I don't agree with those of my compatriots who claim "we saved your asses!" to Brits. Really, it was the other way around. Britain saved our asses by staying in the fight & acting as a key linchpin for a combined strategy that eventually defeated the Axis. No doubt.
But I also reject utterly the, mostly British, criticism of US conduct prior to Dec '41. "We came in too late!" Yes, Americans were mistaken to believe we should stay out of the war, but it was a case of being wrong for all the right reasons. After all, we had finally intervened in the first war, to what effect? Although our losses were far smaller than those of the primary combatants, they still led to what? Another war? Doubtless you're aware of Churchill's alleged statement in '36 that the US should have stayed out of the Great War because by the end of '16 the powers had begun to realize that a military victory was impossible & that some face-saving peace was the only way out. Imagine had that taken place: no Nazism, likely no Bolshevik revolution. A stable Europe.
The rest: profiteering? How else are the tools of war & supplies to sustain the population provided? Great Britain ceased payments on war loans in the mid-thirties. Congress, recognizing that the preservation of war debt to the Allies was one of the principle reasons the US entered the Great War (an Allied collapse would have bankrupted the US), put strict limits on how far the President could support a foreign power. It was supposed to be all cash & carry. Which left FDR to find creative ways to support Britain, such as Lend Lease & the destroyer transfer. It might have seemed cold-blooded when Britain was fighting for her existence, but it was the law, enacted for understandable reasons.
Finally, of course US corporations did business with Nazi Germany prior to the war. Why not? Are you certain no British company did as well? People had mixed feelings about the Nazis, given how Germany had suffered economically before Hitler.
reply
share