Nobody put the Reuben James in harm's way in any sinister sense.

The North Atlantic was vital to a number of nations - including Britain, the United States, and Germany.

Reuben James was escorting a British-bound convoy authorized under Lend-Lease by the United States Congress. Opinion polls showed that 2/3 of the U.S. public favored the pro-British Lend-Lease law, which gained Caribbean bases for the U.S. while allowing the British to sustain the fight against Hitler. Lend-Lease also provided aid to China and the USSR.

Everybody realized that Germany would regard Lend-Lease as a breach of neutrality and would react militarily - though probably short of war, because Germany was unable and unprepared to attack North America directly.

The sinking of the Reuben James was accepted by Washington as part of the expected cost of maintaining Britain's lifeline of supplies and Anglo-American control of the North Atlantic. The destroyer Kearny had already been torpedoed under similar circumstances.