History 416

The U.S. at War

November 23, 2005

I. Road to War

1. Road to Munich (the Czech question; Chamberlain’s strategic vision; settlement and aftermath)

            2. Onset of War (collapse of “Peace Front”; Stalin and Nazi-Soviet Pact; Winter War)

            3. 1940 (fall of France; FDR’s commitment to England; American public opinion; America First and battle over isolation; 1940 campaign and tensions between domestic and international obligations; FDR constraints: public attitudes, uncertainty of European situation, Constitution)

II. 1941 (continued from last time)

            1. War in Asia (uncertainty and domestic divisions: Japan—military/civilian, Army/Navy; US—Japan hands/China hands; Vietnam and growing US-Japanese tensions)

2. US and a Global War (German invasion USSR and globalization US policy; tightening of embargo and deterring an attack; North Atlantic—Argentia, undeclared naval war; US guarantees; Pearl Harbor and outbreak of war)

III. Course of War

            1. Domestic Events (federal spending—Keynsianism by default?; economic growth; draft and expansion of army; civil rights, FEPC, and A. Philip Randolph; significance of anti-Nazi war rhetoric; internment and Korematsu)

            2. FDR’s Choices (East Asia or Europe; Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and role of military; international issues: conception of victory—unconditional surrender; tenuous nature of alliances—US and potential conflicts with UK, USSR, and Nationalist China: colonialism, “friendly states”; role of communists in postwar states)

            3. Course of War (Germany, Stalingrad, and campaigns in East; FDR and North Africa, Darlan Deal; Stalin and second front issue, Churchill and Balkans—origins of Italian campaign; 1944: preparations for D-Day, preparations for fourth term)