With the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and his subsequent march into Poland in 1939. It became obvious to Western leaders that Hitler’s blitzkrieg was going to annihilate and destroy all bastions of democratic societies. With the majority of European nations quickly defeated by Germany and only underground resistance movements and the nations of Russia and England stood between total annihilation of the democratic ideal on the European continent, and the advancement of totalitarian dictatorships. England was in need of military equipment and had requested military assistance from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt however had run his presidential campaign with the understanding that he would not send American men to fight in European wars.
