Chapter 22

bracero program

ES System agreed to by Mexican and American governments in 1942 under which tens of thousands of Mexicans entered the United States to work temporarily in agricultural jobs in the Southwest. This program, running until 1964, was setup to provide laborers while Americans were overseas or working industrial city jobs. It didn't allow for immigrant unions since these workers could be deported at any moment.

War Advertising Council

ES Under the watchful eye of the War Advertising Council, private companies joined in the campaign to promote wartime patriotism. After the OWI had their funding pulled, war promotion was left to private companies. The companies simultaneously pushed the war effort and their own products, using the language of liberty to make everything from toothpaste to cars seem patriotic.

Rosie the Riveter

ESI Private advertising celebrated the achievements of Rosie the Riveter, the female industrial laborer depicted as muscular and self-reliant in Norman Rockwell's famous magazine cover. Rosie represented (and still represents) female empowerment and independence. For the first time in American history, a woman was portrayed by the advertising world as being just as tough, capable, and strong as a male industrial laborer.

Economic Bill of Rights

PE FDR in 1944 called for an "Economic Bill of Rights." FDR proposed to expand the federal gov.'s power in order to secure full employment, an adequate income, medical care, education, and a decent home for all Americans. FDR knew that the people were generally in favor of economic security for all after the pressures of the Great Depression. After replacing Henry Wallace with VP Harry Truman, it became clear that FDR had lost the drive to push the "new bill of rights" through.

Lend-Lease Act

PE Permitted the United States to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in World War II. This was a step up from the cash and carry policy. With Britain fighting Hitler alone, it was going bankrupt and needed to pay the US on credit. The US also granted considerable funds and arms to China (to aid its fight against an invasive Japan) and to the USSR (to help Stalin fight the deceitful Hitler).

Bretton Woods conference

PE Town in New Hampshire and site of international agreement in 1944 by which the American dollar replaced the British pound as the most important international currency, and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created to promote rebuilding after World War II and to ensure that countries did not devalue their currencies. The World Bank was est. to get money to developing countries and recovering European countries. The International Monetary Fund was established to prevent countries from devaluing their currencies for econ. advantage (like during the Depression). It also brought back the gold standard, setting it at 35 dollars per ounce.

GI Bill of Rights

PES The "GI Bill of Rights" provided money for education and other benefits to military personnel returning from World War II. Officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act. The law provided for roughly 2.2 million to attend colleges by the 1950s and another 4 million to get home mortgages. The law was put in place to reward vets and prevent a downturn similar to the one after the Great War.

Executive Order 8802

PES This order banned discrimination in defense jobs and established a Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to monitor compliance. Issued by FDR in 1941, this Order was hailed as the Second Emancipation Proclamation. It was one of the rare times that FDR addressed racial issues in order to diffuse a potential MArch on Washington led by A. Philip Randolph.

Bataan ''death march''

PS At Bataan, in the Philippines, the Japanese forced 78,000 American and Filipino troops to lay down their arms. This was the largest surrender in American military history. The post-surrender casualties were also horrid, as thousands died on the ensuing death march and from starvation/disease in POW camps.

Holocaust

PS Hitler embarked on the "final solution,"the mass extermination of "undesirable peoples" (Slavs, gypsies, homosexuals, and Jews). By the end of the war, 6 millions Jews were killed by the Nazi military. Remembered as one of the worst atrocities in human history, the US was initially unsympathetic. The FDR administration only permitted around 20,000 Jewish refugees throughout the war (anti-semitism and disbelief over death-tolls).

Korematsu v. United States

PS In 1944, the Supreme Court denied the appeal of Fred Korematsu, a Japanese-American citizen who had been arrested for refusing to present himself for internment. Justice Hugo Black seriously claimed that the policy of internment wasn't racist! It specifically called for the removal of A RACE. This stupid website won't let me swear. Clinton later awarded Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom, though the Supreme Court never reversed their decision.

''double-V''

PS In February 1942, the Pittsburgh Courier coined the phrase that came to symbolize black attitudes during the war: the "double-V." Victory over Germany and Japan, it insisted, must be accompanied by victory over segregation at home.

isolationism

PS Isolationism, the 1930s version of Americans' long-standing desire to avoid foreign entanglements, dominated Congress. Few members of Congress were initially interested in war. This was largely due to GW's farewell address, the Nye Committee, the Great Depression, and growing pacifism and anti-war sentiment.

D-Day

PS June 6, 1944, when an Allied amphibious assault landed on the Normandy coast and established a foothold in Europe, leading to the liberation of France from German occupation. 200,000 British, American, and Canadian soldiers landed, pushing Nazi forces back through France. Paris was liberated by August as the result of the largest sea-to-land operation in military history.

Yalta conference

PS Meeting of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin at a Crimean resort to discuss the postwar world on February 4-11, 1945; Joseph Stalin claimed large areas in eastern Europe for Soviet domination. It was also determined at these conferences that Germany would be split into military districts of administration and Nazi leaders would be persecuted as war criminals.

Office of War Information

PS Office of War Information (OWI), created in 1942 to mobilize public opinion. The liberal Democrats who dominated the OWI's writing staff sought to make the conflict a "people's war" for freedom. Congress ended up pulling most of their funding because the ended up publishing just as much pro New Deal propaganda as pro-war propaganda. Basically ad-men of patriotism. I guess.

Good Neighbor Policy

PS Proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address in 1933, it sought improved diplomatic relations between the United States and its Latin American neighbors. FDR removed American troops from Latin American countries like Haiti and Nicaragua. Unfortunately, he often dealt with cruel dictators ("our bastard[s]") for the sake of American economic interests.

Executive Order 9066

PS Promulgated in February 1942, this ordered the expulsion of all persons of Japanese descent from the West Coast. Why, FDR? Did you know it was such a f***-up? Because it was a very big f***up. 0ver 100,000 Japanese were removed from their homes without due process or writs of habeus corpus. Many were forced to swear loyalty to the government and serve in its military.

Nye committee and Neutrality Acts

PS Senate hearings in 1934-1935 headed by Gerald P. Nye revealed that international bankers and arms exporters had pressed the Wilson administration to enter that war and had profited. Beginning in 1935, lawmakers passed a series of Neutrality Acts that banned travel on belligerents' ships and the sale of arms to countries at war. The Nye Committee worked to prove that American entry into the First World War was prompted by financial desires, not the moral reasons provided by the Wilson administration. The Neutrality Acts reflect Congress's weariness over getting caught up in naval entanglements with German submarines.

Manhattan Project

PSI Secret American program during World War II to develop an atomic bomb; J. Robert Oppenheimer led the team of physicists at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Took Einstein's theories and advice that FDR should look into building a bomb (because Hitler's doing it too). Eisenhower and others felt that the dropping of the bombs was unnecessary, while Truman and others insisted it was the best way to end the war.

Four Freedoms

RSI Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. FDR and the OWI used these values as the centerpieces of the war. They claimed that these were the ideas being fought for, adding an appeal through the works of Norman Rockwell.

zoot suit riots

S The "zoot suit" riots of 1943, in which club-wielding sailors and policemen attacked Mexican-American youths wearing flamboyant clothing on the streets of Los Angeles. For all the nation's talk, racism and discrimination still lived on strong in many parts of America. Violence and hatred towards Mex-Ams prompted activists to push for more equal rights.

''patriotic assimilation''

SI World War II created a vast melting pot, especially for European immigrants and their children. Millions of Americans moved out of urban ethnic neighborhoods and isolated rural enclaves. New immigrants and their children were incorporated into the American culture during World War 2. With the war providing new industrial and military work, immigrant moved from their enclaves into environments that put them in direct contact with diverse groups. Racism was the philosophy of the enemy.