Post-WWI American Foreign
Policy and World War II
Fundamental Questions
▶ Analyze
how foreign issues and
developments helped to maintain continuity
and foster change in American foreign policy
from 1920 to 1945.
▶ Evaluate the extent of World War II’s impact
on the growth of the federal government.
American Foreign Policy of the 1920’s
Disarmament Initiatives
▶
Washington Naval
Conference (1921)
 Five-Power Treaty
▶ U.S.:GB:Japan:France:Italy
▶ 5:5:3:1.75:1.75
▶
Kellogg-Briand Pact
(1928)
American Foreign Policy of the
1920’s
Economic Policies
Fordney-McCumber
Tariff (1922)
▶ Dawes Plan (1924)
▶
Herbert Hoover (R) (1929-1933)
▶
Disarmament
 London Naval Conference
(1930)
▶
Good Neighbor Policy
 Clark Memorandum (1930)
▶
Stimson Doctrine (1932)
 In response to the Japanese
invasion of Manchuria (1931)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) (1933-1945)
Depression And Foreign Policy
▶
Good Neighbor Policy
 Pan-American Conferences
(1933, 1936)
London Economic
Conference (1933)
▶ Reciprocal Trade
Agreements
▶
The Axis Powers And Appeasement
▶
Japan
 Invasion of Manchuria (1931)
 Invasion of China (1937)
▶
Italy
 Invasion of Ethiopia (1935)
▶
Germany
 Remilitarization of the Rhineland
(1936)
 Anschluss and the Sudetenland
(1938)
▶
Global Response
 Munich Conference (1938)
 Molotov-Ribbentrop NonAggression Pact (1939)
 German invasion of Poland begins
World War II in Europe (1939)
American Isolationists
▶
Characteristics



▶
Midwest region
Rural sectors
Republicans and conservatives
Nye Committee
 “Merchants of Death”
▶
America First Committee
 Avoid possible entanglements
with European affairs in WWII
 Promote isolationism across the
nation
FDR and Preparedness
▶
▶
▶
▶
Neutrality Acts (1935-1937)
Cash and Carry (1939)
Selective Service Act of 1940
Destroyers-for-Bases (1940)
Election of 1940
▶
Franklin D.
Roosevelt (D)
 “Drafted” for
unprecedented
third term
▶
Wendell Willkie (R)
 Make New Deal
programs more
efficient
FDR’s Four Freedoms
Speech
Worship
From Want
From Fear
“Arsenal of Democracy”
▶
Lend-Lease Act (1941)
 Provide arms to Great Britain
on credit and decisively proBritish “neutrality”
▶
Atlantic Charter (1941)
 Promote and secure selfdetermination and free trade
 No pursuit of territorial
expansion
 Blueprint for United Nations
Pearl Harbor
▶
U.S. Embargoes on Japan


▶
Prohibited trade of steel and oil
Required Japan’s halt on
expansion and removal from
China
December 7, 1941
 Japanese surprise attack on U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii
 2,400 Americans killed
 “a date that will live in infamy”
infamy”
▶
United States enters WWII
 U.S. declares war on Japan
(12/8/41)
 Germany and Italy declare on U.S.
 German invasion of Soviet Union
(1942)
 Allies
▶
U.S., Great Britain, Soviet Union
 Axis
▶
Germany, Italy, Japan
The Economy And World War II
▶
Economic Recovery and Growth
▶
 GDP
▶
▶
▶
▶
$103.6B - 1929
$56.4B - 1933
$101.4B - 1940
$223.1B - 1945
 Unemployment
▶
▶
▶
▶
▶
▶
17 million new jobs
3.2% - 1929
24.9% - 1933
14.6% - 1940
1.2% - 1944
Fiscal Policy
 War cost $304B
▶
$136B from tax revenue

▶
Revenue Act of 1942
$168B from war bonds
 National Debt
▶
▶
▶
▶
$25B in 1918
$20B in 1933
$39.65B in 1939
$251B in 1945
Industry
 Factories converted for war
production
 Doubled industrial production
 Real wages increased by 50%
▶
Agriculture




▶
Net farm income doubled
$20B increase in land value
$11B savings accumulated
17% decline in farm population
Labor Unions
 National War Labor Board
 Smith-Connally War Act (1943)
 Union membership
▶ 9 million – 1940
▶ 14.8 million - 1945
Economic Impact of World War II
War bonds helped the
government finance the
war
War Productions Board
Office of War Information
Office of Censorship
Office of Price Administration (OPA) and Ration Books
Women And World War II
▶
Women in Armed Forces
 350,000 served in military
 Women’s Army Corps (WAC)
 Women Appointed for Voluntary
Emergency Service (WAVES)
▶
“Rosie the Riveter”
 “A woman is a substitute, like
plastic instead of metal.” – War
Department brochure
 Women in the Workforce
▶
▶
1940 – 27%
1945 – 37%
 Earned 65% of what men earned
 Domestic sphere included the
home front
▶
American Family
 Marriage and birth rates increased
 Divorce rates increased
 High school enrollment decreased
“At Boeing I found a
freedom and an
independence I had never
known. After the war I could
never go back to playing
bridge again, being a
clubwoman and listening to
a lot of inanities when I
knew there were things you
could use for your mind.
The war changed my life
completely.” – Inez Sauer
Blacks And World War II
1.2 million served during the war
▶ Tuskegee Airmen
▶ Double V Campaign
▶ Great Migration
▶
 Detroit Race Riot (1943)
▶
March on Washington (1941)
 A. Phillip Randolph
 Executive Order 8802
▶ Desegregation
of national defense industry
 Committee on Fair Employment
Practice
▶
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Japanese In World War II
▶
▶
▶
442nd Infantry
Japanese internment
camps
 Executive Order 9066
 Over 100,000 Japanese immigrants
(isei) and Americans (nisei)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
 Supreme Court ruled internment
camps constitutional in wartime
Other Minorities In World War II
▶
Mexicans
 Braceros program
 Zoot Suit Riots (June 1943)
▶
Natives
 Navajo Code Talkers
 25,000 enlisted
Election of 1944
▶
Franklin D.
Roosevelt (D)
 Harry S.
Truman as VP
 War success
boosted
popularity
▶
Thomas E.
Dewey (R)
 Campaigned
for smaller
government
and less
regulation
Atlantic Theater
Battle of Stalingrad
(1942-1943)
▶ Operation Torch
(1942)
▶

▶
Operation
Avalanche (1943)

▶
North Africa
“soft underbelly
of the Axis”
Axis”
Operation
Overlord/D-Day
(June 6, 1944)

Allied Western
front opens
Battle of the Bulge
(1944-1945)
▶ V-E Day (May 7,
1945)
▶
Pacific Theater
▶
▶
▶
▶
Battle of Coral Sea (May
1942)
Battle of Midway (June
1942)
Island-hopping
Not without a fight…
 Guadalcanal (Aug
1942-Feb 1943)
 Leyte Gulf (Oct 1944)
▶
kamikazes
 Iwo Jima (Feb-Mar
1945)
 Okinawa (Apr-June
1945)
Atomic Bombs
Manhattan Project
▶ August 6, 1945 on
Hiroshima
▶
 70,000-80,000 killed
 4.7 sq. mi. destroyed
▶
August 9, 1945 on
Nagasaki
 50,000-75,000 killed
▶
V-J Day (September 2,
1945)
War Conferences
▶
Teheran (Nov 1943)
 Agree to open western front
against Germany (Operation
Overlord)
▶
Yalta (Feb 1944)
 German unconditional
surrender and occupation
zones
 Soviet Union conditional plans
against Japan
 New peace organization United Nations
▶
Potsdam (July-Aug 1945)
 Japanese unconditional
surrender
 War crimes trial - Nuremberg
Trials
 Disputes over “spheres of
influence” between U.S. and
Soviet Union
World War II Costs
▶
70 million deaths or 4% of
world population



25 million military
45 million civilians
Genocides and War Crimes
Holocaust
▶ Nanking Massacre
▶ Bataan Death March
▶
▶
United States
 Over 400,000 casualties
 $306 billion cost
World War II Legacy
▶
G.I. Bill (1944)
 Provided living allowances, tuition fees to
support veterans
▶
▶
United Nations
Superpowers and Cold War
 United States and Soviet Union
▶
▶
Capitalism and Communism
Individualism and Collective Society