...only to your final comment on FDR, about it somehow saying a lot about him. Everything else was taken on faith. All I offered were possible reasons for the president's taking of the declared forthcoming hostilities from relatively minor players in WWII so lightly. There were just other, more demanding sizzlers on the big grill.

Until recently (by WWII standards), the US had not been one for global conflicts. WWI had been entered into with a feeling of levity, almost as a lark. Devastating lessons were to be learned in that conflict, and at very personal levels. Entering WWII was mot taken so lightly, with the vast majority of Americans insisting we stay out of it and demanding we simply wait for it all to blow over. Japan changed our collective mind.

And as for "Hogan's Heroes," it's a pity you missed it. Had you ever seen it, you might have taken the comment as the playful jab I had intended. As old sitcoms go, it's A1, and even a major hit in, of all places, Germany.

Cheers, b.