Age Of The Atom - World War Ii - 1935 - 1945

in the first half of the 20th century the United States grew to become the most powerful nation in the world but it wasn't an easy growth time and again we turned aside tried to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world [Music] let's go our own where our own present way alone left enjoy the good things we have earned and let's not be too concerned with the world around us and their problems that surround us don't make their problems our own wish we could go our own way alone [Applause] things but the rest of the world could not be shut out not by high tariffs not by laws about neutrality and 23 years after the first world war ended and America found herself in a second and blood the country of Germany defeated and reduced to Poverty by the first world war was taken over by the dictator Adolf Hitler Mussolini became the dictator of Italy and in Japan control was taken over by a group of military leaders man was the first country to break the fragile proofs of the early 30s she began to expand span sent her armies into China soon Mussolini followed suits and directed his Italian armies to invade the weak African Kingdom of Ethiopia a kingdom rich in mineral resources which Mussolini decided he had to have here in America the strong desire for isolation prevented us from giving any effective help to the forces of democracy in either Asia or in Europe these are These are times hard hard times my friend seems like these aren't won't ever end Ed we were still in the midst of our great economic depression and struggling to find that Prosperity which always seemed to be just around the corner even in the midst of trouble there was progress the automobile was changing the face of America in the worst year of the depression in 1933 there had still been a million cars produced in the country and a few years later this number Rose to 4 million cars a year for many cars were a source of pleasure [Music] vacations for others it was a way to get back and forth to work made it possible for millions of people to move out of the center of the city out into the more pleasant surroundings of the suburbs a motor and four wheels makes a man feel like a king and the power that he feels is a satisfying thing there's a problem here that jars and it isn't simply talk if they fill the land with cars will there be any room to walk [Music] but for others the cars took them away from disaster the plight of the farmers had never been solved during the 20s when most of the nation was prosperous and when the depression of the 30s struck the farmers were already poor the federal government some way to help the farmers but the farmers themselves moved out in overloaded trucks carrying what possessions they could they headed for what they hoped would be greener pasture while Statesmen and economists struggled almost hopelessly with the baffling problems of the depression scientists developed the new discoveries of the 20th century with spectacular results [Music] just before the turn of the century scientists had discovered x-rays and radioactivity and then finally the electron Madame Curie discovered radium in 18 and three years later the theoretical description of the fission of an atomic nucleus was worked out to describe that Discovery no one could anticipate then the destructive consequences which this was to have to have the equals mass times the speed of light squared with this formula the atom Secret there for mankind it was a faithful owl when the atom revealed its secret power energy equals mass times the speed of light squared the be the same would it bless destroy your Mane soon enough the answer came thank you energy equals mass times the speed of light Square energy equals mass times speed of light Square [Music] in the early part of the 20th century Einstein and the Danish physicist Niels Bohr said we'd have to throw out our old concepts of Science and discover some new laws then in 1927 the new laws were worked out they're called quantum mechanics the mathematical rules telling how atoms and molecules work now scientists had both a theory and experiments to develop Atomic and nuclear physics in chemistry 2 there were some startling advances Linus Pauline had worked out the nature of chemical forces and soon there were so many new chemical products the people began calling the times the age of chemistry there were new Plastics and new materials like rayon and nylon though one of the most important effects was to come from a little-known accidental Discovery by a Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928 Fleming had been studying the deadly bacteria called staphylococcus when he left a culture plate open a little too long in a mold formed on the surface Fleming noticed that in the area surrounding the mold the staphylococci bacteria had disappeared in 1929 he published a medical paper proving that a lowly mold from the soil was a powerful bacteria killer Fleming had discovered penicillin but there was no scientific answer for the conflict that was steadily worsening in Asia 37 in Japan's merciless Air Raids against the defenseless Chinese City of Canton shocked Americans and began to turn the tide of feeling in the United National position of neutrality [Music] by 1938 President Roosevelt was asking Congress for much more money to be spent for weapons and in that same year Adolf Hitler Hitler German armies into Austria and United it with the German dictatorship next he threatened Czechoslovakia and demanded that a large portion of that country be turned over to him because he claimed that people of German descent lived there now nothing seemed to be able to stop the March toward War in the late summer of 1939 the blow fell first the dictatorships of Russia and Germany signed a treaty amazing the whole world since up until that moment they had been shouting insults at each other and then you know Poland from one side and Russia attacked from the other foreign they had conquered that country and divided it between them then Hitler turned west and south well Russia proceeded to fight off a piece of her other neighbor's Finland soon German troops had conquered the two Scandinavian countries of Denmark and Norway and then they turned with renewed across Holland began in the spring of 1940 and Hitler announced that the fight which began that day would decide the destiny of the German people who won his first victories with lightning speed on May 10th he invaded Holland and on May 15 Holland surrendered on May 28 the belgians surrendered May 30th the armies of France were retreating in Wild flight sent soldiers into France were trying to take off as many of their soldiers as they could from the French beaches at Dunkirk foreign within a few weeks the dictator who had sworn to destroy all democracies stood completely triumphant on the continent of Europe the American sentiment for neutrality was swept away and we were ready to listen when England sorely pressed by Hitler's Air Force the luftwaffa asked for all the help we could give it is the purpose of the nation to build now with all possible speed every machine and Arsenal and Factory that we need the manufacturer our defense material we have the men the skill the wealth and the bubble of the will we must be the great arsenal of democracy we sent weapons and guarded the ships that carried them for German submarines seemed everywhere though we were still technically neutral the president was calling on our Navy to shoot the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic without waiting for them to attack [Music] we're supposed to be neutral in this man's War but we favor Britain defending its Shore we'll never give up in spite of the slaughter till the last Nazi sub is blown out of the water [Music] England had now gained a measure of defense and a breathing space but actually the war was just beginning and in 1941 two new blows fell Hitler who just two years before had signed a treaty with Stalin a dictator of Russia now attacked Russia and the Empire of Japan determined to take advantage of the crisis in Europe and two months later tried to secure control over all of the Pacific she attacked the British Outpost of Hong Kong and Singapore and on December 7 1941 bombed the American Navy at his fort in Pearl Harbor Hawaii America was in the war the [Music] Japanese Pearl Harbor was a visitor for the United five American battleships were sunk and three others heavily damaged destroyers a mine layer and a floating Dry Dock went down while other vessels were very small states had suffered the greatest naval defeat all of its history the bombs came down like a deadly rain was the fate of the ships that were lost that are still the human cost at Pearl Harbor [Music] now there was no more neutrality for America and within a few months 26 nations were Allied against the axis that was a name the Germany Japan and Italy had given themselves slowly these allies began to fight back from the black edge of disaster where they had been pushed so rapidly by the powerful Japanese and German armies England had stoutly held out in Africa even though German and Italian forces Italy toward the Nile River toward the all-important Suez Canal Force landed in North Africa to tie up the German Army there and at last Force its surrender Allied troops moved northward into Sicily and Italy steadily pressed the Germans and Italians on Hitler's Eastern Front the conquest of Russia was nowhere near as simple as he guessed it would be when it began Soviets held fast at Leningrad and Stalingrad valiantly defending their Homeland in long and bloody battles until finally the German attack was broken and they were forced slow retreat in the Pacific Admiral Chester Nimitz and general Douglas MacArthur led the American counter-attack it began with the naval victory in the Coral Sea and here it was the airplane that dominated the fighting thank you foreign 1943 American troops captured the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and the large island of New Guinea definitely the Philippine Islands were invaded [Music] in 1944 while Americans were moving up the islands of the Pacific other Americans with their British allies landed on the French beaches and began a new attack on Hitler's European forces after a series of bloody battles the Allies gained the foothold and slowly began to advance across the time Russian armies were pushing the Germans farther and farther back out of Russia across Poland toward the German Homeland finally Ally Hitler committed suicide in the war in Europe ended the spring of 1945 a few weeks before [Music] one of his last official acts was to send out invitations to all of the Allied Powers who were fighting the axis the go and formally set up a charter for the United Nations the Roosevelt was gone the meeting took place as scheduled and the United Nations was formally born the United Nations the United Nations at the U.N you will find the hopes for peace of all mankind United Nations the United Nations still the war in the Pacific continued and now American flying fortresses were showering bombs on the cities of Japan it was clear to all that Japan could not hold out much longer and yet the Japanese leaders vowed to fight to the last ditch on their home Islands America prepared itself for what might well be the worst Battle of the war the invasion of Japan but it was never to come for on August 6 1945 a single line winged its way above the city of Hiroshima Shima just after 12 noon it dropped a small bomb which exploded over the city Indian intensity important that they saw a giant pillar of purple fire ten thousand feet high shooting Skyward enormous it had barely reached its Zenith when there came shooting out of the top a giant mushroom cloud that increased the height of the pillar to a total of 45 000 feet below this gigantic geyser of flame and smoke and dust which soon reached up sixty thousand feet into the stratosphere Hiroshima lay shattered with nearly near its population 340 000 people dead or wounded a few days later a second bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki and Japan surrendered foreign bomb began a new age for America and for mankind standing at that dividing line in 1945 Americans could look back on a record of mingled success and failure in the theater of world affairs thirty years before Woodrow Wilson had inspired the countries of Europe to create a League of Nations but then his own country refused to join there was little to be proud of in our stubborn isolation of the 20s and 30s but we could take pride in our idealism in the Washington Naval disarmament conference the Kellogg Breon peace pact our Good Neighbor policy with the other countries of the Western Hemisphere and finally the United Nations our inventors and scientists and Engineers had given to the world a new era of transportation and communication chemistry and medicine and finally opened up the age of the atom the bad parts of our record had been sponged Away In The Blood and Tears of the second world war and now we were ready to enter the age of the atom as willing members of the world society [Music] those who came before us worked with willing hands though they all came to this country from a dozen different lands to follow dream to America where Freedom was the goal where a man might own his own soul where a man might own his own soul a nation of immigrants and nation of immigrants Built This Land found our opportunity descendants of immigrants of hard-working immigrants are we a nation of immigrants [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]