M.A. (History) / The USA became formally involved in the second World War in December, 1941, after the Japanese attack on the American Naval Base of Pearl Harbour. Franklin D. Roosevelt was so obsessed with the idea of defeating Germany that he failed to set clear guidelines for the post-war era as regards Germany. He commenced from the erroneous supposition that wartime co-operation with Britain and the Soviet Union would be continued after the war and that the Great Three Would decide on, Germany's future in the postwar era. As a result the USA's German policy of 1944-45 was marked by ambiquities. As a consequence of Roosevelt's indecision, Britain took the initiative in partitioning Germany into occupation zones. This division gave the Soviet Union an advantage as well as planting the seed for the partition of Germany in 1949. The Western Powers obtained no guarantees from the ~oviet Union for their free passage into Berlin. Consequently the Soviet Union could blockade Berlin in June 1948. In April 1945, directive JCS-1067 was issued setting out the basis for the USA'S German policy. In the punitive clauses of JCS-1067 Henry Morgenthau's influence on President Roosevelt is clearly apparent. The majority of punitive clauses of JCS-1067 were taken up verbatim in the Potsdam Agreement of July-August 1945. The Potsdam Agreement stipulated that Germany was to be handled as an economic entity. However, France and the Soviet Union thwarted economic co-operation between the Occupation Forces. This led to a change in the USA's German Policy from early 1946...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:12740 |
| Date | 04 November 2014 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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