The Home Front During the War Flashcards
Agency of the US government that supervised production for the purpses of war
Established by Executive Order 9024
Directed the conversion of industries, allocation of scarce resources including the rationing of gasoline, oil, metals
Led by Donald Nelson
War Production Board
Agency charged with balancing the labor needs of agriculture, industry and armed forces
War Manpower Commission
Established the control money and rents during WWII
Office of Price Administration
Sold by the government during the war to raise money
Holder was able to cash in after 5-10 years, earning interest on the money invested
War Bonds
or
Liberty Bonds
Close relationship between government, military and business
Emerged in many parts of the United States, especially the shipyards on the West Coast and around Los Angeles
Included government sponsored research in radar, jet engines, early computers
Military-Industrial Complex
Legislation that limited labor action for the rest of the war
Resulted for believe that strikes, especially those in the coal mines by the United Mine Workers, were detrimental to the war effort
Smith-Connally Act
Fundamental principles for which the United States stood…
…speech and expression
…worship
…want
…fear
Four Freedoms
Described as the general desire for security in a world spinning out of control
Freedom from Fear
Supreme Court case in 1940 ruling 8-1 against a Jehovah’s Witnesses refusal to salute the American flag
Argued that religious values paled compared to national unity
Minersville School District v. Gobitis
Supreme Court reversal of Gobitis
Freedom of Speech gave all the right to not salue the flag
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
Defined as protecting the future “standard of living of the American worker and farmer” by guaranteeing the Depression would not resume
Carlos Bulosan’e essay included idea of…
…having enough to eat
…sending children to school
…sharing the promise and fruits of American life
Freedom from Want
Purpose was to mobilize public opinion in support of the war
Tactics included…
…promoting war as “people’s war for freedom”
…downplay motivation to pay back Japanese for Pearl Harbor
…used radio, film, press, other media
Office of War Information (OWI)
Entity that allowed private companies to join campaign to promote patriotism and position brands for the post-war period
Promoted “free enterprise” as the fifth freedom and the idea that “freedom of choice” only possible if business is freed from government
War Advertising Council
Image of the woman factory worker taking on factory jobs held by departing men
Drawn by Norman Rockwell as muscular and self-reliant
Rosie the Riveter
One of two competing blueprints for post-war America
Argued that Americans must embrace the role as the “dominant power in the world”
American power, values would underpin unimaginable prosperity
The “abundant life” would be produced by “free economic enterprise”
The American Century by Henry Luce
One of two blueprints for post-war America
Delivered in May 1942 at the Free World Association
Predicted a “century of the common man” and a world marked by internation cooperation
Governments would eliminate hunger, illiteracy, poverty through economic redistribution
“The Price of Free World Victory” by Henry Wallace
Offered blueprint for peacetime economy that included…
…full employment
…expanded welfare state
…shared American standard of living
Reliance on dramatic increase in government spending and reflected the views of John Maynard Keynes
National Resources Planning Board
Proposal by Roosevelt to…
…secure full employment, guarantee adequate income, medical care, education, decent home
Spent little time promoting the idea and Congress did not act on it
“True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence” Roosevelt
Economic Bill of Rights
Far reaching social legislation that helped returning soldiers with…
…unemployment pay
…scholarships for education
…low-cost mortgage loans
…pensions
…job training
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944
or
GI Bill
Surprise best-selling book arguing that central economic planning leads to dictatorship
Offered intellectual justification for limited government
…in a complex economy, no single person can direct economic activity intelligently
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
Result of World War II changes including…
…European immigrants moving out of ethnic neighborhoods
…people of all backgrounds coming into contact
…Roosevelt’s promotion of pluralism as the only source of harmony
Patriotic Assimilation
“To be an American had always been a matter of mind and heart and never…a matter of race or ancestry”
Roosevelt on Cultural Pluralism
Abandoned scientific links between race, culture and intelligence
Influenced by books…
…Races and Racism
…Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race
Discredit of Nativism and Racism
Harlem Race Riot of 1943
Agreement by Mexican and American governments allow tens of thousands of contract laborers to work in the United States
Initially a response to the war time labor shortage
Re-enforced status of immigrants as unskilled workers
Opened up new opportunites for 2nd generation Mexican-Americans
Bracero Program
Sailors and policemen attacked Mexican-American youth in Los Angeles in 1943
Limits of wartime tolerance and an embarrasment to FDR given 1/2 million Mexican-Americans in armed forces and his Good Neighbor Policy
Zoot Suit Riots
Navajo “Code Talkers” helped secure communications
Iroquois issued their own declaration of war against Axis powers
American Indian Support for War
Group that dominated vegetable farming in the Los Angeles area many of whom only spoke English and had never been to their ancesteral home
Were blamed for the War based on their aggressive racial and national character
Japanese-Americans
Issued by FDR in February 1942 expelling persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast
Created internment camps
Validated by the Supreme Court in 1944
Did not apply to persons of Japanese descent living in Hawaii
Executive Order 9066
Created from horse stables, makeshift shacks, barracks to house Japanese-Americans affected by Executive Order 9066
Internment Camps
Only congresman who spoke out against how the Japanese internment camps undermined basic freedoms including…
…no court hearings
…no due process
…no writ of habeas corpus
Senator Robert Taft
Supreme Court ruling upholding the legality of the internment camps
Korematsu v. United States
It “lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of authority that can bring forward a plausible claim” of national authority.
Justice Robert Jackson
700,000 black migrants poured out of the South seeking jobs in the industrial heartland
“Liberty Trains”
Organized by Philip Randolph who was angered by the exclusion of African-Americans from defense jobs
Out of 100,000 aircraft workers there were only 300 blacks
March on Washington
Issued by FDR to ban discrimination in defense jobs
Established the Fair Employment Practices Commission which was…
…primarily an investigative agency
…held hearings that exposed patterns of racial exclusion
Executive Order 8802
Idea and term coined by the Pittsburgh Courier that for blacks it was important to have…
…victory over Germany and Japan
…victory over segregation at home
Double V
Supreme Court ruling that outlawed all white primaries in elections, which resulted in discrimination
Smith v. Allwright
Sprawling account of America’s racial past, present and future
Racism was embedded in law, politics, economics, social behavior
Appealed to American principles along with federal social engineering including…
…anti-lynching laws
…equal opportunity in the workplace
…end to segregated housing
…expansion of Social Security to include agricultural and domestic workers
An American Dilemma by
Gunnar Myrdal
Organization that tried to place colonial liberation at the top of the black American agenda
Council on African Affairs
