Quote: "Some Canadians tease Americans about their late involvement in WWII. For instance, a character in one of Robertson Davies's books had this interpretation of "doughboy": "kneaded early, slow to rise.""
America had a long held aversion to becoming involved in European wars. George Washington warned against such involvement in his Farewell Address. Also, the loss of life from WWI, together with the influenza epidemic and the Great Depression, made a majority of Americans believe that involvement in another "European" war was unwise.
Beyond that, Roosevelt did involve American through such programs as Lend-Lease, which provided an "Arsenal of Democracy" for the European war effort. And, many Americans crossed into Canada to volunteer in their armed forces. Nevertheless, U.S. involvement could have come sooner.
Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. We should have become involved when Hitler invaded Poland, which might have saved millions of lives. And, Chamberlain should not pushed his appeasement policy. But, the devastation and loss of life was so burned into the minds of the people, that no one wanted another war.
Seems like we all would have learned our history a little better... guess we will just keep repeating it.
Jeff
P.S. Doughboy is really a WWI term, not WWII.
Lounge
Another tragedy
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