HISTORY notes: Unit2 Section1

In the Election of 1920, the Republican candidate, Warren Harding , based his campaign on a pledge of a "return to normalcy." Unlike the active governments of the progressive Presidents, Harding and the Republicans promised that the government would no longer interfere with the lives of Americans or get the United States involved overseas. Apparently the nation liked the idea, since Harding easily won the election. With his victory, progressivism ended.

Warren Harding Warren Harding was President from 1921-23. In the election of 1920, the American people voted for Harding on the basis of his pledge to return the country "to normalcy." His presidency marked the end of the progressive era and was the beginning of the three "do-nothing" Presidents of the 1920s. Harding's presidency, although cut short by his death in 1923, was one of the most corrupt in American history. Although he promised to employ only the best minds in his Cabinet, they committed amazing levels of embezzlement and outright theft. Harding himself wasn't the ideal for virtue. Although prohibition was in force, Harding frequently drank in the White House. He also had all-night poker sessions and had numerous mistresses (actually fathering a child with one).
Once said that he probably wouldn't be the best President in American history, but he wanted to be the most loved.
He suffered a stroke and died on August 2, 1923. The last person to see him alive was his wife, and the press circulated rumors that his wife had found out about the affairs and killed him.

America never signed the Treaty of Versailles , so technically the United States was still at war with Germany. Without his formal knowledge, Harding's Secretary of State conducted negotiations with Germany to end the war. In July 1921, Harding was called off a golf course to go to a friend's house to sign something. He walked in, read the document that ended the war between Germany and America, signed it, and promptly went back to the course.

Hardings Secretary of the Interior was caught selling oil reserves in the Teapot Dome scandal.

When Harding died, Vice President Calvin Coolidge took office. Coolidge was the exact opposite of Harding in many ways. Whereas Harding enjoyed public speaking and led an active social life, Coolidge was simple, never drank, and was unbelievably quiet. His tendency to be quiet earned him the nickname of "Silent Cal." The press enjoyed attacking Coolidge's personality. One popular story said that Coolidge once was at a party and the hostess came over, sat down next to him, and said, "You must talk to me, Mr. President. I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge then calmly looked at her and said, "You lose."

Herbert Hoover said he wanted to serve as Secretary of Commerce for Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Both as Food Administration Director and Commerce Secretary.

Hoover handily won the election of 1928. Hoover had a few personal flaws that would hurt him:

-First, he plodded through problems. When a situation came up, he determined the nature of a problem and then he organized a commission to study it and formulate a solution. Finally, after much study, he would suggest a remedy. Hoover's response to solving problems was systematic and organized, but required time.

-Second, Hoover always emphasized voluntarism. Hoover felt that America was built on Americans cooperating and helping each other. For example, Hoover believed that successful industrialists should give money to relief organizations that helped unemployed workers since their businesses relied on workers. As Food Director in World War I, he had asked the American people to cut back, and they voluntarily cooperated without the government having to order them to do so.

-Third, Hoover hated the idea of government involvement in the lives of Americans. In his inauguration speech, he said that America was strong and independent because of the "rugged individualism" of Americans. Hoover felt that if the government handed out welfare or aid, Americans would become weaker.

The net result of these factors was that Hoover felt that big business, workers, and Americans in general would willingly cooperate if a crisis came up. Because Americans were such strong individualists, Hoover believed, the government shouldn't interfere even in the worst circumstances.

The Great Depression was a massive economic crash that began in the United States in 1929 and quickly spread around the world. Although in the early 1920s, the American economy was booming, by the late 1920s, farm prices had dropped, new house construction slowed, and factories cut back on production and laid off workers. The combination indicated an economic slowdown, although Americans continued to spend money, especially on the stock market. In 1929, no restrictions existed on the market, which encouraged dangerous business practices. The market crash in October 1929 was the final step in the process toward economic depression. At the worst point of the Depression in 1933, 16 million Americans (roughly one third of all Americans able to work) were unemployed. Since the American economy was closely tied to the rest of the world's economies, the Great Depression quickly spread elsewhere. In Germany, economic problems contributed to the rise to power of both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Although President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was designed to address the Great Depression, the economy didn't fully recover until the huge increase in defense spending during World War II.

Hoovers primary effort to help was the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which pumped federal funds into the economy. Congress gave money to private corporations (e.g., railroads and banks) in the hope that they would be able to hire workers and ease unemployment. In turn, newly employed workers would spend more money, thus helping to get the economy moving again. The RFC also gave money to state and local governments for public works projects that would also create jobs.

In the election, the Democrats, confident that they could win with anyone, turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. A distant cousin of former President Teddy Roosevelt

March 1933, FDR said, "all we have to fear is fear itself."

1932 was the worst year of the depression.

On March 12, 1933, FDR gave the first of his famous fireside chats . He went on national radio and talked to the American people in an informal way that convinced Americans that he genuinely cared for them. Whether a result of the fireside chat or the banking bill, the nation's banking system stabilized. People stopped removing their money; in fact, deposits quickly outweighed withdrawals. The number of bank failures decreased from over 4,000 in 1933 to only 61 in 1934. The first step toward creating a stable economy had been achieved.

The New Deal seemed to lack direction and organization. When asked about the lack of organization, FDR explained that he was like a quarterback in football. He had a general plan, but wouldn't know what play to call next until he had seen the result of the previous play.

In general, First New Deal legislation tried to do three things: Provide relief for the unemployed, get the economy recovered and back to pre-Depression productivity, and pass reforms to make sure another Depression would never happen.
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Relief:

While Hoover firmly believed the government shouldn't hand out aid, FDR felt the government was obligated to help Americans who were suffering. Relief came in two forms: employment and handouts of food and goods.

Among the programs of the First New Deal that aimed at helping people was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC employed 2,500,000 young men to perform conservation work, such as planting trees.

Other relief agencies had people build things like bridges, dams, government buildings, and schools.

Part of the relief program was the massive Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) project. On one level, the TVA created a series of dams to control the Tennessee River, which periodically flooded the region. Once properly channeled, the water provided cheap hydroelectric power for the entire region. On another level, the TVA also tried to improve the living conditions of the area's residents through a variety of social programs, such as building libraries and providing medicine to combat malaria, a disease commonly carried by mosquitoes in swampy areas.
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Recovery:

FDR also pushed through laws that created agencies either to stabilize the economy or help parts of the economy recover. Since farmers and agricultural prices had been the first victims of the Depression, the New Deal created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The AAA's goal was to raise agricultural prices by reducing supply. Farmers voluntarily produced fewer goods, and in return, the government paid farmers for not producing. When prices on a crop began to dip, the AAA asked farmers to store their crops instead of selling at the low price. In exchange, the government gave farmers loans based on the total value of their stored crops. This plan in many ways was the old Populist party idea of the sub-treasury plan.

FDR's New Deal planners felt that encouraging businesses to cooperate and communicate would end competition, which during the Depression had driven down prices and increased unemployment. This belief spurred the most debated aspect of the First New Deal, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of June 1933. The NIRA created two federal agencies: the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the National Recovery Administration (NRA). Of the two, the NRA was more noticeable and more controversial. The NRA allowed industrial leaders to set minimum wages for workers, minimum prices on goods, and the maximum number of hours a worker could be on the job. Since industries had to charge the same amount and couldn't pay their workers differently, competition essentially ended.

"Codes of fair practice" were drawn up for all industries; eventually over 600 codes were created, regulating nearly every industry in America. Cooperation was voluntary, but companies and merchants who cooperated were given a sign with the NRA symbol (a blue eagle) and a sign saying "We Do Our Part." FDR told Americans to buy goods only from merchants who had that sign, essentially freezing out anyone who didn't go along with the plan.

While its intent was good, the NRA suffered from a variety of problems, including lack of enforcement, far too many codes, and widespread abuse of the law by wealthy industrialists. The Supreme Court ended the NRA by declaring it unconstitutional in 1935.
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Reform:
As part of the recovery program, the Brains Trust tackled what they thought had been the causes of the Depression. With their advice, FDR pushed for reforms that tried to make sure that no more Great Depressions would occur. Among these reforms were the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which made all bank deposits insured by the government, and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulated the stock exchange to prevent reoccurrence of the 1929 crash.
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People who oopsed FDR:

A California doctor named Francis Townsend felt that the New Deal hadn't gone far enough. Townsend spoke on behalf of many of the nation's elderly, few of whom had any kind of old age pension plan. Townsend proposed an Old Age Revolving Pension Plan, which would give money every month to citizens 60 or older. To get the payment, people had to retire from their jobs, thus, creating jobs for younger people. In addition, pension recipients had to agree to spend the money during that month, which also boosted the economy. The elderly thought this was a good plan; Townsend Clubs sprang up across the country to promote this solution to the Depression.

Another of FDR's opponents was Louisiana Senator Huey Long. Nicknamed the Kingfish for a character from the Amos 'n Andy radio show, Long gained enormous popularity in his home state by enacting public works programs that put thousands to work. While he wanted to help his fellow Louisianans, Long helped people from his personal desire to someday become President. In 1934, Long left the Democratic Party and announced his own plan to help Americans. Called "Share Our Wealth," Long's plan limited the personal fortunes of Americans. Any ultrawealthy industrialist who made over that limit would have the excess taken by the federal government. In turn, that money would be distributed to the rest of America. In his plan, Long guaranteed Americans an annual salary of $2500 and gave them an additional $5000 to invest, buy a house, or get an education. Within a year, a nationwide chain of 27,000 clubs, called Share Our Wealth Societies, sprang up, with a membership approaching 8,000,000 Americans. His popularity made FDR's political advisors afraid that Long might pose a challenge to Roosevelt in the 1936 election. However, an angry Louisianan that Long had offended shot him to death in late 1935.

The strongest conservative opposition came from the Supreme Court. The Court justices were all old, Republican, and extremely conservative in their political beliefs. The Court attacked many of the First New Deal programs and ruled that agencies such as the National Recovery Administration were unconstitutional. While their arguments about some of the New Deal might have been justified, the justices' motivation for killing the New Deal came from political beliefs rather than a devotion to the Constitution. The combination of criticism from the left and the right forced FDR to make an important decision. He had to back off from reform in order to please conservatives, or push forward to help groups that wanted more governmental aid. The decision, made in 1935, marked the beginning of a new phase of the New Deal.
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Second New Deal
During the Second New Deal, governmental involvement jumped. FDR fought not only to solve immediate problems, but also built agencies to help Americans in the long run.

Social Security Act (SSA) --The Social Security Act was a complete break from previous American political beliefs and created the framework for the modern American welfare system. A social security tax that workers had on their income was combined with money from both federal and state governments to form a social security money pool. Social security provided old-age pensions; survivor's benefits for victims of industrial accidents; unemployment insurance; and aid for dependent mothers, children, and the handicapped.

Revenue Act-- Also called the "Wealth Tax Act," the Revenue Act was a step toward the type of income redistribution envisioned by Huey Long, although not nearly as severe. The Act increased taxes on gifts and estates, corporate taxes, and personal taxes for the wealthy.

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) --Also called the Wagner Act, it created the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that supervised labor union elections and guaranteed unions the right to negotiate and strike if necessary. The NLRA encouraged workers to join unions, and by 1941, union membership had doubled.
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In the next election FDR won the poplular vote of 61% and Alfred Landon lost.

FDR proposed a bill in 1937 that would allow the President to appoint an additional justice to the Supreme Court for each one over the age of 70, with a limit of six additional justices. FDR's hope was that by adding justices to the Court (which of course FDR would choose), he would be able to get his plans passed without the Court's interference.

Despite FDR's popularity, virtually no one supported this plan. After a brief fight, FDR gave up, but the Court apparently got the message. Soon after, several justices retired or announced retirement plans. FDR got to name their replacements and used the opportunity to build a liberal majority that lived on long after Roosevelt died. The "new" Court increasingly ruled in favor of FDR's plans.

Congress was determined to keep America away from international involvement by avoiding the mistakes that they felt had drawn America into the First World War. To do this, Congress passed three Neutrality Acts between 1935-37.

-Acting on the belief that arms dealers had influenced American involvement in the First World War, the Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited shipment of American weapons to any nation at war. Although theoretically this didn't differentiate between the Axis and Allied countries, it often hurt weaker nations being attacked. Strong nations such as Italy and Japan often had enough weapons, but lacked resources such as steel and oil. The Neutrality Act still allowed shipment of those goods.

The Neutrality Act of 1936 prevented American banks and the government from making loans to any nation at war, again, without distinguishing between aggressors and victims. This Neutrality Act was made in the belief that bankers had gotten America into World War I.

The Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade U.S. citizens from traveling on ocean-going vessels of nations at war, which clearly intended to prevent another Lusitania-type incident. However, this act gave FDR more freedom to help nations under attack. The President could create a list of nonmilitary goods, such as grain, which the U.S. could sell to all warring nations. The only requirement was that nations had to pay for the goods up front and also provide their own transportation, which is why this came to be known as the "cash and carry" policy. While on the surface this didn't seem to benefit any particular nation, the third Neutrality Act helped the Allies, especially the English. Since the English Navy was the strongest in the world, it could safely transport goods to Allied countries, while also preventing German ships from reaching American ports.

US and Japan Even as FDR slowly increased American aid to the Allies, the U.S. was also drifting toward war with Japan. FDR desperately wanted to avoid fighting Japan for as long as possible, but the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 forced FDR's hand. FDR tried to stop Japan by applying economic pressure, a logical attack since Japan relied on the U.S. for the bulk of its resources. That reliance on imported supplies, FDR hoped, would make the Japanese easier to bully into stopping. Instead, for each action that the U.S. took, Japan countered, and the two sides escalated tensions. In 1939, FDR asked American arms sellers to stop selling aircraft to Japan. Japan responded by broadening their attacks on China, and Japanese troops even pushed into French Indochina, the country later called Vietnam. FDR responded by banning the export of all American petroleum products and scrap metal, which were vital supplies in shipbuilding and airplanes. Japan responded to the increased threat from the U.S. by entering into the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940, which tied the three nations into one Axis coalition.

FDR's increase in restrictions on exports presented Japan with a dilemma. In order to continue their war effort, they needed resources from the U.S. But in order to get American resources, they had to stop their war effort. Thus, they either had to stop completely or continue to conquer territories in order to get the resources. Japan chose the second option, and in early 1941 seized resource-rich areas in southeast Asia. Seeing that his policy wasn't working, in summer 1941, FDR froze all Japanese assets in the United States, meaning that no Japanese citizen or corporation could get any money invested in America. Freezing the assets made the Japanese civilian government look weak, and in October 1941, General Hideki Tojo became Prime Minister. Once Tojo took power, Japanese-American relations looked bleak, although no one knew how bad the situation had become until the first Sunday in December 1941.

blackout drill meant that all lights (in both businesses and homes) had to be extinguished. The fear was that city lights helped guide Axis submarines. At least early in the war, there was a fairly real submarine threat, especially from German submarines in the Atlantic that used city lights as navigation markers. Smart submarine captains also could see the silhouette of cargo ships against a city's lights, which helped them sink merchant shipping.

Propaganda was also created so that people on the home front would be willing to sacrifice in order to help the war effort. A popular OWI slogan was "Give till it hurts," and Americans were constantly reminded that sacrifice on the home front meant eventual victory in the war. Housewives were told to save kitchen fat to turn over to their butcher since fat contains glycerin used to make black powder for ammunition. Buying one fewer canned good every week could, over the course of a year, produce enough extra metal for 5000 new tanks. An old shovel could yield four hand grenades. Old lipstick tubes contained brass that could be used in ammunition cartridges. The state of Virginia even began to dredge rivers to recover ships that sank in order to gain more metal.

The son of a poor blacksmith, Benito Mussolini used violence and fear to become Italy's Prime Minister in 1922. He created a fascist government that was essentially a military-controlled dictatorship with Mussolini in complete control of the country. He reorganized the Italian military, which defeated Ethiopia (Africa) in 1936. Over time, he joined in the Axis alliance with Adolf Hitler's Germany and Japan. But during World War II, Italian forces were constantly defeated. Finally, in 1943, Italy's king (who had created a government with Mussolini) ordered his removal. Hitler had German soldiers rescue Mussolini from Italian authorities, but in 1945, anti-Mussolini forces tracked him down and hanged him.

In 1933, Einstein wrote a letter to FDR, warning of the awesome destructive potential of recent research in nuclear fission. He also warned that the Germans probably were researching the creation of a weapon using atomic power. In order to make sure that America would be the first one to make a weapon, FDR gave approval for the Manhattan Project, a secret, large-scale effort to construct a bomb in June 1942. All total, 150,000 scientists across the country worked on separate parts of the atomic question, but only a handful understood the overall purpose behind the research. Those scientists were in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in a lab devoted to thinking through how to actually use atomic research in making a weapon. The scientific leader in New Mexico was Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who had pushed for the creation of the Los Alamos lab. Another scientist, German Klaus Fuchs, secretly sent all research developments to Russian leader Joseph Stalin. Just as Einstein had predicted, scientists in Germany were working on an atomic weapon. From 1943-1945, the scientists in Los Alamos raced to build a weapon before the Germans. You'll learn more about the work of the Manhattan Project later.

Yalta Conference In February 1945, England's Winston Churchill, Russia's Joseph Stalin, and America's Franklin Roosevelt met at an old Russian palace in Yalta to discuss the post-war world. Roosevelt had three goals for the Yalta Conference: get Russian help in the fight against Japan, create a post-war United Nations, and decide how Eastern Europe would be divided after the war. Although Roosevelt knew that the Manhattan Project was working on a "super weapon" that might end the war with Japan, if no bomb was created, Russian aid might save hundreds of thousands of American lives. Knowing that Roosevelt relied on Russian help, Stalin forced his own demands. Russia would fight Japan, and the Allies would accept Russian control of Manchuria (northern China) as well as the current status of Eastern Europe, primarily Poland. This meant that the Soviet Union would effectively control all of Eastern Europe.

The Yalta Conference was FDR's last meeting. The stress of being President since 1933 had slowly worn him down, and on April 12, 1945, he died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and Harry Truman became President. FDR's death came only a month before victory in Europe. As Russian troops closed in on Berlin, Hitler withdrew to his private bunker and killed himself in late April. Hitler's suicide was followed closely by Germany's surrender on May 7, 1945, ending the Second World War in Europe.

As you'll learn in another section, Truman authorized the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan. Within days of the second bomb, Japan surrendered to the United States, ending the Second World War. The end of the war overjoyed Americans, although some people such as Truman appreciated the condition of the world after the war.


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Burlesque In the late 1800s and early 1900s, upper class Americans enjoyed ballet, opera, and classical music, while the working classes enjoyed burlesque. Burlesque was a combination of numerous entertainment forms, including comedy, dancing, and popular music such as ragtime. Burlesque shows also featured exotic dancers and nudity in an era still dominated by Victorian beliefs in the evils of nudity and sex.

Born in 1904, Robert Oppenheimer became one of America's best-known physicists by the 1930s. His reputation led to his appointment by President Franklin Roosevelt to head the secret Manhattan Project in 1942. Although the military opposed scientists working together, Oppenheimer pushed for the creation of a single laboratory to supervise all the research being done across the country. At this lab, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Oppenheimer and his researchers developed America's atomic bomb. After the war, Oppenheimer led the United States Atomic Energy Commission, a new government agency created to supervise America's nuclear power and weapon program. As its leader, Oppenheimer opposed the creation of hydrogen bombs, weapons even more powerful than the atomic bomb. During the Red Scare in the 1950s, Oppenheimer became the target for anti-communist investigations, in part because of his opposition to the development of these weapons and because some friends had once been communists. Eventually, these accusations caused Oppenheimer to lose his security clearance and ended his influence on American atomic policy.

Joseph Stalin. Born in Georgia (a region of the former Soviet Union) in 1879, Joseph Zhugashvili (his original name) became involved with socialism in the late 1800s. He rose up the communist party chain of command, and in 1912, he changed his last name to Stalin (Russian for man of steel). A harsh, brutal man, Joseph Stalin was frequently arrested for attacking and killing enemies of the communists. After the Russian Revolution of March 1917, he worked for the communist party's propaganda machine. During the civil war that followed from 1918-20, Stalin played a large role. He was rewarded for his work by being appointed general secretary of the party in 1922. Before he died in 1924, Lenin wrote a letter that ordered Stalin's removal from the post because of his brutality and tendency to act without permission from his superiors. Despite the comment from Lenin, Stalin won the battle to succeed Lenin, in large part because he crushed any opposition and had his major rival, Leon Trotsky, killed. Stalin moved to create state-controlled farms called collectives, despite the fact that the bulk of Russian farmers were independent. In the military, he purged, or removed, any officers with questionable loyalty to him. As would be his pattern, any resistance was met with violence. Stalin created a secret police to intimidate or kill any opposition. Prior to World War II, Stalin and Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact, which allowed Hitler to attack the nations of west Europe without worrying about Russia. Stalin's trust in Hitler was misplaced, however, and Germany invaded Russia in June 1941. The unexpected attack threw the Russian Army into complete disorder, a chaos not helped by the fact that Stalin had purged most of the Army's best leaders in the 1930s. Despite the shock, Stalin rallied the Soviet people and demanded that they fight for "Mother Russia." By the war's end, 20 million Russians were dead. During the war, Stalin met with Franklin Roosevelt and England's Winston Churchill at the Teheran and Yalta Conferences. At these conferences, Stalin gained Western recognition of Soviet control over eastern Europe. After the war, Stalin was an important part of the start of the Cold War. His distrust for the United States meant that any American action had to be countered with a Soviet response. Meanwhile, he created a new wave of repression and terror within his country until his death in 1953. In 1956, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin. Soviet history books were edited to either remove Stalin's name or at least downplay his contribution to Soviet history.
World War 2 Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan. Allies: USA, USSR, England, China, France. Nuetral countries: Spain, Switzerland, and others