<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>I.<![endif]>The Munich Agreement andAppeasem*nt
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
To conclude World War One, the Treaty of Versaillespunished Germany, requiring it to demilitarize (especially in the area calledthe Rhineland), give up land, pay reparations, and sign a guilt clause.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
In 1930s, Hitler and the NaziParty came to power in Germany. Violated treaty: moved army into Rhineland.Took over Austria. Formed alliance withItaly.
Wanted to annex part ofCzechoslovakia. Czech said to other European nations: Help! European leadersmet at Munich (city in Germany). Frenchand English permitted Hitler to annex Czech – with promise that he’ll expand nomore. This is what we call APPEAsem*nT.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Hitler, of course, keptgoing, violating the Munich Agreement. Invaded Poland in 1939, causing Britainand France to declare war, and WWIIbegan. Next, Germany attacked Denmark,Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France. (Blitzkrieg: lightning war.) Also, Italy,under the leadership of fascist Benito Mussolini, invaded France from thesouth. France fell. Then the Germansbombed the hell out of England in the Battle of Britain. Meanwhile, the Nazis were starting up theirconcentration camps – purpose was to separate out “impure and anti-socials”from “pure” Germans.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
In 1941, Germany invadedUSSR. This caught the Soviets off guardbecause they (more accurately, the Soviet leader Josef Stalin) had signed anon-aggression pact with Hitler, dividing Poland among them. Once friends (sort of), they were nowenemies.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Took the U.S. a couple yearsto enter. In the late 30s, public sentiment was largely againstinvolvement. In 30s, America wasisolationist, largely in reaction against what had gotten the country intoWWI. Yet as they watched events unfoldacross the Atlantic, FDR and most Americans were clearly anti-Germany. Little by little, America became involved inthe European conflict and supported the Allies, including USSR. (won’t go into the details here)
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Of course, what finallybrought the U.S. into the war was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Through 30s, Japan was expanding its empirein the Pacific. Formed alliance with Germany & Italy. FDR warned Japan to stop its aggressiveactions. Roosevelt resorted to freezing Japanese assets in U.S. and cutting offJapanese oil supply.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
As part of a coordinatedattack all across islands in the Pacific, on December 7, 1941, the Japaneselaunched a surprise attack on the U.S. military base of Pearl Harbor inHawaii. The attack unified Americanpeople behind the war; America declared war on Japan, then Japan’s allies,Germany & Italy, declared war on America.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Allies: America (FDR) Axis: Germany (Hitler)
Britain (Churchill) Italy (Mussolini
USSR (Stalin) Japan (Tojo)
[France- occupied by enemy]
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Soviets were taking a beating at the hands of the Germansand were eager for the U.S. to attack Germany from the west, across the Englishchannel, through France. Stalin neededhis allies to launch a full-scale invasion of western Europe to divert Germanforces from the Eastern Front. In other words, he was in desperate need of aSecond Front.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
But in 1942 & 43, the U.S. and Britain concentratedtheir fighting against Germany & Italy in the Mediterranean and MiddleEast, mostly North Africa. These monthsspent in N. Africa allowed the U.S. time to mobilize and to learn hard tacticallessons. In 1943, U.S. troops finallycame up through Italy, and though there was some success in that operation, itbogged down the Allies and soaked up Allied resources.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
The Allies wereassisting Soviets with supplies and $, but not troops. Meanwhile, Soviets were suffering millionsof casualties and physical devastation of their land and infrastructure. Yet, the Soviets exhibited remarkablebravery and skilled fighting, all of which earned the admiration of their Americanallies. Still, the Allies delayed actual military assistance to the Soviets.Allied military leaders explained their tactical reasons for doing so, but acomment made by Vice-President Harry Truman in 1941 is revealing: “If we seethat Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning weought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as possible, althoughI don’t want to see Hitler victorious under any circ*mstances.” Soviets were very suspicious of their Alliesfor delaying the opening of the Second Front, certain that America wanted theSoviets and Germans to destroy each other.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Finally, western Allies openedthe Second Front. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a daring and risky operation, theAmerican troops invaded the coast of Normandy in northwestern France. (See filmSaving Private Ryan.) Over thesummer, the Allies slowly moved across France toward Germany – the largest U.S.operation of the war.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Fast forward to collapse ofNazi empire in spring of 1945. Sovietshad already occupied most of Eastern Europe, including the eastern part ofGermany, by that time.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Earlier in 1945, the Alliessensed victory, so the Big Three (Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill) met inFebruary in the Soviet city of Yalta to plan for the postwar world.
Important issues:
<![if !supportLists]>1. <![endif]>Obtain Soviet commitment to join battle againstJapan. (Soviets did agree, and pledged to join the Pacific theater three monthsafter German surrender -- in return for occupation zones in Asia.)
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>2. <![endif]>Form United Nations.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>3. <![endif]>The future of Eastern Europe:
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
For a couple of years, theRed Army (Soviets) had been occupying and installing sympathetic regimes inBulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. (These countries had helped the Germans.) Soviet armies also controlled Poland.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
FDRwas concerned: he wanted free, democratic elections in these areas. Stalin made a vague pledge to allowparticipation of noncommunists in coalition governments in eastern Europe. But,importantly, the Yalta agreement didn’t set a timetable for this pledge. (Free elections didn’t occur in Poland forover 40 years.)
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>4. <![endif]>The future of Germany:
Stalinwanted Germany permanently weakened and its heavy industry & war-makingcapabilities destroyed (or dismantled and given to the Soviets.)
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
FDRwanted Germany reconstructed and reunited, under the careful supervision of theAllies. (Think about why America wouldwant to strengthen its former enemy.)
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Acompromise would finally be sought: US, France, England, USSR would eachcontrol its own zone of occupation in Germany (zones to be determined byposition of troops at end of war.)Berlin (the capital of Germany, located well inside the Soviet zone) wasalso to be divided into 4 sectors. Atan unspecified date, Germany was to be reunited, but there was no agreement onhow reunification would occur.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>5. <![endif]>Conclusion on Yalta
Compromiseson Germany & Eastern Europe were vague & unstable. Yalta Accords didn’treally settle important postwar issues but sidestepped them. Soviet & American interpretations of theAccords differed sharply. FDR hoped that the Soviets would be flexible, thatStalin could be reasonable, and that the nations’ differences could be settled.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
AlthoughFDR realized that the agreements were “elastic,” Congress and the American peoplebelieved that the Accords represented a firm Soviet commitment. These differing interpretations wouldpresent Harry Truman, very shortly to take office after Roosevelt’s death twomonths after the Yalta conference, with a thorny diplomatic and politicalpredicament.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
<![if !supportLists]>V.<![endif]>The Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
Inlate 1941, Roosevelt established the Manhattan Project, in which scientistsexperimented with atomic energy.Scientists tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico on July 16, 1945,and the explosion astonished even the physicists. As the war against Japan dragged on in the summer of 1945,several of (new president) Truman’s advisors urged him to use the newbomb. Lively, sometimes vicious debate,still surrounds Truman’s decision to drop the bomb on the Japanese city ofHiroshima on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9, a debate which is difficultto summarize quickly here. Trumanclaimed his reason for unleashing the devastation was to end the war quickly soas to save American lives. Convincing evidence told him that the Japanese werefanatical and would fight to the last man.However, other evidence has persuaded some historians that the Japanesewere ready to negotiate and that dropping the bomb was not necessary to end thewar. Many argue that an additionalreason for Truman to use the bomb was to impress and intimidate the Sovietswith the new and awesome weapon of mass destruction. Therefore, dropping thebomb was another contributing factor to the emergence of the Cold War.
<![if !supportEmptyParas]><![endif]>
