At this stage of American history, we advanced onto the world stage having no real choice but to fight a war on multiple fronts in World War II and rather self consciously becoming a, if not the, world leader in multiple meanings of this position.
Our Finest Hour by Michael Doyle In the 1930s, American eyes were fixed internally There was little time to gaze out internationally While it's unfair to say were isolationist It is true that we were by no means internationalist But these were times of dictatorial, expansionist nations And the dynamics would with certainty lead to conflagration The beating of the tribal drums signaled catastrophic war As Japan conquered China and Germany expanded even more Acts of territorial aggression faced only appeasing toleration As chunks of countries were take in stride without consideration Neutrality became more and more impossible to sustain While the Blitzkrieg advanced, all attempts to halt it were in vain By June of 1940, Paris itself found its lights out and occupied While Nazi domination mocked the Treaty of Versailles in reply FDR began to ween America from its preferred, feigned neutrality Into adequately preparing to engage in this new reality The Battle of Britain was also the battle for Christian civilization With it depended all of freedom's most cherished institutions This then for the Free World would begin our finest hour As Britain turned back the Nazi beast always seeking to devour The Royal Air Force beat back the Luftwaffe in the skies While allowing time for America to provide materials and supplies In 1940, FDR won like a horse in midstream his third reelection Following this with a fire side chat setting our new direction America would sign into law the needed Lend Lease Act Which helped our allies letting them know they were backed This, in fact, was nothing less than a secret sort of war As we took on the German Navy and aided and assisted even more For America, there is no infamous a day than December 7, 1941 With the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, war had begun The Japanese thinking strategically had look for a knockout blow Taking out most of the Pacific Fleet, but, little did they know Their hope to demoralized proved, opinion polls aside, That it is unwise to wound the heart of American Pride Simultaneously, the Soviet Union left the Non-Aggression Pact Thuggish as a new ally could be, that we needed Stalin is a fact Admiral Yamamoto had some idea of America's industrial ability But under estimated that it would redouble in its needed capacity It was this All-American burst of essential, crucial productivity That allowed the Allies to manage its win somewhat predictably The decision made, defeating Hitler became our first priority Securing the North Atlantic and then the south underbelly of Italy Were things soon enough done yet without the decisive victory The Russians under siege prompted D-Day as much needed history So many things might have gone wrong and yet somehow did not And Normandy was won though the battle was very hard fought Allied Commander Eisenhower did not prioritize Berlin's defeat Thinking it mostly symbolic who took the city if Hitler was beat Churchill argued against this and turned out to be quite right Meanwhile in the Pacific, the Japanese had unstoppable might Until American carriers would provide the turning point day There has never been a more decisive naval battle than Midway From there, Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur converged In a two prong attack from the Philippines to Japan they merged 82 days at Okinawa is often referred to as the Typhoon of Steel A quarter of a million dead could not break the Japanese will Victory was achieved in Europe and FDR won his fourth election Breaking precedent in every way for our American nation FDR died just ahead of the Jewish death camps revelation As a shudder of horror cast its shadow across our nation An invasion of Japan would have cost upwards of a million dead Truman's Manhattan Project atom bomb would cost less it was said As the new president, Harry Truman took this on his shoulders Hiroshima and Nagasaki bore the brunt as their ruins would smoulder On the Emperor's surrender, the most destructive war in history Was brought to its end, changing the course of things decisively Of America's standing in the world in a sort of permanent sense Integrally involved now in world affairs, we provided defense The mantle of leadership required a standing army for our nation And with it came the obligations of incessant accommodation Self conscious as we were, we departed from our stubborn past But our organic principles would endure and still last (c) April 7, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
