World War II
In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress supported and passed the Neutrality Act, which forbade the sale of arms to all belligerents when the president says a state of war exists. The goal of this law was to keep the nation at peace, as the public wanted.
But the situation was rapidly changing in Europe in 1940, as World War II broke out there. President Roosevelt began to prepare a reluctant nation for war. He signed into law the Selective Training & Service Act, which was the first adoption of peacetime conscription (the "draft"). Previously the only initiations of the draft were during an ongoing American war, as in the Civil War and World War I.
FDR had served two full terms by 1940, and every president before him (beginning with George Washington) voluntarily retired. But FDR refused to step down, and ran again for an unprecedented third term. With the support of the media, he won again. Later, in 1944, despite having a terminal illness, FDR ran and won a fourth term and then died shortly after inauguration.
In 1941, President Roosevelt gave his annual speech to Congress in which he advocated the "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, worship, from want (e.g., from hunger), and from fear. But FDR privately wanted the United States to enter into World War II to protect Britain against Germany. Britain had been badly weakened by decades of socialism, declining values, and rising atheism along with belief in evolution. Britain was no match for the larger and much stronger Germany, and Britain needed America to save it. At one point in late 1941 Churchill even stayed for several weeks at the White House while Britain was being bombed by Germany.
Throughout 1941 FDR maneuvered Congress in an attempt to involve the United States in the war. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which ended America's neutrality and authorized the lending of materials to Britain and other Allies (France and Russia). In July 1941, FDR and Churchill agreed to the Atlantic Charter, which declared their joint purpose to World War II. It was similar to the 14 points announced by President Wilson near the end of World War I, and promised world peace.
Meanwhile, the German submarines ("U-Boats") were sinking ships, which caused public outrage when innocent passengers lost their lives.
But in the fall of 1941, the American public was still against fighting in the war. But while FDR was focused on Europe, Japan was increasingly aggressive in the Far East and planned to attack us. There is evidence that our code-breakers had broken the Japanese codes used to communicate their military messages, and that we knew Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor. FDR did nothing to prevent the attack, and news of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941 outraged the American public against Japan. The Japanese sunk most of the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor (several big boats were saved due to their tardiness in arriving to their port). FDR addressed Congress the next day, describing December 7th as "a date which will live in infamy."[4]
The Constitution authorizes only Congress to declare war, which it did on the very next day (Dec. 8th). Only one congressman voted against the declaration of war. Three days later, on Dec. 11th, Congress declared war on Germany too. That was the last time in history that Congress has officially declared war.
The Japanese proved to be tenacious fighters and there was much fear in the United States of Japanese nationalism. FDR forcibly moved Americans of Japanese descent in California to internment camps to keep an eye on their suspected spy activity, despite their American citizenship. The Supreme Court upheld this internment despite an apparent violation of constitutional rights in Korematsu v. United States (1944). This reflected how the Supreme Court has always deferred to the other branches of government on military matters ever since President Andrew Jackson defied a Supreme Court ruling about the treatment of Indians in Worcester v. Georgia.
Debate: Do you think the internment of Americans of Japanese descent was proper and constitutional?
Intense fighting by the United States began in both the European and the Pacific "theaters". In Europe, the hard fighting was done by the Army, on the ground. In the Pacific, the Navy was more important.
The American military leaders were General Dwight Eisenhower in Europe, to fight Germany, and General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific, to fight Japan. The most brilliant American commander, and the only one feared by the Germans, was George Patton, nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts" for his ferocious aggression. Homeschooled, he was not a genius in an academic sense and even had to leave West Point for poor grades, before returning later and graduating. But he was a genius for war. He developed a very aggressive form of tank warfare that would win in a single day military "exercises" (peaceful combat to test the troops) that were supposed to last an entire week. In an example of how an organization does not always reward and promote its best, however, Patton was repeatedly restrained by his superiors from accomplishing even more. Perhaps jealousy of his skills played a role in not promoting him higher.
Patton was given the task of taking on the Germany's greatest field commander, Erwin Rommel ("The Desert Fox"). Rommel had completely destroyed the British in Northern Africa and Patton was sent there in 1942 with his tanks to see what he could do.
Patton, with his aggression, boldly went right at Rommel's army and completely decimated it. Rommel had no choice but to flee back to Europe and allow Patton to free Northern Africa from German control. From this "African campaign" Patton then went up to Italy in 1943, and liberated Sicily. Historians describe Patton's efforts as "cutting through the German defenders like a hot knife through butter."[5]
Patton was unrelenting in his fighting against the otherwise invincible German Army. Historians estimate that Patton's Third Army caused an astounding 55% of all of Germany's causalities in the war, while Patton's own men suffered only 9% of the losses on our side.[5]
On June 6, 1944, massive Allied forces led by the American soldiers landed at Normandy, France, to retake mainland Europe from the Germans. Called the "longest day" or "D-Day" (day-day), it was the largest land invasion in the history of the world. Participants said the ocean was completely filled with boats and soldiers and it was difficult to see much water. The invasion caught the Germans, already weakened by Patton, off guard.
The Allied forces, with the strong and fresh American troops, began pushing through Europe. Within months they liberated Florence, Paris, Pisa, Brussels and Antwerp, in that order, and started to enter German soil. But in December the Germans launched a fierce counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge, causing the Americans 19,000 deaths in a just a few weeks.
The Allies did not discover the concentration camps used for the Holocaust until April 1945. Allied commander and future President Dwight Eisenhower described his horror:[6]
I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency.... I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock.
The end of the war then came quickly. On April 28, 1945, the Italian fascist dictator Mussolini was captured and hung by Italians, and the Allied army liberated Venice. The next day the U.S. 7th Army liberated Dachau, the site of one of the concentration camps. The following day after that, April 30, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.
A week later, on May 7, 1945, the German troops unconditionally surrendered, and the world rejoiced. A month later, on June 5th, the Allies divided up Germany into western and eastern sections, and three weeks after that, on June 26, the Charter for the United Nations was signed in San Francisco.
But the war continued against Japan, and Japanese soldiers had a fanaticism that prevented them from surrendering at any cost. America had the upper hand every since it had won the Battle of Midway in the Pacific back in June 1942, but the Japanese were never going to surrender unless something extraordinary happened. The extraordinary opportunity was provided by America's secret development of the atomic bomb. Years earlier some physicists, including a friend of Albert Einstein who persuaded him to write a letter, feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and they urged the President to develop it before Germany did. (In fact, Germany was not making any progress.) The President did not act on Einstein's letter, but later he did begin the Manhattan Project to develop our own atomic bomb at a secret facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Top physicists led the project. Roosevelt never lived to hear of its success. It was only after Truman replaced Roosevelt as President that the physicists had been successful in testing the new atomic bomb that they developed.
As president, Truman was an impulsive and not very bright man. He still holds the record for the lowest approval rating (only 23% of the country approving of his performance) in his last year in office (1952). When there was an ugly strike against a steel company, he impulsively ordered a government takeover of the entire company (the Supreme Court later invalidated his action). When a reporter wrote a negative review about his daughter's piano recital, Truman said he wanted to punch the reporter in the face for it. When General Douglas MacArthur wanted to be more aggressive in the Korean War, Truman simply fired him.
But Truman's impulsiveness may have served the nation well at this critical moment. As soon as the atomic bomb was developed, the top military leaders were anxious to use it to save any further loss to American soldiers fighting Japan. They urged Truman to approve dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. Do it, Truman decided quickly, and later said he slept a good night's sleep after his decision. Truman's impulsiveness may remind you of President Andrew Jackson. Truth be told, Truman hated the Japanese with a passion, as many Americans at the time did. Unlike the war against Germany, the war against Japan stirred racial dislike and distrust.
A replica of the Fat Man.
On August 6, 1945, America dropped its first atomic bomb on the entire city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, America dropped a second atomic bomb, called "Fat Man," on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan then unconditionally surrendered on August 15th.
Not even Truman knew when the bombs would be dropped, as he left that up to the military generals. But when Truman heard about it while aboard a cruise, he broke out in a celebration that might strike some as callous and insensitive to the many civilians who unsuspectingly died from the blast.
Debate: Was it right to drop atomic bombs on Japan?
From 1943 through 1945, the Allies held a series of conferences for the purpose of strategic planning for the end of the war:
Casablanca Conference, Jan. 14–24, 1943, was a meeting between the U.S. and Britain during which they agreed to fight until their enemies (the Axis Powers - Germany, Italy and Japan) unconditionally surrender.
Tehran Conference, Nov.-Dec. 1943, was the Soviet Union Stalin's first conference and he promised to help against Japan after the defeat of Germany, and the U.S. agreed to the D-Day invasion.
Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945, during which the Allies agreed to divide Germany into 4 military zones (denazification) and Stalin lied in agreeing to hold free elections in Eastern Europe after the war. The Allies also planned to start the United Nations.
Potsdam Conference, July-Aug. 1945, was Truman's first conference after Roosevelt died. Truman played cards (as was his habit) most of the time and little was accomplished. The Allies agreed to demand Japan's unconditional surrender.