World War II and the United States.

In September, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, finally provoking Great Britain and France to declare war. Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of Germany since 1933, had engaged in a series of aggressive actions, including the annexation of Austria and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Benito Mussolini, Hitler’s Italian ally, had invaded Ethiopia in 1935-1936. Both Hitler and Mussolini contributed significant weaponry and armed forces to Francisco Franco’s fascist takeover of Spain from 1936 to 1939. Japan, allied with Germany and Italy, had begun its invasion and occupation of large parts of China in 1937. Confronted with this alarming spread of militarism and fascism, President Roosevelt nevertheless proceeded cautiously, well aware that Americans wished to avoid involvement in another world war. Nonetheless, he was intent on aiding Great Britain and France—and later the Soviet Union when Germany invaded it in June, 1941.