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"July 7th, 1942...a date which will live in world history. Peaceful merchant vessels of the United States of America were suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval forces of the Greater German Reich..."
- President Harry Hopkins, requesting a declaration of war on Germany following a U-Boat attack on American merchant ships in the famed
World History speech, 07/08/42

TOWARDS A NEW DIRECTION: AMERICA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Following his inauguration, Harry Hopkins began making bold moves on both the domestic and foreign fronts. His domestic program, the 'New Direction' of which Hopkins spoke of on the campaign trail, would rely heavily on a mix of New Deal-style infrastructure investments into creating a larger system of railroads and preparing for a war, should one break out, and more, socialistic style planning for the economy at-large. Various investments and programs were enacted under the first New Direction legislation, including the nationalization of the railroads and natural resources, as well as armaments, and moves towards a larger governmental role in health policy. The CCC and WPA were fused into a new organization, the American Preparedness League (APL), charged with armaments production and the updating and building of a modern military for the United States.

Hopkins' domestic policy also addressed, for the first time, improving race relations in America for the first time since the disastarous Plessy v. Ferguson decision in the eighteen-nineties. By executive order, all federal workplaces were to be integrated, including, of course, the military and APL. This would cause quite controversy between Hopkins and conservative Democrats, but Hopkins, ever the masterful administrator, dodged this bullet by keeping the political emphasis of the order on preparedness, speaking directly to the public in the fashion that, "I care not whether the man who dies serving this country is white or black...I care only that he cares enough for this country to put his life on the line for it."

With regard to foreign policy, Hopkins worked with Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, freeing up aid for both the Soviet Union and Britain in order to fight the threat of Nazism abroad, without actually having to go to war. Because of his own predispositions against British imperialism, however, it would take the prodding of his Chief of Staff, former Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, to loan quite a bit more to that nation than he initially planned, unlike the Soviets, whom Hopkins was quite fond of for their own anti-imperialist stance.

Hopkins would also extend an olive branch towards the Japanese, with whom Roosevelt had privately been feuding in his last days in office. Hopkins proposed lifting embargoes on Japan in return for a negotiated peace between Japan and the colonial powers it was feuding with in East Asia. While Hopkins personally found colonialism detestful, he feared even more a war with Japan in the near future, should a front break out in Germany. Negotiations eventually achieved something of a weaker outline, however, lifting most embargoes on Japan while giving Japan a free hand in 'liberating' colonial empires on the condition that these states would remain independent. These moves, however weak, were essential in the later breach of treaties between Japan and Germany and relative peace between the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and the United States.
- United as One: A History of the United States, a high-school history textbook published by Hughes-Marshall Co., 2003

Starting you off with a bit of a teaser. I'm actually going to use some secondary sources this time around, such as the history book I've mention (which is, I should note, completely fictional) to explain the time gap between Hopkins' inaugural and the declaration of war in July of 1942.

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