved if the army focused on rescue missions during the war. There was a proposal to bomb Auschwitz, but that would have killed more Jewish lives than it would have actually saved, so once again it was easier to end Nazi rule than end Auschwitz during that time. Then a proposal to bomb the railways came up, but that also was denied because a railway could be repaired in a few days, so constant bombing would be needed.