Could the United States Have Avoided World War II?

World War II is widely considered to be the most indisputable example of a just or necessary war. It is usually claimed by historians and lay people alike that American entry into the war after the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was absolutely necessary to bring about the defeat of the Axis powers which represented the ultimate in evil. In fact, many historians consider the so-called “isolationists” of the pre-World War II period to have been a case study in political naivete. President Franklin Roosevelt is often credited for his wisdom in pursuing an interventionist foreign policy for the purpose of curbing the expansionist ambitions of the Axis nations. A book published in 2011 offers a comprehensive refutation of these conventional claims. The work in question is Freedom Betrayed, by former President Herbert Hoover. The book was written over the twenty-year period following the close of World War II in 1945 but was never published. The book by Hoover has now been made available due to the efforts of Hoover’s biographer, George Nash. In this book, President Hoover makes a compelling argument that the United States could have stayed out of the Second World War.

President Hoover argued is his history of World War II that American involvement in the Second World War could have been potentially avoided if it were not for a series of blunders that he felt American statesmen had made. Indeed, President Hoover also criticized the actions of British and French foreign policy officials in the years leading up to the eruption of the European continent into a state of war. The most serious error made by Western leaders prior to the war had been the guarantee of Poland, according to Hoover. Nazi Germany began expanding eastward in the late 1930s, and in the process annexed both Austria and the Sudetenland. The Germans then seized Czechoslovakia. Afterwards, the British and the French issued an ultimatum to Germany, saying that any further expansion by the German regime would not be tolerated. If Germany attempted to also annex Poland, England and France would come to Poland’s aid. The Germans ignored these warnings and subsequently occupied Poland. Britain and France then declared war on Germany. However, these two nations proved to be extremely unprepared for war. France was defeated and occupied by Germany after only six weeks of fighting. England was subjected to a full-fledged air assault by Germany and very nearly occupied as well (Hoover 346-434). Only after Germany was turned back at the Battle of Britain was England safe.

Hoover argued that the Western countries should have allowed Germany to continue to expand eastward as Germany’s military tactic and strategy was to attack the Soviet Union. The Nazis regarded the Soviet communists as their mortal enemies, and Hoover felt the Western countries should have allowed the two powers to fight it out between themselves with the hope they would destroy each other. This is a plausible argument as it is certainly true that Russia proved to be a formidable opponent for the Germans. It may well have been that if England and France had allowed Germany to become mired in a war with Russia they could have kept themselves out of the war. Hoover also felt that the United States could have stayed out of the war even after England and France became involved. This is also plausible, as Germany was no immediate threat to the territorial sovereignty of the U.S. given the huge Atlantic Ocean that separates North America from Europe. Further, Hoover argues that the U.S. did not do enough to try to avoid war with Japan. American leaders were too quick to impose severe economic sanctions on the Japanese following their occupation of Indochina (Hoover 547-622). Hoover regarded the sanctions as a provocative act that led to the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

It is indeed interesting to encounter the work of a former President who challenged every aspect of the conventional wisdom of the most important period in the history of American foreign policy. Certainly, his views are rejected by the overwhelming majority of historians. One is intuitively inclined to suspect Hoover of underestimating the dangers posed by the Nazi and Japanese regimes, with their overwhelming military might and clearly evil ambitions. Yet given the number of Americans, along with English and French, who died in World War II, the possibility that it all could have been avoided is worth considering.

Work Cited

Hoover, Herbert. Freedom Betrayed. Ed. George Nash. Stanford, California: StanfordUniversity Press, 2011.