ABSTRACT
American participation in World War II brought the country few gains. The standard justification of American entry into the war is that otherwise Germany would have reigned supreme on the continent, victor over Russia and Britain. With all the resources of Europe at the disposal of his totalitarian government, plus perhaps parts of the British fleet, Adolf Hitler would have posed an intolerable threat to the security of the United States. Very possibly a stalemate would not have marked the end of Hitler's ambitions, but that is not really the point. For some time at least, Germany would not have been supreme as an immediate menace to the United States. The American nuclear effort received its first military money in 1940, and already had made important progress before Pearl Harbor. Though delayed, achievement of a bomb in America probably would have occurred by 1946 or 1947.
