1) Why did FDR want to pack the supreme court? Did it work? Do you think this was constitutionally correct? He wanted to pack the Supreme Court because all of the justices in there were aging republicans who were against the New Deal. It did not work because the bill was defeated. I don't think this was constitutionally correct because it upsets the system of checks and balances which is already precarious.
2) What is a theory about Amelia Earhart's death? Why was she important? She was taken down in foreign airspace and murdered because she saw too much. She was the first real woman symbol of the time. She was the first to attempt a journey of her kind, and she failed.
3) What was Lend-Lease? Lend-Lease was the idea that America would "lend" tanks, warplanes, ships and other wartime supplies to countries they couldn't officially ally with because we were 'neutral'/ These suplies would be "returned in kind" after the war.
4) Discuss the BATTLE OF BRITAIN. It was the first aerial attack on England by the German air force. This began the devastating air war over England. There were four months of German bombers pounding Longon and other strategic areas with bombs and other weaponry. There were heavy civilian and military losses to the British, but their air defense destroyed 1700 German planes. Because of their failure to control British airspace, the Nazis decided not to launch an invasion across the Channel.
5) What were some of the reasons isolationists wanted to stay out of the war? They were still feeling the effects of the Depression and memories of WWI, so they didn't think WWII would be worth it. They didn't want to get into other people's affairs at the possible loss of so many American lives.
6) What was the traditional definition of Fascism? Who were the Fascists of Europe in the 30s? It was traditionally defined as a military disctatorshop built on racist and powerfully nationalistic foundations. The fascists were Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and Franco.
7) Who were the Axis Powers? Japan, Italy, and Germany.
8) In what year and month did Japan invade Peking? July, 1937.
9) What were the aggressive actions of Germany and Italy before the start of WWII? Germany invaded Austria and took it over, Germany took Poland, they signed a neutrality pact with Russia, and they annexed Czechoslovakia. Italy overthrew the government that it had and invaded Albania, Greece, and Ethiopia.
10) What are the two views of Pearl Harbor? One is that we knew about it, yet underestimated the power of the Japanese soldiers and overestimated the power of our army. Another is that Roosevelt knew everything about the attack but let it happen to have an excuse to enter the war.
11) What does Japan cite as reasons to go to war? After the Japanese invaded French Indochina, FDR froze Japan's assets in the US which halted trade between the countries, and cut off Japan's oil supply.
12) What is the date of Pearl Harbor? December 7th, 1941.
13) What is the date of D-Day? June 6th, 1944.
14) What was the cost of World War II? More than 38 million lives were lost in WWII, both military and civilian. It was also the catalyst for the Cold War.
15) What was the Yalta Conference? It was a meeting amongst Churchill, FDR, and Stalin in 1945. They were supposed to "mop-up". There were decisions made about what would happen after the war.
16) What did Stalin demand in return for his agreement to enter the war against Japan? He demanded that the Soviets gain control of Manchuria and Mongolia, occupation in Korea, a vote in the UN, and were ceded half og Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands.
17) What is FDR's legacy? He established many programs to help people during the First Hundred Days. He also tried to eradicate the problems of the Depression, which didn't quite get done. He was a person who tried to please everybody, but it didn't really work out. His biggest legacy is the atom bomb, a program that he started. That is a doupleplusungood thing to have done.
18) Did the U.S. have to drop Atomic weapons on Japan? List the various PROs and CONs to this argument. The pros, advocating the dropping of the bomb, thought that there was no other way to end the war. They believed that if we invaded Japan we would surely be slaughtered because of the Japanese style of war, the idea that Japanese people would go to any length to die with honor and kill the enemy. However, they believed that if we did not invade Japan, they would surely invade us. They thought that dropping the bomb was our last option, it was a final resort of sorts. On the con side, there are some theories out there. One is that Truman knew that the Japanese was about to surrender, so there was the option not to drop the bomb at all. Another con, of course, is the sheer amount of lives that were lost and the destruction that was caused. Both sides agree that the people who made the bomb and those who dropped it had no idea of the power it had. I don't know exactly what I believe, I just know that I think the ruthless slaughter of innocent civilians is wrong.
19) How did the Cold War start? The build up of nuclear weapons on both the American side and the Soviet side was the major catalyst for the Cold War. It was also the result of the Yalta Conference, where Stalin felt he had the upper hand over FDR (and, indeed, he did). There was an inside man on the Manhattan Project who was reporting back to Stalin, leading Stalin to know quite possibly more than FDR and Truman. It was a nuclear arms race.
