It would have only been a matter of time. We were free to provide Britain with everything they wanted, now that we were both fighting Japan. All it would have to took was one sinking by a U-Boat to provide the Casus Belli for going to war with Germany.
When Pearl Harbor happened, we [Roosevelt's advisors] were desperate. ... We were all in agony. The mood of the American people was obvious – they were determined that the Japanese had to be punished. We could have been forced to concentrate all our efforts on the Pacific, unable from then on to give more than purely peripheral help to Britain. It was truly astounding when Hitler declared war on us three days later. I cannot tell you our feelings of triumph. It was a totally irrational thing for him to do, and I think it saved Europe."