US party changed its strategy to disclaim any intention of overthrowing the US government, the party proclaimed that communism is twentieth century Americanism. Began to cooperate with left-wing labor unions, student groups, and writers’ organizations in a popular front against fascism abroad and racism at home.

1935. included women and people of color. Union membership gave these marginal workers greater employment security and the benefits of collective bargaining. Industrial unionists.

paid unmarried young men (young women weren’t eligible) $1 a day to do hard outdoor labor; building dams and reservoirs, creating trails in national parks. Segregated by race. Employed 2.5 million young men, including 80,000 native Americans who worked on western Indian reservations.

1934. imposed new restrictions on ranchers’ use of public lands for grazing stock.

provided federal loans to banks, insurance companies, and railroads, an action Hoover hoped would shore up those industries and halt the disinvestment in the American economy.

largest federal intervention in the south. Authorized by congress during first hundred days. Created to develop a water and hydroelectric power project similar to the multipurpose dams of the west. Federal government promoted economic development, helped bring electricity to rural areas, restored fields worn out from overuse, and fought the curse of malaria. Achieved its goals but became a major polluter. Strip mining caused soil erosion. Its coal-burning generators released sulfur oxides, produced acid rain. Degraded the water by dumping untreated sewage, toxic chemicals, and metal pollutants from strip mining into streams and rivers. Proved to be a monumental disaster.

head of the united mine workers and the nation’s most prominent labor leader. Resigned as VP of the AFL. He and other industrial unionists created the CIO.

guaranteed workers the right to organize unions and to bargain collectively. Outlawed “unfair labor practices” such as firing workers who joined unions, prohibited management from sponsoring company unions, and required employers to bargain with labor’s elected union representatives to set wages, hours, and working conditions. Created a mechanism for enforcement: the NLRB. Further alienated business leaders from the new deal. Supreme court eventually found it unconstitutional.

based on the belief that destructive competition had worsened industry’s economic woes. Antitrust regulation. Authorized competing businesses to cooperate in crafting industry wide codes. Competition among these manufacturers would no longer drive down prices and wages. With wages and prices stabilized, consumer spending would increase, and rising consumer demand would allow industries to rehire workers. Ruled unconstitutional by supreme court.

a congressional committee. Hearings from 1934-1936 on the role of business and financiers in the US decision to enter WWI. Did not prove that American munitions makers had dragged the nation into war, it did uncover evidence that corporations practicing rotten commercialism had bribed foreign politicians to bolster arms sales and had lobbied against arms control.

US would be less blatant in its domination—less willing to defend exploitative business practices, less eager to launch military expeditions, and less reluctant to consult with Latin America.

62 nations agreed to condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies and renounce it as an instrument of national policy. Reflected popular opinion that war was barbaric and wasteful, and the agreements stimulated serious public discussion of peace and war.

kellog-briand pact

France and Britain agreed to allow Hitler the Czech territory in exchange for a pledge that he wouldn’t take more. (Czechs weren’t consulted)

believed that economic expansion by the US would stabilize world politics. Pressed Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act in 1934. also helped create the Export-Import Bank. (sec of state)

cordell hull

the US wouldn’t recognize any impairment of china’s sovereignty or of the Open door policy.

reflecting the popular desire for distance from Europe’s disputes, Roosevelt signed a series of these. 1935- prohibited arms shipments to either side in a war once the president had declared the existence of belligerency. 1936- forbade loans to belligerents. 1937- introduced the cash and carry principle. Forbade Americans from traveling on the ships of belligerent nations.

German and American ships came into direct contact in the Atlantic. A German submarine launched torpedoes at (but didn’t hit) the American destroyer Greer. See page 736-737.

1942. Roosevelt created this. To settle labor disputes. Forged a temporary compromise between labor union demands for a “closed shop” in which only union members could work. And management’s desire for “open” shops. Workers couldn’t be required to join a union, but unions could enroll as many members as possible. Union membership ballooned.

march 1942, Roosevelt ordered that all the 112,000 foreign born Japanese and Japanese Americans living in CA, OR, and the state of WA be removed from the west coast to relocation centers. For duration of war. No individual charges. Imprisoned as a group, under suspicion solely b/c they were of Japanese descent. Sent to flood damaged lands. Bleak camps. Demoralizing. Behind barbed wire. b/c of American anger at sneak attack at pearl harbor, long standing racism, and the economic competition with Japanese Americans.

Roosevelt sought reconciliation through personal diplomacy here. Three allied members met here in December 1943. Stalin dismissed Churchill’s repetitious justifications for further delaying the second front. Roosevelt had had enough too; he also rejected Churchill’s proposal for another peripheral attack; this time through the Balkans to Vienna. The three finally agreed to launch operation overlord. Soviet union promised to aid the Allies against Japan once Germany was defeated.

crumbling of grand alliance became evident here. Truman was less patient with the soviets than Roosevelt had been. Truman was emboldened by learning during the conference that a test of the new atomic weapon had been successful. The allies did agree that Japan must surrender unconditionally. The wartime bonds were breaking.

allied forces planned to mount an invasion of the main Japanese islands. Two months of fighting. Seas of mud. 7374 American soldiers and marines died in battle. Almost the entire Japanese garrison of 100,000 was killed. Mass suicide attacks by Japanese.

at Yalta conference, Roosevelt lobbied for this.

21,000 Japanese defenders occupied this island’s high ground. Stark volcanic island. No cover. Marines slaughtered when they came ashore. 20 days. Cost lives of 6821 Americans. 20,000 Japanese. Only 200 japanese survived.

three allied leaders met here. February 1945. Britain sought to protect its colonial possessions and to limit soviet power, in part by insisting that France be included in plans for postwar control of Germany, thus reducing the soviet sphere of influence from one third to one quarter of the defeated nation. Soviet union wanted reparations from Germany to assist the massive task of rebuilding at home. Soviets hoped to expand their sphere of influence throughout eastern Europe and to guarantee their national security. Germany, Stalin insisted, must be permanently weakened so that the soviet union never again suffered a German attack. US hoped to expand its influence and control the peace. US goals included self-determination for liberated peoples; gradual and orderly decolonization; and management of world affairs by the four policemen: soviet union, great Britain, US, and China. Also determined to limit soviet influence in the postwar world.

zoot suit riots

"I believe that it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

US would finance a massive European recovery program. Sent 12.4 billion dollars to western Europe.

NATO

the national security council delivered to the president this top secret document. Predicting continued tension with expansionistic communists all over the world and described a shrinking world of polarized power. Primary author was Nitze. Appealed for a much enlarged military budget and the mobilization of public opinion to support such an increase.

henry wallace

sent a pessimistic long telegram to Washington. Asserted that soviet fanaticism made even a temporary understanding impossible. Widely circulated report fed a growing belief among American officials that only toughness would work with the soviets.

led the communists in china. US tried to figure out if he was a puppet for the soviet union. Decided to “lean” to the soviet side in the cold war. Proclaimed the people’s republic of china.

mao zedong

led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union at Dien Bien Phu.led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War until his death; six years later, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, and Vietnamese unification followed

to streamline the administration of US defense, Truman worked with congress with this. Created the office of secretary of defense to oversee all branches of the armed services, the national security council and the CIA.

general. Envisioned turning the pacific ocean into an Anglo Saxon lake. Wrote a democratic constitution, gave women voting rights, revitalized the economy, and destroyed the nation’s weapons. Planned the inchon landing. Was fired by Truman because he had ideas to attack china. He wanted to smash communism by destroying its Asian flank.

a daring operation. An amphibious landing at a heavily fortified place. Occurred several hundred miles behind north Korean lines. A brilliant success. The troops soon liberated the south Korean capital of Seoul and pushed the north Koreans back to the 38^th parallel.

not backing down in a crisis, even it means taking the nation to the brink of war.

in the south, the US helped this person push bao dai aside and inaugurate the repub of Vietnam. Was a dedicated nationalist and anticommunist but he had little mass support. staged a fraudulent election that gave him 99% of the vote. Was a difficult ally. Acted dictatorially. Repressive government.

permitted states to enact right to work laws that outlawed “closed shops,” in which all workers were required to join the union if a majority of their number voted in favor of a union shop. Also mandated an 8 day cooling off period before unions initiated strikes that imperiled the national security.