EFFECTS ON THE UNITED STATES OF WORLD WAR II.   Term Paper ID:30181 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Positive and negative impact. Effect on women and minority groups, broadening their aspirations. Greater population mobility. Decline in strength of family aas the key social unit of American society. Economic impact. Move from agricultural production to industrial base. Creation of a new imae for the U.S. of a global superpower. Paper Introduction: Effects of World War II on the U.S. As World War II broke out in Europe, the United States was, for the most part, determined upon maintaining its neutrality and the isolationist policy that had become a national characteristic in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression (Johnson, 1997). Even while providing some financial and material support to Great Britain via the Lend-Lease Program, the U.S. in general and the Roosevelt Administration in particular remained somewhat removed from "Europe's War" - until, of course, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. After the attack, the United States moved rapidly to amass a large military machine and to provide that machine with all of the resources that were needed to wage war on two disparate fronts. AS Paul Johnson (2000, p. 779) has commented, Pearl Harbor wa Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. American and itsPeople. toinstitute a policy of "containment" to prevent the spread ofCommunism throughout the world . : University of South Carolina Press. Even while providing some financialand material support to Great Britain via the Lend-LeaseProgram, the U.S. The national commercial airline industry, forexample, benefited enormously from the research and developmentefforts of the War years and grew dramatically when hostilitiesceased. H., & Sylla, R. Harlow, G. Jeffries, J. Martini and Roberts (1989), for example, notethat the animosity developing between the Soviet Union and theUnited States (as well as other Western, capitalist nations)would create an environment of fear and conflict that would lastliterally until the Soviet Union itself fell. Wartime America: The World War IIHome Front. Foner, E. (1993). Eric Foner (1998) stated that fewevents have transformed American life as broadly and deeply asWorld War II -touching in some way and to some degree upon allgroups within the nation. As Chadwin (1968) hascommented, a major effect o World War II in the United Stateswas to concentrate within the national government a great dealof power and influence -influence that would continue to bewielded long after the War ended. These historians believe that thewar experience broadened many women's aspiration and made themore self-reliant. Women workers forced unions such as theUnited Auto Workers to confront issues such as equal pay forequal work, maternity leaves, and child care facilities forworking mothers. K., & Roberts, R. Martin, J. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (199 ). Among the immediate effects of the Warwas the gearing up of dormant or stagnating industrial complexesfor wartime materiel production, the increase in the size ofgovernment bureaucracies at the federal level, the doubling ofthe gross national product (GNP), and the eradication ofunemployment as war production finally conquered the Depression(Chadwin, 1968; Jeffries, 1996). AS Paul Johnson (2 , p. ChapelHill, S.C. A Different Mirror: A History ofMulticultural America. Additionally, Jeffries (1996)believes that the economic production demands of the War effortwere beneficial in returning the national economy to somethingresembling normalcy, creating job opportunities for those menfound unsuited for war duty and for hundreds of thousands ofwomen, most of whom had formerly been prohibited from work inthe manufacturing sector by social conventions. (1998). Foner (1998) and Martin and Roberts (1989) have bothcommented on the effect of World War II employment shifts onwomen in the United States. Between194 and 1947, some 25 million Americans (over one-fifth of thenation's total population) moved in search of new economicopportunities. The economy advanced and remainedproductive and prosperous for decades; unemployment was atall time low, women were beginning to be "liberated" from theirtraditional roles, American became an established superpower,and a vast array of new consumer goods and business productswere gained as a result of wartime research and development. Kennan Lectures at the National WarCollege, 1946- 1947. A close link was createdbetween corporate-dominated business and a militarized federalgovernment -what President Dwight D. The economic infrastructure of the nationentered into a new phase based on industrial rather thanagricultural production, ~ shift that had certainly been in theworks for decades, but Which the massive war effort confirmed asseemingly permanent. TheEvolution of the American Economy. Ratner, S., Soltow, J. The creation of a weapon of mass destruction -the atombomb -not only ushered in the "atomic age" and making civilianuse of nuclear power a reality a few short years later; it alsoput an early end to the war in the Pacific, ultimately savingmillions of lives.Ratner, Soltow, and Sylla (1993), however, make the pointthat the introduction of the atom bomb also was at leastsomewhat responsible for the Cold War Arms Race between theUnited States and her new rival superpower, the Soviet Union.World War II transformed the former Soviet Union and the UnitedStates from uneasy allies to outright antagonists, creating thetensions and hostilities of the Cold War and leading the U.S. American can be said to have lost her innocence as aconsequence of World War ill -more so, perhaps, than as a resultof earlier wars in which the nation had participated (Martin &roberts, 1989). Eisenhower called a"military-industrial complex" that would dominate the nationalscene throughout the first years of the Cold War and well intothe Vietnam Conflict (Foner, 1998) .Industries geared formilitary production continued to produce for military use afterthe War, but many products were also transformed into civilianuse as well. New York: Macmillan. embarked on a mobilization ofhuman, physical, and financial resources that was withoutprecedent in history (Johnson, 1997) .The economic doldrums ofthe Great Depression, and the isolationist posture of themajority of American citizens and leaders, were erased in asingle day (Foner, 1998). Diedrich, M., & Fischer-Nornung. Many women were determined to remain in thework force after the War ended, and it can be argued that thetraditional nuclear family typical of the U.S. 779) has commented,Pearl Harbor was, Axis Powers, a "woefully smallmilitary return for the political risk of attacking an enormous,intensely moralistic nation like the United States." After the bombing, the U.S. (1968). Kennan, the architect of the policy of Containment (orlimiting Communism to a small sphere of influence and preventingit from spreading into new areas of the world), helped todevelop a foreign policy agenda in which American dollars,military forces or assistance, and other forms of aid wereemployed to reduce the likelihood that a neighboring state orpotential ally would pursue Communism (Harlow & Maerz, 199 ).Literally billions of dollars were spent in this effort, and inbolstering the influence of the "military-industrial complex"itself. More significantly, perhaps, the War justified a new andpermanent role for the United States as a major world power interms of its military might, political and diplomatic influence,and economic prosperity (Foner, 1998). Among the mostnotable innovations were jet engines, rocket propulsion, gas-turbine engines, synthetic rubber, plastics, and electronics(especially television and radar) .Medical breakthroughsincluded penicillin, synthetic quinine, atabrine, and sulfadrugs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The so-called "RedScare" of the 195 s, symbolically represented by the hearingsheld by Senator Joseph McCarthy, led America to search fortraitors, Communists, and "fellow travelers" in her government,her press, and her entertainment industry and colleges.Unresolved tensions and the expansion of the Arms Race convincedany Americans in and out of government that the nation wasvulnerable to nuclear attack by the Soviet Union (Harlow &Maerz, 199 . The Story of American Freedom. Atthe same time, however, not all of the results of the War werequite so positive. All of these effects - positive andnegative alike - ultimately recreated America in a new image.The country was firmly placed in the role of global superpower,a role from which it has rot yet retreated and from which itshows little sign of retreating. Later, after the War ended and millions of GI'sturned home, the GI Bill would send thousands of Americans tocolleges and universities who would otherwise not have attended;is not only created a new class of professional, highlyeducated workers, but it also fostered social and economicmobility as well (Takaki, 1993) . NewYork: Harper Collins. (1997). World War II, rather than resolving the internationalcrisis, ended a war while creating new and more localizedclashes between Communism and capitalism (or democracy) .GeorgeF. The Hawks of World War II. References Chadwin, M. Washington, D.C.: National DefenseUniversity Press. Norton. New York: Harper Collins. (1996). A History of the American People. According to Ratner, Soltow and Sylla (1993), greatadvances in technology were achieved from the scientificresearch and developments that were so vital to the conduct ofhe war as well as to the postwar economy. C. After the attack, the United States moved rapidly toamass a large military machine and to provide that machine withall of the resources that were needed to wage war on twodisparate fronts. D., & Maerz, G. (1993). (1989). The price of America's new status as a global hegemonand superpower was both financial and human; as Harlow and Maerz(199 ) suggest, American not only became the Western world'sbanker after World War III, she also became the Western world'spoliceman.Further, if the war years had the effect of partiallyliberating women from the constricted sphere of the home (andalso leading minorities to demand greater parity in the Americanpolity), they also created domestic tensions as well. in general and the Roosevelt Administration inparticular remained somewhat removed from "Europe's War" -until, of course, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December7, 1941. As World War II broke out in Europe, the United States was, for themost part, determined upon maintaining its neutralityand the isolationist policy that had become a nationalcharacteristic in the wake of World War I and the GreatDepression (Johnson, 1997). L. Women and War: TheChanging Status of American Women From the 193 s to the 195 s.New York: Macmillan. The demand for industrial labor created a population shiftthat sent migrants from the rural regions of the nation to theurban production centers in the North and West, permanentlyaltering the nation's social geography (Foner, 1998). New York:W. Measures Shortof War: The George F. W. Foner(1998) notes, for example, that American women and minoritygroups came out of the war years determined to enjoy freedomsand privileges that they had formerly been denied by socialconventions. Johnson, P. Deidrich and Fischer-Nornung (199 ) agree, andcomment that one subtle consequence of the war years was thegreater social, economic and geographic mobility of the Americanpopulation - along with a decline in the strength of the familyas they key social unit in American life. Takaki, R. (eds).(199 ). W. Effects of World War II on the U.S. World War II, therefore, had a number of positive effectson the United States. -with anemployed father, a domestically centered mother, and childrenred for by the mother -began to change in this period ofAmerican history (Diedrich & Fischer-N?rnung, 199 ). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.