Post on 11-Jan-2016
transcript
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Mobilization Mobilization
Section 18.1Section 18.1
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Mobilizing the Armed Forces
• FDR realizes (before U.S. entry) that we must strengthen the armed forces– Selective Service Act (1940): required all
males aged 21-36 to register for military service
– Increased Defense spending from $2 billion to $10 billion
– “Four Freedoms speech”: prepared Americans for the possibility of war and what we should be fighting for
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Freedom of Speech Freedom to Worship
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Freedom from want
Freedom from fear
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Who is the army?• GI: “Government Issue” – +16 million
serve in military– 300,000 Mexican Americans
– 25,000 Native Americans (“Code Talkers”)
– 1 million African Americans – most had “supporting roles”• End of the war (1944) AA’s are placed in
combat positions• Tuskegee Airmen – 1st African American
flying unit
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Tuskegee Airmen
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U.S. Economy
• FDR had to coordinate the businesses to meet Allied demands– War Production Board (WPB):
directed the conversion of peacetime industries to wartime industries
– Office of War Mobilization: served as a “super agency”; coordinated all production of wartime resources
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Examples
• Ford made B-24 Liberator bombers (used assembly line to mass produce)
• Henry Kaiser used mass production techniques in shipbuilding – cut time down from 200 days to 40 days – “Liberty Ships”
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How do you motivate a business to change?
• “Cost-Plus” system (military contract): Military paid development and production costs and added a percentage of costs as profit for the manufacturer
• Pride and patriotism also motivated many businesses
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Production
• By the end of 1945:– 300,000 airplanes– 80,000 landing craft– 100,000 tanks and armored cars– 5,600 merchant ships– 6 million rifles, carbines and machine
guns– 41 billion rounds of ammunition
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Financing the War
• U.S. gov’t. vowed to spend whatever was necessary
• Federal spending increased from $8.9 billion/yr. (1939) to $95.2 billion/yr. (1945)
• Overall, 1941-1945, gov’t. spent $321 billion – 10x as much as WWI
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How do you pay for a costly war?
• 41% of the war paid by higher taxes
• Borrowed money from banks, private investors, and war bonds ($186 billion)
• Deficit spending help pull U.S. out of depression– Also, boosted national debt from $43
billion to $259 billion
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Daily Life on the Home Front
• Nearly everyone had a relative/ friend in the war
• Population grew by 7.5 million (nearly double the rate of the 1930’s)– Baby Boomers
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Shortages & Controls
• Shortages and rationing limited the goods that people could buy– Metal from zippers could make guns
– Rubber from bike tires made army truck tires
– Nylon stockings could make parachutes
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Food Shortages
• Food was needed for the military
• Also, enemy occupied territories cut off shipping to the U.S. (ex. Sugar, fruit, coffee…)
• Office of Price Controls (OPC): controlled inflation by limiting price and rents
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Rationing
• Rationing: a fair distribution of scarce items– OPA assigned point values to items
such as sugar, coffee, meat, butter, canned fruit, and shoes
– Issued ration books of coupons – once you used up the points, you couldn’t receive anymore
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Ration Coupons
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Pop Culture
• What do you spend your money on since you can’t buy “scarce” items?– Books and magazines
– Recordings of popular songs
– Go to a baseball game
– Go to the movies • 60% of the population (growth of movie
stars)
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Enlisting Public Support
• FDR creates the Office of War Information to boost public morale– Created posters and ads that stirred
patriotic feelings• Victory gardens: home vegetable garden
planted to add to the home food supply – instead of buying farm produce that went to the military
• Recycled scrap metal, paper, etc.
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