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| | By the picture was rapidly changing in Europe in 1940, as World War II broke out there. President Roosevelt began to prepare a reluctant nation for war. He signed into law the Selective Training & Service Act, which was the first | | By the picture was rapidly changing in Europe in 1940, as World War II broke out there. President Roosevelt began to prepare a reluctant nation for war. He signed into law the Selective Training & Service Act, which was the first |
| | adoption of peacetime conscription (the "draft"). Previously the only uses of the draft were done during war, as in the Civil War and World War I. | | adoption of peacetime conscription (the "draft"). Previously the only uses of the draft were done during war, as in the Civil War and World War I. |
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| | + | FDR had served two full terms by 1940, and every president before him (beginning with George Washington) voluntarily retired. But FDR refused to step down, and ran again for an unprecedented third term. With the support of the media, he won again. In 1944, despite being having a terminal illness, he ran and won a fourth term and then died shortly after inauguration. |
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| | In 1941, President Roosevelt gave his annual speech to Congress in which he advocated the "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, worship, from want (e.g., from hunger), and from fear. But FDR privately wanted the United States to enter into World War II to protect Britain against Germany. Britain had been badly weakened by decades of socialism, declining values, and belief in evolution. Britain was no match for the larger and much stronger Germany, and Britain needed America to save it. At one point in late 1941 Churchill even stayed for several weeks at the White House while Britain was being bombed by Germany. | | In 1941, President Roosevelt gave his annual speech to Congress in which he advocated the "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, worship, from want (e.g., from hunger), and from fear. But FDR privately wanted the United States to enter into World War II to protect Britain against Germany. Britain had been badly weakened by decades of socialism, declining values, and belief in evolution. Britain was no match for the larger and much stronger Germany, and Britain needed America to save it. At one point in late 1941 Churchill even stayed for several weeks at the White House while Britain was being bombed by Germany. |
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| | On June 6, 1944, the Allies forces led by the American soldiers landed at Normandy, France, to retake mainland Europe from the Germans. Called the "longest day," it was the largest land invasion in the history of the world. It caught the Germans, already weakened by Patton, off guard. | | On June 6, 1944, the Allies forces led by the American soldiers landed at Normandy, France, to retake mainland Europe from the Germans. Called the "longest day," it was the largest land invasion in the history of the world. It caught the Germans, already weakened by Patton, off guard. |
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| − | The worst fight was at the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans launched a vicious counteroffensives against the Allies (which now included the Americans. | + | The Allied forces, with the strong American troops, began pushing through Europe. Within months they liberated Florence, Paris, Pisa, Brussels and Antwerp, in that order, and started to enter German soil. But in December the Germans launched a fierce counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge, causing the Americans 19,000 deaths in a just a few weeks. |
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| | The Allies did not discovery the concentration camps used for the Holocaust until April 1945. Allied commander and future President Dwight Eisenhower described his horror:<ref>http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=136</ref> | | The Allies did not discovery the concentration camps used for the Holocaust until April 1945. Allied commander and future President Dwight Eisenhower described his horror:<ref>http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=136</ref> |