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Japanese aggression towards China and Indochina. Japan tried to make a sphere of economic domination to try to resolve its own economic issues through expansion. The US couldn't really do anything except issue embargos on gas and iron due to isolationist policies in place.
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Britain and France use the policy of appeasement to try to stop Hitler. They let him take more land in exchange for him to stop after that. He broke that no more than 6 months later by invading Czechoslovakia.
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This was the "night of broken glass". Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews.
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These where the new policies introduced by FDR in response of Germany going crazy.
Cash and Carry: Nations at war could buy necessities for way from the US if they paid in Cash up front and carried them away on their own ships.
Destroyers-for-bases deal: its in the name the Us gave Britain fifty aging destroyers for eight bases on the other side of the world.
Lend-Lease: Borrow -
World War II begins! Germany utilizes Blitzkrieg (lightning fast attack to overwhelm the enemy) to invade France and launch air raids on Britain. FDR responds by amending the Neutrality Acts and introducing the new policies of Cash and Carry, Destroyers-for-bases deal, Lend Lease.
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Congress authorizes Roosevelt to “sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend or otherwise dispose of to any such government and defense article” which he thought it was “necessary in the interest of the defense of the United States”
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FDR & British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter
a broad statement of US and British war aims. It endorsed self determination and an international system of general security.
It also showed FDR’s commitment to opposing German and Japanese aggression -
FDR's response to A. Philip Randolph. Philip threatened to march on Washington to demand equal access to war time jobs. Exec Order 8022 prohibits ethnic or racial discrimination in the nations defense industry.
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Surprise attack launched by Japanese against Pearl Harbor naval base, as well as nearby airfields
Japan attack in response to US embargoes and because it saw the US Pacific fleet as threat to its growing empire
2400 Americans killed, 1300 wounded
19 US ships sunk or damaged
FDR, in speech the next day refers to it as “a date which will live in infamy,” in a speech to Congress, and asks for and gets a declaration of war on Japan
Germany responded by declaring war on the US -
Executive Order 9066 authorized the internment of Japanese-Americans for fear of another surprise attack.
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Victory stopped the japanese from advancing and put them on the defensive.
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The invasion of North Africa was launched to free the Mediterranean Sea from German control and protect the oil fields in the Middle East
Took some pressure off the USSR, but the Soviet’s fierce resistance to the Germans at Stalingrad turned the tide on the eastern front
American and British landings in Italy opened up another front, but still delayed direct attack on Germany.
Italy surrendered, but German troops continued to fight in Italy, which tied up allied troops -
Long awaited Western Front. Germany was already engaged in 3 fronts and had to divert resources to the western front a clear advantage for us.
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Last German offensive and beginning of the end of the Nazis.
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Korematsu a Japanese American refused to leave his house because of Executive Order 9066. He took it to the supreme court argued that internment violated his constitutional rights and lost. The supreme court upheld Japanese internment constitutional.
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Truman had to decide weather to send troops to die on Japanese soil and spend a bunch of money on all that or just drop two of history's biggest bombs on them. Surprise surprise he chose the latter. Japanese surrendered unconditionally and there was no need for an invasion.
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The big three meet to discuss the final plans to defeat Europe and began discussing post war European plans.
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Us played key role in starting the UN. It was intergovernmental organization to maintain peace among the world.
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Nazi officers charged with crimes against humanity. 12 Nazis were convicted and sentenced to death.
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Containment. The Truman Doctrine pledged to contain Communism in Europe and was first applied when the United States supplied military and financial aid to Greece and Turkey to resist the communist-backed rebel forces there.
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Proposed by secretary of state George Marshall, Marshall Plan offered US financial aid to promote economic rebuilding and prevent the fall of European countries to communism.
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US supported the self-determination of the Jewish people with the creation of the Jewish state of Israel
US promptly recognized & supported Israel
demonstrates the impact of German war crimes on the conscience of the US & the world. -
The US supplied the people of Berlin with food, water and other supplies via air drops after the soviets blockaded berlin.
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization established a military alliance aimed at the Soviet Union .
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this led the United States to accelerate the development of the hydrogen bomb and began a nuclear arms race.
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Communist north Korea invades south Korea. The Truman administration believed this invasion had been orchestrated by the Soviet Union and urged the United Nations to take action.The United Nations voted unanimously to demand a ceasefire and support ‘police action’ to defend South Korea.
Majority of troops & financial support for the Korean War came from the United States -
The beginning of the space race. The soviet union launches sputnik and as a result the united states passes the National Defense Education Act.
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As a result of the launch of Sputnik the united states passes this acts that promotes science and math skills and
counteract the fear that consumerism had made Americans less competitive and less likely to win the arms race. -
A symbol of the cold war the Berlin wall separated east and west Germany.
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Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Dec 24 1979 to prop up friendly government US supported Afghan resistance movement (much of it done secretly) because of containment policy Soviets withdrew in 1989. Afghan rebel groups evolved into the Taliban, which aided and sheltered Al Qaeda (Osama bin Laden)
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The fall of the berlin wall was considered to end the cold war.