Thanks for posting , I read this earlier and wanted to get back and re read it .
What a strong determined young man , and a gentlemen after the war.

And how about their "luck" when they parachuted out , behind enemy lines and their leg packs got lost ?

WOW

Hitler was opposed to Japan's declaration of war. His opinion of the USA was considerably lower than his of England, but nonetheless he believed the USA (like England) should have been a natural ally of Nazi Germany.

In the USA our involvement in WWI was becoming less popular as the oppressive reparations forced on the Germans bankrupted the Weimar. Also, many Americans were deeply suspicious of Great Britain. Our relations had never been especially warm and the active support of the Confederacy by the British was still in the minds of some powerful people.

Eventually the Germans came to be admired in some quarters for their national socialism which had transformed the awful conditions under Weimar to a robust, powerful, forward-thinking industrial giant. Many Americans embraced Naziism with a large number of states adopting eugenics from the Nazis. This is why eugenics is STILL an ugly word in the USA today.

Anyway, Roosevelt had slight majority support in Congress for his "Lend-Lease" program in support of England. many, many people did not want to get into another war in Europe. Had Japan not attacked the USA, it is likely that the USA would have stayed on the sidelines for a couple more years. In which time, England may well have been forced to enter some sort of armistice, Churchill's government would likely have fallen, and Germany would have tightened its grip on Europe making a global war incredibly more difficult.

In my opinion.