As we contemplate a world in which the status quo is now fragmenting into adversarial power blocs, it's worth reflecting on the astonishing dominance of the United States over the course of the last 80 years or so. This can be attributed almost wholly to America's remarkable performance during the Second World War. It was not just that it was a victor in both Europe and the Pacific. More critically, it was the only country in the conflict to experience both an agricultural and industrial boom - which was mightily assisted by the fact that the US mainland never came under direct attack from its enemies and so thrived in conditions tantamount to peacetime. By pumping vast sums into the war economy, Roosevelt's administration effectively ended the US Depression. The pre-war New Deal had not made much of a dent in American unemployment, but the war changed all that. The lowest earners doubled their wage packets, so almost all Americans could afford to eat well at a time when hunger haunted war-ravaged Europe and Asia. US servicemen, whatever their ordeals in combat, were royally supported by a vast logistics machine that saw frontline troops allocated an extraordinary 4,800 calories a day: their meat ration was twice that given to British soldiers. And in the Pacific, for every four pounds of food supplied to Japanese soldiers, American GIs received four tons (that often included refrigerated ice cream, Coca Cola and Wrigley's chewing gum)! As the latter two brand names suggest - Coca Cola had a near monopoly selling soft drinks to the US forces at home and abroad while Wrigley's won the contract to supply its gum in every GI's K ration - American businesses received a huge boost from the war. Even Lend Lease, so vital to British and Soviet survival during the war, was a two-way street for the US, garnering it important influence and trade concessions, not to mention access to Britain's strategic naval bases and technical know-how. By contrast, for that other great winner of the war, the Soviet Union, the cost of victory was so enormous (at least 27 million dead) that it amounted to defeat - in hindsight, the country probably never really fully recovered, making the eventual culmination of the Cold War in 1990 a more than likely outcome. It was not, of course, the 'end of history', but it underlined, once again, America's global hegemony for which WW2 had laid powerful foundations. Listen to Eps 4, 8 and 9 in a new series of Unknown Warriors that explores fresh perspectives on the Second World War.
If you think you know about WW2, it's time to think again.
An Understanding History Podcast
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