World War II Through the 1970’s
Stephen Lundert
Dr. Mel Albin
HIS 105 Contemporary US History
Strayer University
2 June 2013

This is the Baby Boom Generation. The period runs from the beginning of WWII thought the end of the 1960’s. The Vietnam War period was a very tumultuous period for the United States and a counterculture was created. This was also a period of great social unrest. The economic upturn that began at the end of WWII came to an end. The US participated in 3 wars; World War II, Korea, and Vietnam during this period. Women and minorities continued to make advances and even had some victories in the Civil Rights arena. There were several major tuning points that occurred during this time period but, I selected WWII and the Cold War because I believe they had the greatest impact. The first turning point to be discussed will be World War II. The war prompted a tremendous mobilization of America Resources, at a level not seen since the Civil War. The American Economy ramped up from that of the low-production Great Depression years to the most powerful economy in the world. The economy showed the most remarkable improvement, Wartime mobilization boosted production, increased demand for labor, and rescues the economy from the depression. World War II initiated the most significant federal management of the economy in American history. When the war began, President Roosevelt implemented the War Production Board (WPB) to steer the economy into manufacturing weapons rather than consumer goods. The expansion of the economy increased the size of the labor force. On the one hand, 12 million Americans joined the arms forces, subtracting that number from the labor pool. Roosevelt established the National War Labor Board (NWLB) I 1942 t minimize labor disputes and set wages, working conditions, and hours. As you can World War II was a