America During WW2

In his book The Best War Ever: America and World War II, Michael Adams tries to dissolve the many misconceptions of World War II. As the title of the book implies, The United States left the war with a great optimistic view of the these “glorious” five years. The United States as a population had been tricked into believing in the, at times, fabricated conditions of its history that had been presented to people as some beautiful stories and myths where nations are viewed as being first-rate in union and morality. These so-called myths were created out of several factors. Because of Hollywood, the vast amounts of government propaganda, and far-reaching economic prosperity, Americans were, for the most part, hidden from the real truth of The Second World War. In this period of time, even, the generation of the Second World War is seen as being top-notch in morality and unity. There was a popular misconception held that there were no problems in terms of ethnicity or gender; it seemed that families were living contented lives and children excelled in school and read all kinds of books (115).

Andrew Iarocci and Jeffrey A. Keshen, A Nation in Conflict: Canada and the Two World Wars (University of Toronto Press, 2015)

President Wilson had no choice but to enter World War I to protect the American people and our way of life. Sometimes it is necessary to stay neutral and to not engage. Other times it is our duty to engage the enemy to protect our families, our freedom, and our way of life. President Wilson did all he could to remain diplomatic and finding a solution other than going to war with Germany and its allies. In the end he made the right choice to fight for this nation and the other nations Germany was trying to tear apart.

Although the U.S. had yet to become officially involved in the war, most Americans supported the Allies and saw the Germans as antagonists. Americans felt a connection to Great Britain, in particular, because of cultural similarities. When the Germans sunk the Lusitania, a British cruise ship, in 1915, 128 Americans were among those who lost their lives, causing America to become even angrier towards the Germans. At the same time, the British intercepted a message from Germany to Mexico called the Zimmerman Note, asking the government of Mexico to declare war on the U.S. if war broke out between the U. S. and Germany. The note also promised to help Mexico regain the territory of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico if Mexico declared war on the United States. This note was the final push that caused America to fall into the want of war. Thus, on April 6, 1917, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany.

The United States during World War I extended their “military, economic, and/or political control” to other weaker countries like, Hawaii, Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico. They were following the policy of Imperialism.1 Imperialism allows for nations to be able to trade with one another and businesses preferred it because it helped the United States economy. Nationalism is when the people of a nation are under one government and this played a key factor in starting world war one. There was tension between Germany and France who both wanted rule of Morocco. “Nationalism led European nations to compete for the largest army and navy, or the greatest industrial development.”2 Due to nationalism, allies were starting to form between the nations. This was happening all throughout Europe in the 1800s. Ultimately nationalism is what wrecked Europe 's empires. Nations wanted powerful and large armies so militarism was also a result of WWI. Whenever a nation would get a large army, another nation thought they had to step it up and have an even larger nation. Britain was a nation that was equipped with a big army so Germany competed with Britain for a larger army. These armies were growing at a fast rate and this was causing tension between the nations during peace time.

America 's involvement in WW2 had major changes which helped shape the America we live in today. From 1939 through 1945 there were many changes in the economic, cultural, and political arenas. Some of these changes were the television becoming very popular, FDR tried to keep America neutral, America entered the war because of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The war did have a lasting effect on the culture of the time. Everyone was involved one way or another and everyone wanted peace. One major political change was the twilight of FDR’s New Deal.

Before World War II, the American people supported isolationism due to the general belief that America should not have been a part of World War I. Furthermore, people believed World War I caused the Great Depression, as well as the deaths of thousands of Americans. I believe this opinion changed on December 7, 1941. On this morning, the Japanese military bombed the Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii. I think American citizens view changed because they were attacked on their soil and a total of 2,403 lives were lost; 2,008 soldiers in the Navy, 109 marines, 218 army, and 68 civilians. Additionally, there was over a thousand injuries. I agree with the popular argument that Japan’s worse strategical position was to attack Pearl Harbor.

The United States of America are unique in that they allow citizens the right to speak freely and the right to assemble. This has allowed citizens to play an essential role in the economy through both their spending and their representation of the workforce. Over time major world events have changed this unique economy. Wars have been known to have significant impacts on the economy, albeit the impact relies greatly in the government and other economic factors. Before World War II the world was undergoing a Depression caused by decreasing trade and compounding speculation. The United States were hit especially hard by the Depression and in 1939 they were still recovering. With war on the horizon, the US used isolationist policies to try

After World War I, many Americans feared the idea that communism would spread, they called this concern “The Red Scare”. Americans were wary of the spreading of communism after the Russian Revolution, in their paranoia America attempted to block new incomers, especially eastern and southern Europeans. In addition to The Red Scare, there were limited jobs in America, because of this generations of workers whose families had immigrated before the 1900s, began to view new incomers as a threat because they would work for lower pay and further reduce the jobs available for the nativists . Due to these concerns, immigration regulations went into effect. For instance,

The majority of the history of the United States during the 1940’s was plagued by World War II. However, before the U.S. entered the war, the first antibiotic penicillin was successfully used which revolutionized the medical field and WWII. Also, the U.S. Congress approved the first peacetime draft for the Army. On November 5, 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president for his third term. This was the first time in U.S. history that a president had been elected for three terms.

The United States of America entered into World War II, because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (World War II). On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (World War II). By the end of the attack, there were 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes, and 8 damaged or destroyed battleships (Attack at Pearl Harbor). Franklin Roosevelt said that American must become “the great arsenal of democracy” (World War II). America then entered into the war at the Battle of Midway in April 1942 (Battle of Midway).

America’s decision to abandon their neutral position in World War II was justifiable. America took almost every peaceful measure it could to avoid joining the war. However, after Japan bombed the American naval Base, Pearl Harbor, America could not remain neutral in the war. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor left a total of 2400 American civilians and servicemen dead. If America had not retaliated to this attack and had chosen to remain neutral, America would have been seen as weak. America would have possibly faced similar attacks. After America declared war against Germany, it joined the allied team which consisted of the Soviet Union and Britain. Although America did not know this on December 8, the date of declaration of war against japan,

America's involvement in World War II changed the course of the war and prevented Hitler from completely dominating Europe. At the dawn of World War II, America was not involved. Situations in the western hemisphere turned urgent and violent as Hitler's army invaded countries in Europe. While America watched from the sidelines, it aided its struggling allies, Great Britain and France, by sending supplies (history.state.gov). They placed an embargo on exporting goods to Japan (pearlharbor.org).These actions contradicted America's claim of neutrality in the conflict with the Axis Powers, Germany, Japan and Italy. These contradictions infuriated the Japanese who devised an attack of revenge on the U.S. The Japanese bombed

Is it possible to know what Americans thought of World War II, if they believed that the war was a just war or whether they did not agree for what the United States was fighting for? The historian Studs Terkel believes he knows this answer and that Americans saw themselves as liberators of an oppressed world fighting for the just war which can be concluded from his famous volume, The Good War. Of course one person’s beliefs should not be believed as easily just by reading a book. A person should base their opinions on something much more analytical than that. In order to decide whether some Americans actually thought that World War II was a just war, a thorough analysis should be done of American life looking at all the facts found. Beginning with American experience before the war then analyzing the experience of the war and the home-front itself and finally ending with the analysis of America after World War II a conclusion can be made regarding the American point of view.

During WWII, Germany occupied most of the countries in Western and Eastern Europe. Anyone who was Jewish was sent to a concentration camp, mainly in Germany. On the other hand, anyone who was not Jewish could live and live normal lives. The only problem would be that as the German army was advancing and destroying other villages, they would stand there and do nothing. Why? It would most likely be because that they were only townspeople, and they were afraid of the Germans.