Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Written Assignment 11
The Cold War at Home
1. Little Steel--the steel companies besides US Steel were hoping to break the union (the companies of Little Steel had resisted unionization to the bitter end
B. Electrical Workers
C. Rubber Workers
1. "Open the books"--Reuther demanded at the bargaining table that General Motors present proof that it could not grant the demanded wage increase because of financial considerations--and that proof would be GM "opening the book," or financial ledgers, of the company.
1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2. Rochester, New York
3. Lancaster, Pennsylvania
4. Oakland, California
A. Office of Price Administration (OPA)--fearing that inflation would cause a recession that would stunt peacetime recovery, the wartime agency--now headed up by former Toledo mayor Michael DiSalle--was kept in the hope that it could control inflation; the agency was unsuccessful in this attempt, however.
B. Post-war recession--with wartime contracts ended, industry cut back production in the anticipation that there would be a recession--despite the fact that these contracts guaranteed these companies a profit for the next year.
1. "Coziness" with labor--labor was already seen as exceedingly close with the Democratic Party, and therefore the party was blamed in the mainstream press and by the business class for not "controlling" labor in 1946.
2. 1946 Election--Republicans win majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1930. It is generally argued by political scientists and historians that general weariness with "change" as well a desire to "give the other guys a chance," along with Truman's unpopularity, also contributed. These factors did effect turnout of Democratic voters, and allowed Republicans to gain control of the Senate (they increased their control in the House of Representatives, which they had won in the 1944 election--despite FDR prevailing in the presidential election).
D. 1947 Legislation
1. Taft-Hartley Act--amended the National Labor Relations Act to disallow sympathy strikes and boycotts. Gave states the right to outlaw the union shop, the so-called "right to work" (without belonging to a union).
1. Democratic Party Split
a. Progressive Party
b. State Rights ("Dixiecrat") Party
2. Civil Rights plank
a. Desegregating the Armed Forces
3. Lackluster Republican campaign--combination of what Truman labeled the "do-nothing" Congress, and a lackluster campaign by Thomas Dewey, who was running not to lose rather than to win.
A. Communist spies
1. Rosenberg trial--the conviction of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
B. Rise of Joe McCarthy
1. Early political career
2. Wheeling (WV) speech
3. Army-McCarthy hearings
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Global Cold War
I. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
A. Hiroshima--both Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been left relatively undamaged by the firebombing raids undertaken by the Army Air Corps, so the damage of a nuclear attack could be accurately assessed. The first raid, the attack on Hiroshima, took place on August 6, 1945, when the Enola Gay dropped one of the three atomic bombs that the United States had manufactured to this point, nicknamed "Little Boy." The effects were devastating. Although the bomb only carried about 100 pounds of Uranium-235, it had the blast effect of 13 kilotons of TNT. The resultant blast destroyed everything within a mile of ground zero, and the resultant fires burned everything within a 4.5 mile radius. This raid (a convoy of three B-52 bombers, which the Japanese didn't even attempt to intercept) probably killed between 70,000-80,00 people immediately, with the casualty numbers rising to about 160,000 people by the end of 1945 and perhaps as many as 200,000 by the end of 1950, as people died of injuries or the effects of radiation.
B. Nagasaki--Three days after the attack on Hiroshima, a second bomb, "Fat Boy," was dropped on Nagasaki. Because Nagasaki was a smaller city, the number of people killed was less, but the devastation overwhelming anyway.
C. Surrender of Japan--Justification for the raids on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the American government lay in the idea that the raids ended the war early, compelling the Japanese government to surrender. Yet the surrender did not come until August 14, over the continued protests from the military--and recent evidence suggests that it was the fear that the Soviet Union would be able to grab a larger portion of the Japanese northern islands that compelled surrender, rather than a fear of nuclear attack, that persuaded the Japanese government.
I) The Cold War in Europe
A) Truman and Communism
1) Distrust of Stalin – although FDR had developed a relationship of statecraft with Stalin, Truman did not develop the same level of trust as his predecessor; in fact, Truman believed that Stalin was one of the most dishonest, evil men that he had ever known (a fact that is hard to argue with, certainly).
(a) Cancellation of Soviet Lend-Lease Aid – at war’s end, Soviets denied any further access to lend-lease aid, which shut off their access to US military hardware.
2) Influence of Winston Churchill – Churchill had never put the level of trust in Stalin that FDR did, so when Truman became distrustful of Stalin, Churchill was there to feed those fears, which he shared with Truman.
(a) “Iron Curtain” speech – in a speech at a tiny college near St. Louis, Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech, where he encouraged isolating Western European countries from those under the domination of the Soviet Union.
3) Nuclear terror – the US insisted, since it was the lone country that could possibly hold the interests of the whole world ahead of its own self-interests (or that its self-interests alone were of concern to the rest of the world), insisted that this country, alone, should control these new weapons of mass destruction.
(a) Soviets successfully test Atomic bomb in 1949 – the acquisition of nuclear technology by the Soviet Union fed fears of the red menace at home. Part of this hysteria led to the construction of backyard bomb shelters, and the identification of public buildings that could also serve as temporary bomb shelters.
(b) Escalation by the US – after the Soviet Union acquired nuclear capability, the US went ahead with the development of the more powerful Hydrogen bomb, which had ten times the killing power of the atomic bomb.
4) Policy of containment – an increased confidence on the part of the military and diplomatic elite after the US successes in the second World War led to a belief that the military might, or the threat of the use of military might, of the US could “contain” the influence of the Soviet Union as it was constituted in 1946.
(a) George F. Kennan – was the diplomat stationed in Moscow who came up with many of the theories, and the term, which we now refer to as constituting the policy of containment
(b) Truman Doctrine – the Truman doctrine went hand-in-glove with the policy of containment. The Truman doctrine pledged to aid countries in their fight against “communist aggression.”
(i) Plan was formulated in response to an ongoing civil war in Greece, which pitted forces that had fought against fascists in the world war (led by a number of communists) against those forces that had collaborated with the fascists forces (which of course was anti-communist, and therefore backed by the US government). The aid the anti-communist forces received helped them to prevail in the struggle.
(c) Marshall Plan – named after Truman’s secretary of state, Gen. George C. Marshall; was a $16 billion dollar plan (that’s $140 billion in today’s dollars) plan for the reconstruction of Europe. Money was even offered to countries in the so-called Soviet bloc, if they would agree to strengthen economic ties with the West. This plan worked great for countries with strong social democratic traditions (like Great Britain, France), but it mainly strengthened the grip of right-wing dictators around the world.
II) Cold War in Asia – The Cold War was by definition a global conflict, and the United States took a much more active role in Asia after the World War than it ever had before—perhaps because the Soviet Union, like the United States, also was a Pacific Ocean power.
A) Fall of China – the Red Army of Mao tse-Chung prevailed over the forces of Chang Kai-shek in 1949, and Chang and his followers were forced to withdraw to the island of Formosa, just off the Chinese coast. Chang was a venal, corrupt leader, who lost this war despite the aid that he was provided by the United States; however, in domestic politics, Truman was blamed for the “loss” of China, and these domestic pressures in turn prompted and reinforced Truman’s commitment to militarily aid anti-communist governments in Asia
1) NSC-68 – a proposal by the National Security Council to triple the amount of money that the United States spent on defense. This increased defense spending in fact acts as a sort of welfare program for selected parts of the US industrial complex (mainly aeronautics, but also some other manufacturing concerns).
B) The “Domino Theory” – the need to oppose communism anywhere and everywhere it arose was fed by the fear that if communism were tolerated in one country, it would spread country by country, like dominoes toppling one after another, until the threat undermined the freedoms of the people of the United States.
C) Korea – Kim IL Sung attempted to reunite his country, which had been portioned at the insistence of the United States along the 38th parallel. The US suspects that the Soviet Union is responsible for this intrigue, and immediately begins aiding anti-communist forces in the South, both with material and men. After some initial difficulties, the US military operation after a brilliantly executed flanking maneuver utilizing a large scale amphibious assault was quite successful, and the combined forces are able to push the so-called North Koreans back well above the 38th parallel—in fact, in direct contradiction of the orders of his commander in chief, Douglas McArthur pushed the North Korean forces above the area claimed by China as its border with China—at which time the Chinese Red Army joined the fight against the Allied forces. The US was initially overwhelmed, but eventually recovered, and the fighting bogged down at the end of the year about where it had started, at the 38th parallel.
D) Wars to end colonial domination – Because of the focus upon the battle against communism, the US government tended to support the re-establishment of colonial rule around the globe, rather than the indigenous populations which looked to the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution for inspiration.
1) The French in Indochina
(a) Opposed by the Vietminh – the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh, had been supported by the US during the war against Japan, even though the OSS was aware that Ho was a communist. This attitude quickly changed after the conclusion of the war, however, and the United States supported France’s efforts to re-establish control over the Indochina peninsula. Because of the strong resistance of the Vietminh, the US had to increase the support it furnished the French throughout the early 1950s, even going so far as providing advisors. In 1954, however, a large French force was surrounded near a little hamlet called Dien Bien Phu, and forced to surrender. The US quickly stepped in here, and declared that the country of Vietnam should be divided along the 49th Parallel, into North and South Vietnam, until a plebiscite could be held to choose a popularly elected government. Former collaborators ran the south with the French, some of who had even converted to Catholicism. The promised election never happened.
B. Nagasaki--Three days after the attack on Hiroshima, a second bomb, "Fat Boy," was dropped on Nagasaki. Because Nagasaki was a smaller city, the number of people killed was less, but the devastation overwhelming anyway.
C. Surrender of Japan--Justification for the raids on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the American government lay in the idea that the raids ended the war early, compelling the Japanese government to surrender. Yet the surrender did not come until August 14, over the continued protests from the military--and recent evidence suggests that it was the fear that the Soviet Union would be able to grab a larger portion of the Japanese northern islands that compelled surrender, rather than a fear of nuclear attack, that persuaded the Japanese government.
I) The Cold War in Europe
A) Truman and Communism
1) Distrust of Stalin – although FDR had developed a relationship of statecraft with Stalin, Truman did not develop the same level of trust as his predecessor; in fact, Truman believed that Stalin was one of the most dishonest, evil men that he had ever known (a fact that is hard to argue with, certainly).
(a) Cancellation of Soviet Lend-Lease Aid – at war’s end, Soviets denied any further access to lend-lease aid, which shut off their access to US military hardware.
(a) “Iron Curtain” speech – in a speech at a tiny college near St. Louis, Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech, where he encouraged isolating Western European countries from those under the domination of the Soviet Union.
3) Nuclear terror – the US insisted, since it was the lone country that could possibly hold the interests of the whole world ahead of its own self-interests (or that its self-interests alone were of concern to the rest of the world), insisted that this country, alone, should control these new weapons of mass destruction.
(b) Escalation by the US – after the Soviet Union acquired nuclear capability, the US went ahead with the development of the more powerful Hydrogen bomb, which had ten times the killing power of the atomic bomb.
4) Policy of containment – an increased confidence on the part of the military and diplomatic elite after the US successes in the second World War led to a belief that the military might, or the threat of the use of military might, of the US could “contain” the influence of the Soviet Union as it was constituted in 1946.
(b) Truman Doctrine – the Truman doctrine went hand-in-glove with the policy of containment. The Truman doctrine pledged to aid countries in their fight against “communist aggression.”
(i) Plan was formulated in response to an ongoing civil war in Greece, which pitted forces that had fought against fascists in the world war (led by a number of communists) against those forces that had collaborated with the fascists forces (which of course was anti-communist, and therefore backed by the US government). The aid the anti-communist forces received helped them to prevail in the struggle.
(c) Marshall Plan – named after Truman’s secretary of state, Gen. George C. Marshall; was a $16 billion dollar plan (that’s $140 billion in today’s dollars) plan for the reconstruction of Europe. Money was even offered to countries in the so-called Soviet bloc, if they would agree to strengthen economic ties with the West. This plan worked great for countries with strong social democratic traditions (like Great Britain, France), but it mainly strengthened the grip of right-wing dictators around the world.
II) Cold War in Asia – The Cold War was by definition a global conflict, and the United States took a much more active role in Asia after the World War than it ever had before—perhaps because the Soviet Union, like the United States, also was a Pacific Ocean power.
1) NSC-68 – a proposal by the National Security Council to triple the amount of money that the United States spent on defense. This increased defense spending in fact acts as a sort of welfare program for selected parts of the US industrial complex (mainly aeronautics, but also some other manufacturing concerns).
B) The “Domino Theory” – the need to oppose communism anywhere and everywhere it arose was fed by the fear that if communism were tolerated in one country, it would spread country by country, like dominoes toppling one after another, until the threat undermined the freedoms of the people of the United States.
D) Wars to end colonial domination – Because of the focus upon the battle against communism, the US government tended to support the re-establishment of colonial rule around the globe, rather than the indigenous populations which looked to the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution for inspiration.
1) The French in Indochina
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Written Assignment 10
Did the events of World War II help, or hinder, the spread of democracy around the world. Cite at least 3 specific examples that were either discussed in class, or from your textbook. Your response should take the form of a 2-3 page paper, double-spaced with conventional 1 inch margins, and is due at the beginning of class on March 28.
The Homefront
I) The Home Front
A) Centralized planning – 1941 was a banner production year for the auto industry, which was reluctant to abandon civilian production to make war material, and did so only under duress (and the promise of guaranteed profits of cost-plus contracts).
B) “Dollar-a-year-men” – executives from the US firms who came to Washington to help the military plan the economy; this "sacrifice" on the part of business men (their salaries were actually paid by the companies that they left) did much to rehabilitate the reputation of business in the minds of the general populace after the Great Depression
1) War Production Board – set prices and determined production, since the entire economy was planned from Washington.
2) Suspension of anti-trust laws – encouraged the formation of larger firms, which officials in the military believed would better meet their production criteria—and which made procurement by the government easier, since they had to deal with fewer firms.
4) Cost-plus contracts--in order to compensate companies who changed over their production to war material, and to encourage continued cooperation, contracts were let with a government guaranteed profit; that is, the companies were compensated at their cost, plus a guaranteed profit.
C) War Labor Board – arbitrated labor-management disputes; set wage rates for all workers. In return, labor officials promised to abide by a “no-strike” pledge, which individual workers supported, except when it involved their own grievances at work.
1) The No-Strike Pledge--in the first blush of patriotism, unions promised not to strike for the duration of the war. While this sounds doable in theory, workers quickly found that by giving up the right to strike, they also lost their best tool for keeping wages up with inflation, and the quickest way to effect changes in working conditions.
1) The No-Strike Pledge--in the first blush of patriotism, unions promised not to strike for the duration of the war. While this sounds doable in theory, workers quickly found that by giving up the right to strike, they also lost their best tool for keeping wages up with inflation, and the quickest way to effect changes in working conditions.
D) Office of Price Administration – set price ceilings for almost all consumer goods, in an effort to control inflation--with little success.
E) Selective Service – FDR administration followed the practice of Woodrow Wilson, and instituted a wide-ranging conscription program.
1) The "Double V" campaign--African American leaders encouraged participation in this Selective Service campaign with the "Double V" campaign--victory over fascism, and then victory for the civil rights of African Americans at home.
a) Jackie Robinson--was nearly court-martialed for his resistance to riding in the back of the bus at the Southern military base he was initially assigned to when he entered the Army.
1) The "Double V" campaign--African American leaders encouraged participation in this Selective Service campaign with the "Double V" campaign--victory over fascism, and then victory for the civil rights of African Americans at home.
F) War Manpower Commission – determined which workers work was vital to the war effort (which would prevent them from being drafted); also determined when a worker could change jobs.
G) Concentration of the Economy
1) Procurement system – fostered further concentration of the US economy; by the end of the war the top 100 companies held 70% of all civilian and military contracts, compared with 30% five years before.
2) Industrial boom--with government contracts being placed for material and factories, and much of the male civilian population being drafted or (after December 1941) choosing to join the military, economic conditions improved greatly.
(a) By 1943 unemployment disappeared
3) Real income growth – 27% between 1939 to 1945
(a) Redistribution of wealth – income of those at the bottom of the wage scale grew at a faster rate than the heavily taxed incomes at the top of the scale.
(b) Taxation--in order to pay for the war, War Bonds were famously issued. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that taxation was greatly extended as well; Americans who earned as little as $500 per year paid income tax at a 23 percent rate, while those who earned more than $1 million per year paid a 94 percent rate. The average income tax rate peaked in 1944 at 20.9 percent.
H) Americanization push – although there were ugly, racist aspects of this new push toward Americanization, it was not anti-European immigrant; in fact, most propaganda celebrated the ethnic diversity of America.
1) Sojourner Truth Homes--Detroit became a tinderbox of potential conflict because of the number of new workers moving into the city and inadequate housing. The Sojourner Truth projects were one point of contention, with blacks claiming (rightfully) a desperate need for adequate housing, and whites assuming that the housing built in "white" neighborhoods would continue to be used for whites. When black began moving into the project, it set off a riot. This conflict simmered into the summer, when another riot was set off on Belle Isle.
2) Zoot Suit Riots--took place in Los Angles, involving Mexican-American youths dressed in "zoot suits" and soldiers and sailors on temporary leave. A zoot suit, with
(b) Taxation--in order to pay for the war, War Bonds were famously issued. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that taxation was greatly extended as well; Americans who earned as little as $500 per year paid income tax at a 23 percent rate, while those who earned more than $1 million per year paid a 94 percent rate. The average income tax rate peaked in 1944 at 20.9 percent.
H) Americanization push – although there were ugly, racist aspects of this new push toward Americanization, it was not anti-European immigrant; in fact, most propaganda celebrated the ethnic diversity of America.
2) Zoot Suit Riots--took place in Los Angles, involving Mexican-American youths dressed in "zoot suits" and soldiers and sailors on temporary leave. A zoot suit, with
1) Male resistance – women who moved into these jobs faced tremendous amounts of resistance from the males who remained on these jobs (give examples of harassment)
2) Working mothers – faced problems relating to the lack of childcare, and the related problem of the alleged juvenile delinquency that their neglect caused.
3) Role of women in society – remained largely unchanged; many saw women in these kinds of positions as a temporary war expediency, and expected women to willingly return to the kitchen and nursery at the war's end.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Global War
I) Roosevelt turns to internationalism – the growing international crisis during the latter 1930s gained more and more of Roosevelt’s attention as his New Deal policies began stalling; Roosevelt’s background left him well-prepared to handle this problem, as well.
A) Threat of Fascism – the world-wide economic crisis of the 1930s led many countries to experiment with new forms of government; one of the most popular was what we call fascism
1) Definition of fascism – government control of all aspects of life, promising a “third way” between Marxism and capitalism, emphasizing the organic national community; it glorified war and violence; it embraced the irrational (like the occult), and the presumption of revolutionary change.
B) Italy
1) Rise of Mussolini
(a) Fascism – rigid, one-party rule which crushes opposition (especially on the left), retention of private ownership of means of production (which differentiates it from the tenets of Marxism), but which operates under centralized government control; belligerent nationalism (and sometimes racism); and the glorification of war.
(b) Il Duce (the leader) – former socialist; appealed to Italian nationalism, and played upon the perceived slights to Italy from its participation on the First World War.
(c) Invasion of Ethiopia – the last independent state on the continent of Africa in the 1930s, but it received no help from other countries to fight of Italian aggression.
C) Germany
1) National Socialism (Nazi)
(a) Hostile to all forms of democracy
(b) Rise of Adolph Hitler
(i) Appeals to pride in German culture
(ii) Racism – believed in the “natural” superiority of the “Aryan” race (whatever that is); racism was a much more important ideology for German fascists than it was for Italians.
(iii) Compare Nazi ideas of the superiority of Aryans to the belief (backed by scientific “proof”) that Anglo-Saxons were destined by biology to rule the earth.
(c) Burning of the Reichstag – fire of suspicious origin (which has been probably rightly been blamed on the Nazis) destroyed the meeting place for the equivalent of the German congress, which then did not meet any longer.
(d) Kristallnach (November 9-10, 1938) – Nazis burned over 200 synagogues, and looted thousands of Jewish-owned stores
(i) Signaled the beginning of a more aggressive anti-Semitism on the part of the German government
(ii) Point of comparison – until Kristallnach, Jews in Germany suffered less discrimination in that country than they suffered in the United States (no restrictions on residence, or clubs they could not join).
(e) Repudiation of the Versailles Treaty – moved arms into the de-militarized Ruhr Valley, also began claiming the right to “lebensraum” or living space, pieces of land that Hitler thought other European powers would not go to war to prevent him from claiming.
D) Japan
1) Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere – to ensure Japan’s continued access to raw materials to run their industries, forced on other East Asian countries by the military power of Japan.
(a) Invasion of Manchuria – Manchuria lies between China and Russian Siberia, and had traditionally been part of China; had the richest deposit of minerals in Asia.
(b) 1937 Sino-Japanese War – the “Rape of Nanking” which resulted in 300,000 deaths of Chinese civilians; numerous women were carted off to serve as “pleasure girls” (prostitutes for the Japanese army—a practice which they also practiced in other areas in Asia)
2) Racist stereotyping
(a) Japanese superiority – Japanese thought that the Chinese were an inferior people, who gave them the rights to dominate; in the Japanese view, westerners like the US and British were decadent westerners who would crumble when confronted by the pure Japanese spirit.
(b) US racism – US saw Chinese has helpless peasants, largely incapable of self-government; the Japanese, on the other hand, were the “yellow peril,” devious, and set upon ruining the West by exporting their cheap goods, and not buying enough western goods.
E) Spanish Civil War – the Spanish Civil War served as a surrogate battle between fascist and communist forces, with the fascist forces prevailing.
F) Isolationism – the foreign policies of the US government had long promoted isolationism from foreign entanglements, and this; although this had begun to dissipate, it had not disappeared.
1) US Senate rejected membership in the World Court
II) Neutrality Acts – mandated an arms embargo against both victim and aggressor in armed conflict; stipulated a narrower interpretation of neutrality rights; “cash and carry” trade policy for belligerents that would deprive them of access to US credit, ships, and military goods.
III) Pacific Theater of Operation (PTO)
A) Pearl Harbor – Despite the fact that the US was well on its way toward full wartime mobilization, the Japanese attack was still a surprise to the US forces in Honolulu (discuss evidence that some in the US were aware that an attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent)
1) Initial Japanese successes
(a) Indonesia (Dutch)
(b) Indochina (French; spawned the creation of the Vietminh, who with US backing carried on a guerilla war against Japanese—Vietminh were led by a previously exiled, French-educated Vietnamese who renamed himself Ho Chi Minh)
(c) Hong Kong, Malay, and Burma (Great Britain)
(d) Most of eastern China (China)
(e) Philippines (US)
2) US turns tide
(a) Battle of Coral Sea – depleted navy fleet won its first battle of the PTO
(b) Battle of Midway – US gained control of the Central Pacific
3) 1943 – US, with major assistance from Australia and New Zealand, and from many of the indigenous populations of the various Pacific islands and East Asia continental areas, regains the iniative.
B) Island hopping – the strategy of choosing to battle Japanese fortifications on some islands, while skipping (or “hopping”) over others.
1) Amphibious assault
IV) European Theater of Operation (ETO)
A) Soviet Union – from mid-1941 on, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the war with Germany
1) “Scorched earth” tactics – much of the eastern front had to be given up by the Red Army in a series of strategic retreats, but the Soviets burned to the ground anything that they could not carry with them, which prevented the German Army from obtaining the material, which caused the supply lines of the Germans to be stretched dangerously thin.
2) Battle of Stalingrad – German Army was encircled, supplies from the West were cut off, and the Germans were starved into submission.
B) Air War – to relieve some pressure on the Soviet Union before the Allies were ready to open a second front in Europe.
1) “Precision bombing” – a misnomer; when attacks on industrial areas increased, Germany decentralized its industry, which led to the Allied bombing of population centers—like Dresden in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (much of the same thing was happening in the United States, as the government paid industry to build new factories in previously rural areas)
C) Allied invasion of Europe
1) D-Day at Omaha Beach – (show Private Ryan)
V) The Home Front
A) Centralized planning – 1941 was a banner production year for the auto industry, which was reluctant to abandon civilian production to make war material, and did so only under duress (and the promise of guaranteed profits of cost-plus contracts).
B) “Dollar-a-year-men” – executives from the US firms who came to Washington to help the military plan the economy
1) War Production Board – set prices and determined production
2) Suspension of anti-trust laws – encouraged the formation of larger firms, which officials in the military believed would better meet their production criteria—and which made procurement easier.
3) Construction of new factories – at the governments expense, or with low cost government loans (often, after the war, these factories that the government owned were sold to private industry for pennies on the dollar
4) Cost-plus contracts
C) War Labor Board – arbitrated labor-management disputes; set wage rates for all workers. In return, labor officials promised to abide by a “no-strike” pledge, which individual workers supported, except when it involved their own grievances at work.
D) Office of Price Administration – set price ceilings for almost all consumer goods.
E) Selective Service – FDR administration followed the practice of Woodrow Wilson, and instituted a wide-ranging conscription program.
F) War Manpower Commission – determined which workers work was vital to the war effort (which would prevent them from being drafted); also determined when a workers could change jobs.
G) Concentration of the Economy
1) Procurement system – fostered further concentration of the US economy; by the end of the war the top 100 companies held 70% of all civilian and military contracts, compared with 30% five years before.
2) Industrial boom
(a) By 1943 unemployment disappeared
(b) Second Great Migration – whites and blacks leave the South for the Midwest and the West Coast, where most of the jobs created by this economic boom are to be found.
3) Real income growth – 27% between 1939 to 1945
(a) Redistribution of wealth – income of those at the bottom of the wage scale grew at a faster rate than the heavily taxed incomes at the top of the scale.
4) Americanization push – although there were ugly, racist aspects of this new push toward Americanization, it was not anti-European immigrant; in fact, most propaganda celebrated the ethnic diversity of America.
H) Rosie the Riveter – women began to move into industrial jobs in unprecedented numbers during the war years; although most were force to give up those positions at the end of the war, they fought hard to remain in those positions, and a significant number of women remained in the industrial workforce after the war.
1) Male resistance – women who moved into these jobs faced tremendous amounts of resistance from the males who remained on these jobs (give examples of harassment)
2) Working mothers – faced problems relating to the lack of childcare, and the related problem of the alleged juvenile delinquency that their neglect caused.
3) Role of women in society – remained largely unchanged; many saw women in these kinds of positions as a temporary war expediency.
VI) Conclusion – the pressured of the war caused many of the programs to be implemented that the FDR administration had attempted to implement during the two phases of the New Deal; in fact what happens is the implementation of the military-industrial-government complex that a later president (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander during the war) warned against in his farewell address in 1959