HITLER'S AMERICAN GAMBLE

A meticulous historical account of “five momentous days” at the beginning of World War II.

Congress declared war on Japan the day after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, but it didn’t declare war on Germany. That was Hitler’s idea, and he declared war on the U.S. on Dec. 11. Most historians argue that this was a terrible decision, but Hitler showed no doubt. Simms and Laderman deliver an insightful account of those five days. As the authors note, few considered Japan a serious military threat, and most experts believed that it had bombed Pearl Harbor at Hitler’s behest. Franklin Roosevelt and Allied leaders continued to consider Germany the major threat. Yet when Roosevelt’s Cabinet met and Secretary of War Henry Stimson urged a declaration of war against Germany, no one supported him, and Roosevelt did not mention Germany in his famous “day of infamy” speech. Always attuned to public opinion, he deferred to powerful opposition to another European war, as embodied by the America First Committee, which had grumpily agreed to fight only Japan. Many histories report that Churchill “slept the sleep of the saved and thankful” after hearing the news of Pearl Harbor. That’s hindsight, write Simms and Laderman, noting how he documented that sentiment later. At the time in Britain, “opinion was split on whether the new Pacific war was good or bad news.” Many, Churchill included, worried that the U.S. would focus on Japan and leave Britain to face Hitler alone—a realistic concern given that the U.S. had immediately suspended its massive lend-lease program. Hitler’s declaration of war solved the problem, and the authors conclude that he did not declare war in ignorance of America’s immense power but because of it. “In late 1941,” they write, “the Führer saw a narrow window of opportunity not to defeat the United States outright but to create a self-sufficient Axis bloc strong enough to withstand it. Otherwise he risked gradual strangulation.”

An excellent argument that America’s WWII began on Dec. 11, 1941.