Why didnt america go to war with russia before WW2?

Question

I mean america is all about help the innocent, and free the oppressed from ruthless dictators. Yet, before WW2, and pearl harbor and the holocaust....Stalin was killing millions.
Stalin killed his own people, forced them into labour, and had his own concentration camps, yet america does nothing and when time came in WW2, Roosevelet and Churchill actually sat with him like he was fine dictator.

And dont say "there wouldve been nukes" cause im talking before all of that.

Answer 1

America had a rather isolationist foreign policy between the two world wars. It was already hell convincing Americans to join the First World War in the first place.



But seriously, could you imagine a weaker Russia during World War II? Yeah Stalin was evil but Russia was key to helping is defeat Nazi Germany even thou the Cold War was horrible afterwords.



Back then I don't think many people had the concept of nuclear weapons or a threat of mutually assured destruction. We also did not have a concept of how powerful the Soviet Union and The Warsaw Pact would become. Remember, the Soviet Union was more or less a regional power before WW2.

Answer 2

USA was since 1800 till WWII country that was pursuing isolationist policy. American public and society was indifferent and often vocal against interference into other country's affair. Additionally, USA in the interwar period was not really economically and politically strong country. The Great Depression undermined its economy and there was not sufficient military and arm production against major military like USSR or Germany. Due shrinking economy in the 1930's and subsequent long recovery, Germany overtook USA as world's largest economy around 1936.

Additionally going against USSR in the 1930's would be suicidal as German's had learned the hard way. USSR had sympathies among leftist and masses of unemployed people. Germany and USSR were until 1941 allies and any attack against Stalin would involve these two greatest military dictatorships that world had ever seen. Either way, Roosevelt did not feel antipathy toward Stalin like he felt against Hitler and American public during WWII thought that USSR can be humanized by involvement with the Western democracy. However, this was a false expectation.

Answer 3

America was always very isolated and liked to stay that way. It wasn't until WW1 that they began to take a deeper interest in Global happenings and after WW1 they effectively replaced Britain as the superpower of the world. The only reason they got involved in WW1 was that they saw a chance to rule the world and they took it. Unlike what the American government would have you believe, they did not fight World Wars for justice and to help the oppressed, they fought for their own ends. Even after WW1 the isolationist policy remained to some extent with the US senate refusing to join the League of Nations. However the US now became visibly dominant in the world with their people heading the Young and Dawes plans and giving a huge loan to Germany. In truth the USA really didn't care about the USSR since they weren't a real threat back in the 1920's but as far as I know the USA did help instigate the counter white revolution in Russia. The intra-war period was a very delicate time in which most countries were trying to keep the peace that had followed the great war. USA completely came out of tthe isolationist policy after pearl harbor and has since been a pain in the neck for the whole world. During the war USSR and USA were allies but afterwards when the dust settled and the USSR emerged as a threat to the new found complete world dominance of the USA, they took against them and thus began the Cold War.



For a better idea read up on the following:

*The Russian Revolution (Book Animal Farm)

*The Twentieth Century (Age of extremes by Eric Hobbsbawm)

*The Cold war

*Communism (The Communist Manifesto)

*Read the Wiki's on Yalta, Potsdam, Cuban Missile crisis

*European Colonialism

Answer 4

They were still in the Great depression and isolated before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Plus America did not had a good reason to go to war with USSR. Plus Russia got attacked by Nazi Germany which Germany broke the treaty with the Soviets. And fought Nazi Germany and America saw them as an Allie.

Answer 5

Amerca also had issues with European colonialism (especially British) in the run-up to WW2, and of course remained neutral until forced into the war by Japan. Even at the end of WW2 Roosevelt was worried by bthe idea of British imperialism, to the extent that he did not see the full evil intent of Stalins "colonialism" in easten Europe.



Before both world wars America had a strong strand of isolationism. Although worried by communism it did not want to get involved with trying to sort out the rest of the world.

Answer 6

Between WWI and WWII the US was isolationist. That's why it took Pearl Harbor to pull the US into the war. The US and Britain teamed with Stalin ONLY because he was against the Axis powers, too. They fought together, they didn't like each other. Stalin spied on the US and Britain.



It's been theorized that the raid on Dresden, Germany was a warning to Stalin not to mess with the US and Britain after the war. Militarily, there was little reason to destroy Dresden, however it was in site of the Soviet troops. So the message was, "we can do this to you, too".

Answer 7

Because until World War II, we never had any business with Russia/The Soviet Union, and during WWII, we were allied against Hitler.



You say America is all about helping the innocent, and freeing the oppressed from ruthless dictators. Well, that's true now, but America really kept to itself for most of our history. We might not have liked oppressors and ruthless dictators before World War II, but up until that point, we didn't really free the innocent from oppressors by fighting them. Instead, we just made America an escape from all of that.



World War II was a big change. There was still a big isolationist camp in the United States right up to the start of the war. As a matter of fact, it took a great deal of convincing by FDR to even begin to prepare for WWII. Here's a famous speech by FDR to try and convince America to prepare for war in December of 1940 (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrarsenalofdemocracy.html). That was hard for him to do, even though Hitler had been fighting in Europe since September of 1939, and American wouldn't enter the war until December of 1941. All that changed after Pearl Harbor. Isolationism went away when we were attacked. We didn't need convincing after that.



So to answer your question: why didn't we go to war with Russia? Because we didn't have a reason to. It was simply unthinkable at that time to go to war if your home country wasn't actually threatened. Russia wasn't threatening us. In fact, the only reason we got in WWII at all is because we were actually attacked. Japan was allied with Germany. Japan attacked us. We declared War on Japan. Germany declares war on us. We declare war on Germany.



And the reason FDR sat down with Stalin was because right before Germany declared war on us, Germany attacked Russia/The Soviet Union. We worked with the guy who was fighting the guy who was fighting us. As a matter of fact, Churchill addressed this point on why his country was partnered with a not-so-savory character in Stalin in a conversation with his personal secretary: "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."



Only after WWII did the Soviet Union use their winning position to take advantage of their strength. America had massive armies in Europe, won, and then left. The Soviet Union had massive armies in Europe, won, and then stayed. That's the beginning of the Cold War, and that's the beginning of Russia and the United States' bad blood.

Answer 8

they were to busy making money from supplying every side with everything they needed in 1933 Ford set up factories in France Germany and the USSR to make money out of the war Wall St and Corporate USA funded



German Russia war Rockefeller kept Hitler in the race with 32 million US dollars from 1924



the the Duponts used JP Morgan to raise the Money Hitler needed to run in the 1933 elections and Raised 840 Million US dollars this Put Hitler into power and enough to Bribe his way to Total Dictatorship read this link for a clue why the USA did Not want war with anyone



http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas1.htm

Answer 9

Stalin was given carte blanche by Zionist controlled US and the allies to spread communism in eastern europe



the Jewish Bolsheviks had tried to do the same to Germany what they did to Russia but the Germans defeated them

Answer 10

'I mean america is all about help the innocent, and free the oppressed from ruthless dictators'

Real world is not Star Wars. Do not be fooled by words.

Answer 11

What if I told you FDR called him Uncle Joe?That might explain it.



And we did go to war with them. During the Russian civil war, the allies intervened. Still lost.

Answer 12

There was however plans to invade Russia at the end of WWll.

Answer 13

"America is all about help the innocent and free the oppressed from ruthless dictators."



Hmmm.



You don't know much about American history, do you?

Answer 14

Before WWII, the USA was isolationist. They kept to themselves.