How did economics influence the USs Foreign Policy/Strategic War Decisions in WWII?
Answer Jennifer: The question is an interesting one. There are probably a lot of opinions on this, all of them different. First, the Germany first decision was based more on alliance politics than economics. Germany was a bigger threat to Britain and the USSR than Japan was. The American public was all for going at the Japanese first, as was the US Navy and probably the Army too. But Roosvelt’s close ties to Churchill locked the US into defeating Germany first. Our economy once fully on a war footing allowed sufficient materials to be produced to actually wage an offensive war in both theaters at the same time. Something not thought possible at first. The US Navy was able to wage an offensive campaign against the Japanese at the same time we were building up for war in Europe. An interesting book called “There is a war to be won: the US Army in WWII by Geoffrey Perret http://www.amazon.com/Theres-War-Be-Won-United/dp/034541909X/ref=sr_1_1/002-4966… It goes a long way toward explainin
