let’s say there was no hitler and so no charismatic speechfier to draw so many people into a unified anti semitic and fascist party. and furthermore no charismatic leader to push the reluctant military into war

it could have been that the communists that the nazis were always fighting would have been able to take over instead. and maybe the japanese wouldn’t have been able to be impressed with hitler getting away with brute force and might not have gone so far

and then there would be no world war, and fdr would quit after two terms with the depression mitigated but not solved. and the huge technological leaps in wwii - radar, jets, computers, nuclear fission - and the big increase in college educated americans because of the gi bill, and the surge in income and competetive advantage that america had after wwii - might not have happened

wwii was the vortex of the 20th century, chewing up millions of people and things, sucking up huge pieces of the world and spitting them out at high speed utterly changed