America in WWII
America in WWII refers to the period during World War II when the United States played a significant role in the conflict. This involvement included the attack on Pearl Harbor, the mobilization of the American economy for war production, and the eventual Allied victory. The war had a profound impact on American society, economy, and global influence.
4 Key excerpts on "America in WWII"
eBook - ePubAmerican Military History
A Survey From Colonial Times to the Present
- William Thomas Allison, Jeffrey G. Grey, Janet G. Valentine(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Britain provided significant forces but, more importantly, was the primary staging area for the Allied return to Western Europe. The United States was much more the driver of the war against Japan, but even here the Allied efforts by Australia, China, and other Allied nations need to be considered. By taking a leading part in the occupation of Germany and the overwhelming lead in the occupation of Japan, the United States remade those societies along liberal-democratic and capitalist lines and helped both to create the economic miracles in those countries and to reshape them as participatory democracies and significant allies in the ensuing Cold War with the Soviet Bloc. The seeds of success in the Cold War, ultimately, were sown through the generosity of the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of defeated enemies and the far-sighted decisions by the Truman administration not to repeat the failures that occurred after 1919 and to remain engaged with the rest of the world. For the American military, World War II was a triumph of mobilization, procurement, leadership, and combat capability. A staggering 16 million Americans had been equipped, trained, and deployed to fight this war. Over 291,000 of them died in battle, with another 113,000 dead from other causes. Over 670,000 had been wounded. Victory over Germany and Japan, however, did not guarantee lasting peace. A new and different conflict was brewing even as World War II was still being fought. Further Reading Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943. New York: Henry Holt, 2002. Atkinson, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944. New York: Henry Holt, 2007. Atkinson, Rick. The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945. New York: Henry Holt, 2013. Frank, Richard. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. New York: Random House, 1999. Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan...
eBook - ePub- Thomas S. Kidd(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- B&H Academic(Publisher)
...Still others believed nuclear weapons made clearer how the Bible’s grim descriptions of the last days could come true, such as 2 Peter 3:10’s forecast that the world’s elements would “melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned.” The American people generally supported the use of the atomic bomb at the time. Support for atomic weapons waned after the war, especially as details of the terrible consequences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki became better known. The Dawn of American Global Dominance With much of Europe in ruins, the United States emerged from World War II as the world’s new superpower. Its military, especially the navy and air force, was the most powerful in the world. America alone had successfully used the atomic bomb. Spurred by the ravenous demands of the war, America’s gross national product had more than doubled during the conflict. The United States now possessed half of the entire world’s capacity for manufacturing, created more than half of the world’s supply of electricity, and produced more than twice the oil of all other nations combined. The statistics could go on, but the point was that the United States was ascendant in a unique way. The Soviet Union would go on to challenge the United States militarily. Multinational organizations, such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), would contest American dominance in certain economic sectors. But in terms of sheer military and economic might, there was no doubt about the preeminent stature of the United States in the post–World War II era. America and its allies had vanquished the threat of the totalitarian powers together, but the United States stood alone after the war as the world’s preeminent nation, militarily and economically. Figure 23.9. V-J Day celebrations in Jackson Square, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, August 14, 1945. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Breitman, Richard, and Allan J. Lichtman. FDR and the Jews...
eBook - ePubThe American Home Front
Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I and World War II
- James L. Abrahamson(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Barakaldo Books(Publisher)
...4—WORLD WAR II To American production, without which this war would have been lost. Joseph Stalin’s toast at the Teheran Conference {342} The long-promised Anglo-American second front in Europe remained more than six months in the future as the Big Three met at Teheran in November 1943, and Marshal Stalin quite naturally reserved to the Red Army the leading role in the ultimate defeat of the Axis powers. In his toast he nevertheless praised the supporting part played by American industry, to which he diplomatically gave credit for preventing an early Axis triumph. In so doing, Stalin acknowledged that victory in a protracted modern war required more than simply raising a large armed force. In such a contest, the belligerents must also maximize their productive capacity and divert from civilian uses whatever share of total output the armed forces require. Because those tasks “cannot be accomplished without controls.” modern war required an expansion of the role of the state, a development already familiar to Stalin’s planned economy but perhaps less welcome in the United States. {343} Much of the history of the American home front during World War II is the story of those controls and their influences—economic, social, and political. For the degree and extent of wartime direction by the Federal Government had never been greater. Neither had such extensive controls ever been so protracted nor had they so influenced the shape of wartime developments. Central control of war finance had, of course, begun with the Revolution, and during the Civil War the Confederates had, ineffectively, attempted to regulate industrial production and trade...
eBook - ePubWestern Civilization: A Global and Comparative Approach
Volume II: Since 1600
- Kenneth L. Campbell(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Anyone, including women and children, who ventured outside of Warsaw during the German siege risked being spotted and shot at from German planes patrolling the area. Entire towns—of no military significance whatsoever—disappeared from the map, their inhabitants shot while attempting to flee. Ground troops indiscriminately selected people for execution, including children as young as two years old. The Poles, who had spread their inadequate defenses too thin because they also had to worry about an attack from the Soviet Union to the east, quickly succumbed to the Nazi onslaught. Hitler did not think that Britain and France would go to war over a land that was so firmly in his grasp, especially with the Soviet Union neutralized and anxious to add the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania and part of Poland to its own territory. But go to war Britain and France both did, beginning the fight that would turn into World War II. World War II marked the end of one era and shaped the beginning of a new one. It occurred in the middle of the bloodiest century in human history and has come to symbolize the horrors of the age. It began in Europe, but soon involved Asia and the Pacific Ocean as well. The United States entered the war when the Japanese attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor without warning on December 7, 1941. Instead of presenting a detailed chronological narrative, this chapter considers the origins of the war in Europe and in the Pacific before examining some key topics that reveal the nature, scope, and course of the war. (For a more detailed narrative consult Suggestions for Further Reading on page 323.) This chapter will examine the impact that the war had at the time, including Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe in the Holocaust and the decision of the United States to use atomic bombs in the war against Japan...
