Why didnt the U.S. get involved in ww2 until the end?

Question

As you can see, my history is very weak so no lectures just answers please

I know the story about p.harbour but what were the U.S. doing for 6 years?were they not great allies like they are today(to britain)

Answer 1

karlos,

This country was founded on principles that did not include royalty. Most of the problems in Europe and Asia were between Monarchs, Dictators and Emperors, that wanted to rule the roost. Because we weren't driven by the lust for power, we wanted to keep our nose out of it. Those ideals led to policies which became known as 'Isolationism'. We are not a country of war mongers. I think maybe John F. Kennedy summed it up when he said, "We must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate".

Answer 2

Two reasons. The first is that the Europeans had a long history of battling amongst themselves and the American public really wasn't all that interested in getting in another war over there. You have to go back to a 1930s mindset to really understand that.

Second is logistics. It takes a long time to build an army. We were actually very much on our way to doing that prior to Pearl Harbor but weren't ready to do much until later. That is part of the reason that the Allies didn't hit the European mainland with ground troops until 1944.

Answer 3

The US was very much involved in WWII, even before Pearl Harbor. The US was the war materials support for both England and Russia. Before Pearl Harbor, the US had lost a great many merchant marine ships that were carrying war materials to the allies.

The political climate in the US was anti war, just as it is today in this country, so Roosevelt had to tread lightly when the subject of war came up. He knew we needed to join the fight, and he knew it was just a matter of time before we did, and then Pearl Harbor happened.

Are you starting to see a lot of similarities to then and now? Joe Kennedy, who was ambassador to England was one of the biggest opponents of war against Germany, so much so, that England asked the US to remove Kennedy as it's ambassador. Do you see any similarities, yet?

Although the US was a late starter in WWII, it was also the catalyst in the war turning around, because up to that time, it was being fought to a stalemate, both in Russia and Europe. The US was active in WWII for almost four years, and it fought the war on two fronts. It was also the most dominate player, once it did get involved. Certainly, the outcome of WWII would have been different had the US not jumped in when it did!
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Answer 4

The American people were disillusioned with the outcome of world war one. The euphoria of victory vanished at Versailles when the Americans realized the war was not about freedom and democracy versus tyranny but one group of empires against another. The end of the war ended in an Imperial land-grab off the skeleton of Germany and Austro-Hungary.
They were determined not to take part in another war for empires.

Answer 5

WW2 in Europe started on Sept. 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, it ended on May 7,1945. Britain declared war on Sept. 3, 1939, the US on Dec. 8,1941. A little late but no where near 6 years and not at the end. Both Britain and the US declared war on Japan on Dec. 8,1941.......In WW1 we came in near the end.

Answer 6

The US involvement began with FDR's embargo against Japan (an Embargo is an act of war). Japan had two choices: to get out of China, or to attack the US. Japan elected to attack Pearl Harbor. The US had broken the Japanese Purple Code, so all Japanese diplomatic and military messages were able to be read. The instructions to the Japanese fleet to attack Pearl Harbor were deciphered. FDR failed to warn Pearl Harbor because he feared that the Japanese would turn back if they realized that they had lost the element of surprise.

FDR blamed General Kimmel and Admiral Short for the disaster at Pearl Harbor. Both officers demanded a court martial to clear their names. They finally got their courts martial after the war, and were exonerated from all blame.

FDR got us into WW2. What was the result of WW2? We stopped Hitler, and delivered half of Europe to Stalin. In 1949, China fell to the Communists. Does that sound like a good deal to you.

Charles Lindbergh and others of the American First Movement tried to keep us out of WW2, until after Pearl Harbor. FDR branded them "pro Nazi". In my opinion, FDR was the worst president we had, up to that time. He is responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths.

We didn't get in at the end. We entered the war in December of 1941, The war didn't end until August of 1945.

Answer 7

It was a different world back then. And the US hopped to stay out of the official war. But were in it from the start, in support of Britten and china.

And the US ended the war so naturally the were in closer to the end than others.

In response to your additional details:
At that time Britten was world's major empire, the US was an isolationist country. It took Britten a few years to realize it needed the US. And it took the US longer to overcome its inertia and then to realize that our help was essential. And then the Germany had to take the continent and threaten Britten. Then it took pearl harbor to move us to action.

Answer 8

Americans did not want to be involved. In fact, at least one boatload of Jewish refugees were turned away from entering the U.S. Their fate was that eventually they starved, since no country would let them in.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, we were forced to enter the war.

Answer 9

Over three years of being involved in the Pacific and Europe is THE END OF THE WAR?

Answer 10

Short answer is, becuse it didn't directly affect them. There was a very strong isolationist desire in America at the time, indeed FDR was elected on it and so it had to get pretty bad before they would intervene. (And incidentally, the Russians could easily of liberated Europe by themselves, but having the US here prevented them from doing a little too much liberating)