Hastings’ recount of the conversation between Winant and Churchill doesn’t exactly support his contention that FDR would make the pledge. I do recognize that Hastings is usually pretty reliable (I have his book “Armageddon”).
I don’t doubt that FDR wanted to make this declaration, and he may have felt that he had or would have the support from Congress to make it. I think the “three days’ time” comment, coupled with Winant’s acknowledgment that only Congress could declare war was Winant’s way of saying FDR intended to drum up support for the declaration and make sure Congress would support it.
This seems to be a very important piece of the complex international situation and despite the fact that I’ve studied WW2 for about 40 years, I don’t recall having seen it before. Maybe I just glossed over it since Pearl Harbor and the invasion of Malaya made it a moot point.
Even though much of what FDR did economically was not supported by the Constitution, he did recognize Constitutional protocols, unlike our current president.
Well, all it says is that he considered an attack on the DEI or British as an attack on America. That doesn’t equate to a declaration of war for certain. FDR can make that pledge and still not commit to a war declaration since he knows he can’t. But he could escalate his already undeclared war by extending his policy in the Atlantic to the Pacific.
I’d bet he was pretty confident though that if the Japanese extended their fight in the Pacific to include the British that he might be able to get Congress to sign off on a declaration of war though.