The Round Tablette 14 February 2019 — 2

data allowed economists and policymakers to chose how to finance and pay for all these wartime expenditures. Collecting data at the firm level, for the first time we had some idea of national industrial capacity and its locations, as well as where the necessary skilled labor was. While few actually advised the President and the Cabinet directly, many economists contributed to the data and analyses underlying that advice. Sometimes the decisions had less to do with economics and more to do with creating an atmosphere of common cause and common sacrifice. FDR’s sons served in harms way; neither wealth nor fame kept the draft away, and Jimmy Stewart (bomber pilot) and Clark Gable (aerial gunner/observer) both served in the 8th Air Force. Other men with special knowledge and training (nuclear physics) were exempt from the draft to work in lovely Los Alamos. The nationwide speed limit of 35 mph, to “save” gasoline, actually helped limit tire wear. Tires were made from rubber from the Dutch East Indies – now under Japanese management. Rationing of household items and food to generate a sense of common sacrifice meant a personal diet significantly greater than during the depression. VICTORY GARDENS, local scrap drives to collect aluminum and other metals, collecting fat for ammunition production all played roles, some for production, some for morale. Hollywood’s major studios turned out morale building motion pictures and stars volunteered for USO tours. Walt Disney’s animators produced training films for the armed forces and Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny joined the fight against Hirohito and the Führer in numerous cartoons. Central planning was wholly absent, central- ized guidance was the norm. We created a huge logistics infrastructure to fight two wars, both logistically daunting. Just to get to the fight, we had to first invest in the support and supply vessels and infrastructure, produce the goods, and train the men, and then move all the men and their equipment (from typewriters to chaplain’s gear) to staging bases before any shot was fired. The English joked that their island would sink because of all the American materiel stockpiled there for D-Day. Central planners did not account for the technical expertise of the average American service man, who knew how to keep a Model A running and had no problem fixing a broken down jeep. The planners did create thousands of military technical schools, almost over-night, and thousands of pilots, navigators, radiomen, medical technicians, and other specialists were churned out.

Jim Lacey, Keep From All Thoughtful Men: How U.S. Economists Won World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011). Maury Klein, A Call To Arms: Mobilizing American for World War II (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013). Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). Paul A.C. Koistinen, Arsenal of World War II: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1940-1945 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004). Adam Tooze, Wages of Destruction (London: Viking Press, 2006).

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Round Table Schedule 2019 14 Mar. Combined Bomber Offensive (change) 28 Mar. WASPs 11 Apr. General with Six Stars: J. H. C. Lee 9 May D-Day

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