I accept that NineEnder is smart, educated, and a man of character. I cannot accept that NineEnder actually wrote the above post. Therefore, you are a house invader who may be holding NineEnder hostage. Release him immediately and leave his house now or IP addresses will be traced and authorities called!
Seriously, I’ve studied World War II in depth on my own, including reading many books on the subject. The US was actively involved helping the Allies before they Entered the war. You have heard of Lend-Lease, right? From wikipedia.org:
The
Lend-Lease policy, formally titled
An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (
Pub.L.77–11, H.R. 1776, 55
Stat.31, enacted March 11, 1941),
[1] was a program under which the United States supplied the
United Kingdom (and
British Commonwealth),
Free France, the
Republic of China, and later the
Soviet Union and other
Allied nations with food, oil, and
materiel between 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended in September 1945. In general the aid was free, although some hardware (such as ships) were returned after the war. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. Canada operated a similar smaller program called
Mutual Aid.
A total of
$50.1 billion (equivalent to $575 billion in 2019) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.
[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies
Further, it was the US commitment of manpower, technology, and equipment while focusing on Germany first that kept Russia in the war. It was alleged Stalin was near capitulation at their nadir when he talked about specific concessions to offer Germany in exchange for peace.
US dropping the atomic bomb was horrific and not militarily necessary. Just before the bombs were dropped, Japan’s refinery capacity was down 90%, their transportation infrastructure seriously damaged, the US achieved air supremacy over the skys of Japan, and mass starvation was looming. The US excuse for using the atomic bomb was fear over mass casualties an invasion might entail. Although “Quality targets” were getting harder to find, it seems to me the US could have waited the Japanesse out while further pounding their remaining energy production, transportation infrastructure, and industry. A Russian declaration of war against Japan would have likely convinced them further resistance was more than futile, even without the use of the atomic bombs. However, who knows how history would have unfolded if we did not show the world the horror of “Small” nuclear weapons on population centers. As it was, Russia and the United States came very close to nuclear war on several occasions, possibly making the knowledge of what awaited both sides in a nuclear war as being the difference in avoiding it.
I already went into more detail than orignally intended on the US contribution that most certainly changed the outcome of WWII in favor of the Allies. Just for a thought experiment, can you imagine what the current geopolitical landscape would look like if the US joined the Axis powers instead? Bye bye Russia, England, Canada, South America, etc., if the US wanted to rekindle “Manifest Destiny” again during WWII?