Describe three flaws in American democracy during World War II and the Cold War highlighted by this week’s document readings and Children of the Camps AND how these undermined American moral superiority in both conflicts.

The New Deal created a host of public works projects in the Western United States and this region benefited far more than any other part of the country–from dams to water treatment projects, from sewage treatment to post offices, from bridges to k-12 schools, and construction on college campuses of public and private universities. This investment infrastructure paid off, the government ran-up massive deficit in spending, because the United States was able to wage war in two major theaters as a result of industrial capacity in the east and west. This massive manufacturing capability would also fuel innovation during and after the war. California is what it is today because of New Deal investments, World War II, and the ensuing Cold War.During the 1920s and 1930s there was a rise of fascist regimes around the world and pro-fascist sentiments in the United States. By the way, the opposite of democracy is totalitarianism and fascism is one form of totalitarianism. In the U.S., supporters of Hitler and other fascist regimes in Europe like the American Bund, held rallies similar to 1930s Germany. Major American companies like General Motors, Ford, IBM, and DuPont collaborated with the emerging National Socialist (Nazi) Party.* There were also isolationists who actively opposed involvement in World War II as a result of disclosures from Gerald Nye’s investigations in Congress.The attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent declaration of war by Germany, brought the full force of American public opinion in support of war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be a major architect of the war and post war world would look like. An unlikely love triangle between Britain, the U.S. and the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union) emerged after a surprise German attack on the USSR in June of 1941. The three decided the course of war and peace, including creation of the United Nations,** up until 1945 when the coalition fell apart during the last months of the waning war. The deployment of two atomic weapons, as symbols of American technological superiority, against Japan did not help matters and also unleashed a new era in world history and warfare. What followed next would be a rather cool war between the former allies that would often spark into hot episodes over the course of the next forty years. Elements of this warfare include an arms race, definitions of freedom having very little to do with freedom, proxy wars (the Korean and Vietnam wars), extension of American open and clandestine intervention in Africa, South America, and Asia to impose US definitions of freedom. Gone was the facade of self-determination of peoples.*Not to be confused with socialism an economic system wherein governments, with (social democracy) or without (dictatorship) consent of its citizens, play an active role in the economy–old age pension, unemployment supports, family leave, college education, health care, etc. paid by taxes. **The United Nations was created by the United States and its wartime allies, Britain and USSR, to succeed where the League of Nations had failed.This module covers from the early stages of Second World War through the hottest crisis in the Cold War–the Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. Also included, is the civil rights movement. A stamp of shame that forever marks Germany is the Nazi’s Final Solution, the imprisonment, forced labor, and extermination of six million Jews and other undesirables that included blacks, Roma people, and members of the LGBTQ community. The United States emerged from World War II (1939-1945) as a bastion (defender) of freedom and democracy. Very few people inside and outside of the US knew and understood the many ways in which this was not true. There is very little in the way of truth and reconciliation with past restrictions and limitations of personal freedoms of citizens of the United States. There continues to be an unawareness among Americans of their continued complicity in incarcerating one of the largest population of people in the world today. Let me restate this, the US imprisons a larger portion of its population than any other similar country in the world.*Imprisonment of American undesirables is not new; this has been part of our studies since we began this course. Think in terms of black codes for African Americans and rounding of Native American tribal bands and deportation to reservations. The conditions under which these operated were deplorable and led to incalculable suffering and deaths. Add to this history, incarceration of dissidents, Eugene Debs and Kate Richards O’Hare, during World War I and Japanese-American internment during World War II. During the Cold War, civil rights leaders were often branded communist in order to discredit their message, or in some cases murdered with tacit approval from the government. Ask any American for examples repression or a holocaust and rarely will there be any mention of a homegrown case. Why?Describe three flaws in American democracy during World War II and the Cold War highlighted by this week’s document readings and Children of the Camps AND how these undermined American moral superiority in both conflicts.