Thursday, December 8, 2011

WWII


I.                   Context
a.       Versailles
b.      League of Nations
c.       Empire
                                                              i.      Britain
                                                            ii.      U.S.
                                                          iii.      Japan
II.                Japanese expansion in the Pacific
a.       Manchuria
                                                              i.      Mukden incident
III.             Fascism
a.       Mussolini, 1921
                                                              i.      Nationalism and socialism
                                                            ii.      militarism and masculinity
                                                          iii.      suppression of dissent
b.      Adolf Hitler
                                                              i.      WWI and Versailles
                                                            ii.      Depression
                                                          iii.      Weimar
                                                          iv.      National Socialism
1.      glorification of the state
2.      parliamentary coalitions
a.       National Socialists
b.      Christian center-right
3.      Chancellor, 1933
4.      Reichsfurer, 1934
a.       Nuremburg Laws, 1935
b.      Kristellnacht, 1938
                                                            v.      Nazi aggression
1.      1936: Remilitarization of the Rhineland,
2.      1938:
a.       Austria
b.      Czechoslovakia (Sudentenland)
c.       Munich conference
3.      1939:
a.       Czechoslovakia (rump state)
b.      Non-aggression pact with Russia
c.       Poland
                                                                                                                                      i.      Danzig
c.       Franco
                                                              i.      Spain, 1936
IV.             Phony war, October 1939-winter 1940
V.                U.S. Neutrality Acts
a.       1935
b.      1936
c.       1937
d.      1939
VI.             Blitzkrieg, Spring 1940
a.       Mobilized infantry
b.      Luftwaffe
                                                              i.      Denmark
                                                            ii.      Belgium and the Netherlands
                                                          iii.      France
1.      Maginot Line
VII.          American Response
a.       Draft
b.      Destroyers
c.       Defense budget
                                                              i.      Lend-lease
1.      1941, undeclared naval warfare
2.      popular opposition to war
VIII.       Invasion of Russia, 1941
a.       Leningrad
b.      Moscow
c.       Sevastapol
d.      Retreat
IX.             Atlantic Charter, 1941
a.       Freedom of the seas
b.      Self-determination
                                                              i.      Roosevelt
                                                            ii.      Churchill
X.                The Pacific
a.       Tripartite Pact
b.      Indochina
c.       Oil
d.      Philippines
e.       East Indies
f.       Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
                                                              i.      American Pacific fleet crippled
                                                            ii.      2,400 U.S. sailors killed
                                                          iii.      U.S. declares war on Japan
                                                          iv.      Germany and Italy declare war on U.S.

WWII (CONTINUED)

I.                   Early losses in the Pacific, December 1941
a.       Guam Wake Island
b.      Gilbert Islands
c.       Hong Kong
d.      Burma Road (Rangoon)
e.       Philippines
II.                The turning point in the Pacific
a.       Coral Sea, May 1942
b.      Midway, June 1942
III.             The Home Front
a.       Manufacturing
                                                              i.      Conversion of manufacturing sector to war economy
                                                            ii.      Rationing
1.      gasoline
2.      tires
                                                          iii.      Office of Price Administration (OPA), 1942
                                                          iv.      Stabilization Act, 1942
b.      Conservative resurgence
c.       Women at work
d.      “Double V”
                                                              i.      Fair Employment Practices Commission
e.       Braceros
f.       Nisei
IV.             North Africa Campaign, 1942-1943
a.       India
b.      Irwin Rommel, “Desert Fox”
c.       Montgomery
d.      Patton
V.                Italian Campaign
a.       250,000 Allied troops
VI.             D-Day, June 6, 1944
a.       Normandy and Calais
b.      Atlantic wall
VII.          Island hopping
a.       Iwo Jima
b.      Guadalcanal
VIII.       Atomic warfare
     Early losses in the Pacific, December 1941
a.       Guam Wake Island
b.      Gilbert Islands
c.       Hong Kong
d.      Burma Road (Rangoon)
e.       Philippines
II.                The turning point in the Pacific
a.       Coral Sea, May 1942
b.      Midway, June 1942
III.             The Home Front
a.       Manufacturing
                                                              i.      Conversion of manufacturing sector to war economy
                                                            ii.      Rationing
1.      gasoline
2.      tires
                                                          iii.      Office of Price Administration (OPA), 1942
                                                          iv.      Stabilization Act, 1942
b.      Conservative resurgence
c.       Women at work
d.      “Double V”
                                                              i.      Fair Employment Practices Commission
e.       Braceros
f.       Nisei
IV.             North Africa Campaign, 1942-1943
a.       India
b.      Irwin Rommel, “Desert Fox”
c.       Montgomery
d.      Patton
V.                Italian Campaign
a.       250,000 Allied troops
VI.             D-Day, June 6, 1944
a.       Normandy and Calais
b.      Atlantic wall
VII.          Island hopping
a.       Iwo Jima
b.      Guadalcanal
VIII.       Atomic warfare

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Civil Rights Movement


CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Context: just as the Jim Crow South was an American aspect of global economic and racial imperialism, the U.S. civil rights movement was part of a global struggle for the liberation of colonized, marginalized and segregated peoples. As W. E. B. DuBois said in 1901, “The color line belts the word.”


I. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896: the legal foundation for American apartheid.
II. Smith v. Albright
III. Harry Truman
IV. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma.
V. 1950, Swett v. Painter
VI. 1954, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education

VII. Eisenhower
VIII. 1955, Emmett Till
IX., 1955 Montgomery bus boycott
            A. Rosa Parks
            B. Martin Luther King
                        1. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
                        2.. Southern Christian Leadership Conference
            C. 1956, SCOTUS rules segregated buses unconstitutional
X. Little Rock High School
            A. Orville Faubus
            B. Jim Johnson
            C. Melba Patillo
            D. Eisenhower and 101st Airborn
XI. Peripheral South (Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte, Houston)
XII. 1960, Sit-ins
            A. Greensboro, N.C. Woolworth’s
XIII. Freedom riders
            A. 1946 court ruling on interstate travel
            B. May 1961, riders board buses in Washington, D.C.
                        1. Anniston, Alabama
                        2. Birmingham


XIV. Birmingham campaign
            A. MLK
            B. BullConnor
            C. George Wallace
            D. John F. Kennedy

XV. Summer 1963, “I have a dream . . . “
XVI. September 1963, 16th St. Baptist Church
XVII. November 1963, JFK assassinated
            A. Lyndon Baines Johnson
            B. Selma march
                        1. “Judgment at Nuremburg”
            C. 1964, Civil Rights Act
            D. 1965, Voting Rights Act
XVIII. Losing the South
            George Wallace, 1972
                       
           

           
           
 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Cold War




            COLD WAR

Yalta, February 4-11, 1945

       Big three
       Agree to a United Nations
       Soviets make clear that they will not leave Eastern Europe
       Germany divided into zones of occupation.
       Russia agrees to attack Japan.
       Establishes initial lines of cold war.

Germany surrenders, 1945

       Soviets take Berlin May 2
       Germany surrenders unconditionally May 7
       Roosevelt died April 12

A post-colonial moment


       British, French, German, Japanese and Italian empires are destroyed or weakened.
       U.S. and Soviet Union spheres of influence

National Security Act, 1947

       National Military Establishment
      Secretary of Defense
       Army
       Navy
       Air force
      Joint chiefs of staff made permanent
      CIA


Containment

       Long telegram, George Kennan, 1947
      Soviet Unions seeks to expand communism wherever it can
      U.S. must oppose communism wherever it can.

Marshall Plan, 1948-1951

       George C. Marshall, Secretary of State
      $13 billion in European reconstruction

Berlin airlift

       1948, Allied zones of occupation unified and become functional government
       Soviet union, in response to Marshall Plan and unification of Allied zones, blockaded West Berlin.
       U.S. responds with massive airlift.
       Soviet lift blockade after 10 months.
       1955, West Germany gained full sovereignty.

Communism in South Asia

       Chinese civil war won by communists in 1949.
       Communist principle of economic self-sufficiency
      Opposition to capitalist imperialism.
       1950, U.S. recognize French-supported emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam.
      Seeking friendly regime in Southeast Asia

Korea

       1945, Japanese withdraw from Korea
       1945, Soviet Union occupied North Korea (to 38th parallel)
       Americans occupy South Korea up to 38th parallel
       June 25, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea
       Truman responds with force under the auspices of the UN rather than asking for a declaration of war

Korean conflict

       Un forces pushed to Puson
       MacArthur effects landing at Inchon while UN forces break out of Puson.
       Truman agrees with MacArthur to unify Korea, and UN troops push as far as the Yalu River
       Chinese “human wave” assault (260,000 soldiers) push UN forces below 38th parallel
       1953 truce divided Korea at the 38th parallel

Consequences of Korea

       Precedent of large-scale military conflict without congressional declaration of war.
       Truman, believing the Korean conflict was part of a global communist offensive, increased assistance to the French in Vietnam (Military Assistance Advisory Group).

Nationalism in Indochina       

       British Indochina independent
      India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia
       French retain Indochina (as do Dutch)
      Attempt to retake area abandoned by Japanese and held by local nationalists
      1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaims Democratic Republic of Vietnam with capital in Hanoi (North Vietnam).
       Received aid from U.S. against Japanese

First Indochina War

       1946, French recognize DRV as “free state” within French empire
       1949, French reverse themselves and reinstate emperor Bao Dai
       1949, communist china recognizes DRV
       1949, U.S. recognizes Bao Dai government

Dien Bien Phu

       DRV has support from China and Soviet Union
       Bao Dai from France and U.S.
       French are defeated at Dien Bien Phu

Geneva Accords

       Laos and Cambodia neutral
       Vietnam divided at 17th parallel.
       Elections in 1956

National Liberation Front

       premier Ngo Dinh Diem at U.S. request
      Supposed to institute Democratic reforms but doesn’t.
       Gets CIA and military aid
       Diem ousts Bao Dai and refuses to hold elections in 1956
       South Vietnamese guerillas (viet cong) begin resistance to Diem government.

Kennedy years

       U.S. military advisors increased from 2,000 to 16,000
       Oppressive Diem government creates more opposition in South Vietnam
       North Vietnam sends supplies to Viet Cong through Ho Chi Minh trail
       1963, Diem killed in coup led by generals.

Tonkin Gulf

       Lyndon Johnson did not believe Vietnam was worth fighting for or winnable, but he believed that perceived weakness in Vietnam would open his administration to criticism from hawks.
       Two American destroyers observing U.S. sponsored attack in North Vietnam.
      Johnson claimed that the destroyers were attacked.
      Later admitted the claim was probably bogus.
      Johnson interpreted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution as authorization to use unlimited military force in Vietnam.

U.S. combat forces arrive

       Johnson orders “Rolling Thunder” bombing of North Korea
       Airbase has to be protected by U.S. troops.
       Mission expands to “search and destroy” patrols.
       1965: 184,000 U.S. troops
       1966: 385,000
       1969: 542,000


Nixon in Vietnam

       Vietnamization
       Growing opposition at home.
       Gradual drawdown
       Expanded bombing
       Last soldiers evacuated in 1973