TURNING DEFEAT INTO VICTORY

War. It was something that President Franklin Roosevelt had worked towards but when it came, it was as unexpected as the bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor. Faced with the sudden arrival of warfare, the American government had to turn public outrage at the attack on Pearl Harbor into sustained support for a conflict that, it was clear, would last for years and cost dearly in terms of lives, material and money. But the problem was that outrage, by its nature, cannot last unless it is fed. What made the task more difficult was that there still remained in America a strong strand of support for isolationism and non-involvement in European wars.

However, the attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything. The America First Committee, which argued strongly against involvement in the war and that included among its members aviator Charles Lindbergh and future president