Vernon Baker, born in 1919, served as a First Lieutenant in the infantry during World War II. His brave actions saved the lives of many in his company, and he was responsible for eliminating three enemy machine gun positions and an observation post. For his bravery, he was awarded a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and the Distinguished Service Cross. Historians concluded that he was wrongly denied the military’s top award because of his race. In 1997 he became the only living African-American veteran of World War II to receive the Medal of Honor when he was presented this award by President Bill Clinton. He is one of only seven African Americans ever to receive this award. Baker died in 2010 at the age of 90.

Omar Bradley, born in 1893, graduated from West Point and just missed service in World War I. In World War II he was assigned to the European Theater where he served for a while under General George Patton. General Eisenhower later selected Bradley to command the 1st U.S. Army during the D-Day invasion. It was under his command that Paris was liberated and the Germans were turned back at the Battle of the Bulge. He was known by the men under his command as “the soldier’s general” because of his care and compassion for his men. In 1949 he became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1950 he was promoted to five star General of the Army rank. He later served as a leader of the Veterans Administration. He died in 1981.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the thirty-fourth President of the United States. He was born in Texas, but grew up in Kansas. After attending West Point, Eisenhower was stationed in Texas where he met his future wife, Mamie Doud. Eisenhower had outstanding organizational skills, graduating first in his group at Army War College. During World War II, he was commander of the Allied Forces that landed in North Africa and the Allied forces that fought in Sicily and Italy. He was the Supreme Commander of the troops that invaded France on D-Day and was promoted to General of the Army. In five years he went from being a Lieutenant Colonel to the highest ranking position in the American Army. In 1952 and again in 1956 Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States and was responsible for establishing the Interstate Highway System.

Douglas MacArthur was born in New Mexico where he spent much of his childhood on an Army base which was commanded by his father. He graduated first in his class at the Military Academy at West Point in 1903, beginning a life spent serving in the military. He completed various assignments before fighting courageously in World War I, becoming the most highly decorated American soldier of the war. He then returned to West Point as Superintendent.

MacArthur soon left for the Philippines to prepare the islands for independence. But when Japan attacked the Philippines in World War II, MacArthur’s troops were initially defeated. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered him to Australia. MacArthur assured his men, “I shall return.” True to his word, in 1944 he liberated the Philippines. In 1945 he accepted the Japanese surrender. For the next five years he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, helping the country to rebuild and establish a democratic government.

General MacArthur served his country once again during the Korean War. During this war, MacArthur had disagreements with President Truman over the course of action to take. When he made these differences public, President Truman relieved him of his duties in Korea. As Commander-in-Chief, President Truman had the authority to take this action. This led to MacArthur’s retirement from the military in 1951. He would return one final time to West Point to give his Duty, Honor, Country address in 1962.

George Marshall, born in 1880, graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901 and from the Army Staff College in 1908. He served as an aide-de camp to General John J. Pershing from 1919 to 1924. He later achieved the rank of Five Star General and served as Chief of Staff of the War Plans Division during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He became FDR’s chief consultant during World War II. In this position he was responsible for making sure that the needs of the military were met. This required him to work with Congress and the American people to explain what was necessary on the home front to win the war. He retired from the military in 1945 but in the same year began his diplomatic career. He represented President Truman on a special mission to China in 1945-1946. In 1947 he became Truman’s Secretary of State. During this time he formulated and proposed the Marshall Plan which was an economic plan to rebuild post-war Europe and insure that the spread of communism would be contained. Some have called the Marshall Plan one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the modern era. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 and died in 1959.

Chester Nimitz was born in 1885 in Fredericksburg, Texas. As a student at Tivy High School in Kerrville, he originally wanted to join the army. When no positions were available at West Point, he decided to take the exam at Annapolis and thus began his career in the Navy. He would eventually command the Pacific Fleet during World War II. In 1945, he represented the United States when the Japanese surrendered aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. As a result of his knowledge of submarines, he became one of the leading naval authorities of his time. He would later serve as a goodwill ambassador with the United Nations before dying in 1966.

George Patton, born in 1885, graduated from West Point in 1909 and later served as a member of General Pershing’s staff in search of Pancho Villa. In 1917 he became the first member of the newly established U. S. Tank Corps, where he would win fame. In World War II he was with the Allied forces during the invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Patton was an often controversial figure with definite opinions on how he thought the war should proceed. He was not afraid to voice his views to his superiors. As D-Day approached, the Allies needed Hitler to believe that they were going to invade near Pas de Calais, France. The plan was to create a fictitious unit, and to make this believable, they had to have a real commander of this fake unit. General Patton was given this assignment. This did not sit well with Patton because he saw this as a demotion. His real command, which was a secret, was to command the Third Army which he would lead into battle following D-Day at the Battle of the Bulge. He ordered a 90 degree turnaround of forces to relieve American troops that were surrounded. He was killed in a car crash in 1945.

Eleanor Roosevelt was raised by her grandmother after the death of both of her parents. She married Franklin Delano Roosevelt who later became President of the United States. As First Lady, Eleanor had her own radio program and wrote her own newspaper column. Because President Roosevelt was paralyzed with polio, she traveled around the country, interacted with people, and then shared the information with her husband to help him make informed decisions. During the Great Depression, Eleanor exhibited her concern for others by supporting programs for youth employment and helping the poor in many ways. She also boldly fought for civil rights for African Americans as well as women’s rights. During World War II Eleanor Roosevelt visited American soldiers all over the world. After her husband’s death in 1945, Eleanor served as a delegate to the United Nations and was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights. Additionally, she helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Truman said that Eleanor Roosevelt was the "First Lady of the World” because she dedicated her entire life to others. Eleanor once said, “You get more joy out of giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in New York. After attending prestigious schools, he followed the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, and entered politics. He was elected to the state senate in 1910 and later appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson. In the summer of 1921 Roosevelt was stricken with polio. He persevered through physical therapy but never fully regained the use of his legs. Seven years later he was elected governor of New York and in 1932 was elected President of the United States.

When he took office the country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Thirteen million people were out of work and almost all banks had closed. In his First Inaugural Address he likened the crisis to a foreign invasion, and asserted that the Constitution’s separation of powers and system of checks and balances would have to be temporarily suspended in order to see the country through. He proposed what he called the New Deal: expansive federal programs, funded by citizens paying taxes. He sent a record number of bills to Congress attempting to bring relief to farmers and the unemployed. In 1935 he proposed the Social Security Act. Controls were enacted on utilities and businesses, and the government moved towards regulating the economy. The repeal of Prohibition also brought in more tax revenue for the federal government.

After his decisive reelection victory in 1936, Roosevelt became frustrated with the Supreme Court which had been overturning some New Deal legislation as unconstitutional expansions of Congress’ powers. In what has come to be called his “Court-packing scheme,” he proposed that Congress increase the size of the Supreme Court to a maximum of fifteen members. This proposal failed, but two justices changed their voting, and the court began upholding New Deal laws.

Roosevelt faced issues of national interest and foreign policy. He attempted to keep the country out of World War II, favoring a “Good Neighbor” policy of neutrality. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt believed he had to act; Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three days later. Roosevelt served as Commander in Chief of the military making the defeat of Nazi Germany the first priority. Fearing Japanese saboteurs, he signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced internment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. This action was upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States (1944).

In all, President Roosevelt was elected to four terms as President. Until that time, U.S. presidents had followed the example of President George Washington who had limited his service to two terms. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was passed limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms.

The Navajo Code Talkers served as an elite unit during World War II in the Pacific Theatre. Prior to the formation of this group, the Japanese had been successful in breaking more than 30 American codes. An American missionary who had grown up on a Navajo reservation came up with the idea of using the Navajo language as a solution. A group of 29 Navajos was charged with the task of creating the code. They used traditional Navajo words to describe events and then created new words that were only known to those who had been trained. They started with approximately 200 words and ended with over 600. The code was never broken and was so protected that it was not declassified until 1968. In 2001 the Navajo Code talkers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Flying Tigers, also known as the American Volunteer Group in China, was a group of American pilots who served during World War II. They were volunteers because the United States had not yet entered the war. The Chinese hired a U.S. Army Air Corps Veteran, Claire Chennault, to train the pilots. It was an undisciplined group of men who answered the call for volunteers because they were seeking adventure. They would become the first Americans to fight the Japanese in World War II and would win over 300 victories. In 1991, they were finally credited with time served in the U.S. armed forces. The pilots received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and others who supported them were awarded Bronze Stars.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators to serve during World War II. Most of these men were college graduates or undergraduates and were trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. This highly decorated group of Americans was often fighting on two fronts – overseas against the enemy and at home against racism. At home, many African American officers were denied access to officers’ clubs on base even though this violated Army regulations. One specific incident in Indiana in 1945 led to the arrest of 103 African American officers when they attempted to enter an officers’ club. One important factor which led President Truman to issue Executive Order 9981 in 1948 directing the desegregation of the U. S. armed forces was the outstanding record of accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942 in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the nation’s armed forces. The order authorized the forced internment or imprisonment of 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry including many who were American citizens living on the West Coast of the U. S. to “relocation centers” in the interior of the U. S. They lost their homes, their jobs, other property, and their freedom. None of the citizens or Japanese nationals were ever charged and convicted of any criminal offense. Many had never been to Japan and did not speak Japanese. The order stated that the detentions were necessary because “the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage of national-defense material, national-defense premises and national defense utilities.” The fear among many citizens and government officials on the West Coast was that these Japanese might become spies for the Japanese Empire with which the U. S. was now at war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Some people argued that the Japanese Americans who were interned were denied their liberty and property without due process of law as required by the U. S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. The Supreme Court however, in Korematsu v United States in 1944 upheld the constitutionality of the Japanese internment as a wartime measure. In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act in which the nation officially apologized for the internment, and the U. S. paid each of sixty thousand Japanese American survivors $20,000 to compensate them for their lost liberty and property.

According to Department of Labor estimates, fifteen million men and women in the armed services would be out of work at the end of World War II. Recognizing that wide-spread unemployment could cause an economic depression, the National Resources Planning Board recommended a series of programs to address the needs of ex-servicemen and women and, at the same time, strengthen the economy. The American Legion designed the main features of what became the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act. It became known as the GI Bill of Rights because it addressed basic needs of the returning servicemen and women. These included hospitalization, loans to purchase or improve homes and businesses, and grants to pay for education. The act not only benefited qualifying individuals but also stimulated the economy. The bill paid for itself in the form of taxes imposed on beneficiaries whose wages increased because of their education or training or whose profits grew from investments they made using government loans. The long-range, historical impact of the legislation is seen by looking at the statistics. By 1955, the Veterans Administration had granted 4.3 million home loans, totaling $33 billion. By 1956, when the original law expired, it had disbursed $14.5 billion to veterans for education and training programs. Congress has extended the GI Bill several times. Nearly 2.3 million Korean War-era veterans and more than 8 million Vietnam-era veterans have participated in the program.

The law contained four important components: (1) authorized up to 52 weeks of unemployment compensation at $20 per week with adjusted compensation for self-employed veterans restoring themselves in business rather than seeking jobs from others; (2) guaranteed 50 percent of loans up to $2,000 to veterans with interest not more than 4 percent to purchase a home or a business; (3) authorized $500 million for construction of additional veterans’ facilities, including hospitals; and (4) authorized allowances for four years of individual grants of $500 a year for training and education, plus monthly subsistence of $50 a month for single and $75 a month for married veterans. As commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the legislation in 2004 was given: “Representative Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, remarked … that “the original GI Bill of Rights ‘produced 450,000 engineers, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 22,000 dentists, and another one-million college-educated men and women.” He noted that “another five million men and women received other schooling or training on the GI Bill, helping to create the modern middle class.” Before the GI Bill, the great majority of Americans were renters. Now, most Americans live in their own homes. Half of the college students who used the GI Bill came from homes where neither of their parents had attended college, changing the face of higher education.

After the Japanese Empire’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there was a fear among some Americans that the West Coast might be invaded. Adding to that fear was the fact that there were thousands of Japanese Americans living on the nation’s West Coast, and some Americans feared that they might become spies for the Japanese Empire. Acting on the advice and recommendation of military advisors, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 directing the forced internment of all persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast in relocation centers located in the interior of the country. Fred Korematsu, an American born citizen of Japanese descent refused to leave his home in California, was arrested, and was convicted in District Court of violation of the exclusion order.

By a 6-0 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the President’s action was a constitutional exercise of government power during a time of “emergency and peril” for the nation. Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black explained that the internments had “a definite and close relationship to the prevention of espionage and sabotage.” He went on to explain that the government needed to act quickly in wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Black wrote: “There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short.”

One of the dissenting justices wrote that he dissented “from this legalization of racism” and went on to assert that racial discrimination “is unattractive in any setting but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States.”

Finally, in September of 1939, it became apparent to Britain and France that appeasement of Hitler in Germany had failed. War broke out when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Britain and France led the Allied nations, while Germany, Italy, and later Japan formed the Axis powers. Germany had previously signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union before invading Poland in order to avoid fighting a two-front war on its eastern and western borders. Therefore, German troops met little resistance as they marched through the European mainland using massive air bombs and tank assaults in what was called the “blitzkrieg,” or the lightning war. France fell in 1940, leaving Britain to face Germany alone. Winston Churchill became the prime minister during those dark times. Bolstered by early victories, the Germans ordered an attack on the Soviet Union in June of 1941, disregarding the non-aggression pact. The Soviet Union joined the Allies in response to the attack. In the first years of the war, the United States tried to maintain a position of neutrality, but President Franklin Roosevelt warned the nation of the growing threat of aggression by the Axis Powers.

In the 1930s, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts in response to the growing threat of war in Europe. These acts were intended to keep the U. S. from becoming entangled once again in foreign wars. In 1940, however, U. S. neutrality became more difficult to maintain when it became apparent that long-time U. S. allies might fall to Hitler’s Germany without U. S. aid. In March 1941, Congress adopted the Lend Lease Act. The U. S. thus became “the arsenal of democracy.” While remaining officially neutral, under the Lend Lease policy the U. S. could “lend or lease” certain war supplies to nations considered “vital to the defense of the U. S.” For example, the U. S. loaned Great Britain more than 50 old American destroyers in return for 99-year leases on British bases which the U. S. could use in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. By the end of 1941, the Lend Lease policy was extended to other U. S. allies including China, the Soviet Union, the Free France movement, and the governments-in-exile of the Netherlands and Norway.

U.S. entry into World War II was actually the result of growing tensions over Japanese aggression in China and the Pacific. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese carried out a surprise aerial attack on the American fleet docked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States immediately declared war on Japan, and later on the other Axis powers. The United States then faced fighting a war in two theaters – Europe and the Pacific.

Persecution of the Jews by the Nazis had begun even before the war started as they became the scapegoat for Germany's defeat in World War I and the economic problems that followed. Before the war, the Nazis began to round up German Jews and seize their property. This practice continued after the war began in every area conquered by the Nazi and culminated in placing them in concentration work camps throughout their occupied territory. As the war progressed, the Nazis began to implement the “Final Solution,” which was a plan to eliminate all European Jews. The final solution resulted in the mass extermination of over six million Jews before the war ended. This genocide came to be known as the Holocaust. As the Allied troops moved toward Berlin near the end of the war, they began liberating the few survivors in the camps and discovered the horrors of the Holocaust mass exterminations.

Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese swept across the Pacific, island by island, until they eventually threatened Australia and Hawaii. When the U.S. surrendered the Philippines to Japan, in April 1942, 50,000 to 80,000 Filipino and U.S. soldiers were forced to march over 60 miles to a prisoner of war camp. This event, known as the Bataan Death March, resulted in over 5000 Americans deaths from the harsh conditions and cruel treatment inflicted by the Japanese.

Eventually in 1942, the U.S. fleet under the command of Admiral Chester Nimitz halted the Japanese advance in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway. This victory was a turning point for the war in the Pacific. It allowed the Allied forces to use an “island hopping” strategy to liberate the Pacific islands one at a time and push the Japanese forces back to the island of Japan.

The war on the European front caused heavy casualties on both sides. By 1942, the Allies began to have success in Northern Africa and Italy. Now the Allies were able to concentrate on liberating France and pushing the Nazi army back into Germany. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Soviet army retreated inland, drawing the German forces deeper into the vast Soviet Union. The battle for the city of Stalingrad turned into a stalemate between the two armies. Both sides suffered tremendous losses, but eventually the Germans forces began a defensive retreat back to Germany. This battle marked a turning point in the European front as the Germans now had to defend both their eastern and western borders. On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces headed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, and began to liberate France and push toward Berlin. This D-Day invasion marked the beginning of the end for Germany. At the same time, the Soviets marched from the east. Caught between the two armies, Hitler committed suicide and the German troops surrendered in early May 1945. This surrender was celebrated as Victory in Europe or V-E Day.

By the time the war ended in Europe, the Japanese had been pushed back to their home islands, and yet they still refused to surrender. Japan’s refusal pushed President Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt's successor to the U.S. Presidency, to order the use of the secretly developed atomic bomb to force surrender. After the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, , the Japanese finally surrendered on August 15, 1945 to Admiral Chester Nimitz aboard the USS Missouri. This surrender signaled the end of World War II and is celebrated as V-J Day.

As the war drew to a close, the three Allied nations of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States met at Potsdam Germany in 1945 to discuss how to handle the Axis defeat and the post war era. At this meeting, Allied leaders Stalin, Churchill, and Truman, made the decision to replace the ineffective League of Nations with the United Nations, a strong international organization to maintain global peace. The headquarters for the U.N. was to be in New York City. The organization consisted of a general assembly of member nations and a security council of select nations charged with maintaining international peace and security. The security council included the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States as permanent members, with other nations selected on a rotating basis.

Following the end of World War II, the Allied powers decided to hold the surviving high-ranking Nazi officials accountable for the crimes they committed during the war. As a result, an International Military Tribunal held the War Crimes Trials at Nuremberg, a city in Germany beginning in 1946. The Air Force Minister and second in command to Hitler, Hermann Goering, and other top officials faced charges of crimes against humanity, waging hostile and aggressive warfare, and numerous violations of international law. Twenty-two were tried, and nineteen were found guilty. The Tribunal ordered several guilty parties to be hanged, while the others were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. Hermann Goering committed suicide in his cell rather than face execution. The Allies hoped that these trials would help to expose the evils of the Nazi regime to the world and especially the German people.

Throughout the war, both the Allied and Axis powers raced to develop atomic weapons in hopes of gaining the edge to win the war. In the United States, with the support of Britain and Canada, the code name for this research and development effort was the Manhattan Project which began in 1942. This project was authorized by President Roosevelt after receiving letters from scientists, including Albert Einstein who had fled the Nazi regime, informing him of the Nazi’s work on atomic weapons. Under the direction of nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, the first atomic bombs were developed and tested.

When President Roosevelt died and Vice-President Harry Truman took office, he had to be brought up to speed concerning the project. When Japan refused to surrender, President Truman decided to authorize the use of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and three days later on Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered after seeing the destruction in both cities. While the bombs did finally end the war, they also ushered in the nuclear age and the race between nations to develop their stock of atomic weapons.