Hitler was laughing out loud at FDR

[Picaro]

So, if America's enemies had been deterred for a while, wouldn't they have improved logistically and technologically even more quickly? That is to say, the sudden, overwhelming entry against already over-extended foes was arguably more effective than gradual escalation.

But there were definite limits to the size German armies and their could achieve could achieve, and the U.S. 's limits were far and above those; we kept both the allies and the Soviets as well as ourselves in the war via our production capacity, our own fuel and mineral resources, and more than enough skilled manpower to out-produce any possible combination of enemies, and we fought on three fronts as well at the same time. They would have had to back down at some point, on all fronts. If we had entered the war earlier, we would suffered fewer losses and the war two years shorter.

 

[Markle]

So, if America's enemies had been deterred for a while, wouldn't they have improved logistically and technologically even more quickly? That is to say, the sudden, overwhelming entry against already over-extended foes was arguably more effective than gradual escalation.

But there were definite limits to the size German armies and their could achieve could achieve, and the U.S. 's limits were far and above those; we kept both the allies and the Soviets as well as ourselves in the war via our production capacity, our own fuel and mineral resources, and more than enough skilled manpower to out-produce any possible combination of enemies, and we fought on three fronts as well at the same time. They would have had to back down at some point, on all fronts. If we had entered the war earlier, we would suffered fewer losses and the war two years shorter.

 

[SandSquid]

As I mentioned in a previous post FDR tried to strengthen the military by having Congress passing a peace-time draft law in 1940. It was passed with the Republicans in the House voting "NO" by 88 and yes by 46.

Europe was already at war in 1940, and so was Asia. By that point in time, a draft could not have stopped WWII.

However, if we had a draft in 1937 , it would have been a different story.

The idea of a Strong Military isn't to fight a war, but to avoid fighting a war.

True but Americans didn't want a military to police the world at the time. When one of every five families couldn't put dinner on the table that wasn't our priority. And we don't have a monarch to go against the will of the people here. Remember tax rates went up 1000% to fund the war. It wasn't a popular idea by anyone to break the bank during a depression for a war that might be coming... across the ocean. Especially in the late 30s when unemployment hit 19%.

Remember in the mid to late 30s before WWII broke out the US doubled it's military spending. From 1-2% of GDP to 2-3%. And considering that got us up to a military force almost on par with Portugal and still outside the top 40 in aircraft manufacturing it wasn't like tripling or quadrupling the budget would make a difference and scare off anyone. To support the war the defense budget was up to 40% of our hugely expanding GDP (went from 3 Bill year to over 700 bil year in under 5 years). Amazing what the US accomplished in such a short time.

Germany was spending between 100-200 billion dollars a year in the year leading up to wwii. More than the entire US gdp. Add in another 100+ billion by the other axis powers. The US was spending around 3 billion. I don't see a realistic way for the US to have scared them off of war during the peacetime approaching it. Well maybe if they'd accomplished building the atomic bomb by 1939 I guess but that wasn't happening.

The thing which should have scared of the axis powers was our ability to turn into a superpower immediately based on our resources, population and safe manufacturing removed from the warzone.

 

[SandSquid]

The other side of that is Germany had already gone all in. They were spending half their GDP on the military in their leadup to WWII. It was war, or the financial ruin of their nation (aka the end of the Nazi Reich). I don't see them just shutting it down and ending their rule without a fight.

And without a fight how does the US survive? I mean we are talking about increasing military spending to an unsustainable level with an economy that hadn't moved in over 10 years to make a show of force on a similar scale to theirs. That kind of spending without a war likely would have driven the US into economic collapse.

 

[MacTheKnife]

Before WWII started, Roosevelt had let our military go straight to seed. We basically didn't have a serious army, just a handful of men were under arms, and that was of course the real cause of WWII. Hitler would not have thought to start the Holocaust if America was able to stop it immediately.

But in any event, when we did enter WWII, FDR recruited and fielded a Jim Crow Army to fight Hitler. Hitler thought it was hilarious and hypocritical that America would fight against racism, using a racist institution.

If FDR would have integrated the army right at Pearl Harbor, it would have given the message to Mr. Hitler we were serious.

That is not unusual since after every war the US demobilized and kept mainly the marines and navy for protection as a full time force.

Fair enough, but since America was demobilized, it would been simpler to bring all the new recruits to fight WWII into fully integrated units instead of Jim Crow units.

We were more concerned with winning the war than with integration.

Attempting integration at that time would have been disastrouos…..even when Truman finally did it during the Korea war it caused a lot of problems...btw we did not win that war.

By the time Vietnam rolled around....the Armed Forces were thoroughly integrated.....and that definitely contributed to the many problems we had in Vietnam such as insubordination, drug use, fragging etc.

It was all covered up and the beat goes on.