American History

American History

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American History

Question 1

In his foremost inaugural address, U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt made some remarks that were aimed to assess the damage that had been done by Great Depression on the Americans. In his speech, he acknowledged that he understands the withered leaves of the industrial business that had been lying on every side, farmers lacking markets for their products the great unemployment rate that was facing the Americans (Purcell, 2014). With this acknowledgment, he promised led the charge to drastically alter the very fabric of American society by implementing previously unheard of actions on the part of the federal government.  While he may have implemented a considerable number of actions that improved the economic stability of the Americans, the New Deal was outstanding.

Just like most other actions that were established by the President Franklin D. Roosevelt to curb impacts of Great Depressions on the American, the New Deal established optimism and confidence to the nationals. In a certain sense, the New Deal introduced economic and social reforms to the Americans. Besides, it established the peak of a long-standing trend towards the abandonment of capitalism.What  was  even more  critical about  the New Deal  was  the   haste with which the  program was able to accomplish  what  had already crippled the  American economy.

Primarily, Roosevelt’s New Deal focused on three main areas including relief, recovery, and reforms. Relief comprised of giving food and jobs to people who were adversely affected by the Great Depression. A practical example of relief programs was the National Pension System (Purcell, 2014). Essentially, this was programs that were to pay out old age pension.Roosevelt believed that old people had difficult times to manage their lives at an old age primarily because the majorities were socially and economically affected by the Great Depression.

As directed by Roosevelt,  recovery involved preservation of the major economic sectors and industries such as housing, banking, and agriculture among others.For instance, as far as food was concerned, Roosevelt established Agricultural  Price Supports which was a program that was aimed to pay farmers to increase their crop production for domestic use (Purcell, 2014). Through some of these programs, it was possible to feed the growing population.  

In relation to reforms, he made various changes to the laws to regulate the economy to prevent any future Depressions. New government agencies were established, and the government became much bigger. These new agencies governed various aspects of the Americans lives.

The increasing pressure of the Great Depression also led Roosevelt to revise the Social Security Act (Purcell, 2014).  According to the new law, retired workers of 65 years old and above received a continuing income. Other beneficiaries of this law were the disabled and the unemployed who were also supposed to get some income. The funding of this program was in great part from government collections through taxes, licenses, and other government revenues.  

In summary, most economic sectors had started to recover under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal. The United States economy grew more than any other presidential era before. In 1932 to 1940, various social and economic developments can be pointed and credited to Franklin Roosevelt administration. For instance, more than 32 new government agencies were forced in a span of the eight years Franklin was leading. With this understanding, there is no doubt concluding that the New Deal achieved its ambitious goals

Question 2

Having been heavily hit by the great depression, the Americans were not willing to get involved in any other activity that would cripple its economy.   To control the impact of the war, United States had been involved indirectly through Lend-Lease and other programs to assist the other countries they believed would be beneficial. However, this neutrality was abruptly eliminated when the Japanese air squadrons made an attack on the Pearl Harbor on 12/07/1941.  Following the attack, the then President   Franklin Delano Roosevelt made it official America will retaliate the Japanese action. Mainly, this retaliation got America involved in the World War II (Fremon, 1997).  The United States involvement in the WWII accelerated even further on December 11, 1941, when the German declared war on the Americans.

By keeping his Constitutional authority as commanded by Article II, Section 2 "The president shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”, President Roosevelt led the Americans in war (Fremon, 1997). His first action was to build a close partnership with Winston Churchill, the then British Prime Minister. Subsequently, he joined a close collaboration with Joseph Stalin, the then Soviet premier (Fremon, 1997).  President   Franklin Delano Roosevelt also went further to supply equipment and weapons worth $50 billion to the Soviets, British and other Allies who were willing to fight the Japanese and Germans. In other words, Americans transformed the war into an economic war.  Every party was capitalizing on building in large-scale tanks, aircrafts, weapons and military transport among others. In addition to firearms, all men who were between the age of 20 and 40 were recruited into the military to increase the size of the military.

Fundamentally, the first six months that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor was preparation period. While the United States was doing this, Japan, on the other hand, was improving its arsenal. Besides, it was expanding its allies. By then, it had managed to get allies from Philippine, Sumatra, Hong Kong, Java, Burma, and Singapore. On the other hand, Germany was also expanding into various parts of Europe. For instance, they started to expand into regions they had previously owned such as Prussia and Austria (Fremon, 1997). Although it was still hesitant, France was also willing to ally Germany arranging lend-lease programs.

The actual attack attacks started in June 1942 when the United States troops attacked the Japanese in Hawaii. Necessarily, this was the turning point of the war as the U.S later attacked the Guadalcanal located in the Solomon Islands (Fremon, 1997). Within a short period, the whole Pacific Island was fully under the Americans.

Another turning point happened in late 1944 when the American attacked Japan by launching a massive airborne on Japan soil. These attacks were followed by the 6/8/ 1945 atomic bomb which made the massive loss of lives and destruction of properties in two of the main Japanese towns, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  While the  United Kingdom may have consented this attack, it is believed has been one of the most devastating bomb attacks in the history of humanity. The attack left over 120, 000 people dead, the majority of whom were innocent civilians (Fremon, 1997). The intensity of the attack led to the surrender of the Japanese and consequently the end of the WWII.