Quote:

D. McDonagh said:
No, the various European nations fought world war two in self defence and America got involved for economic reasons. Nobody gave a shit about France, particularly.



Gee, y'know, that's funny, because I always thought it was because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

We started the lend-lease act in 1940-1941, extending huge loans to Britain so it wouldn't be overthrown. Those were huge loans to England, huge loans, that had no guarantee would ever be repaid, since the smart money said England would be overthrown.
Germany had extensive plans, post-conquest, to exterminate any educated elite in England, and also to identify and exterminate all its Jews, and drain England's resources into the Wermacht. England's fall was all but assured. And the loans extended to England stood as a potentially huge loss to the United States.

Franklin Roosevelt wanted to fight in Europe, not for economic reasons, but because after England and Iceland, the Nazis would have invaded North America next. Britain had already prepared for the eventuality that it would fall, and possession of the British navy would have then gone to Canada. The papers were already signed in the event of England's defeat.
But once Europe was secure with the fall of Britain, and German factories would have been out of range and could no longer be bombed from England, it really would have been a matter of time before North America fell.

Also, while the United States declared war on Japan after December 7, 1941, the U.S. was still divided on whether to fight a war in Europe, and take on Germany. Germany had still not directly attacked the U.S.

Roosevelt would have faced a lot of backlash if he'd used Pearl Harbor as an opportunity to declare war on Germany, despite that he wanted to, and knew it was in the national --and WORLD-- interest.

But Hitler declared war on the United States.
So that saved Roosevelt from having to go through a long process to sell war on Germany to the American people. The aggression was Germany's, not the United States'.



And many historians, and even many of Hitler's own leaders and generals, think that decision by Hitler, to declare war on the U.S., was the turning point of the war.
Without drawing the U.S. into the European theatre, the U.S. might have stayed out of the war. And Germany may have won.

So war was declared on the U.S. by Japan.
And war was declared on the U.S. by Germany.

There was no choice in the matter by the United States.

Where do you get your ludicrous notions of history ?

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"This Man, This Wonder Boy..."