America During the 2 World War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2JvarEfX0g When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the Second World War II began. In America the economy was just starting to improve after the great depression. President Roosevelt did not want America to get involved in another war. Doing so would certainly mean the loss of more American lives. Roosevelt’s desire was for America to be isolated from the rest of the world. In an interview, Roosevelt was asked if America would be able to stay out of the war and his response was "... I believe we can, and every effort will be made by the Administration to do so." The age old question is, had America entered the war in 1939 would the overall length of the war been shorter? If America had been involved earlier would the large loss of life from the Holocaust been minimized? I believe that if the United States had entered the war when Germany first invaded Poland, the war would have been shorter and the overall loss of human lives would have been less.

As the war continued in Europe some of the leaders in America were arguing that America need to get involved in the war in Europe. America’s leaders recommend fighting in the war however, the American people did not want to get involved and sacrifice more American lives. During this era, America espoused the philosophy of isolationism. There were two instances when America could have entered the war before it did. When Japan was fighting against China and Germany was at war with much of Europe. During this time America continued to sit on the sidelines and remain neutral while other nations were experiencing great losses. America did however assist in the war effort when it broke the Japanese war-time code in August of 1940. This gave the United States the ability to understand Japan’s and Germany’s plans war time plans. America shared these plans with the entire world and yet didn’t realize that an attack might come to American soil. In August of 1940 Roosevelt made an initial effort in preparation for war when he asked Congress to enlist the National Guard into Federal service for a period of one year.

In September of 1940 America started to take steps that were precursors to entering the war. Japan, Germany and Italy singed the Tripartite Treaty. This treaty called for an alliance that if one of these nations attacked or was attacked by another nation, the other two countries would in turn declare war on the other nation. Roosevelt did not want to proactively enter the war. He believed that if either Japan or Germany were to attack America we would have no choice but to join in the war time cause. This was an important fact to Roosevelt’s leadership as if America was attacked the American people support entry into the war. On December 1941 Japan attacked at Pearl Harbor. This event marked the end of America’s isolationism and forced the United States into the war where it fought the final three year of the war.

After staying neutral and espousing isolationism for nearly a decade, America was finally pulled into the Second World War. America should have entered the war sooner so as to prevent the significant loss of life to the people in Europe. Not only would the US have assisted the European nation’s safety but we would also have averted the embarrassing attack on Pearl Harbor. Looking back at history America entered both the First and Second World War’s late. America has always wanted to be a peaceful nation but when attacked or provoked will defend our freedom, our citizens and our borders. (609)