Yes, we would have been better off not having hundreds of thousands of people killed in WW2.
WW1 did us no good, and just set the stage for the even more horrific WW2.
We would have been better off shucking the New Deal horseshit in the 1930s instead of waiting until the 1940s.
FDR was doing everything in his power to get us into war.
With the Atlantic Charter FDR was trying to build support to enter the war in Europe, it failed, public remained against it.
He still had US ships hunting Nazi subs and trading shots with them as early as April 1941, before Japan attacked and Germany declared war.
From Stimson's own diary:
Nov. 7. Cabinet meeting this afternoon. The President opened with telling the story of Lincoln and his Cabinet—how he polled the Cabinet and found them all polling NO and then he said, “The Ayes have it.”
With that he started to have what he said was the first general poll of his Cabinet and it was on the question of the Far East—whether the people would back us up in case we struck at Japan down there and what the tactics should be.
He went around the table—first Hull and then myself, and then around through the whole number and it was unanimous in feeling the country would support us. He said that this time the vote IS unanimous, he feeling the same way. . . .
Nov. 25. General Marshall and I went to the White House, where we were until nearly half past one. At the meeting were Hull, Knox, Marshall, Stark, and myself.
The President brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked, perhaps (as soon as) next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we should do. The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves. . . .
Assuming Trump / Kennedy can stay alive.
