Oct 14, 2026 · 54 min · 37 segments
On this episode of Our American Stories, America was woefully unprepared for World War II. Our army was about the size of Portugal's, our navy was outdated, and our "air force" was roughly equivalent…
A.J. BaimeGuest
Lee HabeebHost
really understand what life was like, not just in America, but all over the world in the 1930s.
20% unemployment, millions and millions of people living below the poverty line, people, you know, of all generations who couldn't find work, couldn't find food, couldn't support their children.
So a lot of people of all ages could remember World War I, parents who had lost children, people who had lost brothers and sisters, and just the immense amount of destruction and death And of course, we went into the 1920s and had a rip-roaring time and drank a lot of booze and did a lot of dancing.
But by the 1930s, when people were really struggling and they couldn't support their kids, they really did not want their government spending money, tax dollars, on military equipment of any kind.
Why would we be spending money on tanks and airplanes? People should also recall 1932 slash early 1933, two very important new leaders came to power virtually at the same time.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will solemnly swear.
And
And during the early days of Hitler's regime, he did a couple of things that, you know, I hesitate to compliment him because, you know, for all the obvious reasons, probably the most, you know, horrible man who's ever walked the planet in modern times.
But he pulled Germany out of the Depression in certain ways that didn't happen in America.
And one of the ways he did that was to secretly, begin secretly, and then not so secretly, begin building a giant military, and most importantly, the first operational air force.
And as he was doing this, nobody in America was really paying attention because we thought, we're not going to have a war.
The anti-war movement was so strong that huge numbers and surveys taken of Americans believed that we never should have gotten involved in World War I to begin with.
really understand what life was like, not just in America, but all over the world in the 1930s.
20% unemployment, millions and millions of people living below the poverty line, people, you know, of all generations who couldn't find work, couldn't find food, couldn't support their children.
So a lot of people of all ages could remember World War I, parents who had lost children, people who had lost brothers and sisters, and just the immense amount of destruction and death And of course, we went into the 1920s and had a rip-roaring time and drank a lot of booze and did a lot of dancing.
But by the 1930s, when people were really struggling and they couldn't support their kids, they really did not want their government spending money, tax dollars, on military equipment of any kind.
Why would we be spending money on tanks and airplanes? People should also recall 1932 slash early 1933, two very important new leaders came to power virtually at the same time.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will solemnly swear.
And
And during the early days of Hitler's regime, he did a couple of things that, you know, I hesitate to compliment him because, you know, for all the obvious reasons, probably the most, you know, horrible man who's ever walked the planet in modern times.
But he pulled Germany out of the Depression in certain ways that didn't happen in America.
And one of the ways he did that was to secretly, begin secretly, and then not so secretly, begin building a giant military, and most importantly, the first operational air force.
And as he was doing this, nobody in America was really paying attention because we thought, we're not going to have a war.
The anti-war movement was so strong that huge numbers and surveys taken of Americans believed that we never should have gotten involved in World War I to begin with.
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