APUSH Talking Points
World War II

  1. Isolationism:
  2. “good neighbor policy”: Platt Amendment dissolved as was our involvement in Latin America
  3. Nye Committee: war makers tricked us government into WWI
  4. Soviet Union at threat (US recognizes govt in 1933 in hopes of keeping open trade)
  5. US had “quarantined” aggressive nations, accepted $2 mil from Japan for sinking of a sub
  6. Totalitarianism in 1930s
  7. Japan, Italy, Spain, Russia, Germany
  8. “The Good War” Toll/Results
  9. Ended the Great Depression, a just cause in helping Jews (not known until after), fight against German and Japanese totalitarianism
  10. 50-80 million dead, 2/3rd civilians
  11. Downside: leads to Cold War, uncomfortable about women in workforce, rise of military industrial complex, discrimination powder keg
  12. Turns US into a Superpower!!
  13. Appeasement (1930s)
  14. League of Nations without the US was too weak to deal with countries rearming, totalitarian, governments, etc
  15. Nobody wants a repeat of WWI (2/3rds believe it was a mistake)
  16. Do the people have the resolve to fight? Isolationist sentiment
  17. Great Depression affecting everyone, why get involved in world crisis?
  18. Japan in 1931 invaded Manchuria, Rape of Nanjing (capital city)by Japanese Army…League does nothing, Japan withdrew from the League
  19. Franciso Franco in Spain erupts in civil war in 1936…most Americans don’t want involvement in this…about 1 million dead Spaniards with help of Germany
  20. Mussolini pissed Italy didn’t get any formerly German or Turkish colonies, in 1935 invade Ethiopia in Africa.
  21. Germany: pissed about reparations, fear of commies, labor unrest, unemployment, Jews to blame
  22. 1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor and assumes role as dictator. Wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), saying he’s going to overturn Versailles, restore the homeland, annex Eastern Europe, get rid of Inferior races and undesirables, 1933 first concentration camp at Dachau, “living space” out of Poland (created after WWI)
  23. German get out of League in 1933, rearms…occupies the Rhineland…appeasement continues!
  24. Germany signs allied agreement with Japan and Italy: Tripartite Pact
  25. 1938: Hitler annexesAustria (Sound of Music!)
  26. At Munich Conference, France and Britain let him take Sudetenland (part of Czech, if he takes no more land…appeasement!)Munich Pactas it is known
  27. Aug 1939 Non Aggression Pact with Soviets, Sept 1st, Germany attacks Poland and Britain and France declare war on Germany…it’s on bitches! Pact broken…Russia and Germany share the Polish territory and collectively kill about 2 million Poles (“the phony war”)
  28. Blitzkrieg: “lightening war” starts April 1940, Nazi overrun Denmark, Norway in blitzkrieg, Holland, Belgium, etc…
  29. then June 22, 1940 France…same RR car as Germany surrendered in WWI!..Vichy France is formed (taken over by Nazis)..puppet govt established
  30. How US stay out: Good Neighbor Policy (renounced us of military force and armed intervention in Western Hemisphere (Latin America key to us being awesome!), repeal of Platt in 1934
  31. Senator Gerald Nye investigated American profit in WWI, called them “merchants of death”…make US want to stay neutral , increased isolationism
  32. 1935/1936: Neutrality Act, prohibited Americans from traveling on ships owned by nations at war, forbade sales of arms and munitions (not resources needed to make war like steel, oil, etc)…probably helped to fund Mussolini’s invasion of N. Africa, to “belligerent” nations, embargo on trading with countries at war, 37 adopts “cash and carry “ provision…use own ships and pay cash
  33. After war starts, FDR repeatedly repeats Wilson’ “this nation will remain neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well”…by ’39 he is calling Hitler a madman who only respect force
  34. Move towards interventionism
  35. At home, draft of 16 million to register, combat planes, tanks, etc, top secret project for the bomb Manhattan Project begins
  36. 1940 FDR runs again (55% of popular vote)
  37. 4 Freedoms! (activity for students)
  38. March 1941 German U boats sinking British ships faster than they are built, Britain broke for cash and carry, Roosevelt passes Lend Lease Act…”give your neighbor a fire hose”
  39. Aug 1941 FDR and Winston Churchill meet to discuss strategy (Atlantic Charter)…supported free trade, national self determination, collective security
  40. Sept 1941: US subs and German Uboats fighting undeclared war in Atlantic
  41. American declares war
  42. FDR had embargoes on gas, scrap iron, supplies to/from Japan, froze all assets in America, restricted oil exports to Japan…puts Doug MacArthur in charge of Pacific fleets
  43. “remove your forces from China and French Indochina or else” (trade!)
  44. Pearl Harbor: Why there? “punch a tiger, better make sure it’s down”
  45. Prime Minister Tojo began planning US attack: Dec 7, 1941, 2,400 Americans, 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 200 planes damaged “day that will live in infamy”
  46. Jeannette Rankin only to not vote to declare war
  47. At Home
  48. Business support
  49. Dec 1941: War Powers Act gave Pres ability to create gov agencies to deal with war, create jobs, regulate businesses, etc
  50. War Production Board: 3 million cars not built, tanks and planes instead, hundreds of thousands of military products and vehicles (2% of economy to 40%)…”waking the sleeping giant”
  51. Revenue Act of 41 (Victory Tax), 90% now paid income tax, debt increased to 6x by end of war
  52. Size of fed govt soared
  53. Office of Price Admin: price ceilings, rationing, seized industries where strikes might break out
  54. Lots of New Deal programs dismantled
  55. Social Effects
  56. Women! WACs and WAVEs..6 million entered work force…this pisses lots of men off
  57. West! Defense jobs and factories
  58. Military bases in the South
  59. Philip A. Randolph, end to discrimination in defense industries…agreed not to strike (Sleeping Car Porters) if FDR passed this by executive order
  60. Tuskeegee Airmen: Redtails
  61. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. During World War II, black Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws[N 1] and the American military was racially segregated, as was much of the federal government.
  62. Returning blacks want change once they are back after seeing lack of racism in Europe (start of Civil Rights Movement)
  63. Bracero program
  64. (named for the Spanish term bracero, meaning "manual laborer" [lit. "one who works using his arms"]) importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. At the start of the program, train loads of Mexican immigrants ready to work were sent over during the heart of WWII for the "emergency wartime agricultural and railroad importations". Shortages of food and other goods throughout the U.S caused chaos throughout the nation, leading to the bracero program as a solution.
  65. zoot suit riots: series of racial attacks in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, during a period when many migrants arrived for the defense effort and newly assigned servicemen flooded the city. Wartime regulations were perceived as part of supporting the war effort. United States Sailors and Marines attacked Mexican youths, recognizable by the zoot suits they favored, as being unpatriotic
  66. Japanese internment: Korematsu vs US (show video)

Show animation to review major battles in Europe.

  • Battle of Britain “never surrender!”
  • Bataan Death March (way underprepared in Pacific)
  • Midway
  • “code breakers”…helped win the Pacific theater
  • Operation Torch (42)…second front “unconditional surrender” at Casablana
  • Italy invasion in 43 ended with Mussolini dead and Italy offering to join the allies
  • DDay
  • Carpet bombing, etc etec VE Day, VJ Day