Images from the Arsenal of Democracy

1. Preparing for War before Pearl Harbor

p r e p a r i n g f o r w a r b e f o r e p e a r l h a r b o r 1 1 Most Americans did not view war in Europe as a threat to U.S. security despite the escalating situation abroad, including Adolf Hitler’s aggressions in Eastern Europe starting in March 1938 when he annexed Austria to Germany, the official start of World War II in September 1939 after Hitler invaded Poland, and the Nazi conquest of Holland, Belgium, and France beginning in May 1940. Many U.S. citizens believed in “Fortress America,” the notion that the oceans that separated the United States from Europe and Asia would protect America from any military threat. President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed otherwise, and began a series of efforts to rebuild the country’s weak armed forces and simultaneously develop a defense industry capable of supplying an expanded military force in time of war. The U.S. Congress and the country more generally were unwilling to wholeheartedly support rearmament before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. In late May 1940, Roosevelt resurrected the National Defense Advisory Commission (NDAC), a World War I advisory body, to launch rearmament and to build a defense industry to support an enlarged military capability. He put William S. Knudsen (1879–1948), president of the General Motors Corporation, in charge of defense manufacturing. The intense Nazi bombing of British cities starting in July 1940— known as “the Battle of Britain”—brought greater urgency to Roosevelt’s efforts. In late August 1940, Roosevelt created a 1 preparing for war before pearl harbor 1 2 c h a p t e r 1 federal agency, the Defense Plant Corporation (DPC), to build and equip new defense production facilities. With Knudsen taking the lead, the automobile industry began to move slowly toward increasing defense production. The Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the principal industry association, held their annual meeting at the WaldorfAstoria in New York City on 15 October 1941, where Knudsen called on industry leaders to produce half a billion dollars’ worth of aircraft parts and sub-assemblies. Eighty-five men met in Detroit ten days later, including representatives from the auto industry, the aircraft industry, the tool and die industry, the military services, and several executives from the NDAC. They established the Automotive Committee for Air Defense (ACAD), which aimed to match the automobile manufacturers with aircraft parts they were able and willing to make. In November, the ACAD established a display of parts needed for B-24, B-25, and B-26 bombers in a vacant auto plant in Detroit. As a result of these actions, scores of auto companies signed contracts with aircraft companies and the military services to make aircraft components, marking the start of a long and fruitful relationship among the three parties. Roosevelt delivered his inspirational “fireside chat” by radio on 29 December 1940, warning the nation of the dangers posed to the United States by the rising tide of totalitarianism in Europe and Asia. He called on America to become “the arsenal of democracy” and to materially assist our European allies in their fight to stop fascism. Roosevelt replaced the largely advisory seven-member NDAC with the Office of Production Management (OPM) on 7 January 1941, with Knudsen and Sidney Hillman serving as its co-directors. The passage of the Lend-Lease Act by Congress on 11 March 1941 drastically changed the landscape of the emerging defense industry. This law gave the president wide discretion to lend, lease, sell, or otherwise transfer military equipment and supplies to any nation whose defense was deemed vital to the safety of the United States. Lend-Lease placed enormous pressure on American industry to increase defense production. Over the course of the war, aid disbursed under Lend-Lease accounted for roughly one-third of American defense production, amounting to roughly $51 billion—with $22 billion going to Great Britain and $12 billion to the Soviet Union. More than thirty nations received aid under Lend-Lease. p r e p a r i n g f o r w a r b e f o r e p e a r l h a r b o r 3 With the start of intense bombing of British cities in July 1940, known as the “Battle of Britain,” Hitler hoped to destroy...