The Importance of War Production

More than 80% of Americans hoped the United States would stay out of World War one. Roosevelt convinced Congress to repeal and embargo on American arms sales in October 1939. He then stunned the nation by asking Congress to appropriate nearly one billion dollars for the immediate production of 50,000 warplanes a year. The US military lacked planes and tanks and the ones it did have were no match for Germany's state-of-the-art force. But such a massive defense effort would require the cooperation of private industry as well Steel and automobile manufacturers would need to convert to war production with unprecedented increases in output and efficiency.