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France had fallen and Britain was under siege. By June Roosevelt had sent Britain 500,000 rifles and 80,000 machine guns, and in early September the United States traded 50 old destroyers for leases on British military bases found in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. Germany, Japan, and Italy had signed a mutual defense treaty, known as the Trupartite Act.
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Roosevelt decided to break George Washington's two-year presidential term tradition and run for reelection. Roosevelt's republican opponent , Wendell Willkie, supported Roosevelt's policy of aiding Britain. But both had promised to keep US out of the war. There were so little difference between them so the majority of voters choce the one they knew best. Roosevelt was reelected with nearly 55 percent of the votes cast.
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The president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to "any country whose defense was vital to the United States."
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Hitler broke the agreement he had made in 1939 with Stalin not to go to war and invade the Soviet Union. America was against helping Stalin but Roosevelt finally decided to.
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Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly at a summit aboard the battleship USS Augusta. Churchill wanted a military commitment but settled for joint declaration of war aims.
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After a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer in the Atlantic, Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to respond. Roosevelt ordered the navy to shoot the German submarines on sight.
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Japan has a desire to expand and to control East Asia. a a result of this expansion, the US stops trading out to Japan. On December 7, 1941, Japanese lead a surprise attack on America soil on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This was the largest attack on America in history. Over 2,000 died and over 1,000 injured. Congress declares war, isolationism is over.
