h Germany and its allies so adequately provided. Therefore President Roosevelt was not about to go to war with all axis powers thereby jeopardizing not only the safety of the American people but also the American economy which was so essential to a large and complex country that the United States was at the time. Unless American interests were directly threatened, Roosevelt hesitated to "push the button." On December 6, 1941 the Japanese Air-force led a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, completely eradicating the port. This brings up the patriotic point of view, which is much the same as the path we are following in Afghanistan right now. They stabbed AMERICA, the greatest nation on this planet, in the back with their cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor. We would have become involved in the war anyways, but as the Taliban is learning now, you don’t mess with America without retribution. Finally President Roosevelt could wait no longer. America was now involved and not going to war would only endanger the United States more than it already was. On the following day Roosevelt argued that the attack "had given us an opportunity". Congress approved the declaration of war with only one dissenting voice. If we hadn’t gone to war, many things would have happened. First, the Great Depression probably would have continued because it was the jobs and income from the war that brought us out of the Depression. Second, the Nazi’s would have been able to continue with their death camps and many millions more people would have died. Third, we never would have gotten our atomic revenge on the Japanese. However, it was those same atomic weapons that fueled the Cold War, and left people living in fear for the next several decades. So, as you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to being Isolationist or Interventionist. We can do a lot of good for the world by stepping in, however it is often at a great cost to ourselves...
