. While Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) endorsed the idea of supporting China, and authorized small credits to the Nationalists in 1938 and larger amounts under Lend-Lease in early 1941, there remained "deeply rooted fear of provoking Japan" and a desire in 1941 to postpone any Pacific war until American rearmament was further underway (Schaller 32).
The Japanese decision to go to war was triggered by the American embargo of July 1941 on oil exports to Japan, which in turn flowed from aggressive moves of the Japanese to occupy French bases in Indochina after the fall of France to the Nazis. However, Tsou points out that a sticking point throughout the American-Japanese negotiations during the summer and fall of 1941 was that "the United States insisted on enforcing the principle of the integrity of China and demanded the withdrawal of Japanese troops from China," a demand the Japanese could not accept (11).
Exaggerated optimism and early defeats. The beleaguered Nationalists were delighted that the United
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