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Americas Involvement In World War Two

America’s involvement in World War TwoAmerica’s
involvement in World War Two
When war broke out, there was no way the
world could possibly know the severity of this guerre. Fortunately one
country saw and understood that Germany and its allies would have to be
stopped. America’s Involvement in World War two not only contributed in
the eventual downfall of the insane Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich,
but also came at the precise time and moment. Had the United States entered
the war any earlier the consequences might have been worse.


Over the years it has been an often heated
and debated issue on whether the United States could have entered the war
sooner and thus have saved many lives. To try to understand this we must
look both at the people’s and government’s point of view. Just after
war broke out in Europe, President Roosevelt hurriedly called his cabinet
and military advisors together. There it was agreed that the United states
stay neutral in these affairs. One of the reasons given was that unless
America was directly threatened they had no reason to be involved. This
reason was a valid one because it was the American policy to stay neutral
in any affairs not having to with them unless American soil was threatened
directly. Thus the provisional neutrality act passed the senate by seventy-nine
votes to two in 1935. On August 31, Roosevelt signed it into law. In 1936
the law was renewed, and in 1937 a “comprehensive and permanent” neutrality
act was passed.

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The desire to avoid “foreign entanglements”
of all kinds had been an American foreign policy for more than a century.


A very real “geographical Isolation” permitted the United States to “fill
up the empty lands of North America free from the threat of foreign conflict”.


Even if Roosevelt had wanted to do more in this European crisis (which
he did not), there was a factor too often ignored by critics of American
policy-American military weakness. When asked to evaluate how many troops
were available if and when the United States would get involved, the army
could only gather a mere one hundred thousand, when the French, Russian
and Japanese armies numbered in millions. Its weapons dated from the first
World War and were no match compared to the new artillery that Germany
and its allies had. “American soldiers were more at home with the horse
than with the tank”. The air force was just as bad if not worse. In September
1939 the Air Corps had only 800 combat aircrafts again compared with Germany’s
3600 and Russia’s 10,000. American military Aviation (AMA) in 1938 was
able to produce only 1,800, 300 less than Germany, and 1,400 less than
Japan. Major Eisenhower, who was later Supreme commander of the Allied
forces in the second World War, complained that America was left with “only
a shell of military establishment”. As was evident to Roosevelt the United
States military was in no way prepared to enter this European crisis.


Another aspect that we have to consider
is the people’s views and thought’s regarding the United States going to
war. After all let us not forget that the American government is there”for the people and by the people” and therefore the people’s view did
play a major role in this declaration of Neutrality. In one of Roosevelt’s
fireside chats he said “We shun political commitments which might entangle
us In foreign wars…If we face the choice of profits or peace-this nation
must answer, the nation will answer ?we choose peace’ “, in which they
did. A poll taken in 1939 revealed that ninety-four per cent of the citizens
did not want the United States to enter the war. The shock of World War
one had still not left, and entering a new war, they felt, would be foolish.


In the early stages of the war American Ambassador to London was quoted
saying “It’s the end of the world, the end of everything”. As Richard Overy
notes in The Road To War, this growing “estrangement” from Europe was not
mere selfishness. They were the values expressed by secretary of state,
Cordel Hull: “a primary interest in peace with justice, in economic well-being
with stability, and conditions of order under the law”. These were principles
here on which most Americans (ninety-four percent as of 1939) agreed on.


To promote these principles the United States would have to avoid all “foreign
entanglements”, or as Overy puts it “any kind of alliance or association
outside the Western Hemisphere”. Instead the United States should act as
an arbiter in world affairs, “encouraging peaceful change where necessary”
and most and for all discouraging aggression.


Why risk going to war, when it is contrary
to American policy which most if not all Americans were in agreement with
and not mentioning the fact that the American military was in shambles.


Yet another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President
Roosevelt was the American Economy. The health of the American economy
could not be jeopardized whatever was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelt’s
view that the United States would fare well (economically speaking) whether
Europe went to war or not. “Gold was flowing in from Europe’s capitals;
orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds; America
was building a battleship for Stalin, aero-engines for France”. For most
of the 1930’s the United States traded as openly with Germany and Japan,
as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron
until 1941. Germany was one of the United States’ “most important markets”
during the 1930’s. American investments in Germany increased by forty per
cent between 1936 and 1940. America was steadily regaining the prosperity
that had diminished during World War 1. The real concern of American business
was not “the rights or wrongs of trading with fascism” but the fear that
commercial rivals such as Japan and Germany would exclude American goods
from Europe and Asia altogether.


It is very easy to point and accuse the
united states of being selfish, but one has to understand that any negative
actions made would have resulted in the United States being almost if not
completely out of the economic race. Would the United States have been
as prosperous as it is today had they intervened any earlier? They probably
would have not because at that time in history America needed a boost to
return to its earlier status of being economically stable which Germany
and its allies so adequately provided. Therefore President Roosevelt was
not about to go to war with all axis powers thereby jeopardizing not only
the safety of the American people but also the American economy which was
so essential to a large and complex country that the United States was
at the time. Unless American interests were directly threatened, Roosevelt
hesitated to “push the button”.


On December 6, 1941 the Japanese
Airforce led a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, completely eradicating
the port. Finally President Roosevelt could wait no longer. America was
now involved and not going to war would only endanger the United States
more than it already was. On the following day Roosevelt argued that the
attack “had given us an opportunity”.


Congress approved the declaration of war
with only one dissenting voice. Eleanor Roosevelt noted that the effect
of the Japanese attack was “to release my husband from months and pent-up
tension and anxiety”. Andrew Wheatcroft says in his book The Road To War,
” It is tempting to see Pearl Harbor as the crisis that Roosevelt was waiting
for and did nothing to prevent”. America’s most vital interest, defense
of American soil, had been challenged. At last America had to go to war
and eventually bring an end to the rule of nazi Germany.


The Americans upon declaring its Neutrality,
gave additional encouragement to Japan and Germany to in a way “take over
the world”, and to Nazify it. Hitler had convinced himself that America
had declined in the 1930’s because of social crisis. This misconception
also led Japan to confront the United States in 1941. Had the United States
entered the war any earlier or later the consequences could have been much
worse (If possible). Towards the end of the war Walter Lippmann reporter
for the Herald Tribune recalled his experience:
When I attempt to compare the America
in which I was reared with the America of today, I am struck by how unconcerned
I was as a young man with the hard questions which are the subject matter
of history. I did not think about the security of the republic and how
to defend it. Franklin Delano Roosevelt did think about the security of
the republic and defended it magnificently. Leading the United States every
step of the way President Roosevelt did a superior job in bringing America
into war when he did. Evidently America entered World War 2 at the precise
time and moment to once and for all take down Adolph Hitler and the third
Reich.

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