My use of the term 'incompetence' was probably a little harsh- it's easy with hindsight to see what the plan was. My point was that it is more probable that mistakes were made by USN intelligence rather than a grand plan to get the Japanese to smash the USN pacific fleet at harbour. The idea that US politicians had knowledge of a plan to attack Pearl Harbour and allowed it to happen with their ulterior motive being to provoke the USA population into war is frankly ludicrous.
By the way, the USA did not declare war on Germany- Germany declared war on the USA. It was a serious miscalculation by Hitler.
Although Roosevelt wanted to go to war against the Nazis the political landscape in the USA was still set against getting involved in another European conflict- it was seen as a foreign war whereas the war in the Pacific was seen as a direct threat to USA security.
Post war the USA had a very different global strategy and was much more 'internationalist'- prior to WW2 it was very 'isolationist'.
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12-12-2011, 10:25 PM
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