I'm really not sure that one can rightly say that the United States "set up" Hitler, but there was certainly a great deal of apathy and indifference, not to mention self-serving, as the Third Reich was being hatched. At the time, there were many anti-communist Americans who would have embrace Beelzebub himself if he were also anti-communist, so they tended to ignore some of Hitler's little peculiarities. I was too young to really know what was going on, but I remember hearing some discussions on the radio about Hitler in the late Thirties, and I remember that there were many Americans who thought Hitler was an excellent national leader and a pretty fine fellow. Some didn't like him much, and a few saw him for what he was, but for the most part, their warnings were ignored.

The United States did have a cordial relationship with Hitler, including the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. This was finally broken in 1938, just after Kristallnacht and several other blatant violations of human rights—much to the protest of American business. At the same time, the American ambassador was recalled, but diplomatic relations were not severed. By that time, it was getting pretty clear what Hitler was, but that didn't stop people from doing business with him, and he did have a lot of support in this country. The German-American Bund, for example.

The book, You Can't Do Business with Hitler: What a Nazi Victory Would Mean to Every American, by Douglas Miller, Little Brown & Co, Boston, was first published in 1941. By that time, it was pretty hard to deny that the Third Reich was not exactly all sweetness and light. It was followed by a radio program entitled "You Can't Do Business with Hitler," but this program didn't start airing until 1942, well into the war by then.

To get an idea of some of the stuff that was going on in the United States in the Thirties, take a look at THIS.

Read the whole thing. And try not to gag.

Don Firth