World War II was the most destructive war in man's history. Its timeframe differs from country-to-country, depending on their involvement. The United States entered the war on December 7, 1941 after the attack by the Japanese on the Naval station at Pearl Harbor Hawaii, but by that time, war had been raging in Europe for over 2 years (most view the invasion of Poland in 1939) and fighting between the Japanese and Chinese had been underway since 1937.
The primary Axis powers were Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini and Imperial Japan under Emperor Shōwa (known as Hirohito in the west). The Allies consisted of The United States under President Franklin Roosevelt, Great Britain under Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin.
Edit Speech Relevance
Reagan directly mentions World War II only one time in '
Encroaching Control':
But what is being proposed in Washington, well a farm program is being lobbied which says the only answer to the farm problem is to take the 80% of free agriculture into a program of government regimentation, requiring the licensing of every farm in the United States, requiring the government establishment of production quotas and prices. And then they frankly admit this will mean the employment of thousands and thousands of new employees in the agricultural department, a permanent government subsidy and the raising of food prices between 15 and 25%. And in order to do this, they admit they will also create, artificially, a shortage of foodstuffs to the point that meat alone will be in supply about equal to what we knew under rationing in World War II.
World War II was such a massive undertaking for all involved that certain goods or materials couldn't be produced fast enough. Rubber, nylon, steel, gas and certain kinds of food were deemed necessary for the war effort and, thus, rationed for civilians. Reagan is saying that greater government intervention into agriculture would reduce output to the point that the people would feel like they were back in the 1940s.
Edit Source Links
World War II (Wikipedia)