Chapter Overview

Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor ended a long period of tension caused by Japanese, Italian, and German aggression. Despite the fact that much of the world had been at war since 1939, the Japanese attack found Americans both militarily and psychologically unprepared. Pearl Harbor shocked Americans into responsibilities of global leadership they had long refused to accept.

The United States in a Troubled World

The causes of World War II extended back to the peace talks that ended World War I. Issues that divided victors and vanquished then had continued to trouble international relations. Despite its economic power, the United States played only an indirect role in the postwar World War I world. The most direct threat to the peace arose from Japan's takeover of Manchuria. The United States could propose little besides the Stimson Doctrine of nonrecognition. In Latin America the United States took some constructive steps to become a "Good Neighbor" without lessening American dominance of the region's economies.

By the 1930s the forces of fascism were rising. Yet the priorities of the New Deal and domestic pressures against foreign political entanglement left President Roosevelt unable to do much against European fascism or Japanese militarism. Neutrality legislation limited FDR's power to support victims of aggression and made him sympathetic to the French and British appeasement efforts, which at Munich in 1938 sought to negotiate an end to Hitler's aggression. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 plunged Europe into war. America's professed neutrality cloaked increasing support for the Allies. Preoccupied with Europe, Roosevelt tried to avoid a showdown in the Pacific with Japan. Diplomatic talks produced no compromises. The Japanese began secretly planning their attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

A Global War

In the months after the United States entered the war, it suffered a string of demoralizing defeats. But the key to victory was the productive capacity of American factories and the ability of the Americans and their Russian and British allies to coordinate a strategy. In Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin the Allies had exceptional leadership.

Despite agreement to defeat Germany first, the Allies' first successes came in naval engagements in the Pacific. Thereafter, victories in North Africa and Stalingrad in late 1942 marked the turning point of the war.

The war mobilized soldiers from all sectors of society. Many became infantrymen, who suffered the greatest proportion of those dead and wounded. For African-Americans, service offered an unusual opportunity for education and decent living conditions despite segregated units. They volunteered in great numbers. Women joined the services but were often restricted to a limited role.

War Production

The United States became "the arsenal of democracy" only after newly created government agencies eliminated the initial bottlenecks that disrupted war industries. Industries converted to war production and, in the long run, organization for war increased the dominance of larger corporations. Scientists also made critical contributions. The fear of German research prompted Roosevelt to authorize the Manhattan Project to harness the power of the atom.

War production brought prosperity but also created headaches, as Americans adjusted to shortages and dislocations.

Labor unions made gains. They generally cooperated in keeping industry functioning smoothly, but a few militant leaders like John L. Lewis insisted on winning major concessions even if it hurt war production. The need for income, new opportunities, and a sense of patriotism all attracted women, even those married and with children, to jobs.

A Question of Rights

World War I had resulted in infringements of civil rights. The United States had a better record during World War II but, in response to hysteria and prejudice and with the Supreme Court's blessing, Japanese-Americans were herded into what clearly were concentration camps.

Traditional forms of prejudice limited the opportunities of African-Americans and Hispanics. Black leader A. Philip Randolph pressured Roosevelt into creating the Fair Employment Practices Commission. The movement of minorities into industrial centers often created violent frictions. Despite limited gains during the war, minority leaders laid the groundwork for future activism.

Partisan politics continued. The foes of New Deal reform used the war as an excuse to end programs they opposed.

Winning the War and the Peace

Winning the war required a coordinated military and diplomatic strategy. The Allies first drove Italy from the war before Anglo-American forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. After a ferocious German counterattack failed during the Battle of the Bulge, the Allies marched toward Berlin. By that time the forces of General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz had moved within bomber range of Japan.

At a series of wartime meetings, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to plan a global strategy and lay the grounds for the postwar peace. They disagreed on many key points but managed to compromise their differences in favor of the war effort. By the time they met at Yalta in February 1945, Roosevelt had secured a Soviet pledge to enter the war against Japan, but serious divisions had arisen over Poland and Germany.

Yalta marked the final and most controversial episode of Roosevelt's diplomatic stewardship. Critics later charged that he had sold out American and Allied interests to the Communists; defenders pointed out that Roosevelt's concessions to Stalin on Poland, Eastern Europe, and Asia were unavoidable. Roosevelt died just weeks before the German surrender.

In liberating Germany and Poland, Allied armies confronted the grisly evidence of the Holocaust. Hitler had ordered the systematic extermination of Europe's Jews and other groups stigmatized by Nazi ideology.

To Harry Truman fell the responsibility of bringing the United Nations and new international economic institutions into being, as well as managing increasingly strained relations with the Soviet Union. The first successful test of an atomic bomb led to its use on two Japanese cities. The horror of those attacks brought the war swiftly to an end.

"World War II changed everything," an admiral remarked. It increased global interdependence -- politically and economically. In America it especially promoted economic centralization and government growth. And it made the United States the world's greatest power, with at least a temporary monopoly on the world's most awesome weapon.