SECTION 1 : The USA and the Second World War

How did Roosevelt prepare the USA for war and try to help Britain?

• In 1939 he asked Congress for $1,300,000,000 to build up the armed forces

• In 1940 he signed the destroyers for bases deal with Britain.

• 1n 1941 he signed the Lend Lease Act with Britain. This allowed the US government to supply equipment to Britain which could be returned or paid for at the end of the war

• On 7 December Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Congress voted for war against Japan on 8 December and against Germany and Italy on 11 December.

• 16,000,000 US citizens served in the armed forces, many had never travelled before.

• There were so many jobs available that many students left education to start work. The number of 16-19 year olds at work increased 300%.

• The number of working mothers also increased dramatically. This led to an increase in juvenile crime. Many women found work in the defence industries. The percentage of women working rose from 27 to 37 between 1941 and 1945.

• There was strong government pressure upon women to work; the most famous example was the poster campaign based upon 'Rosie the Riveter'.

• But at the end of the war many women were persuaded to give up work and return to family life.

• Roosevelt had ordered that blacks should get equal treatment under the New Deal, although in the CCC they had to attend separate camps. The same policy continued during the Second World War.

• In 1941 Philip Randolph organized a march of 100,000 on Washington, with the slogan ‘We loyal Americans demand the right to work and fight for our country’. In 1942 the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was set up.

• Black Americans were recruited into all three armed services, but had to serve in separate units. Black officers were also appointed in all three services. The Air Force began to train black pilots, 600 in all by the end of the war.

• Roosevelt attempted to force industry to employ blacks. In 1941 he set up the Fair Employment Practices Committee, but had no power to enforce his policy, except to refuse to give government contracts to companies that would not agree.

• 1,000,000 black Americans served in the armed forces and 700,000 moved north and west from the southern states. Probably the greatest influence that the war had upon them was that they were taking part in a struggle against a racist dictator.

• In 1945 they returned to the USA where many blacks were unable to vote and were condemned to be second class citizens. In this respect the war was a big boost to the civil rights movement.

• By 1946 the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, had 460,000 members. Nevertheless there were riots against blacks in many cities in the USA in 1943 and more than 30 blacks were killed and more

• When war broke out it was decided to move 110,000 Japanese-Americans from their homes on the west coast, because they might be a security risk.

• Many were forced to sell most of their belongings and lost $500,000,000 as a result. They were moved to relocation camps where conditions were very poor.

• During the war many factories, such as Ford Motors were changed to war production. Wages rose faster than prices, despite controls on both. 17,000,000 jobs were created in the USA

• Federal spending rose 1000% during the war.

• War in Europe meant a big increase in demand for US farm products and prices rose.

• USA emerged from the war as an industrial giant. Its economy was head and shoulders above the ruined economies of other nations.

• The Cold War continued the high level of spending on armaments into the next decades. Government spending actually doubled from 1950 to 1960.

• The standard of living of almost all Americans rose as a result.

* Many Americans expected a depression after the end of the war, as there had been in 1920-21, but in fact that economy continued to expand.

• The boom of the 1940s carried on into the 1950s. The key features of that boom, hire purchase, advertising, and a mass market, continued.

• By the 1950s most Americans were experiencing the highest standard of living in the world. There was a move out to the suburbs and by 1959 a quarter of all Americans lived in suburbs.

• By 1960 87% of homes had a TV. Advertising ensured that the boom continued. By 1960 75% of households had a car.

• The Interstate Highways Act of 1956 led to the building of many new roads.

• It made the USA into a Superpower. Many Americans felt isolationism was partly to blame for the war. In 1945 the USA did not return to isolationism, and took a lead in setting up the United Nations.

• The USA also took up the challenge it saw from Communism, and the Cold War began. This made Americans very suspicious of Communism and led to attacks on people suspected of being communists.

• In 1947 President Truman announced the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. To persuade Congress to vote for them, Truman talked of a Communist threat to the USA and approved the Federal Employee Loyalty Program. This led to every Federal worker being investigated for Communist sympathies. 4,000,000 people were checked and no cases of spying were discovered. But it was the start of the Red Scare, which led to McCarthyism.