If at first you don’t succeed [starting a war with the Germans], try, try again[start a war with Japan].
Roosevelt’s actions in destroyers for bases, escorting British shipping, dividing the Atlantic into “defense” zones, trailing, radioing U-boat positions to the Brits,providing the co-pilot on the PBY that found the BISMARCK, constitute co-belligerency under international law. But Adolf didn’t bite.
SOOOO, you embargo Japan, a naval power with no oil of its own, from petroleum acquisitions, leaving it with one potential source, Indonesia [the raison d’etre for WW II in the Pacific], or withdrawing from not only Indochina, but China as well. Then you send that nation’s largest potential adversary, the U.S Pacific Fleet, from the West Coast to Pearl Harbor, despite the Navy’s reticence to do so.
There’s a difference between preparing for a war, and actively seeking one.
But at least old Franklin managed to hand the Japanese Navy all the trump cards in their argument with the Japanese Army over whether to go north [Siberia], or south [Indonesia], allowing the Soviets to pull their Far East armies west to face the Germans.So FDR quite possibly affected the outcome of WW II.