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Before World War II Andrew Higgins operated a small boatyard, building workboats designed to operate in the shallow waters of Louisiana's bayous. (website #1) During the 1920s and 1930s America's military began exploring ways to make amphibious landings. Higgins became involved in this effort, adapting designs for shallow-draft boats he had developed for peacetime uses. His company created amphibious assault craft capable of shuttling men and equipment quickly and safely from ship to shore. When the war came, business boomed. Higgins built new factories(website #1) with mass production lines and employed thousands of workers. He even opened a training school for boat operators.
New Orleans Naval Giant During World War II Higgins Industries grew from a small business operating a single boatyard into the largest private employer in Louisiana.(website #1) The company turned out astounding numbers of boats and ships. In September 1943 the US Navy had 14,072 vessels. Of these, 8,865 had been designed and built by Higgins Industries.
New Orleans Naval Giant During World War II Higgins Industries grew from a small business operating a single boatyard into the largest private employer in Louisiana.(website #1) The company turned out astounding numbers of boats and ships. In September 1943 the US Navy had 14,072 vessels. Of these, 8,865 had been designed and built by Higgins Industries.
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Japan was the first to set the United States on guard. (website 2)In 1931 it had overrun Manchuria. In 1932 it captured Shanghai and killed thousands of Chinese. President Hoover had refused to recognize Japan's puppet state of Manchukuo. He protested against Japan's efforts to block Chinese trade. When fighting began again in North China and at Shanghai and Nanking, Roosevelt was deeply troubled. At the same time Germans, Italians, and Soviets were fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Hitler and Mussolini were making warlike threats. Roosevelt felt that "international lawlessness" was in the saddle.
Japan intended to conquer all China.(website 2) American property and investments in China were worth 250 million dollars. The United States valued Chinese trade. It had taken a special interest in Chinese education, missionary work, and democratic growth. In Chicago, Oct. 5, 1937, Roosevelt proposed that nations responsible for "international anarchy" should be quarantined. He said that the peace, freedom, and security of nine tenths of the world were being threatened by the other tenth. The 90 percent which stood for peace and morality "can and must find some way to make their will prevail."
The response to this speech disappointed Roosevelt. Polls and newspapers showed that the nation did not want action. About two months later Japanese planes bombed and sank the American gunboat Panay and three American tankers. Japan apologized at once and the country remained calm. (website 2)
Japan intended to conquer all China.(website 2) American property and investments in China were worth 250 million dollars. The United States valued Chinese trade. It had taken a special interest in Chinese education, missionary work, and democratic growth. In Chicago, Oct. 5, 1937, Roosevelt proposed that nations responsible for "international anarchy" should be quarantined. He said that the peace, freedom, and security of nine tenths of the world were being threatened by the other tenth. The 90 percent which stood for peace and morality "can and must find some way to make their will prevail."
The response to this speech disappointed Roosevelt. Polls and newspapers showed that the nation did not want action. About two months later Japanese planes bombed and sank the American gunboat Panay and three American tankers. Japan apologized at once and the country remained calm. (website 2)
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The Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941,(website 3) brought the United States into the war as a formal belligerent—more than two years after the war had begun with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Yet while it has become a commonplace to note that the Pearl Harbor attack dramatically extinguished American isolationism, the fact is that traditional isolationist sentiment was by that time already markedly diminished—and that anxieties about its possible revival animated American leaders throughout the conflict and well into the postwar period.
At the outset of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had not challenged the isolationist mood of his countrymen,(website 3) declaring in his first Inaugural Address that “our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.” But as the international environment grew more perilous, FDR worked ever harder to disabuse Americans of the view that the world’s problems were none of their concern. He chafed increasingly under the restrictions of the several “Neutrality Laws” that Congress passed between 1935 and 1939, and succeeded at last in securing passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, committing the vast economic resources of the United States to the war against the so-called Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Hitler, correctly, deemed the Lend-Lease Act tantamount to a declaration of war. With an initial appropriation of some $7 billion (nearly equal to the entire average annual federal budget in the 1930s, and reaching nearly $50 million by war’s end) Lend-Lease aimed to make the United States into what Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.”(website 3)
At the outset of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had not challenged the isolationist mood of his countrymen,(website 3) declaring in his first Inaugural Address that “our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.” But as the international environment grew more perilous, FDR worked ever harder to disabuse Americans of the view that the world’s problems were none of their concern. He chafed increasingly under the restrictions of the several “Neutrality Laws” that Congress passed between 1935 and 1939, and succeeded at last in securing passage of the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, committing the vast economic resources of the United States to the war against the so-called Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Hitler, correctly, deemed the Lend-Lease Act tantamount to a declaration of war. With an initial appropriation of some $7 billion (nearly equal to the entire average annual federal budget in the 1930s, and reaching nearly $50 million by war’s end) Lend-Lease aimed to make the United States into what Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.”(website 3)