No, I don't think it was a mistake.
My point is that our involvement for that war (as it must for war) had to come through a deliberative process. At the time of the sinking of the Reuben James, no such deliberative process had taken place. The US had actively taken sides in the war, but we had still maintained an official veneer of neutrality; the government of this country was simply lying, both to the world community and to its citizens.
After France fell, most of the country realized that most likely we would have to get involved sooner or later. That’s probably where I would have parted ways with the isolationists.
I think everyone knew we would be involved.
We were building ships and airplanes well before Pearl Harbor..
It was just a question of what the trigger would be to pull us in.