re: #92 sagehen

Shall I nitpick? I shall. I shall nitpick.

On December 8, 1941 Germany’s ambassador to the US marched up to the State Department, knocked on the door, and delivered THEIR declaration of war against US. (I’m sure the calligraphy was beautiful). At that point, Congress had no choice but to say “okay, germany, if that’s what you want then that’s what you shall have.”

FDR had been wanting to to get into that war for awhile, but the isolationist faction in the Senate, with support from the Bund, had blocked him.

(I should say, pretending to be “neutral” and “isolationist”, but what they really wanted was for Germany to win. We know they weren’t really “neutral” about wars generally, assorted Central American adventures in service of the United Fruit Company had already proved that.)

There was a significant continent of Americans who shared FDR’s view and really wanted in much earlier; they ran away to Canada to join the Commonwealth forces.

The German Declaration of War was delivered on December 11, 1941; 4 days after the Pearl Harbor attack and 3 days after the US Congress declared war against Japan. Congress followed up with a declaration against Germany later the same day. As is customary, the German declaration was delivered to US Charge D’Affaires Leland Morris by Nazi foreign minister Ribbentrop in Berlin.