when did the us start preparing for ww2
Military history of the United States during World War II American public opinion was hostile to Hitler's Germany, but how much aid to give the Allies was controversial. Public opinion was even more hostile to Japan, and there was little opposition to increased support for China. By 1940 the U.S., while still neutral, was becoming the "Arsenal of Democracy" for the Allies, supplying money and war materials. The sudden defeat of France in spring 1940 caused the nation to begin to greatly grow its armed forces, including the first peacetime draft. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, America began sending Lend Lease aid to the Soviet Union as well as Britain and China.[5]
United States in World War I Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[33] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 7, 1917,[34] but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various co-belligerents allied with the Central Powers.[35] Thus, the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.