Nation of Nations Concise 2/e Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff
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World War II did not begin with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That attack culminated a long period of tension caused by Japanese, Italian, and German aggression. Despite that tension, and despite the fact that much of the world had been at war since 1939, the Japanese attack found Americans both militarily and psychologically unprepared. Pearl Harbor shocked Americans into a war they had been reluctant to fight, and ultimately into responsibilities of global leadership they had long refused to accept.

The United States in a Troubled World

The causes of World War II extended back to the peace talks at Versailles that ended World War I. Issues that divided victors and vanquished then, like German reparations, continued to trouble international relations for another twenty-five years. Despite its economic power, the United States played only an indirect role in the postwar world. The most direct threat to the peace arose from Japan's takeover of Manchuria. The United States could propose little besides the Stimson Doctrine of non-recognition to restrain Japanese aggression. In Latin America the United States under Hoover and Roosevelt took some constructive steps to become a "Good Neighbor," although that did not lessen American dominance of the region's economies.

By the 1930s the forces of fascism were rising. Yet the priorities of the New Deal and domestic pressures against foreign political entanglement left President Roosevelt largely powerless to play a role in containing the spread of German and Italian fascism or Japanese militarism. Neutrality legislation limited FDR's power to support victims of aggression like Ethiopia and China. That impotence made him sympathetic to the efforts of French and English leaders who at Munich in 1938 sought to negotiate an end to Hitler's aggression in Europe. "Appeasement" at Munich proved a sellout of Czechoslovakia, not a diplomatic triumph. With the German invasion of Poland in 1939 Europe was once again plunged into war. By the next spring, America's professed neutrality cloaked increasing support for the Allies, in particular the Lend Lease Act. Preoccupied with the war in Europe, Roosevelt tried to avoid a showdown in the Pacific with Japan. Diplomatic talks produced no compromises, while the Japanese extended their empire and then began secretly planning their attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

A Global War

In the months after the United States entered the war, it suffered a string of demoralizing defeats. But the key to victory was the productive capacity of American factories and the ability of the Americans and their Russian and British allies to coordinate a strategy, first to defeat Germany and only then to concentrate on defeating Japan. In Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin the Allies had exceptional leadership.

Despite agreement to defeat Germany first, the Allies' first successes came in naval engagements in the Pacific, highlighted by a smashing victory at Midway. After the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, victories in North Africa and Stalingrad in late 1942 marked the turning point of the war with Germany.

The war mobilized soldiers from all sectors of society, becoming a true melting pot. Many-but by no means most-became infantrymen, who suffered the greatest proportion of the million dead and wounded. For African Americans service offered an unusual opportunity for education and decent living conditions despite strictly segregated units. They volunteered in great numbers. Women, too, showed their patriotism by joining the services; they achieved equal status in some ways, yet were often restricted to a limited role.

War Production

The United States became "the arsenal of democracy" only after the government eliminated the initial bottlenecks that disrupted war industries. Roosevelt created several federal agencies to manage the production effort. Meanwhile, industries converted to war production. Ship builder Henry Kaiser was one example of an entrepreneur who helped create the "miracle of production." In the long run organization for war increased the dominance of larger corporations. Scientists too made critical contributions like radar and DDT. The fear of German research prompted Roosevelt to authorize the Manhattan Project to harness the power of the atom.

War production brought back prosperity, but also created headaches, as Americans adjusted to shortages and dislocations. In financing the war economy the Roosevelt administration preferred voluntary means such as the sale of war bonds. It resorted to compulsion only when necessary, as for example when it increased taxes to finance the war.

Labor unions made gains. They generally cooperated in keeping industry functioning smoothly, but a few militant leaders like John L. Lewis insisted on winning major concessions even if it hurt war production. Labor shortages increased the demand for women workers. These were often married women with children. The need for income, new opportunities, and a sense of patriotism all attracted women to jobs. They found not only new kinds of work, but also new stress over continuing family obligations. And it was expected they would leave the work force when the men returned.

A Question of Rights

World War I had resulted in infringements of civil rights. The United States had a better record during World War II. Italian aliens faced restriction for less than a year. But Japanese-Americans suffered a harsher fate as the government, in response to hysteria and prejudice, herded them into what clearly were concentration camps. Even the Supreme Court gave its blessing to this unjust relocation.

At the same time, traditional forms of prejudice limited the opportunities of African Americans and Hispanics. Black leader A. Philip Randolph pressured Roosevelt into creating the Fair Employment Practices Commission, which in some cases was able to end job discrimination. The movement of minorities into industrial centers outside the South often created frictions, which in Detroit and Los Angeles erupted into violence. Despite limited gains during the war, minority leaders had laid the groundwork for future activism.

Though the war had bipartisan support, partisan politics continued. The foes of New Deal reform used the war as an excuse to end programs they opposed. Still, Roosevelt managed to win an unprecedented fourth term in the 1944 presidential election. To satisfy conservative Democrats he chose Harry Truman of Missouri as his vice president.

Winning the War and the Peace

Winning the war required a coordinated military and diplomatic strategy in both Europe and the Pacific. The Allies first drove Italy from the war before Anglo-American forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. After a ferocious German counterattack failed during the Battle of the Bulge, the Allies marched toward Berlin. By that time the forces of General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz had moved within bomber range of Japan.

At a series of wartime meetings, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to plan a global strategy and lay the grounds for the postwar peace. They disagreed on many key points, including the best way to preserve peace. Still, they managed to compromise their differences in favor of the war effort. The high point of cooperation came at Teheran in 1943, when the three leaders agreed to the D-Day invasion of Europe. By the time they met at Yalta in February 1945, Roosevelt had secured a Soviet pledge to enter the war against Japan, but serious divisions had arisen over Poland and Germany.

Yalta marked the final and most controversial episode of Roosevelt's diplomatic stewardship. Critics later charged that he had sold out American and Allied interests to the Communists; defenders pointed out that Roosevelt's concessions to Stalin on Poland, Eastern Europe, and Asia were unavoidable, given the Soviet Union's wartime sacrifices and successes. Roosevelt neither enjoyed the fruits of victory nor suffered the failures of the peace, for he died weeks before the German surrender.

To Harry Truman fell the task of bringing the war to an end. Vctory brought a series of shocks. In liberating Germany and Poland, Allied armies confronted the grisly evidence of the Holocaust. Hitler had ordered the systematic extermination of Europe's Jews and other groups stigmatized by Nazi ideology.

To Truman, too, fell the responsibility of bringing the United Nations and new international economic institutions into being, as well as managing increasingly strained relations with the Soviet Union. Truman spent two weeks meeting with the British and Russians at Potsdam in Germany without resolving any important issues of the peace, such as German reparations. Even more consequential for postwar affairs, the first successful test of an atomic bomb led to its use on two Japanese cities. The horror of those attacks brought the war swiftly to an end.

"World War II changed everything," an admiral remarked. It increased global interdependence-politically and economically. In America it especially promoted economic centralization and government growth. And it made the United States the world's greatest power, with at least a termporary monopoly on the world's most awesome weapon.

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