While Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first hundred days may be the most
celebrated period of his presidency, the months before the attack on
Pearl Harbor proved the most critical. Beginning as early as 1939, when
Germany first attacked Poland, Roosevelt skillfully navigated a host of
challenges: a reluctant population, an unprepared military, and
disagreements within his cabinet to prepare the country for its
inevitable confrontation with the Axis.
In No End Save Victory, esteemed historian David Kaiser draws on
extensive archival research to reveal the careful preparations that
enabled the United States to win World War II. Alarmed by Germany and
Japan's aggressive militarism, Roosevelt understood that the United
States would almost certainly be drawn into the conflict raging in
Europe and Asia. However, the American populace, still traumatized by
memories of the First World War, was reluctant to intervene in European
and Asian affairs. Even more serious was the deplorable state of the
American military. In September of 1940, Roosevelt's military advisors
told him that the United States would not have the arms, ammunition, or
men necessary to undertake any major military operation overseas, let
alone win such a fight, until April of 1942. Aided by his closest
military and civilian collaborators, Roosevelt pushed a series of
military expansions through Congress that nearly doubled the size of the
US Navy and Army and increased production of the arms, tanks, bombers,
and warships that would allow America to prevail in the coming fight.
Highlighting Roosevelt's deft management of the strong personalities
within his cabinet and his able navigation of the shifting tides of war,
No End Save Victory is the definitive account of America's
preparations for and entry into World War II. As Kaiser shows, it was
Roosevelt's masterful leadership and prescience that prepared the
reluctant nation to fight and gave it the tools to win.
