Well I have skimmed and scanned myself through your lengthy, but very interesting piece Cem, and to answer it all would take at least an essay, or even a book!!

Anyway I am not going to do that as I do not think there is an appetite for such lengthy reading on that subject on here apart from a dedicated few interested in historical matters, as I think my thread on Streamlining proved (0 response

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The fact is Cem that ALL history is open to interpretation, and with "modern" history that your piece covers so much on record is not accessible to the general public nor historians. It is said anyway that if you have 12 historians in one room, you will have 13 arguments on 13 different versions of what actually happened!!
Conspiracy theories have been popular for so long as they add that ingredient that the human mind loves; mystery!! That is also why Counter-factual History is accepted in academic land, with some very interesting ideas floated.
However, each of the cases you have quoted have certainly many factors that historians of today, and long into tomorrow, will argue about. Just to pick ONE, Pearl Harbour, 7th December 1941. Did Winston Churchill, who desperately wanted the United States to join the war, ignore the intelligence that is known to exist on what the Japanese were organising? The British, AND the Americans had broken the Japanese codes and were reading their messages. The next question must follow; did Roosevelt know that the Japanese were planning to attack Pearl Harbour? If so, is that the reason why all the aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl sailed away very shortly before the attack to participate in "exercises"? The American President would have known that air power was the new supreme weapon in the new war and carriers were the vital tool, with the old battleships fast becoming very large obsolete "bomb fodder", so these could be sacrificed at Pearl.
Yes, Roosevelt wanted the United States to join the war and was actively supporting Britain after the Battle of Britain, seen as a crucial pivotal moment, had been won, against Isolationism that was rampant in America. He needed American interests to be targeted by an "enemy", Axis, state to rouse domestic support for a foreign war. America did have vital commercial interests in Europe that needed to be protected, but overridingly Roosevelt knew the Nazis were going to be a threat on the American homeland if allowed to continue on their path of war. He knew they must be stopped, and with Britain still intact, against all American predictions in May 1940, the launch pad into Europe remained. The Pacific arena was the excuse for full American participation in the wider Axis war, and Pearl played into both Roosevelt's and Winston's hands. Hitler declaring war on the United States 2 days later was the icing on the cake!
Now that is my educated simple interpretation of the events that led the USA into WW2, but no doubt there are many historians who would say, each, there is another version that they, each, support! Yes, history can be interupted in many ways based on the facts known, so whatever someone writes based on known facts should be considered and argued for or against. That is what history is all about and adds the spark to many a debate!!
