UNIT III

THE GREAT DEPRESSION, A NEW DEAL, AND WAR

Behavioral Objectives (Test Items)

Here are the specific tasks you will be called upon to perform successfully on the Unit III Exam. The information required for mastery of the reading objectives is contained in Chapters 26-28 of America: Past and Present. The information required for mastery of the lecture objectives is contained in the classroom lectures for this unit - "The Crash and Early Depression," "The New Deal or Radical Change," and "The Strange Alliance and the Onset of the Cold War."

READING OBJECTIVES

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal

Identify and explain the various aspects of the "Great Bull Market" of the 1920s in the United States.

Identify and describe the various causes of the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Characterize in general the attempts of President Herbert Hoover to end the Great Depression and identify specific actions that he initiated to halt the economic collapse and/or relieve suffering and those he refused to take.

Evaluate the effectiveness of Hoover's program to end the depression.

Describe how Franklin Roosevelt's personality and the Depression environment united a previously divided Democratic party and led to Roosevelt's victory in 1932.

Identify the objective, method, and operation of each of the major programs of the New Deal. (In addition to textual descriptions, see chart on page 670)

Identify and describe the criticisms which the Liberty League and the Supreme Court leveled against FDR and the New Deal.

Be familiar with how the New Deal effected organized labor, women, and racial minority groups.

Identify the various elements of the "Roosevelt Coalition" which brought about the political realignment of 1934-36.

Identify the method and evaluate the effectiveness of FDR's "court packing" scheme as well as the outcome of the fight with the Supreme Court.

Identify and describe each of the following and recognize how each helped bring an end to the New Deal: (a) the normal conservatism of Southern Democrats, (b) the Supreme Court fight, (c) emergence of a conservative congressional coalition, (d) the failure of FDR's attempted "purge" of the Democratic party in 1938, (e) the recession of 1937-38.

Identify and recognize the historical significance of each of the following: (a) margin buying, (b) breadlines (food handouts), (c) the "dole" (welfare payments to the unemployed and needy), (d) the Bonus Army, (e) "bank runs" and failures, (f) the Hundred Days, (g) the Dust Bowl, (h) sit down strikes
 
 

"America and the World, 1921-1945"

Identify each of the following and recognize how each represented "a retreat from responsibility" in the field of foreign affairs for the United States during the 1920s and 1930s: (a) our refusal to join the League of Nations or cooperate effectively with it on measures of "collective security", (b) our refusal to cut exports to Europe while continuing to demand full repayment of World War I debts, (c) the Kellogg-Briand Treaty, (d) "moral sanctions" or "quarantines".

Be familiar with the adjustment of American policies in the western hemisphere that reflected a "good neighbor policy".

Identify the causes of American isolationism during the 1930s.

Identify the Nye Committee findings and neutrality legislation which grew out of the congressional hearings and demonstrate how President Roosevelt's reaction was a recognition of isolationist strength.

Identify the America First Committee and the "Fortress America" concept and the White Committee being sure to describe their respective positions on how the United States could best protect itself and yet avoid being drawn into World War II.

Discuss in detail how the Roosevelt administration responded to the outbreak of World War II by aiding the Allies from September, 1939 to December, 1941 being sure to identify and recognize the historical significance of each of the following: (a) Neutrality Act of 1939, (b) Rearmament and conscription (1940), (c) Destroyers-for-Bases Deal (1940), (d) Lend-Lease Act (1941), (e) Convoying (1941), (f) Atlantic Charter and Declaration of the United Nations (1941) (p. 685), (g) "Shoot On Sight" Policy (1941), (h) the Embargo against Japan (1940-41), (I) the freezing of Japanese assets (1941).

Describe fully the effect of World War II upon the depressed economic conditions which had plagued the United States since 1929 as well as the economic problems caused by the war.

Describe the impact of the war on racial minorities, women, and organized labor.

Identify and recognize the historical significance of each of the following: (a) Montevideo Pledge (p. 677), (b) Munich Conference and Agreement, (c) the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, (d) the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, (e) Pearl Harbor, (f) United Nations, (g) Japanese relocation program, (h) Project Manhattan.
 
 

The Onset of the Cold War

Identify the Soviet Union's overriding security goal in postwar Europe as well as how the United States reacted to this goal.

Trace the rise of postwar U.S.-Soviet hostility through the issues of postwar control of Europe, economic assistance, and atomic weapons being sure to identify specific actions and attitudes of both nations.

Identify and describe in detail both the procedures and effectiveness of each of the following in the containment of a perceived soviet threat: (a) the Truman Doctrine, (b) the Marshall Plan, (c) the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Discuss the Berlin Crisis being sure to identify its causes, the American reaction, and the final outcome.

Be familiar with Mao Tse-tung's victory over Chiang Kai-shek being sure to identify the American reaction, both political and governmental.

Identify the main objective of the United States and the United Nations in the Korean conflict at the three different stages of the war: (a) onset of the war, (b) after the Inchon landing success, (c) after the Chinese intervention.

Identify the fundamental issues of conflict between President Truman and General Douglas MacArthur.

Be familiar with President Trumanís upset reelection victory in 1948 and the defections from the Democratic party which made his triumph so unlikely.

Describe the development of the Second Red Scare during the Truman administration being sure to identify each of the following: (a) House Un-American Activities Committee, (b) the Hiss Case, (c) Truman's Loyalty Program, (d) the "loss of China", (e) the Rosenberg Case.

Describe "McCarthyism" being sure to identify and evaluate its objectives, methods, productiveness, and effect upon the mood of the country.

Describe in detail the Eisenhower/Dulles foreign policy approach to the Cold War being sure to identify such particulars as containment, a "new look" in military defense, direct massive nuclear retaliation, brinksmanship, etc.

Identify and describe the international crises of the Eisenhower administration and evaluate the presidentís management of these crises.

Identify and describe the historical significance of each of the following: (a) Baruch Plan, (b) Central Intelligence Agency, (c) the decision to develop the H-Bomb, (d) Taft-Hartley Act, (e) Dixiecrats, (f) K1C2, (g) Army-McCarthy Hearings, (h) Dien Bien Phu, (i) the Geneva Accords ending the French war in Vietnam and the American reaction, (j) C.I.A. covert activity in Iran and Guatemala, (k) the U-2 Incident.
 
 

LECTURE OBJECTIVES

"The Crash and Early Depression"

Identify the reasons for the stock market crash in October, 1929 according to John Kenneth Galbraith and be familiar with the depth of the crash and the ensuing depression.

Identify and describe in detail the effects of the Great Depression in each of the following areas: (a) speculative investments and margin buyers, (b) stock prices, (c) bank solvency and the security of bank deposits, (d) production levels of American industry, (e) unemployment and underemployment, (f) wages, (g) prices, (h) home and farm mortgage foreclosures, (I) tax revenue for various levels of government.
 
 

"The New Deal or Radical Change"

Identify the objective, method, and operation of each of the following components of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal program: (a) the "bank holiday" and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, (b) Civilian Conservation Corps, (c) National Recovery Administration, (d) Public Works Administration, (e) Agricultural Adjustment Act, (f) Federal Emergency Relief Act, (g) Works Progress Administration, (h) Wagner Labor Relations Act, (I) Public Utilities Holding Co. Act, (j) Social Security Act.

Identify and describe the criticisms which each of the following individuals leveled against FDR and the New Deal as well as the specific alternatives they proposed: (a) Huey Long and the "Share Our Wealth" program, (b) Father Charles Coughlin, (c) Dr. Francis Townsend and the "Townsend Plan".

Be familiar with extremist solutions used outside the United States to end the Great Depression.

Evaluate in detail the New Deal's effectiveness in each of the following areas: (a) ending the Great Depression, (b) relieving the suffering of the Great Depression by improving economic conditions and restoring hope, (c) taking the government in bold new directions by active and pragmatic experimentation, (d) steering the country through the economic collapse without letting the country fall to either the extreme left or right.
 
 

"The Strange Alliance and the Onset of the Cold War"

Identify and describe the strained relations from 1917 to 1941 between the United States and the Soviet Union being sure to point out the events, attitudes, and policies which shaped the relationship.

Identify the need for the "Strange Alliance" or the "Alliance of Necessity" between the United States and the Soviet Union by 1942.

Identify and describe the strained relationship between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union during World War II being sure to address each of the following: (a) differences in strategy on how to fight the war, (b) the delay of the second front - the invasion of France, (c) the exclusion of the Soviet Union from Project Manhattan, (d) suspicions on both sides about each other's postwar intentions.

Contrast the broad peace and security goals of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union as the war came to an end.

Show how the actions of the United States/Great Britain and the Soviet Union and the Yalta Conference reflected the military situation in Europe as the war drew to a close and represented the dissolution of the wartime alliance of necessity.

Describe in detail the Truman administration's view of the Soviet Union and how the United States responded to it being sure to identify such particulars as the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, the outbreak of civil war in Greece and Turkey, the Truman Doctrine, the policy of "containment", and Soviet countermeasures.