kupfernigk:
It would appear that I know too much WW2 history to understand the point you were trying to make and that @AcerPlatanoides clearly thought made sense.
Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union began in October 1941, Pearl Harbor was December of that year. Roosevelt decided to support the Soviet Union when Hopkins reported that it would not, in fact, collapse under the German onslaught. If you take the time to consult the books in a little more detail you will also discover that the Soviet Union did not join the US in declaring war on Japan.The two US wars - in the Pacific and Europe - were largely unrelated. Indeed, several senior US officers thought that the focus should be 100% on Japan until it was defeated.So Pearl Harbor was actually irrelevant - to use your word - to the decision to support the Soviet Union against Hitler, and my knowledge of that fact caused me not to understand what you were getting at.
All true except leaving out the fact that Hitler declared war on the US on December 11, 1941. The choice was made for us. I admit I did not recall lend-lease started before Pearl Harbor.
