And tell shirley after world war ii when the Commission Consolidated graves of the Pacific Theater to hawaii and in manila. There were 1600 american troops period. We except the awful truth some americans would have to lay down their lives to beat fashions a better reasonable one is why guadalcanal . This was an island nobody had heard of. , committed and die in places like course a cup. Corsica. The United States had 14 million men and women in uniform but they were sent to some places and not others the way they transformed American Society that is wrapped up to the personalities of half a dozen people to make Big Decisions. So tonight story is militarybacked words isolation country became the of local superpower within five years in a handful of men engineered that transformation. But to go back before pearl harbor and let back to the third days in the 40s to see the glove as roosevelt sought it. Remember fdr was elected 1932 with a mandate to put americans back to work to stabilize the baking industry and get america out of the depression new york. He staked his reputation on domestic reform and had no interest to be involved in foreign entanglements. But fascisms sprung up under mussolini and was perfected by adolf hitler. The story begins not with pearl harbor but in 1940 when president roosevelt sitting upstairs in the white house in his study received a call from his ambassador to belgium german planes were bombing the low country and western europe was about to be overrun they got the western democracies could handle the nazis on their own would be put to the test. In the end it out of the defeated france and isolated Great Britain but turn the warda sheet against the Stalinist Soviet Union june 41 so by December Adolf Hitler seen here had plenty to smile about because the two men virtually ruled europe from the gates of moscow to the pyrenees mountains. Of the far side of the world japan was rampaging through china. Japan lead dash japans command of the coast because it is a small island nation it is not economically selfsufficient like United States or continental europe. 80 of the petroleum came from the United States as well as steel and aluminum soda had a strategic leash and the rose bowl was not averse to police that because japan was so dependent upon United States began to turn its size to assess south to the malaysian peninsula countries that hitler was beating up on their in the southern colonies the japanese knew if they had massed the stocks of petroleum in the materials they needed to become selfsufficient to keep the war machine going so there were falling apart of both sens the president knew it is only a matter of time before america was attracted to war. A la red to victory began by picking the right team and that she begins with the president under article ii of the constitution is the commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States. But they had zero military training. His only involvement was the assistant secretary of navy during the wilson years roosevelt sailed off to europe toward france stay well behind the front line and like a good politician exaggerated his military record for the rest of his life. [laughter] but he had a gift to know when to metal or even allowed. He had some complaints the way the mayor the navy played the star spangled banner beattie said i dont know enough so i have to check with the general gives may he also meddled in war strategy when there was overgrazing when an overriding way to do so. When they drove into paris roosevelt decided he needed cabinet officials and the Democratic Party was filled with new dealers who wanted to stay out of the war so roosevelt took a Political Risk to Reach Across Party Lines and selected to republicans to join the cabinet in a political blood transfusion and. The first as the republican vicepresident ial candidate the second was Henry Stimson and upper crust new york lawyers serving as the secretary of war under taft said general in the philippines under to lynch and secretary state under hoover. Day disagree almost every tenet of the new deal but they died japan and germany posed a grave threat to the United States and theyre rolling to put its service to their country over party prepared they were roads out over a tie there would be like if president obama selected paul ryan to become his defense secretary. [laughter] there was a risk to all three. But were fortunate that two conservative republicans and a liberal democrat boss could put aside differences to Work Together that those to surface is headtohead the military branches. General george c. Marshall he prided himself on self discipline to never let his personal feelings get in the way of his service to this country an eloquent speaker and was named Time Magazine man of the year 1944. Eventually becoming secretary of state but was never referred to as the Marshall Plan head of the American Red Cross secretary of defense and the only professional soldier in history to her the nobel peace prize. The marshall never commanded anything larger than an infantry regiment he was not up military strategist but said genius and organizing and logistics he could see the big picture america was fighting in nine different theaters if he said he wanted to do something he could picture in his mind with that were due to operations elsewhere around the globe if you took from one side but would that do to the of their p oartsf the strategy . After the war was over he was referred to as the organizer of victory on either side of constitution avenue was the most powerful naval commander the only officer to hold the twitter and titles chief of Naval Operations and commander in chief of the u. S. Fleet making him the twice the power of the navy. Said dagger tattooed on one arm and an acre on the other seven children with his wife and before the war he had a mistress if not every pore then quite a few of them. He would drink like a sailor fight like a sailor than miraculously shop the next morning reporting for duty virtually an impaired. Admiral king was famous for say whether the going gets tough they call for the sons of bitches. He said if i like would have thought of that i would have said that. [laughter] when he came into a room there would quietly five reasons to head for the door. Guest said the admiral is the most even tempered man in the navy he is always in a rage. He had no love for the army that marshall didnt know much about strategy and the air commanders that macarthur knew nothing about the navy a just discovered the airplane and the british better stay out of his pacific ocean. The feeling was mutual a staffer working for urge general marshall cast a war diary to say one thing that would help win the war is to get somebody to shoot king. [laughter] but like other officers such as patent he had an intellectual side their bread and thought about strategy, and as much as at sea and was stubborn but only for the things he thought he needed to get he had a clear vision of what he would need and in the ben and the british thought he had the best grasp of strategy of many leaders but a general marshalls most important jobs was to the the forces overseas and at home rather the mediterranean theater alaska or californian no one got to senior ranks without marshal support for perot you to see pictures to zero and a people of their careers to marshal. Patton and bradley and eisenhower. So for nearly every rule the you had to be a marshals man to get anywhere that is the exception the man with a corncob pipe he was the chief of staff when marshall was a colonel. He was obsessive about his publicity but he could be brilliant and the publics love to am he was a National Hero and to appease congress they stretched the criteria for awarding the medal of honor and gave one to macarthur in 1942 and 43 of vague macarthur for president bubble as those who saw the best hope to beat roosevelt paid to how a sensitive and use that to push for supplies and Naval Support and the authority to move up through new guinea into the philippines he had a running feud with most of the navy kept it is next to impossible for marshall to govern effectively but king was less flexible than marshall to go over dozens of important islands and hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean admiral king had to been approved is a valuable. First was a texan from the hill country west of here he ran of its territory. The admiral caving is riding shotgun and behind him are the marines who were happy and the more even tempered admiral. Now all these leaders would do precious little good unless the high command figured out where to send them and with the question of grand strategy for the wars first two years before america entered the war the country was in no mood to get involved overseas but fdr saw the nazis in the japanese had to be defeated. So it all we had an Army Navy Airforce that could do the job he had to let the american public, along behind them to fight the enemy with america says industrial power. America would become the great what . Writes. He is his wartime powers to make it that arsenal of democracy but before the war was over he would ban production of civilian cars and regulate the cut of clothing so before long the Ford Motor Company was turning lp 24 bombers by the hundreds the jukebox was making carvings and grabbing than typewriters made pistols to be a source of uniforms are tense and Electronics Shop was radio parts. To keep the arsenal producing roosevelt was forced to do unpopular things for an elected official. To ration virtually every item was one of them. The list of what we had to ration and regulated is immense. Coffee. In late 42 the government put americans basically one cup of coffee per day ration you can imagine what that did to the voters. Not because he ran out of coffee but because the ships needed to carry this sacred beings from south america to be amended states were more profitably used carrying weapons to europe so we had to ration the coffee. Clothing was something else. The war production board issued a regulation l85 governed the size of the lapels of the men scholars the cuts on the pants and reduced the neckline to increase the hemline on womens dresses. The ladies had to sacrifice. Rubber was banned from womens curdles because it was a strategic material although the outcry was so great even the Roosevelt Administration had to back down. [laughter] nylon or silkos were nowhere to be found because we needed that material for parachutes. Conservation and rationing rosita river was not enough arsenal that very little unless they can get the fighter planes into the hands of those who put them to use segment getting those weapons across the german uboats when this submarines began to sink ships in 1940 and 41 fdr wanted u. S. Navy to provide protection but it took awhile for the public to come around some not until september 41 the roosevelt ordered the man takes the commander to shoot on sight to play it america into the end declared shooting war and 413 months before pearl harbor. Before the war the predecessor met with churchill and in a series of conversations to put their Heads Together dash the allies will hold the line in the pacific if they have to go to war to be defensive only to do the best we could while devoting our energies to defeating hitler in europe that was in germany for strategy. As president was roosevelts job to keep them focused rather than on japan but remember for the First Six Months was a place we were doing most of the fighting. That capture the american attention. And how we defeat germany but both concluded to drive straight to berlin where it is over sooner. They lack the strength to do that 1942 we did not have enough to fissions divisions or the lending power were supply resources. We would have to wait until 1943. Winston churchill did not want to wait said he said if we cannot invade france why not invade north africa . Instead of going to the upper part of germany to squeeze from the mediterranean and palm from the air and send weapons to fight the germans on the ground in the east. Fighting with the british but they could not reach a decision they were deadlocked so it was up to fdr to decide. After all japanese drew first blood at pearl harbor but to fight japan to finish the job in the pacific so they were beside themselves to go into north africa to do the job right. To tell the british if you dont agree to invade europe to throw most of its weight against japan to turn back on the Germany First agreement. Sitting at his home in hyde park he knew that marshall n. King were bluffing and their hearts were not in a japan first strategy but he called their bluff. He called washington on sunday morning that afternoon he wanted flown up to hyde park to the plan for the Germany First strategy he wanted to know how many ships, where they would invade, and what that would do to this strategy in germany. They were all out of town so they had to rush back to washington they got their staff together but by the time they had to send a package of to hyde park, with the basic outline of the campaign against japan. Roosevelt figured that he knew if they were serious there would have the better answer on short notice so he picked up the fountain pen to write an extraordinary letter to general marshall and my First Impression it is exactly what germany hoped the United States would do following pearl harbor. It will not affect the role this year or next. Is not help russia or the dearies therefore it is disapproved as the present. He signed this letter and wanted no doubt who was giving orders. So the british one that around why we invaded africa instead of waiting. But marshall k. And arnolds finally ordered to go into north africa team depth of the british chief under Dwight Eisenhower it went splendidly a first but before they got to the prime target the americans were kicked in the teeth we were able to come back to a when the shooting stopped in north africa and elegance with the question where do we go next . When martial cadences and systems said wanted to go into france but the british wanted to go into the mediterranean they agreed there would have to invade france but wouldnt be better to go into italy and knocked it out then the germans would have to send troops into the italian peninsula that they cannot be shooting us on the beaches of normandy. So we went to sicily ben went into italy and that was a hard place to fight but we knocked them out of the war into a battle of attrition into a pushing and shoving to get the british to go into france but with Joseph Stalin they convince the british to go along everybody knew who would the debt invasion of france. It would be martial. Roosevelt let everybody know that marshall would be his choice and even told general eisenhower he wanted to give marshall chance to go into the history books as agree with peter. They considered to nonviable in the european theater. To do so many other things that they could do. To beg to keep stateside and went to a group of journalists and ask them to have the editorial boards to restore all his virtues as a chief of staff i know rose above reason newspaper and he may listen to them. It worked. And if this crushes them dishpans personally as everybody thought it did marshall never let our not even to his wife. He kept his personal feelings out of it and as a good sport wrote out a message for the president s signature to stall and announcing the immediate appointment of eisenhower to lead the invasion of europe. That is how eisenhower went into the history books as a liberator of europe and then president of United States. In it to keep the british the course of the vince natcher leveraged from Normandy Beach to germany. Just to keep the blade from going deeper into the pacific japan had most of the western pacific than they thought the best way to roll back japan was to have a good offense rather than restrict defense. He wanted to start rolling back the japanese empire in the eastern solomon islands. So on the neighboring island of guadalcanal that is how in august 1942 period months before the invasion of north africa guadalcanal was the big first offensive of the war although he pledged to defeat Germany First the marines and the army took guadalcanal but we had Bad Data Base to push japan back. The big question no one had answered is how we get from guadalcanal to tokyo. Said that the best way was to have a few key island chains. But they would be able to go on to a taiwan and the china coast with the marines to take the beaches and to occupy. And to bomb into submission all they need is the army to have enough air power when he left the philippines to say i shall return he would come through the south into the philippines he was afraid of fabricating went through the Central Pacific called away to the china coast by this summer of 1944 to decide he wanted to bypass to go straight to for rows of the joint chiefs agreed in berlin that would end the matter but this was macarthur he was the exception and would not budge. Represent president roosevelt had to weigh in on a specific strategy what would any good politician do . Great ways to make publicity of the electionyear and politics dont stop just because there is no war so roosevelt sailed to hawaii to make sure every voter in the country knew who the commander in chief was. It wasnt all fun opportunities and got down to business. He held a strategy conference holding a conference for