[ealgeone]

But in December 1941, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, around 90% of Americans favored declaring war. Was it economics that changed their minds? No, it was the obvious thing -- the attack on Pearl Harbor. Without that attack, Americans were determined not to get sucked (or suckered) into another world war. After the attack, FDR was able to ask for and receive full public support for war. The admittedly abject failure of New Deal economics had nothing to do with it.

Two different issues.

I'm arguing FDR new the New Deal had failed, as admitted by his on Treasury Secretary, and knew a war would economically benefit the US.

That has nothing to do with whether the public was in favor of the war or not.

I'm discussing FDR's mindset.

[BroJoeK]

eagleone: " I'm discussing FDR's mindset."

Right, you're arguing that FDR was motivated strictly by economics, by his need to restore prosperity after the Great Depression and that's what drove him to provoke the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor, right?

I'm saying that like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill & many other leaders then, Roosevelt was a "child" of the First World War and saw the Second as an opportunity to set right what had gone terribly wrong then.
Among the most important was the 1917 surrender of Tsarist Russia to the Kaiser's forces.
That FDR was determined to prevent a repeat of in the Second World War, and in that he succeeded, at a frightful cost to Eastern Europe.