allowed the "victor" nations of Europe to dictate punitive war-damage claims against Germany that crippled even further its already smashed economy. The resultant desperation led directly to the Nazi takeover, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. The U.S. also lost the opportunity to influence events in the Soviet Union during its first two decades. Perhaps with U.S. aid, a more moderate leader than Stalin might have come to power, millions of lives might have been saved, and the Cold War might never have happened.
Two years after the Second World War had begun devastating Europe, the U.S. was still trying to maintain its isolation and neutrality. It has been suggested that FDR did know ahead of time of the coming attack on Pearl Harbor, and that he, with Churchill's support, allowed it to happen in order to force America into the war. If this is true, FDR should be applauded in retrospect for his sanity in taking such a step. If the U.S. had delayed any longer, Britain might have fallen to the Nazis, and the Nazis might have developed the atomic bomb, which they were also working on, before the U.S. could.
However, after World War II, the U.S. had learned its lesson. American leaders had prepared all during the war to take over as "first among equals" in world leadership as soon as it was over. When Germany surrendered, the U.S. and its allies found themselves in possession of
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