Chapter 26: America's Rise to World Leadership, 1933-1945

1. Roosevelt and Foreign Policy
   1. The Good Neighbor Policy
      1. In Latin America, Roosevelt built on the improving relations already begun by Hoover by stressing his support of international rather than unilateral actions.
         1. FDR promised that the United States would be the "good neighbor" and would respect Latin American views and interests and not interfere in Latin American affairs.
         2. His views were soon tested in Cuba when the nation erupted into civil war, but the situation calmed when General Fulgencio Batista became the nation’s leader and remained in power until 1958.
         3. The United States recognized the new government and signed a favorable trade agreement.
      2. Roosevelt’s commitment to nonintervention was tested in 1938 when Mexico’s president Cárdenas nationalized foreign-owned oil properties and U.S. oil companies quickly demanded that their property and profits be protected.
         1. Eventually, the United States recognized Mexico’s right to control its own oil, and in 1941 the two nations agreed on monetary compensation.
         2. By the end of his first administration, Roosevelt had vastly improved the United States’ image and position of leadership throughout Latin America.
   2. Roosevelt and Isolationism
      1. Tensions were increasing, however, in Europe and Asia.
         1. In Germany, Hitler had ruthlessly instituted a dictatorship by 1935, and the Japanese had conquered Manchuria and were speaking of establishing the "Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere."
         2. Although the United States granted recognition of the Soviet Union in November 1933, the Soviets had too little credit to buy American goods, and the United States was unwilling to provide it; the nations still distrusted one another.
      2. By 1934, isolationists were in full cry, even repudiating the United States entry into World War I, especially after the Nye Committee concluded that profits and British propaganda had caused America’s entry into the first conflict.
      3. By 1935, tensions in Asia and Europe combined with American isolationism to generate neutrality laws that many hoped would prevent American involvement in future foreign wars.
         1. The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited the sale of arms and munitions to any nation at war.
         2. The 1937 Neutrality Act established "cash-and-carry": it required warring nations to pay cash for all "nonwar" goods and to carry them on their own ships.
2. The Road to War
   1. Roosevelt and American Neutrality
      1. As Europe rushed into war, in the United States there was little desire to come to the aid of Poland, Britain, or France, and public isolationism remained strong.
         1. Roosevelt had a different view because he was determined to do everything possible, short of war, to help those nations opposing Hitler.
         2. When Germany invaded Poland, FDR proclaimed the nation neutral but emphasized that he could not ask Americans to be neutral in their thoughts.
      2. The Third Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed any nation to buy weapons from the United States, but Roosevelt knew that the British navy would deny the Germans access.
         1. As Roosevelt shaped American neutrality, Hitler mopped up Polish resistance, and quietly readied his army for an attack on the west in the spring.
         2. Not so secretly, the Soviets continued their expansion by incorporating the Baltic Republics.
         3. Germany and Italy, called the Axis powers, controlled almost all of western and central Europe, leaving Britain to face the seemingly invincible German army and air force alone.
         4. Britain’s new prime minister, Winston Churchill, however, was already turning to Roosevelt for aid; Roosevelt responded favorably to his requests.
         5. The Burke-Wadsworth Act was the first peacetime military draft in the nation’s history, and by the end of 1940, Congress had approved over $37 billion in military expenditures - more than the total cost of World War I.
         6. The election results in 1940 demonstrated solid personal support for Roosevelt but not for the Democratic party, which lost three Senate seats.
   2. The Battle for the Atlantic
      1. By December 1940, Churchill had asked Roosevelt for loans to pay for supplies and for help to protect merchant ships from German submarines, and Roosevelt agreed.
         1. Roosevelt presented Congress with the Lend-Lease Bill, which would allow the president to lend, lease, or in any way dispose of war materials to any country considered vital to American security.
      2. With the Battle for the Atlantic reaching a turning point, Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly in August 1941, and, for the first time, both leaders sensed some room for optimism.
         1. Churchill and Roosevelt produced the Atlantic Charter, which set forth the Wilsonian goals of self-determination, freedom of trade and the seas, no territorial gains, and the establishment of a "permanent system of general security" in the form of a new world organization.
   3. Facing Japan
      1. Throughout 1941, FDR had to balance Britain’s desperate needs with those of his own military, which pressed him for more equipment to strengthen the nation’s position in the Pacific.
         1. Since 1937, Japanese troops had seized more and more of coastal China while the United States did little but protest.
         2. In July 1940, Roosevelt acted on public sentiment and placed some restrictions on Japanese-American trade, forbidding the sale and shipment of aviation fuel and scrap iron.
         3. Americans prepared for war, but Japan moved first.
   4. Pearl Harbor
      1. The Japanese planned to attack the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor.
         1. Seven battleships were destroyed or badly damaged and 11 others were hit, nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed, and 2,500 Americans died.
         2. Fortunately, the U.S. aircraft carriers were on maneuvers in the Pacific and not at Pearl Harbor and the repair shops, dry docks, and oil storage tanks incurred only light damage.
      2. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, and Germany and Italy soon declared war on the United States
3. America Responds to War
   1. Japanese American Internment
      1. The feelings against Japanese Americans were a product of long-standing racist attitudes and an immediate reaction to the war.
         1. Although some doubted the reality of any threat from the Japanese-American community, no one came forward to protest its treatment.
         2. In 1942, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the military to remove anyone deemed a threat from official military areas; the entire West Coast was declared a military area.
         3. By the summer of 1942, over 110,000 Nisei and Issei had been transported to ten internment camps.
         4. Aware of rapidly growing anti-Japanese public opinion, Roosevelt waited until after the 1943 elections to allow internees who passed a loyalty review to go home; a year later the camps were empty.
   2. Mobilizing the Nation for War
      1. President Roosevelt called on Americans to produce the goods necessary for victory, and any antibusiness attitude disappeared.
         1. By 1942, one-third of all American production was geared to the war, and the government was allocating millions of dollars to improve production and to build new plants in vital industries like aluminum and synthetic rubber.
         2. By the end of the war, the United States had pumped over $320 billion into the American economy, and the final production amounts exceeded almost everyone’s expectations.
      2. As the nation’s economy began to retool to become the arsenal of democracy, the Office of Price Administration was established to control prices and inflation.
         1. In May 1943, Roosevelt further expanded government planning and direction over the economy by establishing the Office of War Mobilization.
         2. The war brought an end to the Depression and created full employment.
   3. Wartime Politics
      1. As Roosevelt mobilized the nation for war, Republicans and conservative Democrats moved to bury what was left of the New Deal.
         1. To keep the social image of the New Deal alive during the election year of 1944, Roosevelt called for a G.I. Bill of Rights and a commitment to achieving "freedom from want."
         2. Roosevelt won reelection against Republican Thomas Dewey in 1940.
   4. A People at Work and War
      1. One sure sign that there was a war on was that people were moving and taking new jobs as never before.
         1. To fill the gaps in the work force, employers increasingly turned to those excluded prior to the war: women and minorities.
         2. With their expanding populations, war industrial cities experienced massive problems providing homes, water, electricity, and sanitation.
         3. Contributing to the old problem of prostitution was the new problem posed by many unsupervised teenage children.
   5. New Opportunities and Old Constraints in Wartime
      1. Minorities and women confronted new roles and accepted new responsibilities, both on the home front and in the military.
      2. The military branches were pushed to create new roles for women.
      3. As more jobs opened, women did fill them - some because of patriotism, but most because they wanted both the job and the wages.
         1. Despite the patriotic appeal and image, not all was ideal at work, since male workers often resented and harassed women and continually reminded them that their jobs were temporary.
      4. Like the war experiences of women, those of minorities were mixed.
         1. New employment and social opportunities existed, but they were accompanied by increased racial and ethnic tensions and the knowledge that, when the war ended, the opportunities were likely to vanish.
         2. The opportunities and realities of African Americans in uniform matched those of black civilians.
         3. Mexican Americans, too, found new opportunities during the war while encountering continued segregation and hostility.
4. Waging World War
   1. Halting the Japanese Advance
      1. In the Pacific theater, the victory at Midway in mid-1942 gave American forces naval and air superiority over Japan and allowed the use of carrier task forces to begin tightening the noose around Japan.
   2. The Tide Turns in Europe
      1. In Europe, too, the Allies began to meet with some success, although at great cost.
         1. While the British and Americans advanced across France, Allied bombers and fighter-bombers were doing what they had been doing since the spring of 1942, bombing German-held Europe night and day.
         2. Vital industries and transportation systems were destroyed by what at times seemed to be around-the-clock bombing.
      2. At the Tehran Conference, the Big Three agreed to coordinate a Soviet offensive with Allied landings at Normandy.
         1. Operation Overlord was the greatest amphibious assault ever assembled.
   3. Stresses within the Grand Alliance
      1. In February 1945, the Big Three met at Yalta amid growing apprehension about Soviet territorial and political goals in eastern Europe.
         1. First and foremost, Roosevelt needed a Soviet declaration of war on Japan and support for the new United Nations, since both were necessary to usher in peace and international stability.
         2. Roosevelt permitted Stalin to keep what he already had, or could easily take, to ensure Soviet cooperation.
   4. Hitler’s Defeat
      1. The Battle of the Bulge cost Germany valuable reserves and equipment, and ultimately it merely hastened the end of the war.
         1. At the end of April, Hitler committed suicide, since he was unwilling to be captured.
         2. Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage a few weeks before.
      2. Hitler’s Holocaust was responsible for the killing of six million civilian Jews.
   5. Closing the Circle on Japan
      1. More and more American lives were being lost as the Allies circled around the Japanese - who planned to fight to the death.
   6. Entering the Nuclear Age
      1. The A-bomb was the product of years of British-American research and development - the Manhattan Project.
      2. The Potsdam Declaration called upon Japan to surrender by August 1945 or face total destruction, and after August 3 Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
         1. World War II was over, but much of the world lay in ruins.