Running head: WARLD WAR II THROUGH THE 1970s

World War II through the 1970s

HIS 105

Date: 06-02-2013
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The time period from World War II through the 1970’s brought many changes to the United

States and the world, Europe was ravages from the war and millions of people were dead and the

United States became a super power to the rest of the world. The first turning point was D-Day

which is short form of designation day, also known as operation overlord. June 6, 1944 - After

months and years of fighting and preparations, the western allies were finally ready for their

decisive move of invading Western Europe in order to occupy Germany from West to match the

Russian advance from the East. D-Day, the invasion of France, did not change the outcome of

the war, as Germany was already losing it, but it marked the long awaited beginning of the last

chapter of the war. The war ended a year after D-Day.

Reinforcements for the infantry of D-Day had come in. On June 26th, 1944 the Allies

captured the French port of Cherbourg. After that day, the Germans began to retreat. On August

25th, 1944 came the day that the French had been waiting for, Paris had been liberated. The

German troops advanced 50 miles into Allied lines creating the “bulge.” However on Jan 16th,

1945 Germany was defeated in the Battle of the Bulge and Germany retreats because of Allied

resistance and shortage of supplies. In March 1945 US troops cross the Rhine and Germany

troops retreat more. One month later on the 30th of April, Adolph Hitler commits suicide. May

7th, 1945 World War II is officially over. Without the surprise invasion of Operation Overlord,

the turning point in WWII would not have happened. Russia most likely would have fell and

allowed Germans to overtake the country. The world would be a different place.

The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point

in World War Two in Europe. The battle at Stalingrad bled the German army dry in Russia and

after this defeat; the Germany Army was in full retreat. One of the ironies of the war is that the

German Sixth Army need not have got entangled in Stalingrad. Army Groups A and B were well
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on their way to the Caucasus in south-west Russia, when Hitler ordered an attack on Stalingrad.

From a strategic point of view it would have been unwise to have left a major city unconquered

in your rear as you advanced. However, some historians believe that Hitler ordered the taking of

Stalingrad simply because of the name of the city and Hitler's hatred of Joseph Stalin. For the

same reason Stalin ordered that the city had to be saved (Andy, March 28, 2011).

Almost 200 days of fighting left the city of Stalingrad a ruin, an estimated 40,000

civilians killed, and countless more wounded or forced to become refugees. Military casualties

on both sides were immense. German and its allies suffered approximately 750,000 casualties

(killed, missing or wounded) and the Soviets suffered 478,741 killed or wounded, plus another

650,000 wounded. The Soviets also captured over 90,000 German troops, many of whom would

not live to return home after the war. The defeat was a massive blow to German morale, and

more importantly the defeat of an entire Army group left its Southern flank exposed to a larger

scale Soviet Counter-offensive one that would eventually roll all the way to Berlin (Andy, March

28, 2011).

The Great Depression crippled the economies of Europe and the United States. That,

combined with the outcome of World War I, led to major repositioning of world power and

influence. That was fertile ground for the emergence of various forms of totalitarian governments

in the Soviet Union, Japan, Italy, and Germany, as well as other countries. Many countries had

liberal democratic governments following World War I, but dictatorship developed during the

1920s and 1930s, which destroyed democratic rights. Many historians trace the roots of World

War II to the Treaty of Versailles and other peace agreements that followed World War I

(Truman).
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Economic problems were among the fundamental causes of World War II. Germany,

Italy, and Japan considered themselves unjustly handicapped in trying to compete with other

nations for markets, raw materials, and colonies. They believed that such countries as Belgium,

France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States unfairly controlled most of the

world`s wealth and people. So, Germany, Italy, and Japan began to look for lands to conquer in

order to obtain what they considered to be their share of the world`s resources and markets

(Truman).

As millions of men enlisted in the armed services, U.S industries needed more workers to

replace them. American women filled this vacuum. By 1945, female employment outside the

home had increased by more than 50 percent, to 20 million. In the process women entered into

fields that were not typically thought of as women’s work including industrial jobs in defense

factories. To promote American women’s involvement in the effort a government campaign

featured the character of Rosie the riveter, a robust, cheerful woman in overalls who labored on

the assembly lines. This campaign, coupled with the acute labor shortage, helped change

employers attitudes. Though they sometimes had to cope with the hostility of their male

coworkers, women workers demonstrated diligence and skill. Women compromised more than a

third of workers at shipyards and aircraft plants (page, 420).

Women also served in military units during the Second World War. In 1942 the U.S army

created the women’s army corps, and a few months later, the U.S navy created the WAVES

(women accepted for voluntary emergency service). During the course of the war, more than

86,000 women volunteered for the WAVES, serving in hospitals, defense jobs, wartime

communications and intelligence operations. These organizations anticipated the women’s armed
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services integration Act in 1948, which formally allowed women to serve in the military during

both peacetime and war (page, 420).

The desegregation of the armed forces was a major civil rights victory for African

Americans. Though a number of whites in the military resisted and racism continued to exist

within the armed forces, Executive Order 9981 was the first major blow to segregation, giving

hope to African-American activists that change was possible (page, 443).

The sport of professional baseball is a good example of civil rights liberalism that took

place in the late 1940s. Jackie Robinson, a World War II veteran, made his major league debut

with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Robinson joined professional baseball at first, he knew that

his presence may generate hostility. Robinson promised not to retaliate against racist taunts that

were used against him. What Jackie Robinson had to go through was very different from

anything that professional athletes have to go through now. Fans threw debris at Robinson, some

rival players ever attacked him, and to take it even further, he was often stopped from eating with

his teammates on the road. In spite of having to deal with all of this, Robinson was amazing.

Robinson "won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and the league's Most

Valuable Player award in 1949. (Page, 444)

The Vietnam War was the longest and most unpopular war in which Americans ever

fought. And there is no reckoning the cost. The toll in suffering, sorrow, in rancorous national

turmoil can never be tabulated. No one wants ever to see America so divided again. And for

many of the more than two million American veterans of the war, the wounds of Vietnam will

never heal. The war divided a nation and cost it a generation of their children. Father and son

fought one another, citizens fought their government and hundreds of thousands of young men
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went to war. Protesting against war was not new. Every war America has ever fought had its

dissenters (Guisepi).

It is not only the right of a citizen in a free society to disagree with their government's actions; it

is a duty of all free men and women to stand up for what they believe. What seems odd today is

that what most soldiers thought they were fighting for was the right of their fellow citizens to

live in a free country and to be able to speak out against the policies of their government. The

argument was not against America or its fine young men who fought in the war. The fight was

against the policy that sent them there. The Americans who fought in Vietnam were citizen

soldiers who went thousands of miles away to fight for the freedom of other men. There can be

no more noble behavior then that. May God hold in high regard all that fought for what they

believed in regardless of the side they were on. We were then, as we are now, all Americans

(Guisepi).

The education and health care are two programs of President Johnson’s Great Society

agenda that are still with us today. The first Great Society measure, passed into law in April

1965, was the elementary and secondary school Act, which granted $1.3 billion to school

districts on the basis of how many students in that district lived in poverty; the money went to

educational equipment, textbooks and learning programs. In October 1965, congress enacted the

higher education Act, creating new funding for college education and enhancing existing

programs. The educational opportunity Act of 1968 granted young people from impoverished

backgrounds new access to higher education, particularly through the upward bound program

and various scholarships (page, 458).

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In the early 1960, millions of elderly and poor Americans lacked adequate health care.

Johnson insisted that the government remedy this situation. Congress responded by creating

Medicare which provided medical insurance for the elderly and Medicaid which helped finance

medical treatment for the poor. To combat other deficiencies of the nation’s healthcare system,

congress signed into law the child health and improvement Act, which provided prenatal and

postnatal care for pregnant women and new mother (page, 458).
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References

American Social History Project, Clark, C., Hewitt, N., Rosenzweig, R., Lichtenstein, N., Brown, J., Jaffee,

D. (2007). Who Built America? Vol. 2. 1877 to the present. (3rded.) New York: Bedford/St. Martins.

http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2012/0612_wwii/

http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/ww2/d-day.html

http://historyofrussia.org/battle-of-stalingrad-summary/

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1661.html