Defenders of the appeasers have claimed that their approach bought the West important time to prepare for war, but the appeasers, who believed they were achieving peace, did not make that case, and the evidence does not support it.

Adolf Hitler of Germany met with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Italy's ruler Benito Mussolini, and France's Prime Minister Edouard Daladier to discuss the destiny of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs were not allowed to participate. The partition of Czechoslovakia occurred from the Western democracies' efforts to pacify the tyrants, and the territory known as the Sudetenland was given over to Germany, leaving the Czechs without a credible defense.

Despite his commitment to stop there, Hitler seized control of the remainder of the country on March 15, 1939, without firing a single shot.

The Russians have at least as much a reason to be cautious. They were dissatisfied about being left out of the Munich accord. The West's low priority for discussions with Russia, in comparison to the seriousness with which Britain and France dealt with Hitler, irritated them.

The Russians correctly thought that the Western countries intended for them to bear the brunt of the burden of the war against Germany.

As a result, they began discussions with Hitler, and the world was astonished to learn of a Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact on August 23, 1939.

The pact's secret terms, which were easily guessed and quickly implemented, partitioned Poland between the two countries and allowed Russia to conquer the Baltic republics and seize Bessarabia from Romania.

Even the most vehement ideological foes had become comrades.

Communist parties in the West abruptly shifted from fervently demanding resistance to Hitler to a policy of peace and calm. Political and military realities trumped ideology. The West presented the Russians with imminent peril with little possibility of reward. Stalin was given short-term advantage without imminent danger by Hitler. Stalin's choice could hardly be questioned.

The Nazi-Soviet collaboration cemented Poland's fate, while the Franco-British commitment ensured a general war. The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The Second World War had begun.

The American administration was staunchly anti-British. Roosevelt's help to Britain would have justified a German declaration of war. Hitler, on the other hand, resisted.

If war had not been imposed upon America in the Pacific, the US government might not have overcome isolationist prejudice and entered the war in the Atlantic.

Since the Japanese takeover of Manchuria in 1931, US attitude toward Japan has been skeptical and hostile. The beginning of war in Europe empowered the Japanese, causing them to intensify their desire to conquer Asia. They formed alliances with Germany and Italy, signed a neutrality deal with the Soviet Union, and pushed defeated France to grant them bases in Indochina.

They also maintained their battle in China and sought to take control of Malaya and the Philippines.

They also resumed their campaign in China and sought to take control of Malaya and the East Indies (Indonesia) at the expense of embattled Britain and captured Holland. The United States was the only impediment to Japanese expansion.

The Americans had waited because they were afraid of inciting a Japanese assault on Southeast Asia and the East Indies if they cut off key supplies of oil and other commodities. The Japanese takeover of Indochina in July 1941 altered a strategy that had already begun to harden. The United States froze Japanese assets and cut off oil supplies, and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands followed suit.

Japanese expansion goals would be thwarted until the Indonesian oil reserves, as well as Malayan rubber and tin, were conquered. The month of October

In October, a military group led by General Hideki Tojo (1885–1948) seized control in Japan, deciding to risk war rather than surrender. While Japanese diplomats were in Washington to seek a resolution, Japan launched an air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the main American naval station in the Pacific, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The approach was identical to one employed by Japan against the Russian navy at Port Arthur in 1904, and it took the Americans off guard as well.

The attack damaged a large portion of the American fleet as well as several airplanes. For the time being, America's ability to conduct war in the Pacific has been ruled out. The United States and Britain declared war on Japan the next day.

Submarine warfare by the Germans was jeopardizing British supplies. On every front, the Allies were being pushed back, and the future appeared gloomy.

In the spring of 1942, the first encouraging news for the Allied effort in the Pacific arrived. A naval combat in the Coral Sea sank numerous Japanese ships and provided Australia with security. A month later, the US beat the Japanese in a devastating air and naval combat off the coast of Midway Island.

This victory reduced the likelihood of future attack on Hawaii and caused enough damage to halt the Japanese advance. Soon after, American forces landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and began to reverse the war's momentum. The Pacific War was far from ended, but Japan had received a check.

The Russians took any assistance they could obtain. Nonetheless, they did not trust their friends, grumbled about insufficient assistance, and demanded that the democracies create a "second front" on the European continent.

In 1942, American preparedness and manufacturing were insufficient for an invasion of Europe. German submarines made it risky to transport the enormous numbers of troops required for such an assault across the Atlantic. Conditions were not favorable for an invasion until 1944, but in the interim, other circumstances predicted the Axis' demise.

(For further information, see "Encountering the Past: Rosie the Riveter and American Women in the War Effort.")

Landings of the Allies in Africa, Sicily, and Italy An Allied force arrived in French North Africa in November 1942.

Even before the landing, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery (1887–1976) had launched a push west after halting Rommel at El Alamein. The Americans were now pushing eastward across Morocco and Algeria. In Tunisia, the two forces captured and defeated the German army. The Allies now had control of the Mediterranean and could launch an attack on southern Europe.

The Allies seized Sicily in July and August 1943. Mussolini was deposed in a coup, but Germany conquered Italy. The Allies arrived in Italy, and the new Italian government's head, Marshal Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956), declared war on Germany.

Churchill referred to Italy as the Axis' "soft underbelly," but the Germans there resisted vehemently. Nonetheless, the need to protect Italy hampered the Germans in other areas.

Stalingrad Battle The Russian campaign became very difficult. The Germans continued their onslaught on all fronts in the summer of 1942, but they were unable to advance except in the south.

Their target was the Caspian Sea oil reserves. Stalingrad, on the Volga, was a critical position on the German army's southern flank.