April 15, 2013

In the 1930s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) had attempted to establish better relations with the Soviet Union (USSR) by formally recognizing it in 1933.  He had also established the "Good Neighbor Policy" with Latin America and showed his seriousness when he withdrew troops from Haiti in 1934.  He also renounced the Platt Amendment with Cuba and would not interfere in Mexico when Mexico nationalized U.S. oil companies in 1937. 

In 1934, the Nye Commission had reported that American bankers who had loaned money to the Allies in World War I and also sold them munitions had conspired with President Wilson to go to war.  This added to the continuing disillusionment that resulted after World War I.  Over the next several years, the U.S. Congress passed several neutrality acts that prevented the United States from selling munitions to countries at war.  One of these acts prevented American ships from sailing into war zones and prevented loans to belligerents and prevented Americans from sailing on belligerent ships.  There was also an embargo on oil, steel, and rubber to these nations.  A Cash and Carry policy was adopted in regard to selling to these products to belligerents (those nations fighting).  It meant that those nations could pay cash for their supplies and carry transport them in their own ships.  Most Americans did not want to become involved in the war; there was a strong isolationist view in the United States.

KEY INTERNATIONAL EVENTS OF THE 1930S:

• 1931:  Japan seized Manchuria
• 1933:  Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
• 1935:  Mussolini of Italy invades Ethiopia
• 1936:  Hitler rearms the Rhineland in Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles
• 1937:  Japan invaded China
• March, 1938: Anschluss (Annexation of Austria); the musical, "The Sound of Music" is based upon this event.
• September, 1938: Appeasement of Hitler with the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia (Munich Conference)
• 1939:  Hitler takes all of Czechoslovakia, Mussolini takes Albania, Germany and Soviet Union sign a nonaggression treaty with each other and SEPTEMBER 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the West and the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East.  Hitler's invasion STARTS WORLD WAR II.  Britain and France declare war on Germany.
• 1940:  France fell, Battle of Britain begins, JAPAN SEIZES BASES IN INDOCHINA(U.S. cuts off steel and scrap metal to Japan), Japan signs the TRIPARTITE PACT with Germany and Italy.  Congress passed the DESTROYER DEAL, allowing the U.S. to sell older U.S. destroyers to Britain; FDR commits to supply the Allies.  Congress authorizes the first peacetime draft.  FDR re-elected for third term.
• 1941:  Congress passes the LEND-LEASE ACT, allowing the U.S. to lend or lease supplies to the British. 
• America First Committee organized to oppose FDR's policies (some members were Charles Lindbergh, William Howard Taft, and Norman Thomas).
• June: Japan takes all of French Indochina/U.S. cuts off oil to Japan and the U.S. demands Japanese withdrawal; Japan decides to go to war with the United States. 
• August:  ATLANTIC CHARTER (8-point statement of war aims) signed between FDR and Winston Churchill (Look it up in your text).
• Several incidents occurred between the United States Navy and Germany and Japan during this period (USS Kearny and USS Ruben James).  Neutrality Acts repealed.
• DECEMBER 7, 1941:  JAPAN ATTACKED THE UNITED STATES AT PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII.
• December 8, 1941:  United States declares war on Japan; December 11:  Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
• FDR now had to begin coordinating the war with Churchill and Joseph Stalin.
• The United States' conversion to a wartime economy was amazing.  (READ ABOUT IT IN YOUR TEXT).

KEY EVENTS IN THE WAR IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA:  It will be your responsibility to read and identify the events/terms that I do not identify.

• June, 1941:  Hitler invades the Soviet Union.  This ends their non-aggression pact with each other.
• April, 1942:  DOOLITTLE RAID:  U.S. attacks Japan from aircraft carriers in the Pacific, but the immediate focus will be in Europe.
• November, 1942:  Operation Torch, the U.S. invades North Africa
• Invasion of Sicily and Italy following victory in North Africa
• Stalin wants a SECOND FRONT opened in western Europe to take pressure off of the Soviet Union in the east. 
• OPERATION OVERLORD, June 6, 1944, also known as the NORMANDY INVASION, the invasion of western Europe by the Allies (United States, Great Britain, Free French, Canada).  This is the second front that Stalin had long wanted and will be the beginning of the end for Germany.  This is the largest amphibious invasion in history.  It took place at French beaches code named Omaha, Utah, Sword, and Juno.
• November, 1944:  FDR re-elected to 4th term as President.
• The Battle of the Bulge
• April 12, 1945:  FDR died
• May 7, 1945:  Germany surrenders
• May 8, 1945:  V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)

KEY POLITICAL LEADERS IN WORLD WAR II

• President Franklin Roosevelt
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill
• Adolph Hitler
• Benito Mussolini
• Joseph Stalin
• Emperor Hirohito
• Hideki Tojo
• President Harry Truman

KEY AMERICAN MILITARY LEADERS

• General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• General George C. Patton
• General Omar Bradley
• General George C. Marshall
• Admiral Chester Nimitz
• General Douglas MacArthur

MAJOR PACIFIC BATTLES OF WWII

• Battle of Guadalcanal
• Battle of Coral Sea
• Battle of Midway
• Battle of Saipan
• Battle of Iwo Jima
• Battle of Okinawa

OTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF THE PACIFIC WAR

• Flight of the Enola Gay
• August 6, 1945:  Dropping of first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
• August 9, 1945:  Dropping of second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan
• August 14, 1945:  Japan surrenders
• August 15, 1945: V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day)
• September 2, 1945:  Official Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan

MANHATTAN PROJECT

KEY WARTIME CONFERENCES

• Casablanca Conference
• Teheran Conference
• YALTA CONFERENCE
• POTSDAM CONFERENCE

OTHER NOTES WILL FOLLOW