World War II

FROM THE TIME that Adolf Hitler began the campaign that led to the outbreak of World War II[Page 870] in Europe in 1939, most Americans realized that U.S. involvement was a distinct possibility. On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii with a devastating loss of American lives and property. The following day, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war. From that time until the war ended in August 1945, the Unites States was in a state of emergency. The president believed that the burdens of war should be shared equally among the population.

While he was sincerely dedicated to eradicating profiteering during World War II, Roosevelt also used anti-profiteering policies to pacify isolationists who used profiteering as one reason ...