Six Months Hitlers Forces example essay topic

World War II began to take shape when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on January 30, 1930. Soon after, the German Parliament suspended the constitution making Hitler Fuhrer and dictator. Hitler was angered by the Treaty of Versailles and he blamed Germany defeat on the Communists and the Jews. In 1934, Hitler announced a program of rearmament that violated the Treaty of Versailles.

At the same time Mussolini was building a powerful army in Italy and threatened to invade Ethiopia. In may 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and quickly overwhelmed their weak defenses. This action made Congress pass a Neutrality Act that authorized the president to stop all arms shipments to nations at war. In 1936, Mussolini joined forces with Hitler to form the Rome-Berlin Axis. During the buildup of the war the United States had the intention to stay neutral. Roosevelt stated, We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war.

Isolation policies became more difficult when Franco started a civil war in Spain with the aid a Germany and Italy. Over 3000 Americans joined the loyalist cause and fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to oppose fascism in Spain. As a show of neutrality, the U.S. passed another Neutrality Act making it illegal for American citizens to travel on ships of countries at war. This act also made nonmilitary items available to other nations on a cash and carry basis only. In 1936, Hitler seized the previously demilitarized zone of the Rhineland and in 1938 he annexed Austria. Six months later he demanded the Sudetland which Britain and France granted him in return for an agreement that Germany make no more territorial advances.

Within six months Hitlers forces took Czechoslovakia. August 23, 1939 brought a Nazi-Soviet pact. One week later Hitler attacked Poland officially beginning World War II. Britain and France came to Poland's defense. Also in 1939, Albert Einstein warned Roosevelt that German scientists were building an atomic bomb. Roosevelt authorized the establishment of the Manhattan Project.

The German blitzkrieg rushed through Europe overwhelming Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Soon after the Germans invaded France which led to the French surrender in June of 1940. Meanwhile the U.S. approved shipments of 50 old American destroyers to Britain in return for the right to establish naval bases in British territory. In 1940, Roosevelt signed measures authorizing a massive military build-up.

In order to remain neutral, the U.S. organized the lend-lease act which allowed for the borrowing of military good on the condition that they be returned after the war. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union which forced Hitler to fight wars on two fronts and allowed the U.S. to extend the lend-lease act to the Soviets. On December 7, 1941, Japan launched an attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor. The surprise attack disabled 19 warships and 150 planes.

But worst of all it killed 2,335 soldiers and 68 civilians. Three days later the United States officially declared war against the axis powers. For months the war waged on until President Truman used the atomic bomb produced by the Manhattan Project to severely cripple Japan. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

160,000 civilians were killed or severely wounded but Japan still refused to surrender. So on August 8, another bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered five days later on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri and World War II was officially over. Was Truman justified in dropping the bomb I have no choice but to say yes. Although I wish it could have been done any other way, it couldnt. At that time and that place, the only way to end the war was to show the rest of the world that the U.S. would not stand for anymore bloodshed and was prepared to use force to save future lives..