James Lincoln Collier - The United States in World War II: 1941 - 1945

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

The UNITED STATES in WORLD WAR II

19411945

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Tom Paterson, Professor Emeritus, University of Connecticut, for his careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History and his thoughtful and useful comments. The work has been much improved by Professor Paterson's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt, but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

COVER PHOTO: U.S. Army Center of Military History

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Corbis: town along the Rhine, WWI American troops in the trenches, Adolf Hitler, "Mr. Chamberlain Is Second to None." New York Public Library: Stuka dive bombers, German soldiers search a Polish citizen, Hitler's forces rounding up Jews.

Chapter II: Corbis: Chinese baby in the ruins of Shanghai. Library of Congress: German army on the attack, German infantry moving forward. New York Public Library: Germans guarding a Norwegian port, attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. Army Center of Military History: drafted American men.

Chapter III: Corbis: Remagen Bridge. New York Public Library: Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower, German photo of crashed American fighter plane, rubble of a German town. U.S. Army Center of Military History: launching depth charges, "Surprising fire from Allies on German tanks," dead soldier on Mount Altuzzo, Berlin after an air raid, Normandy beaches on D-Day, Bastogne, painting of Buchenwald.

Chapter IV: Corbis: building M-4 tanks in a Ford factory, Japanese-Americans at an internment camp. New York Public Library: "We have a Victory Garden," ad for government bonds. U.S. Army Center of Military History: woman working in a factory.

Chapter V: Corbis: suicide plane in the Marianas. National Archive: dead soldiers on Tarawa, U.S.S. Bunker Hill , mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. New York Public Library: sketch of Japanese troops, Death March from Bataan. U.S. Army Center of Military History: fighting in Guadalcanal, soldiers on Peleiu.

Chapter VI: Corbis: Monte Cassino. U.S. Army Center of Military History: penicillin production.

2002 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-529-1

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9591-9

The UNITED STATES in WORLD WAR II

19411945

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: T HE L EGACY OF W ORLD W AR I

WARS DO NOT just happen. They come about because of past events, and the way people react to current events. The causes of World War II are complex, and are still argued over by historians, but the general picture is clear enough.

It was truly a world war, fought in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, on land, on sea, and in the air. The death and destruction wrought makes World War I, which was horrible enough, look like small potatoes. Although solid figures are hard to come by, some 30 million people died in World War II. Billions of dollars worth of property, including whole cities like Dresden, Hiroshima, and Warsaw, were destroyed. Great empires vanished like morning fog in the sun. Hundreds of millions of people found their lives permanently transformed. One historian has called it "the largest single event in human history."