Franklin Delano Roosevelt's intentions to enter World War II : an archaeological and historical examination

Abstract

During the first two years of World War II (WWII), the United States, spear-headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, took a stance of neutrality to the political upheaval and physical carnage of Europe. Only after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 did the United States break from its isolationist posture. Numerous textual sources document how backroom meetings and the political mastery of FDR may have helped garner support for joining the fight in Europe. In order to test these stories, I plotted the locations of known US merchant vessels sunk in the Atlantic prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor to determine if the spatial distribution of these vessels would show corresponding signs of subversion, refute written records, or verify the record. My preliminary analysis of the archaeological record does not completely corroborate or necessarily contradict the written records. It does, however, demand further investigation.