CH 35-36 Flashcards
WW2 and post WW2 America (57 cards)
Henry Stimson
Originally known during the New Deal era for proclaiming the Stimson doctrine that the United States would not recognize any territorial gains achieved by force, Stimson later became the Secretary of War. Stimson had long advocated taking a stance against the aggressor nations, such as Japan and Germany, in an attempt to prevent these countries from gaining steam and developing vast empires in different areas of the world. Thus, in his cabinet position, he is known to have said, “If you are going to try to go to war in a capitalist country, you have to let business make money out of the process, or business won’t work.” This quote eventually formed the basis of the wartime economy that handed out large defense contracts and created numerous other jobs to aid the total war effort. Indeed, it was the heavy spending on military goods, not the New Deal reforms, that pulled the nation out of the Great Depression.
A. Philip Randolph
the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, he threatened a massive “Negro March on Washington.” Proclaimed in 1941, the purpose of the march would be to demand equal opportunities for blacks in war jobs and in the armed forces. In response to this threat or valid claim, President Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination in the defense industries and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to uphold this order. Thereafter, blacks were admitted into the armed forces, but served mainly in noncombat roles as service workers.
Douglas MacArthur
the American commanding general in the Pacific theater, he initially ventured into the Philippines with twenty thousand troops. However, the Japanese forces proved formidable and MacArthur was called to fall back. Despite the apparent defeat, MacArthur promised the Filipinos that he would be back, a promise that he would later fulfill in the Americans successful takeover of the Philippines in 1944 and 1945 as they closed in on Japan. As it stood, MacArthur’s military genius enabled him to hold off the Japanese attacks and even score important victories with limited resources as the Allies focused most of their power in the European theater.
Chester W. Nimitz
A notable American navy admiral who played a key role in several naval battles in the Pacific against the Japanese. Out of these various encounters, perhaps none was more important than the Battle of Midway, which took place on an Island lest than a thousand miles from Honolulu. The Japanese wanted the area as a base from which to launch further attacks on Pearl Harbor. However, Nimitz realized this and was able to lure the Japanese towards a potential trap. In the ensuing fighting, all conducted by aircraft, the Japanese lost four vital carriers and were forced to fall back. Nimitz’s victory at Midway proved to be one of the major turning points of the war in the Pacific.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
A gifted and easily-smiling American general, he was given control over most of the Allied forces in Europe because a majority of the troops were American soldiers and therefore, it was deemed appropriate that an American should be leading the charge. In this position, Eisenhower oversaw the operations in North Africa and the D-Day invasion. Indeed, as the Allies made advances, much of the praise was showered upon Eisenhower, who became a military hero back home. After the fall of Nazi Germany, Eisenhower returned home to parades and glory and it was in this atmosphere that he was eventually able to ride his way to the presidency.
Joseph Stalin
The leader of the Soviet Union during World War II, Stalin was a hard-nosed militant who was unwilling to concede to the Germans, especially at Stalingrad, the city named in his stead. Indeed, it was likely because of his stubbornness that the Soviets were eventually able to hold off the Germans and turn the tide of the war. However, his doggedness in military soldiers also resulted in the lost of nearly twenty million Soviet soldiers. Stalin’s lack of trust of anyone, even those within his own party, caused him to come off as secretive and plotting, and served as one of the root causes of the ensuing Cold War.
Jiang Jieshi(Chiang Kai-shek)
The Chinese generalissimo who was the leader of the Nationalists during this time. Throughout the conflict with Japan, the Americans supplied Jiang with various resources to continue fighting the Japanese. This was first accomplished via the Burma Road, but later changed to airdrops due to Japanese occupation of that land route. Jiang held the nationalists together throughout World War II and even cooperated with the Communist Mao Zedong and his forces at certain points. However, he and the Nationalists were eventually exiled to Japan when American aid was not enough to hold off the widespread influence of the Communists after World War II.
Thomas E. Dewey
the Republican nominee to run against the Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the election of 1944. He was the governor of New York and a popular vote-getter. He was widely known as a liberal who had a reputation of prosecuting grafters and racketeers in New York. However, he was looked down upon as short and young. Further hindering his campaign were the isolationist policies of his running mate, John Bricker of Ohio. Amidst the turmoil of World War II, isolationism was the thing the American people least wanted. Rather, they wished to “not change horses in midstride” and decided to stick with Roosevelt to finish out the war. Thus, Dewey was defeated by a score of 432 to 99 in the electoral college.
Harry S. Truman
the man who was eventually selected to be the vice-presidential running mate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the election of 1944. He was originally a Senator from Missouri who had received no formal college education. He was able to secure the vice presidency when conservative Democrats shied away from the liberal Henry Wallace, despite his popularity both among the voters and various delegates. Instead, they nominated Truman, who had recently arrived on the national scene as the efficient chairman of a Senate committee conducting an investigation of wasteful war expenditures. He thus had no enemies or supporters. He was eventually the one to make the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
Albert Einstein
A German-born physicist who was exiled to the United States, he is recognized as one of the geniuses of modern history. Through his theory of relativity and numerous other concepts, he was able to devise the idea of an atomic weapon that would be significantly stronger than any other weapon created thus far in human history. It was through his urging that President Roosevelt eventually secured $2 billion in funding from Congress to start the Manhattan Project, which would conduct research on the feasibility of an atomic weapon and eventually come to design the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of the war.
War Production Board
this organization halted the manufacture of nonessential items such as passenger cars and assigned priorities for transportation and access to raw materials. All of this was to maximize the production capabilities and efficiency of America’s wartime economy. The existence of such a board enabled the government to impose a national speed limit and gasoline rationing in order to conserve rubber and gasoline and build fifty-one synthetic-rubber plants to make up the deficiencies when the Japanese took control of British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.
Office of Price Administration
an institution established to maintain control of prices. In wartime, the lack of consumer goods caused severe inflation that when unchecked could spell financial doom for many everyday workers. Thus, this group held ascending prices under control with extensive regulations. To further ease the crisis, rationing was made even stricter, although certain “black marketeers” or “meatleggers” would cheat the system. The success of this agency was only cut back by the limit on wage increases imposed by the War Labor Board. Thereafter, many people had to work on a tight budget to make ends meet.
WAACs
the acronym for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, this group was one of the main ones that popularized women involvement in the war. Through poster appeals and catchy slogans, such as “Speed them Back, Join the WAAC,” “I’d Rather Be with Them - Than Waiting for Them,” and “Back the Attack, Be a WAAC! For America is Calling,” they were able to draw many women into the workplace. It was through the efforts of groups like these that women became an integral part of society on the home front during the war.
“Rosie the Riveter”
The common nickname given to women who worked in industry during the war. The nickname soon became associated with an iconic poster, the inspiration of which came from a female riveter working on the ship docks (The model just passed away within the last couple of years). Feeding off this image, many women came into the workplace to help produce various war goods to help the men who were fighting overseas. As a result, the government was forced to create many day care centers where the children of these workers could be properly taken care of. Even after the war, many of these “Rose the Riveters” remained at their posts in industry as America tried to maintain economic prosperity in a permanent wartime economy throughout the Cold War period.
Braceros
a program created by the American government that created an agreement with Mexico in 1942 to bring thousands of Mexican agricultural workers, who were nicknamed braceros, across the border to harvest the fruit and grain crops of the West. The program itself outlived the war by over twenty years and became a fixed feature of the agricultural economy in many western states. Indeed, the bracero program likely led to the emergence of a defined Latino culture in the American Southwest that is still evident today.
Fair Employment Practices Commission
Known as the FEPC for short, this was the agency established to uphold the executive order against discrimination. Both Roosevelt’s executive order and the creation of this institution came as a result of threats from A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to have a march on Washington in 1941 to demand equal opportunities for black in war jobs and in the armed forces. In order to avoid a costly conflict amidst a war against aggressors, the President decided to concede to these demands and directed that no discrimination could take place within the defense sector. Despite the apparent equality, most blacks were forced into noncombat roles as service workers.
Casablanca Conference
A conference in the newly occupied French Morocco in January of 1943 between the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, and American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At this conference, the two sides agreed on the premise of unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers at the conclusion of the war. Although the absolute surrender of these aggressors was a hotly debated point and may have slowed the rebuilding process after the war, it was nonetheless a necessary point in order to ensure the long-term success of a lasting peace that was not made in separate pacts.
Second Front
the matter of a second front was brought up by Stalin as early as 1941. At the time, America had not entered fully into the war and the rest of the Allies did not have enough resources or manpower to launch a successful invasion of the German-controlled coast of Europe. President Roosevelt promised Stalin that a second front would be opened by the end of 1942 to alleviate the stress on Soviet forces, but this was later shot down by the British, who felt unprepared at this point to launch an assault on the German empire. Ultimately, the second front was gradually opened up first in Africa and up the boot of Italy as well as in Normandy, France following the D-Day invasion.
Teheran Conference
Taking place in the capital of Iran after much urging from Stalin to have the meeting close to Moscow, discussion between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill developed from November 28 to December 1, 1943. Agreements were made for broad plans of Soviet attacks on Germany from the east in conjunction with a prospective Allied assault from the west. It was as a result of this conference that preparations were made for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France that would signal the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.
D-Day
the name given to June 6, 1944, the day that the Allied forces launched the largest amphibious attack (or attack in general) in recorded human history. After tricking the Germans into believing that they would attempt to invade across the shortest route at Dunkirk, the Allies instead took to the beaches of Normandy, where they were met with firm resistance from the Germans. However, the endless of flow of Allied soldiers coupled with paratrooper attacks from the backside eventually overwhelmed German defenses and allowed the Allies to establish a foothold within continental Europe. Had the move failed, the Nazis likely would have won World War II, but as it stands, the success of the D-Day invasion spelled the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.
Battle of the Bulge
the name given to one of the last struggles of the war, which came as a result of Hitler’s attempted rush to Antwerp, the key to the Allied supply operation. The Americans were caught off guard and were pushed back quite a distance, resulting in a bulge in the Allied lines for which the battle was named. The tide was eventually turned when amidst the ten-day penetration, the 101st Airborne Division under Brigadier General A.C. McAuliffe refused to surrender to the Germans. Thereafter, the last of the significant German forces were pushed back and the Allies made their way to Berlin where they joined with the Soviets to wipe out Nazi Germany.
Potsdam Conference
A conference held near Berlin in July 1945. There, President Truman, who was still new on the job, met in a seventeen-day conference with Joseph Stalin and the British leaders to issue an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed. American bombers showered the dire warning on Japan in tens of thousands of leaflets, but still not response came from the Japanese leadership. Ultimately, the Potsdam Conference’s threat was made good by the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending the war in Japan as the government gave in to stop the torture of their people.
Manhattan Project
the name given to the operation to develop an atomic weapon. The Manhattan Project was originally the brainchild of German-born physicist Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity and other concepts provided the basis for the feasibility of an atomic weapon. Thereafter, Einstein convinced President Roosevelt to secure $2 billion in financing from Congress for the research and design of an atomic bomb. This money was eventually funneled into the Manhattan Project, which successfully tested the first atomic bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
Harry S. Truman
The leader of the United States as World War II drew to a close, he authorized the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to procure a surrender from the Japanese government. Thereafter, his presidency was characterized by his hardened and hostile attitude towards the Soviets, a sentiment that was eventually manifested as the Cold War. This can best be seen in his Truman Doctrine, which established containment as the foreign policy of the United States in the words: “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
