US Supplies in WWII
Uploaded by jilldion on Sep 14, 1999
Some people say that the most devastating war in the history of the world has been World War II. First of all, what is a war? Webster's Dictionary says that the definition of war is an armed contest between states or nations any contest or strife, such as a war of words. As one can see, World War II was a contest between states or nations. It began with a simple little conflict in Europe in 1939. This conflict involved Germany and an Anglo-French coalition but eventually widened to include most of the nations of the world. It ended in 1945, leaving a new world order dominated by the United States and the USSR. As mentioned before, World War II has been the most devastating war humans have ever been involved with. The question of why can be answered in the three reasons listed below. First is that it involved the commitment of nations' entire human and economic resources. Second is the blurring of distinction between combatant and noncombatant, and third is the expansion of the battlefield to include all of the enemy's territory. The involvement of nations' entire human and economic resources is the first and most important reason. This ties into the end of the war with the United States and the USSR being world powers. This could have never happened if the United States entire human and economic resources weren't involved in the war and if most of the United States resources had not went to help the USSR. The United States at the time of the war was almost a world power. It was a strong country that attempted to stay out of the war as long as possible but still help nations in need. The United States did not fight the war in Europe for a few years but it began fighting it at home. More than 60 million Americans helped the war effort by working in factories and farms. The War Production Board was created to oversee all of this production. Chairman of the War Production Board, Donald Nelson remarked, "The American war-production job was probably the greatest achievement of all time. It makes the seven wonders of the ancient world look like the doodlings of a small boy on a rainy Saturday afternoon." No doubt about it, war production was a great achievement. Six million women were added to the labor force. Old...