Chapter 8 - The Second World War and its aftermath to 1954

Question 1

What did FDR do with the government body regarding WW2?

Answer 1

Expanded White House staff.

Established the Executive Office of the President.

Question 2

How did power shift in the government regarding WW2?

Answer 2

The War Powers Act.

Granted FDR to lead the nation in total war.

Question 3

How did communication/coordination improve between the government/military?

Answer 3

Pentagon complex.
Military HQ - completed 1943.
17 miles of corridor.
5 sided - offices no more than 20 mins away.

Question 4

What happened with federal agencies regarding WW2?

Answer 4

New offices created.
E.g. Office of Price Administration - manage wartime economy -Executive Order 8875.
Increased fed. employees.
Increased central government role in economy/society.
CCC - 1942 stopped.
WPA - 1943.

Question 5

What did the WPB do?

Headed by?

Answer 5

War Production Board.
Allocated materials.
Limited civilian goods production.
Issued contracts.
Headed by Donald Nelson (President of Sears) and Charles Wilson (President of General Electric).
Business community/fed gov - close relationship.
Supervised $183 billion of weapons/supplies.

Question 6

What did the Office of Price Administration do?

Answer 6

Established 1941.
Rationed scarce products.
Introduced price/rent controls - against inflation.
Petrol, coffee, cheese.
1942 - 73,000 paid employees.

Question 7

How did the US suffer regarding an increase in federal expenditure?

Answer 7

1940 - 4 million paid tax.
1945 - 40 million paid tax.
Richest - taxed 94%.
90% excess profits tax.
Corporate income tax - 40% rise.
WW1 - only 33% taxation.
WW2 - 41% war paid out by taxation.

Question 8

Why did FDR approach WW2 with practical politics?

Answer 8

Only 140,000 men.
1937 - spent 1.5% National Income on defence.
Germany, Japan, USSR - 20%.
Charles Lindbergh - strong war opposing supporter.
1940 presidential speech - didn’t intend to send ‘our boys’ to war.

Question 9

What did The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1937 do?

Answer 9

Banned sales of any war material to any belligerent.

Big obstacle to aiding France/GB.

Question 10

How were The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1937 modified?

Answer 10

Allowed any nation to buy arms - cash and carry basis.
No US loans to GB.
Goods had to be transported on GB ships.
'The great arsenal of democracy' - FDR.
Helped revive US economy.

Question 11

How did the USA re-arm regarding WW2, and why?

Answer 11

1940 - Germany/Japan set to dominating Europe/Asia.
1 million men - US army.
Second biggest navy.
7,800 war aircrafts.
USA - 6 million steel tonnes more than Germany - 2/3 idle - great spare capacity - utilised more quickly.
Germany steel - working flat out - horrified.

Question 12

Why did the USA decide to enter WW2?

Answer 12

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
‘Defeated isolationism with a single thrust’.
2 days later - Hitler declared war on USA.
USA not vulnerable to enemy attack - confident.

Question 13

How did WW2 affect unemployment and GNP?

Answer 13

1938 - 19%
1941 - 14%.
1943 - 2%.
GNP: $91 billion to $214 billion by 1945.
2 million moved to California - war jobs.
Aircraft employment - Seattle and Portland.
Government spending - key to economic recovery - demand generated - money control abandoned.

Question 14

How did production methods change regarding WW2?

Answer 14

Synthetic rubber.
51 new plants.
US - largest exporter from crude to synthetic rubber.

Question 15

How did WW2 affect businesses (in general)?

Answer 15

Business community protected.
Companies involved in war retooling - gained large tax breaks.
Largest 10 corporations - 2/3 war production contracts.

Question 16

What were Liberty ships?

Answer 16

Henry Kaiser (American).
Heavy-duty military transport ships.
US and British Merchant Navies workhorse.
Packed 3,000 jeeps and 440 tanks.
440 feet long.
Assembling - vast worker amount - welding techniques.
Boasted 4 day production - average 17 days.
‘Sir Launchalot’.

Question 17

How did Henry Ford contribute to WW2?

Answer 17

Willow Run - largest aircraft factory.
Assembly line - 1,600m long.
1944 - 10 bombers per day built.
Car - 15,000 parts.
B24 - 1,550,000 total parts.
Ford Corporation - produced more military equipment than Italy.

Question 18

Military US production stats, 1939 compared to 1942, and Axis?

Answer 18

1939 - 2,000 aircraft.
1942 USA - 47,000 aircraft, 24,000 tanks.
1942 Axis - 27,000 aircraft, 11,000 tanks.
USA already out-producing Germany, Italy, Japan.

Question 19

1944 stats for USA/Axis for:
Aircraft.
Warships.
Army trucks.
Major navy vessels.

Answer 19

USA aircraft - 96,300, Axis - 68,000.
USA warships - 2,250, Axis - 440.
USA army trucks - 600,000, Axis - 88,000.
USA major naval vessels - 16 to Axis 1.

Question 20

How did the USA’s allies benefit from US rearmament?

Answer 20

GB farming improved - US-built tractors.
Russia - 956,000 miles of phone cable.
35,000 - radio transmitters.
380,000 - field phones.
USSR Red Army - 200,000 Studebaker trucks.
151,000 - light trucks.
77,000 - jeeps.

Question 21

How did WW2 affect unemployment in 1940 and 1943?

Answer 21

1940 - 9 million.
1943 - 780,000 - 2%.
Women in workforce - grew 50%.
USA accounted for 50% of the world’s production.

Question 22

How did WW2 affect the distribution of income?

Answer 22

The top richest 5% - income drop - 26% to 16% - taxation.
Bottom 5th income - 68% rise - but their national income share only rose from 4 to 5%.
Middle class - winners - war industry well-paid jobs.
Farm incomes x4.

Question 23

How did WW2 affect movement/US migration?

Answer 23

Movement to West Coast/Northern cities.
Hundreds of thousand sharecroppers/tenant farmers looked for better lives/pay.
10 million moved state during the war.
27 million (20%) moved location.
1 million South AAs left for Detroit/war industries.

Question 24

How did the standard of living for Americans rise?

Answer 24

Better dressed - despite rationing - not GB severe.
White LE - rose 3 years.
Black LE - rose 5 years.
IM fell by 1/3.
Early marriages/high BR - pop. expansion combated 292,000 deaths.
17 million jobs created.
Real wages increased by 50%.
Corporate profits increased by 70%.

Question 25

How did WW2 affect women regarding jobs?

Answer 25

Employed women - 11 million to 20 million.
Childcare created.
Car industry - 5% in 1940 to 20% in 1945.
Electrical manufacturing - 50%.
Increased from 25% to 36% - women in the workforce.
Economies of government - repelled in 1938.
Less on the dole - cycle of prosperity.

Question 26

What struggles did women face during WW2 regarding jobs?

Answer 26

Unequal pay.
Fed. Government through WLB approved equal pay - but women still paid lower.
Male-dominated trade unions - little equality enthusiasm.
Fed. gov - built childcare centres - but costly/low quality.
Many doubled as workers/mothers.
Unwritten rule - women must give up jobs after war.

Question 27

What union was the anomaly regarding women and equal pay?

Answer 27

United Electrical Worker’s Union.
1945 - won case.
BUT Westinghouse and General Electric refused to comply - war had ended.

Question 28

Why did trade unions grow in strength during WW2?

Answer 28

CIO - grew considerably.
Working together - united voice.
Fed gov. - encouraged employers to recognise unions.
Ford Motors - changed attitude.
Industrial harmony need.
Strikes - below 1% for lost working days.

Question 29

How were AAs being discriminated against during WW2?

Answer 29

Segregation - many regiments.
Few AA officers.
Treated worse than Axis prisoners.
AAs forced to give up seats to German/Italian prisoners.
German prisoners - fed in diners - AAs excluded.

Question 30

How were AAs discriminated against regarding jobs?

Answer 30

1939 - paid 40% of white earnings doing the same job.
1945- 60%.
South AA - 10% moved North/west.
1943 - 25,000 whites striked - Packyard’s engine plant, Detroit - management proposed to employ 2 AAs.
1943 - 34 strike deaths - 29 AAs.

Question 31

What was the role of A. Philip Randolph, NAACP and CORE?

Answer 31

Union leader - Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Planned a march on Washington - concerned FDR - established FEPC which employed 2 million AAs.
James Farmer - set up CORE - 1942.
NAACP - 1945.
Fought for black civil rights - non-violent e.g. sit-ins.
NAACP membership - increased from 50,000 to 450,000.
E.g. Brown VS Board of Education 1954.

Question 32

What was Executive Order 8802?

Answer 32

1941.
Response to Randolph’s march on Washington threat.
Outlawed racial discrimination in defence industries.
Enabled tens of thousand AA to get war jobs.
Prepared ground for Truman.
Established FEPC.

Question 33

What was the Double V campaign?

Answer 33

AA serviceman 1945 - ‘I was a nigger again’.

Victory over Axis abroad, AND victory over US racial prejudice.

Question 34

What was the US post-war economy like?

Answer 34

Produced 50% world’s manufactured goods.
62% world’s oil.
57% world’s steel.
43% world’s electricity.

Question 35

What was post-war unemployment like?

Answer 35

1945 - 1.9%.
1950 temporary slump - 4%.
Less social welfare need.
More taxation revenue for fed and state govs.
Increased consumer spending.

Question 36

What was post-war poverty like?

Answer 36

1950 - temporary slump.
20% families still below the poverty line.
1/3 homes - no running water.
40% - no flushing toilets.
BUT average US income x15 higher than average European income.

Question 37

What was post-war US income like compared to war-torn Europe?

Answer 37

Average US income - x15 European income.
Harlem (poorest area of NY City) - ranked within the top 5 nations in the world.
Kentucky (poor) - 2/3 TVs and 3/5 cars.
GB - still without electricity/indoor loos.

Question 38

How did the post-war construction industry gain?

Answer 38

Suburb expansion - 30% people here by 1950s - whites.
Levitt and Sons, NY - tens of thousands simply designed homes.
Cheap ‘Cape Cod Box’ - 4 rooms.
Larger ranch-style house.
Bendix washing machine - used to attract buyers.

Question 39

What were car sales like in 1945, 1946 and 1950?

Answer 39

69,000.
2.1 million.
40 million.
Boosts in oil industry/highway construction.
Determined suburbia/out-of-town shopping.
Giant malls/supermarkets.
1957 - accounted for 1/6 workforce.
Big three - Ford, GM and Chrysler.

Question 40

What were post-war consumer goods like?

Answer 40

Medicine - spin-offs.
Long playing record/Polaroid camera.
Frozen food expansion.
Household appliances sales increased by x5.
1952 - $255 million spent on chewing gum.
$23 million spent on mouthwash.

Question 41

What was the post-war baby boom like?

Answer 41

1946 - 3.4 million babies born.
1946-1964 - 76.4 million babies born - 40% population.
Encouraged juvenile industries.
Babies worth $800 each.

Question 42

How is the post-war prosperity multi-causal?

Answer 42

Technology.
ND.
Unions - prosperous blue-collar working class consumers.
High wages.

Question 43

What was the Taft-Hartley Act?

Answer 43

Signed 1947.
Curbed Wagner act/union power.
Banned closed shop/secondary picketing.
Made law - unions liable for broken contracts.
Unions had to make financial statements public.
60 day strike cool off - had to give notice.

Question 44

What was the 1948 deal regarding employers/unions?

Answer 44

Signed between:
Charles E. Wilson (General Motors).
Walter Reuther (UAW) - got job security/increased wages for his members.
Employers/unions worked sensibly together.

Question 45

What was the GI bill?

Selective Serviceman Act

Answer 45

1944.
Cash benefits.
Veterans offered free higher educational opportunities.
Government guaranteed home loans- promoted housing.
Truman said Army wouldn’t be segregated.

Question 46

What was post-war GNP like?

Answer 46

1939 - $91 billion.
1945 - $214 billion.
Prewar level - $9.4 billion.
Cold War - refueled arms production.
GNP - 1948 - 4%.
GNP - 1953 - 14%.

Question 47

What was WW2 rationing like?

Answer 47

1942 - set limits on clothes, coffee, cheese etc.
Victory gardens - accounted for 40%.
Spam (tinned meat) - 15 million cans per week.
1.6 million pigs used for this.
Rationing stamps - ‘do with less, so they’ll have enough’.
Calls for scrap metal.

Question 48

How did WW2 affect agriculture?

Answer 48

Net farm income:
1929 - $4.4 billion.
1945 - $12.5 billion.
Lend Lease Act 1941.
1941 - 250% farm income increase.

Question 49

What were the 1943 race riots?

Answer 49

Urban housing shortages.
AAs seen as white rivals.
Detroit - 9 whites/25 blacks died, 800 injured.
AA homes demolished for Pentagon room.
1943 - New Orleans bus driver ordered AA to sit at end of bus - all 24 AA passenger jailed.
Alabama DryDock employed 6,000 AAs - 50 injured.

Question 50

How did AA rights improve thanks to WW2?

Answer 50

FEPC - 1941.
Part of Executive Order 8802.
BUT 2/3 of 8,000 job discrimination cases dismissed.
Justice Department set up Civil Rights section - aimed to decrease lynching.
Smith VS Allwright 1944.
1940-1947 - AA voting increased from 3% to 12%.
1944 GI Bill/Double Victory campaign.

Question 51

What was the federal budget for 1940 and 1944?

Answer 51

1940 - $5.3 billion ($1.9 billion on the war).

1944 - $97.2 billion ($90 billion on the war).