[andrewla]

Yes -- the framing of WWII as a war of "good against evil" and "fascism must be fought at all costs" is entirely retrospective. Roosevelt and Wilkie were stepping over each other trying to argue who was the most anti-interventionist.

It was only the bombing of Pearl Harbor that gave Roosevelt the political power to openly support intervention in the European theater, which before he could only passively push for. If he had announced his intention to get boots on the ground before the 1940 election, we would have had a different president in 1941.