Presidency of Herbert Hoover (1929-1932)
BLACK THURSDAY (24 October 1929) – the Wall Street Crash – the USA plunges into the greatest economic crisis to date (panics and crises had occurred a few times in the 19th caentury).
CAUSES of the Great Depression:
o mass production of consumer goods creates opportunities for huge profits
o playing the market (financial gambling) - buying and selling shares becomes a national obsession
o slow lack of profits results in huge sales of shares and crisis
o cheap credits and speculation
o OVERPRODUCTION: Americans do not buy the goods anymore
The Great Depression affects all classes of Americans becoming a sharp end to the era of prosperity.
Problems in cities:
o giant unemployment (25%; 50% among African Americans)
o closure of factories
o lack of investments
o bank runs and bank failures
o hunger (breadlines, soup kitchens)
o homelessness (Hoovervilles, shanty towns)
o DEBTS
Problems in rural areas:
o farmers are unable to sell their goods: a wagonload of corn is cheaper than a pair of shoes
o The Dust Bowl (Dirty Thirties) - enormous dust storms and droughts in the Midwest (Oklahoma, in particular) leading to mass migration to California
o DEBTS – farmers can afford no rent
1932 – culmination of the crisis - nationwide protests, e.g. the Bonus Army of WWI ex-servicemen demanding cash payment of bonus certificates in Washington DC – crushed violently by the police and the army
President Herbert Hoover’s stance on the crisis:
o recovery around the corner: US government must NOT intervene in economy
o businesses must be confident about the future and start employing back
o stressing voluntary action and private charities with no direct aid
o blaming Mexicans for the Great Depression
o no concrete steps by the federal government
Held responsible for the crisis, Herbert Hoover loses the presidential election of 1932.
Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)
1933-1945
FDR’s expresses a new attitude than previous Republican Presidents: the federal government MUST intervene to recover from the Great Depression – a new deal should be set up to heal economy and society.
First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror that paralyzes needed effort to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves, which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
Franklin Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933)
FDR’s NEW DEAL (1933-1939)
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations aimed to remedy the Great Depression. The implementation of New Deal led to the establishment of a liberal welfare state based on government intervention and taxation.
3Rs of New Deal:
RELIEF for the unemployed and the poor
RECOVERY of the economy
REFORM of the financial system
Setting up a number of government ALPHABET AGENCIES to help the nation recover, e.g.
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Agency) - raising crop prices by paying farmers to produce less – farm subsidies
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) - huge public works for young men: roads, bridges, environmental projects.
FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) – work relief for the unemployed and homeless, unskilled jobs, provision of food and shelter.
NRA (National Recovery Administration) - making sure business pays fair wages and charged fair prices
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) - monitoring the stock market, regulating trading practices
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) - building a network of dams to make electricity and stop floods in the poor South
Social Security Act (1935): retirement payments for workers, unemployment insurance, government pensions for the old, widows and the blind
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) (1934) – independent radio (and TV) regulatory agency
Fireside Chats: FDR’s 30 evening addresses to the nation on the radio between 1933 and 1944 explaining his policies directly to the nation.
USA and World War II
The USA never joins the League of Nations
1920s:
The US rejects internationalism BUT promotes peace, understanding, and avoid European conflicts (isolationism from Europe, but not the world).
1930s:
Good Neighbor Policy – non-intervention in Latin America - the USA would maintain friendly relations with Latin American countries, hoping to create new economic opportunities and reciprocal trade agreements
Different approaches to the 1930s threats and military expansions (Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Spanish Civil War, Sino-Japanese War):
FDR: Innocent nations are being cruelly sacrificed to a greed of power and supremacy. If these things come to pass in other parts of the world, let no one imagine that America will escape.
US Congress: dominated by isolationists pass Neutrality Acts (1936, 1937, 1939): embargos on arms and money loans for warring parties (belligerent nations), no matter whether aggressor or victim
US neutrality during WWII (1939-1941)
World War Two breaks out in Europe in 1939 - the USA remains NEUTRAL until December 1941.
The outbreak of WWII signifies the end of NEW DEAL: unemployment in the USA decreases as the war progresses
Growing popular sympathy for the Allies and distaste for Germany and Japan
FDR pressing for American war preparation – helping Britain without entering the war (US as the “Arsenal of Democracy”)
o November 1939 – Cash-and-Carry policy - belligerents (warring countries) could purchase goods from the United States as long as they paid immediately in cash and use their own ships for transportation
o September 1940 - Destroyers-for-Bases deal with the United Kingdom – supplying destroyers to Britain for British naval bases in the Caribbean
o December 1940 – Arsenal of Democracy speech – the US promises to sell military supplies to the Allies (arsenal of democracy = US industry)
o January 1941 – FDR’s State of the Union address: Four Freedoms speech
freedom of speech
freedom of worship
freedom from want
freedom from fear
The FOUR freedoms will be included in the United Nations Charter in 1945.
March 1941: LEND-LEASE – a Congressional act allowing the US President to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government [whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States] any defense article."
· Atlantic convoys with American supplies begin
· 50 billion dollars worth of supplies are shipped to Britain (30 billion), the Soviet Union (11 billion) and other Allies
· arms and equipment to be used until returned or destroyed (most destroyed in practice)
· American neutrality is effectively ended
August 1941: the ATLANTIC CHARTER signed by FDR and Winston Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland, outlining the US and British “common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world”
territorial adjustments with the wishes of the peoples, self-determination, lowered trade barriers, global economic co-operation and advancement of social welfare, world free of want and fear, freedom of the seas, disarmament.
THE USA AT WAR (1941-1945)
The surprise Japanese attack on PEARL HARBOR in Hawaii, Dec 7, 1941 (“A date which will live in infamy”) leads to the declaration of war on Japan a day later, followed by declaration of war by Germany and Italy on the USA on December 11, 1941.
HOME FRONT
· internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans (Nisei) and people of Japanese ancestry (Issei) until the end of the war
· US economy directed towards winning the war (the war ends the depression):
o US government regulates prices, wages, rationing and production
o massive arms industry replaces consumer goods production
o tremendous war effort with women and African-Americans playing a great part in the workforce
o Manhattan Project (1942-1945) top secret research led by Robert Oppenheimer aimed at the development of the atom bomb
· FDR dies in April 1945 and Harry Truman becomes the President
War in North Africa and Europe
(against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy)
First Front
· November 1942 – US forces land in Morocco and fight against the Vichy French and the German Afrika Korps
· the battle of Kasserine Pass and invasion of Tunisia
· 1943 - invasion of Sicily and Italy
· 1944 – battles of Anzio, Monte Casino and liberation of Rome
Dwight Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
Second front
· US forces land in Britain and prepare for invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe
· June 6, 1944 – D-DAY (Operation Overlord) – Normandy landings
· August 1944 – liberation of Paris
· December 1944 - the Battle of the Bulge
· General George Patton advances east and meets the Soviet Army on the Elbe at Torgau on April 25
· VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day) – Nazi Germany surrenders on the 8th May, 1945
The Pacific War
(against the Empire of Japan)
· until May 1942 Japan expands over the Pacific
· loss of the Philippines (1942) (Bataan Death March, Douglas McArthur: I shall return!)
· May 1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea – the Japanese invasion of Australia reverted – the first defeat of the Japanese navy.
· July 1942 BATTLE OF MIDWAY – a decisive US victory and the Pacific War turning point
· from 1943 – island hopping (leapfrogging) toward Japan:
o from Australia and Papua New Guinea through the Philippines (General Douglas McArthur)
o from Hawaii through the Central Pacific (Admiral Chester Nimitz)
· 1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf and recapturing the Philippines - the largest naval battle in history (Douglas MacArthur: I have returned!)
· 1945 – battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
· 1945 - firebombing of Tokyo, atomic bombings of HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI (August 6 and August 9, 1945)
· August 15, 1945 - VJ DAY
· September 2, 1945 – the Japanese sign the Instrument of Surrender onboard of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
