Notes- Thursday, March 12, 2009 (Chapter 26)

1. Going into WWII, America was a sharply segregated society, with racial inequality enforced by law and custom

• African Americans were disenfranchised in the South and only beginning to achieve voting power in the North.
• They had only limited access to the political, legal, or economic systems

1. Some 750,000 Blacks moved to Northern cities for jobs during the war. They received moral support from the president's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, who was an advocate of Civil Rights and known for participating in integrated social functions.
2. African-Americans understood the wrong of fighting for a country that denied them equality.

• A Harlem Newspaper called for a double V campaign- victory at home as well as abroad.

1. A. Phillip Randolph threatened to lead tens of thousands of Black workers on a March to Washington, D.C.

• The march was cancelled when Roosevelt created the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) but the agency had little authority.

1. Roosevelt did not change the policy of segregation in the military.

• The Red Cross maintained segregated blood banks.
• African-Americans were excluded from combat until late in the War when manpower shortages pressured the administration.

1. There was racial discrimination in hiring.

• Some unions supported racial discrimination for fear that hiring lower paid, non-white workers would jeopardize their own higher paid jobs.
• There were several instances of whites walking off the job to protest the hiring of African-Americans.

1. Despite a wartime no-strike pledge, strikes continued to be held.

• The United Mine Workers strike in 1943 interrupted war production

1. Americans were asked to fight to preserve the American way of life. Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" paintings are an example. Frank Capra made a series of government films entitled "Why We Fight." Capra set Rockwell-type characters in motion and contrasted them with harrowing portraits of the mass obedience and militarism in Germany and Japan.
2. Print media often used the word "freedom" in it's commercial advertisements.
3. In the spring of 1942, Roosevelt created the Office of War Administration to coordinate policies related to propaganda and censorship.
4. As women took over jobs traditionally held by men, the idea of gender equality began to be taken more seriously.

• Civilian pilots and military service jobs were now available to women.
• Congress authorized a Women's Corps with full status for each branch of service.

1. Racial tensions increased, especially in Northern cities.

• Public housing projects were a particularly explosive dilemma.
• Whites registered the forced integration of public housing.
• In Detroit, a full-scale race riot broke out.

1. In Southern California, soldiers and sailors clashed with Mexican Americans.

• The zoot suit, flamboyant outfits with oversized coats and trousers, were worn by Mexican American. Incidents broke into virtual warfare.

1. The Committee (later Congress) on Racial Equality (CORE) formed in 1942 and was made up of whites and blacks who advocated non-violent resistance to segregation.

• CORE introduced the sit-in to integrate restaurants and theaters.

1. Japanese-Americans probably suffered the most

• When West Coast communities became engulfed in hysteria against people of Japanese dissent, the government issued Executive order 9066 (February 1942). The order directed the relocation and internment of the 1st and 2nd generation Japanese Americans (ISSE and Nisei respectively) at inland camps.
• Forced to abandon their possessions. Nearly 130,000 were confined in flimsy barracks surrounded by barbed wire.
• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this treatment of Japanese Americans in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944).
• Still, Japanese American soldiers became legendary fighters for the U.S.

1. The structure of the United Nations was worked out at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington in August, 1944 and a subsequent meeting in San Francisco in April, 1945.

• Our text has an error on page 925: Only the permanent members of the UN Security Council (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China) have the right to veto. Prevents the UN from becoming an effective organization regarding military issues.

1. The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 created:

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) to maintain stable exchange by ensuring that each national currency could be converted into any other fixed currency at a fixed rate.
• The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, now the World Bank, provided loans to war-battered countries and promoted the resumption of world trade.

1. the 1947 General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade (GATT) created an international structure for implementing free and fair trade agreements.
2. During the War, the idea of Post-war Spheres of Influence seemed to meet the approval of Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill.

• The U.S. allegedly agreed to Soviet control of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
• The Soviets apparently agreed to U.S. and British dominance of Italy.
• England and the Soviet Union apparently agreed to British dominance in Greece while the Soviet Union would dominate Romania and Bulgaria.

1. These agreements/assumed outcomes clashed with Roosevelt's talk about self-determination.
2. Germany, Poland, and Korea became particular issues.'

• Germany was divided into four zones of occupation by an agreement reached at the Yalta Conference of 1945.
• This solidified into West Germany (U.S., British, and French zones) and East Germany (Soviet zone).
• The capital, Berlin, was also divided into four zones, even though the city was entirely inside the Soviet zone/East Germany.

1. At the Yalta Conference, the Soviet Union agreed to permit free elections in Poland after the War, yet Stalin thought the allies had agreed to Soviet Dominance of Poland.

• U.S. and Britain agreed with USSR dominance of Italy.
• British dominance in Greece
• U.S.S.R. dominance of Romania/Bulgaria
• U.S. agreed to U.S.S.R. control of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
• U.S.S.R. was given power in Poland.
• Supposed to hold democratic elections

1. At the Teheran Conference in November, 1943 and again at the Yalta Conference, Stalin pledged to send troops to Asia within 30 days of Germany's defeat.

• When the Atomic Bomb became operational, the U.S. wanted to limit Soviet involvement in the Pacific War.
• The Soviets entered the war against Japan the day after the Atomic Bomb fell on Hiroshima.
• The U.S. took sole charge of occupying and reorganizing Japan.

1. The U.S. and the Soviet Union split Korea into two zones of occupation that, like Germany, became antagonistic toward each other.
2. The U.S. granted independence to the Philippines in 1946.

• Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the U.S. gradually moved to support British and French efforts to reassemble their colonial empires.
• The Marina, Carolina, and Marshall islands, which had been held by Japan during the war, were designated trust territories of the Pacific by the United Nations, and placed under U.S. administration.

Good luck on the quiz/test!