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...the Soviet Union was never alone: Months before the United States formally entered the war, it had already begun providing massive military and economic assistance to its Soviet ally through the Lend-Lease program.

Yes, no doubt about it. The US really was the Arsenal of Democracy, and Japan's attacks in December 1941 were the biggest blunder in military history. It even eclipses Hitler's moronic bus-schedule style of conducting Germany's wars of conquest, and by a large measure.

As noted by J. Parschall, in December 1941 the US had an economy five times larger than Japan's; by August 1945 the US economy was eight times larger. It was US industrial production that made the hard fighting possible, for both the US and all its allies.

The USSR had built loads of tanks, mostly to keep the lid on its people -- the USSR was an occupying power, even in Russian-majority areas -- and built loads more during the war, but lost most of them, as the Germans were great at knocking out tanks and tank on tank warfare.

After Barbarossa started, Molotov had secret diplomatic contact with the Japanese, and only after he'd become assured that they wouldn't start shooting at Soviet forces did Stalin order the east emptied to meet the German invasion.

I have wondered if that verbal agreement also helped the Japanese talk themselves into the stupid idea of bringing the US into the war.

BTW, whomever put revisionism in the keywords is a troll who should be banned.

Hitler talking in his everyday voice to Finnish military commander Mannerheim in 1942. The only existing recording of Hitlers normal voice. For my history project.
Hitler Speaking Normally (Subtitles) | March 25, 2011 | AlbusPercyDumbledore

“I have wondered if that verbal agreement also helped the Japanese talk themselves into the stupid idea of bringing the US into the war.”

Through the 1930s, the Japanese looked enviously at Easter Siberia as the source of raw materials necessary to support the industry needed for empire. The “Northern Strategy” was the planning for seizing Eastern Siberia. This strategy came into question when the General Zhukov led Soviet forces administered a severe whipping to the Japanese Army at Kalkhan Gol in August 1939. This defeat showed the Japanese that the Russian bear had grown much longer teeth and sharper claws then the Russians they had fought at the turn of the century. This defeat plus the signing of the German Soviet non-aggression pact convinced the Japanese staff that the Northern Strategy was impractical, and it’s goals out of reach. The Japanese thinking shifted to a Southern Strategy which involved the conquest of the European and American possessions in the Far East. The Japanese realized any action against the Philippines would probably lead to war with the Americans, but they thought that that was a situation the could manage.