From our 21st-century point of view, it is hard to imagine World War II without the United States as a major participant. Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in , however, Americans were seriously divided over what the role of the United States in the war should be, or if it should even have a role at all.
Even as the war consumed large portions of Europe and Asia in the late s and early s, there was no clear consensus on how the United States should respond.
The US ambivalence about the war grew out of the isolationist sentiment that had long been a part of the American political landscape and had pervaded the nation since World War I.
Many Americans were disillusioned by how little their efforts had accomplished and felt that getting so deeply involved on the global stage in had been a mistake. Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts in the late s, aiming to prevent future involvement in foreign wars by banning American citizens from trading with nations at war, loaning them money, or traveling on their ships.
But by , the deteriorating global situation was impossible to ignore. The urgency of the situation intensified the debate in the United States over whether American interests were better served by staying out or getting involved.
