And, to make an additional point, our periods of isolationism before both
WWI and WWII allowed the United States to build our military to a point
where it was formidible, and a match for the Germans and Japanese.
Although
it is arguable whether we would have really been a match for both armies,
fighting two fronts if not for our use of atomic weapons.
The war in Europe was much more difficult for European countries than for
the US because they had no time to prepare. Also, Europe seemed to be
populated by leaders interested in appeasement of Germany and Hitler, as
opposed to building up their own defensive forces.
Me:
Well, we didn't _use_ our time to prepare. I'm not sure where you're
getting this idea, actually, Jon, since the unpreparedness of the United
States to enter the Second World War is near-legendary. The American army
up until about 1938 was the size of Romania's. The famous exercises in the
South in which Patton and Marshall learned how to command tank attacks were
conducted with trucks, because the US had no real armored forces at the
time - and that was also in the late 1930s. The US had, IIRC, four
aircraft carriers on Dec. 7, 1941 - the Enterprise, Yorktown, Saratoga, and
Hornet. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor uses 6, IIRC, and that was not
their entire fleet. The United States had immense latent power - something
in the range of 50% of the world's industrial capacity - but very little in
the way of forces in being in 1941 when we entered the war. The European
countries had plenty of time to prepare, but, like us, they chose not to
use it. The struggles of Churchill to try and force Britain to rearm are
well-known. As is the fact that he was largely ignored until it was almost
too late. France refused to complete the Maginot line. The Netherlands
refused to allow the French to station troops on their soil, thus
guaranteeing both their own conquest and that there would be a gaping hole
in French defenses. No one was ready to fight the Germans, but you can't
argue that it was because of insufficient warning, and I don't think you
can say that the US was more ready to fight than anyone else.
Gautam
