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Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a mutual defense treaty, officially called the Tripartite Pact. United States WWII enemies are officially formed.
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Roosevelt is elected to a 3rd Term as President. This has never happened before and never happened since. He won the election because the people trusted his leadership in WWII, if we got involved. There was very little differnece between the candidates, Roosevelt and Wilkie, so FDR was able to win with 55 percent of the vote.
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Britain is running short on war supplies. As a way around the Nuetrality Acts, FDR decides to "loan" Great Britain the supplies they need. The United States is clearly taking sides with the lend-lease program. They ware supporting the Allies over the Axis powers.
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Hitler breaks the Nonaggression Pact with Stalin and invades Soviet Union. United States begins to send lend-lease supplies or aid to the Soviet Union. The United States is taking sides once again against the Axis powers.
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FDR and Winston Churchill meet on a ship called the U.S.S. Augusta to discuss the outcome of the war. They came up with a joint declaration of war aims called The Atlantic Charter. Those golas included freedom of the seas, collective security, self-determination, disarmament, economic cooperation. The United States is clearly supporting Great Britain against the Axis Powers. FDR told Churchill he would do his best to "causes an incident."
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German submarines, or U-boats, sank the U.S.S. GREER, an American destroyer. FDR issues his shoot-on-sight policy, saying that if you see a German submarine, to "shoot it on sight." The United States is now acting agressively towards Germany and the Axis powers.
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The United States had long participated in peace talks with Japan. Hideki Tojo wanted to dominate the eastern islands to expand the Japanese Empire. Great Britain was too busy with Hitler to stop this expansion, and only the United States stood in the way of Pacific domination. As a result of a successful oil embargo, Japan decided to attack the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941 ("a date which will live in infamy"). Caught the U.S. completely off gaurd. Over 2000 died. U.S. officially enters the war.
