ABSTRACT
December 7, 1941, was the United States’ last day of a concerted effort to abolish its right to engage in any form of warfare that did not immediately threaten its own borders. In the aftermath of World War I, the American people and their government had come to the conclusion that the world outside the Western Hemisphere would never give up war as an instrument of national policy; therefore, their involvement in it was an experience henceforth to be avoided by all means and without exception.
