As if the Depression wasn’t tough enough, through much of the 1930s, the plains area of the U.S. suffered from drought. This was on top of settlement and agricultural practices that tore up the virgin topsoil. (Settlers knew it was dry but there was a prevalent bit of wishful thinking that “rain follows the plow.”) When the crops did not grow for lack of rain and the winds started to blow, topsoil was carried into the air, creating the Dust Bowl. The “black blizzards” carried all the way to the east coast. On the plains, visibility was often reduced to three feet or left. Tens of thousands of settlers were forced to abandon their farms. Often they fled to California and suffered hardship there as well — this dynamic formed the background to John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.”
Overseas, it was the winds of war that were blowing. Struck by the global depression, burdened with reparations from World War I, and disillusioned with the government’s austerity measures that brought little economic improvement, Germany was vulnerable to extremism, and they got it when Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Benito Mussolini had become prime minister in 1922 and had turned Italy into a police state by 1925. In Japan, the military had taken over the government by 1936. There were precursors to what became World War II. Japan invaded China in 1931 and again in 1937. Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The fascist supported nationalists defeated the communist supported government forces in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. However, World War II proper is generally said to have started In September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later, and Europe was, once again, at war. Paris fell to Germany on June 14, 1940.
FDR’s third election was unprecedented. Stopping at two was a matter of tradition since George Washington had stepped down after two. FDR laid the groundwork for a third term by undercutting potential Democratic rivals. He engaged in a bit of chicanery in league with the Chicago machinery where the convention was held. He purported to not be inclined to run again unless drafted. The friendly crowd nominated him on the first ballot with a vote of 946 – 147. In the general election, FDR squashed the Presidential ambitions of two Hoosiers: he prevented Paul McNutt’s nomination as the Democratic party’s nominee (and spurned his efforts to be the Vice-President); and he beat Wendell Wilkie in the general election. (More on this later.) The situation FDR straddled the line between internationalist and isolationist. He was friendly to the Allies and gave them support but he stopped short of war with Germany. After Paris fell, the U.S. significantly increased the size of its navy. During the election, FDR promised that he wasn’t going to send Americans off to die in a European war. In December 1940, FDR called for the U.S. to become “an arsenal of democracy.” The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, changed the situation. The Japanese had woken “a sleeping giant,” and the U.S. geared up its formidable production capacity and bent its efforts to the war.
In February 1942, paranoid about Japanese treachery, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, forcibly relocating and imprisoning 70,000 American citizens who were of Japanese ancestry. Many fewer citizens of German and Italian ancestry were targeted under these regulations; the disparity suggesting that simple racism was a major factor in how the groups were treated.
During the war, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were allies of necessity. FDR apparently had – at least initially – an optimistic view of Stalin. But, by the end of the war in Europe, the U.S. came to realize that the Soviets’ view of the world was not compatible with that of the U.S. The U.S. ambassador to the USSR wrote, “we must come clearly to realize that the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it.”
In 1944, unlike 1940, there was little subterfuge or doubt about whether Roosevelt would run. Despite declining health, he would run for an unprecedented fourth term; this time against Thomas Dewey. Roosevelt would drop Henry Wallace as his Vice-President and choose Harry Truman as his running mate. There was little opposition to Roosevelt’s nomination but his health made the V.P. slot a major bone of contention. Wallace was thought to be erratic. “Truman was highly visible as the chairman of a Senate wartime committee investigating fraud and inefficiency in the war program. Roosevelt, who personally liked Wallace and knew little about Truman, reluctantly agreed to accept Truman as his running mate to preserve party unity.” Dewey and the Republicans ran against the New Deal and big government, but Roosevelt was popular, particularly because the war was going well for the United States. Roosevelt won the popular vote by 7.5% — a large margin in general terms, but his smallest margin of victory in his four elections. The portion of the fourth term served by Roosevelt was dominated by negotiations surrounding the end of the war, the conference at Yalta taking place in February 1945.
Describing his vision for post-war international relations and supporting the creation of a United Nations, Roosevelt said, “The Crimean Conference ought to spell the end of a system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries– and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join.” Tensions between the Soviet Union and the U.S. were increasing during this time period. On March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to Warm Springs, Georgia to rest in advance of his anticipated appearance at the founding of the United Nations. On April 12, 1945, the President died of a stroke at the age of 63 — eighteen days before Hitler would commit suicide in Berlin and 26 days before VE day was formally declared. Harry Truman would take over as President, finish the war effort, and begin the post-war efforts.
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