WWII

• Militarism: The policy of making military interest very strong
• Dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in Germany and Italy due to embitterment of citizens, heavy costs of reparations leading to a damaged economy, and the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
• Mussolini: Fascist Italian dictator beginning in 1922
• Appeasement: Policy followed by British and French leaders; granting some concessions to dictators, rather than directly confronting Germany
• Munich Pact: Signed in 1938 in agreeance of giving Germany Sudetenland
• The controversy surrounding arms manufacturers and the two neutrality acts were contributing factors to the US's isolationism and focus on domestic affairs.
• Cash and Carry policy: Provision of the second neutrality act, requested by President Roosevelt; granted that the US could sell military supplies to warring nations, if the nation paid for and transported the supplies itself
• In 1931, militant nationalists began to dominate Japan's government. In 1937, Japan invaded China. President Roosevelt refused to invoke the neutrality acts in order to help China.
• In 1939, Germany signed an agreement with the Soviet Union to invade and divide Poland. Later that same year, France and Britain declared war on Germany.
• Third Neutrality Act: 1939, ended the embargo on arms as an expansion of the cash-and-carry policy
• Lend-Lease Act: 1941, allowed the US to provide aid to any warring nation in return for payments on credit or in kind
• President Roosevelt campaigned for a third term in 1941. Although he promised to keep the US out of war, he worked behind the scenes in aid of Britain and against Japan.
• 1921: President Harding campaigns in favor of "normalcy"

  1922: Mussolini starts a Fascist government in Italy

  1929: US focus turns to domestic affairs as the Great Depression is in full effect

  1934: More domestic affairs; the Nye Committee begins investigations

  1935: First series of Neutrality Acts is passed, declaring an arms embargo

  1937: Roosevelt begins speaking out for intervention

  1939: Cash and carry policy

  1940: President Roosevelt helps Churchill prepare his navy

  1941: Lend Lease Act revokes the provisions of the neutrality acts
• The Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in 1941 was the event which formally drew the US into war.
• The US faced a two-ocean war, against Japan in the Pacific theater and against Germany in the Atlantic theater.
• Operation Mincemeat: Successful plan to convince the Germans that the Allies planned to attack Greece, then instead invading South Italy; Mussolini was forced to resign
• Tehran Conference: Meeting between the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill) during 1943, in which they planned Operation Overlord, the future United Nations, and Soviet support of the war against Japan
• D-Day: 1944, first day on the offensive; successful deployment of Allied soldiers at Normandy, allowing them to open a line in German defenses
• Okinawa: Battle which convinced Allied leaders that an invasion of the Japanese mainland might be too costly in human lives
• B-29: Aircraft carrier which allowed the Allies to bomb the Japanese more efficiently
• Battle of Midway: Turning point for the US in the Pacific theater
• Combat in the Pacific occurred in tropical locations.
• Kamikaze: Japanese suicide pilots
• US mobilization was fast because the country had instituted a peacetime draft to acquire soldiers.
• Joseph Stalin: Pushed for an invasion of Europe by way of the English Channel
• Battle of the Bulge: German army's last offensive
• Tehran and Yalta: Sites of conferences held by the Big Three
• The Atlantic Charter confirmed that the US and Britain believed that every nation had the right to choose its own form of government.
• The US declared an embargo on Japanese trade in 1941 because they conquered Allied colonies in the Pacific.
• If Operation Mincemeat had failed, the Salerno invasion would not have occurred.
• In return for the Allied invasion of France, Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan once the Nazis were defeated.
• Women joined the auxiliary corps to serve in the war.
• Germany aimed to disrupt British supply lines.
• The battles of Guadalcanal and of Midway were the two major turning points on the Pacific front.
• Lieutenant Colonel James Dolittle led to air attacks on Tokyo in 1942
• Many of the first island-hopping battles in 1942 took place in the Solomon Islands because conquering them would protect Austrailia.
• Thousands of American soldiers were forced into Japanese military prisons during the Bataan Death March.
• Japanese and American relations prior to the war were already strained due to Japan's invasion of Allied colonies and Chinese cities, as well as their signing of an agreement with the Axis powers. In response, the US froze Japanese assets and placed an embargo on oil shipments in Japan.
• Japanese troops invaded the Philippines. American general Douglas MacArthur led American troops there. They were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula for lack of food, medicine, and other supplies.
• Differences between the Atlantic (European) and Pacific theaters:

  • US leaders determined that most supplies should be dedicated to defeating Germany; thus, resources in the Pacific were scarce
  • Battles in the Atlantic theater were held mostly on land, whereas battles in the Pacific were fought mostly in the air and on sea
  • Battles in the Atlantic theater were fought mostly in extreme cold, whereas battles in the Pacific were fought in tropical locations
  • Ground troops played the biggest role in the European theater, while the navy played the biggest role in the Pacific theater