Who's Your Favorite Historical Figure?

[Thumpalumpacus]

I was mainly referring to the polls. I can see, given the political situation back then, that Americans feared war to be inevitable although they didn't want to go to war. For me that's not a contradiction. It's a concern rather.

I agree. But if people want to quote mine the Polls that's a juicy target. It tells me much about their scholarship when they come out with this "argument". It usually begins with "America was strongly against getting into the war and FDR had to let Pearl Harbor happen to get the US properly riled up." They ignore the rest of the polls because they find them awkward.

Oh, don't mistake me -- while I've argued that there was a strong isolationist undercurrent in America at the time, the second clause of your attribution is nothing I've ever held to be true.