Was going to war with Germany a mistake?

Providing aid to nations victimized by German belligerence isn't the same thing as "going to war with Germany."

We were sympathetic to the British, but we weren't fighting alongside them. Hitler made that call.

did he really say that?

US had been attacking German ships and basically shitting out weapons to U.K. for years (and Russia too).

He probably said it, but regardless it's pretty much what most of the West was thinking.

The Soviet-Anglo/American partnership was never really warm. They just had a mutual, more immediate enemy.

Info and/or sources on any of that?

I found one instance in April 1941 of a US ship rescuing Dutch victims of a German U-Boat attack and fighting back with depth charges when the U-Boat came in for another attack, with no casualties on either side.

Then in September 1941 the US destroyed an illegal German weather station in Greenland as part of an agreement with Denmark.

Then in October 1941 German U-Boats had engagements with a couple American naval vessels, which did not result in a declaration of war.

Then in December 1941 Germany declared war.

Meanwhile, the Lend-Lease Act was enacted in March 1941. The US had been providing equipment and such to Britain previously, but the Brits had been paying for it.

I don't dispute that the US had an anti-German lean, but nothing I've read corroborates that the US had been "attacking German ships and basically shitting out weapons FOR YEARS." And recall that the question of this thread (which should have died in its crib) is why the US went to war with Germany, which it simply didn't do prior to Germany's declaration of war.

>destroy totalitarian scourge
>3 generations later wish for totalitarianism

Why are americans like this?

Oh yes.
The Western Allies could have reached Berlin prior to the Soviets, but they were ordered to halt the advance. Political move or tactful reservation, your call. But I do doubt the Soviets would have been refused entry into Berlin, and a joint attack on Berlin would have definitely erupted into skirmishes as the Western Allies became appalled at the Soviet rape and murder. Or the Soviets shooting at the Allies for sheltering civilians.
If the West tried to surround and deny entry into Berlin it's most likely they'd just shoot their way into the city. And while it's likely the West could have reached Berlin first, it's unlikely they could have captured it before the Soviets would arrive.

Also that would have been a lot of body bags for the West who was more than sick of the war by then. Why fight for a bombed out crater of a city held by suicidal fanatics when you can sit back and let someone else do it.

Liberals are dumb.

>Was going to war with an authoritarian country tun by a lunatic a mistake?
Not really, no

>a city held by suicidal fanatics

Hindsight is 20/20, but it's likely that most of the city would have surrendered had the Western Allies moved on Berlin. That's the real reason why most of the Germans were holding out in the first place; they knew surrendering to the Soviets would be worse than fighting to the death. Hitler and his inner circle were never going to be taken alive, of course, but most of the city's defenders would probably have weighed their course of action quite differently had the Allies rolled up to the gates.

The 2 side burger political perspective is dumb

Attention Stormfags, Patton was a giant retard. Even in his day, the guy was known as a loud mouthed dick head. He was good at fighting but nothing else, and most of his saying you guys like to quote or from passing stupidity rather than any deep political convictions. Like he didnt want to ban the nazi party after the war, but this isnt because he was pro-nazi. Its because he detested politics in the first place, knew nothing about it, and basically saw the nazi party as no different from the democratic or republican party.

He even hurt his own career with his retardedness and was replaced with Bradley, who even he admitted was a better general than he was.

Also, he was from a rich family in the early 1900s and had a passing "uncle murray isnt allowed into the country club" type of anti-semetism that stormfags conflate with him somehow being pro-holocaust.

naziboos BTFO

Not going to war sooner was a mistake
Hitler: No way Europe will let me take the Sudetenland
Neville: Do it lmao
Hitler: Neville you absolute mad man. Think that was cool? How about I olly kickflip into Poland?
Neville+Europe: o fug

If Europe had acted on Hitler's initial incursions into his neighbors, he'd have stopped and squated on just those territories.
He would have run an apartheid regime for Jews but I suspect no holocaust would have happened due to external pressure.
He would have effectively checked Russian expansionism in the east and his regime would have slowly liberalized as Germany wouldn't be under war time controls. Germany would have become the Texas of Europe: big, powerful, a bit more racist than the other countries, but not bent on conquering all of Europe.

Yes, I wanted to see Paris decorated with hammers and sickles

It's just amazing how shitty Patton and MacArthur were. Shitty people and shitty strategists.
>tfw no Bradley movie

>his regime would have slowly liberalized

I doubt that. Hitler's doctrine was all about "preparing for the war and then fighting that war." He was never going to be satisfied with just a few territories, and he certainly was never going to stop preparing to take more. It simply was not in his political outlook; his whole regime was structured to meet the end goal of securing lebensraum für der Reich.

Having the cold war versus fascism would be better than enabling communism and offering it such undue advantage.