THE AMRIACS-1943

The Americas!

11/01/1943 President Roosevelt submits his budget to the U.S. Congress. $100 billion of the $109 billion budget is identified with the war effort. Left-wing Italian journalist Carlo Tresca is shot to death in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue in New York City. His death was mysterious at the time, but it now appears clear he was murdered by organized crime elements seeking to curry favor with the Mussolini regime. 07/02/1943 Shoe rationing begins in the USA, limiting civilians to three pairs of leather shoes per year. 29/03/1943 Meat rationing begins in the USA and is set at 28oz per week. 01/04/1943 Attempting to stem inflation in the USA, President Roosevelt freezes wages, salaries, and prices. Meat, fats, canned goods, and cheese are now rationed in the US. 08/05/1943 Thousands of Korean-Americans petition to have their status converted from that of enemy aliens to friendly aliens. In December 1943, this is granted. 04/06/1943 A Military coup takes place in Argentina, with the army occupying Buenos Aires. 17/08/1943 The first Quebec summit opens with the allied plans for the invasion of France being approved by Roosevelt and Churchill. 06/09/1943 A conference of 48 Republican governors, senators and congressmen convene at the Mackinac Island resort between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan under the chairmanship of Sen. Arthur Vandenberg to hammer out a post-war foreign policy for the party. The meeting discards the isolationist stance that Republicans adopted following World War I and adopts a cautious internationalism. 30/09/1943 Sumner Welles, friend and confidante of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, resigns abruptly as Undersecretary of State. Officially, the reason given is policy differences between Welles and Secretary of State Cordell Hull over relations with pro-Axis governments in Latin America. The actual reason was the threat by former ambassador William Bullitt – who hungered for Welles’ (and Hull’s) job - to expose Welles’ homosexuality. FDR never forgave Bullitt and even refused him permission to enlist in the U.S. Army afterward. (Bullitt ended up joining the Free French forces under de Gaulle.) 04/12/1943 Bolivia declares war on all the Axis powers. 17/12/1943 Roosevelt reveals a plot to assassinate him at Teheran. 24/12/1943 Roosevelt broadcasts about the Cairo and Teheran conferences and says plans have been laid for the invasion of Europe and its post-war reconstruction.