Fear of Communism and McCarthyism

Americans, at the time after WWII, were afraid of communism because it stood against everything that America believed in, capitalism. This was where McCarthyism started to set in. There were less than 1% communists in America but there were spies in America who were communists and helped the Soviets to steal the atomic bomb secrets. After that ordeal, Americans began to blame communists even more, even though they were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. This was the whole idea of McCarthyism, to put forth blame with opinions and rumors being spread. They started to question anyone who was suspected of being a communist. They questioned those people and those who didn’t reply were put in jail alone while those who answered yes, were put in jail and their relatives and anyone they knew also went along with the person. The government exploited the fear that people had of Communists and used it against their political opponents. Because of this, people started avoiding communists altogether, started suspecting each other, FBI tailed people who they suspected were communists and harassed them, and etc. McCarthy made up the number of those people who he “suspected” of being a communist, which was basically anyone who tried to go against him. But when officials asked for that very list, McCarthy couldn’t provide that list and outright blames them for being communist when they weren’t. He was considered a man of recklessness fueled by alcoholism. He was stripped of his Chairmanship and taken away his Senator position in the government at the time. He died in 1957, in shame as well.

D-day 2/12/18

Women in the Early Mao Years

When Mao, the new leader of communist China, first began his rule, many were happy for the relief from fighting. Women were especially excited to see the new laws that were being put into place that would improve their quality of life.

Women in the beginning of the Mao Years were given new rights and were seen as equals to men in the eyes of the law for the first time. Arranged marriages dwindled into obscurity so women could finally marry for love. Women and girls were now able to be more independent of the men in their lives. The traditional structure of women having to obey their fathers, then their husbands, then their sons was all but irradiated as far as the law was concerned.

Women were given the right to divorce their husbands and were finally able to work out of the home and pursue careers of their own. They could become nurses, labor workers, any number of things. This also opened up the door for women to get a better education and even educate others themselves as teachers.

While the communist party still controlled some aspects of people's lives, it was no doubt a major improvement for many women in China.

Operation Mincemeat and its Significance

In April of 1943, the Nazis found a corpse floating in southern Spain. The man had paperwork identifying him as Major William Martin of the Royal Marines, and a briefcase was found attached to his dead body. Inside of the case, the Nazis found war plans describing a future attack where the Allied forces would cross the Mediterranean and attack Greece, which at the time was occupied by Nazi Germany. As a result, Hitler sent many troops from France to Greece, fearing a large invasion. However, the identification and war plans were fake, an intentional trick by the British to catch the German army by surprise. Instead of attacking Greece, almost 200,000 Allies invaded Sicily. This was significant in the downfall of Italian dictator Mussolini. Gaining control of Italy helped to swing the war in Europe to the Allies' favor. How would the war have been different if Operation Mincemeat never took place?

Aftermath of WWII: Who Is the Real Victim? (Adrienne Mitchel)

           Perhaps the most intriguing piece of knowledge I’ve learned related to the topic of World War II was presented in one of our online supplemental readings, hidden among the seemingly endless debate regarding if the United States should or shouldn’t have used the atomic bomb.

In a small section titled “Who Were the Victims,” author Bryan McNulty quotes Ohio University Professor of History Donald Jordan, who says, “Until quite recently, there has been very little in the national school system and national textbooks in Japan about the Japanese as aggressors, but a lot of information about what happened in the dropping of the atomic bombs. There is a younger generation that knows very little about the Rape of Nanjing or the ‘comfort women’ issue, in which thousands of women in occupied countries were forced to become sex slaves for Japanese troops.”

I’ve always had an interest in the topic of censorship, and so the fact that Japanese history has enforced the idea in so many citizen’s minds that the Japanese are the victims and America is the enemy is fascinating. It is amazing that the Japanese managed to rewrite history so that Japanese troops didn’t kill 300,000 men, women, and children by hand in the Rape of Nanjing and the Japanese military didn’t systematically abuse and kill prisoners of war and slave laborers from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, but the United States conducted acts of unparalleled cruelness when they dropped two atomic bombs.

But the Japanese aren’t the only ones who claim they are the true victims. Because of the Rape of Nanjing and other horrors the Japanese forced upon other parts of Asia, both China and Korea believe they are the victims and the Japanese are the enemies. To this day, my grandparents won’t buy Japanese products because of what the Japanese did to their homeland of China.

So it appears as if everyone is playing the victim card. Or are they? It seems as if the one exception to that is Germany. Unlike the Japanese, the Germans admit to the crimes committed in their history and instead of covering the gruesome truth up, study their true past to ensure it will never happen again.

So who is the real victim? Is it Japan? China? Germany? Or someone else?

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps: Digging Deeper (Adrienne Mitchel)

     The textbook briefly touches on Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), but doesn’t go into much depth. I decided to research more about the WAAC and share with you some of my findings:

     In 1941, Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers informed the Army’s Chief of Staff General George C. Marshal that she planned on introducing a bill to create an Army women’s corps, which would differ from the existing Army Nurse Corps. Rogers’ motivation for the creation of an Army women’s corps was that during World War II when female civilians had worked overseas with the Army under contract and as volunteers, they were given no benefit of official status. This meant they had to obtain their own food and shelter, were given no legal protection or medical care, and when they returned home, they weren’t given disability benefits or pensions. Therefore, Rogers’ ultimate goal was to give women serving in World War II the same legal protection and benefits as their male counterparts.

     In May 1941, Rogers introduced her bill in Congress, yet only until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December did her bill receive serious consideration. The final bill established the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. This bill made it so the Army would provide up to 150,000 enlisted women, called auxiliaries, with food, uniforms, living quarters, pay, and medical care. Although women officers wouldn’t be allowed to command men, the director of WAAC was assigned the rank of major and the WAAC first, second, and third officers served as the equivalents of captains and lieutenants. However, these officers received less pay than their male counterparts of similar rank, and auxiliaries were not given overseas pay, government life insurance, veterans medical coverage, death benefits, or prisoner of war protection.

     Even still, over 35,000 women from all over the United States applied for less than a thousand anticipated positions. In order to apply, women had to be between ages 21 and 45, at least five feet tall, and weigh 100 pound or more. The average officer candidate was 25 years old and attended college. One out of every five women had enlisted because they wanted to end the war as quick as possible in order to bring a male member of their family home faster.

     The creation of WAAC was just the beginning for incorporating women into the military. Currently there are more than 200,000 women serving in active-duty military, and it is estimated that by 2020, 11% of the total veteran population will be women.

Hitler's Demise

In 1945 Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. Hitler decided to remain in his bunker on the last siege of the war. He was warned by officers that the Russians were one day away, and they urged him to escape to Berchtesgaden. Instead, Hitler decided to stay and take his own life. He and his wife, whom he married two days prior to their suicide,  took cyanide pills that were tested on his dog and her pups. Just to ensure he would die Hitler also shot himself in the head with his pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors and later recovered by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. But why would Hitler commit suicide instead of escape? It was clear by 1943 that the allies were going to win. Many theorists believe that Hitler and his wife did in fact escape and lived out their lives with their children in South America. The most reasonable explanation is because of the Nazi principle that death was better than dishonor. Hitler failed the German people and was close to defeat. He couldn't live a life with so much dishonor. He lived out his days just married and was able to say his farewells.