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History 4698 Creating the United Nations February 26, 2002 I. The US and World War II 1. The Key Events (1942: limits of mobilization, Midway/Coral Sea—triumph of intelligence, pressures for 2nd front, North African campaign; 1943: Italian campaign, Balkan campaign?, Katyn; 1944: Poland and Soviet-American tensions, D-day and liberation of France, Battle of the Bulge; 1945: collapse of Germany, turning to Japan, atomic bomb) 2. The Key Issues (domestic effects—economic growth, civil rights, civil liberties, and the war; 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. The Responses (Four Freedoms or Four Policemen?; domestic surge of internationalism—B2H2 resolution, Willkie’s One World; deference to military authorities—internment, military strategy; postwar structure—Teheran, Cairo, Casablanca Conferences; progress of war; FDR leadership style; unresolved issues; war in East Asia; atomic weapons and US diplomacy) II. The Origins of the Cold War 1. The World the War Created (Europe: devastation Germany and Italy; Red Amy Liberation EE; French and British economic devastation; East Asia: pressure for decolonization—SE Asia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India; Chinese Civil War; Latin America—redeem wartime promises?; nuclear weapons) 2. The Alternatives for the United States ((1) Internationalism: Eleanor Roosevelt, faith in power of UN, learning the lessons of Wilsonianism; obstacles: Security Council veto, Article 51, congressional power, role of nuclear weapons; (2) Cooperation: the rise and fall of Henry Wallace, wartime spirit toward USSR; obstacles: Poland, Iran, EE; (3) Regional: Welles and Latin America, east Asia and China Lobby; obstacle: logical inconsistency; (4) Nationalists: Republican hard right, marrying of domestic and international agenda; obstacle: limited appeal)
Time Line 1941 Hitler invades USSR; firm US oil embargo Japan; Lend-Lease; Greer incident 1942 Stalingrad, Midway 1943 Teheran, Cairo Conferences; Welles out of State Department; invasion of Italy; B2H2 resolution; Katyn 1944 D-day invasion 1945 SF Conference; Yalta Conference; FDR death; atomic bombs McGeorge Bundy, Danger and Survival John Dower, War without Mercy John Lewis Gaddis, The United States, Russia, and the Origins of the Cold War Akira Iriye, Power and Culture Warren Kimball, The Juggler |