People keep getting the word "infer" confused with "imply" too, Ebbie...

The USA took its time getting into WWII, but there were good reasons for that. FDR had a public and Congress who were not eager to get involved in a distant war in Europe. Can you blame them? It's not a pleasant business going to war, and why should you do it if your own direct interests are not being threatened? That's the way most ordinary Americans saw it.

(The only reason Canada entered at the beginning was this: we were part of the British Commonwealth. All the nations in the British Commonwealth entered when the UK entered, in 1939. That's the way the British Commonwealth functioned as a political union back then. If we had not been members of the British Commonwealth, we probably would not have entered the war until the USA did...maybe even later than that, because our direct interests would not have been threatened.)

FDR was looking at the larger strategic picture in 1941, and he felt that it was imperative that Germany not win the war in Europe. The only way to be sure they didn't was for the USA, with its massive economy, to enter the war on the side of the UK and Russia. But how could Roosevelt arrange a war with Germany, given that his public and his Congress didn't want one? He couldn't very well just call up Adolf Hitler and say, "Please declare war on us. I need you to do that, okay?"

No, the Germans had the strongest reasons for NOT getting into a war with the USA at that juncture. They were already biting off more than they could probably chew.

There was really no way to get the USA into that war except by provoking someone else to attack the USA first. And that's exactly what FDR did. He deliberately provoked the Japanese into attacking the USA first. He did it in such a way that it couldn't possibly fail to work, by cutting off their supplies of oil and steel. He knew they would attack.

Once they did, the USA would BE at war. A major war. That would eliminate the problem of a public and Congress who wanted to remain at peace once and for all. From that point on it would not be too hard to take the next step, and get into a war with the Germans.

The one thing Roosevelt could never have foreseen, though, was the incredible gift that Hitler handed him by declaring war ON the USA within a few days after Pearl Harbour!!!!!!! No other German commander would have done that. It was an act of madness (or despair?) on Hitler's part....and it suited Roosevelt's planning perfectly. He now had his war against Germany, and Germany would not win in the West.

The fate of the Axis was sealed from that moment on...although...there was still a lot of very tough fighting ahead in both the Pacific and in Europe, because the Germans and Japanese, though badly outnumbered, were highly experienced and very good at the art of war.