My Dad, who was in Philippines, Leyte Gulf, Battle of Luzon - said he never understood why the US entered the war in Europe. Wouldn’t it have been better to simply let Hitler and Stalin bash each other’s brains out? I still can’t disagree with his position.
USA did not enter the war in Europe.
PH was 12/7, we declared war on Japan on the 8th. Hitler then unilaterally and unnecessarily declared war on USA on the 11th. We returned the favor later the same day.
I presume your dad would think we should fight back when someone declares war on us?
BTW, the idea that Hitler and Stalin would conveniently fight each other to exhaustion while we stand by to pick up the pieces is not necessarily true.
A scenario at least as likely has the Nazis crushing the Reds in 1942, then sitting back to absorb its meal of Europe to the Urals, North Africa and the Middle East. This would have completely eliminated the Germans' resource problems. Immense quantities of manpower and industry come into their control to build up their forces. Invasion and conquest of Europe without Germany having to deal with an Eastern Front was quite literally beyond our power in WWII.
The US leaders at the time, quite rightly IMO, decided that Germany was a real threat to conquer the world, while Japan simply was not.
So the decision was taken, again correctly IMO, to address the greater threat first.
Now today we know it didn't really matter. Nukes in 1945 could have been used as effectively on Germany as they were on Japan. But in 1942 we simply did not know we'd have nukes in a few years. FTM nobody knew for sure whether they'd work till mid-July of 45.
BTW, a strategy by UK and France of leaving Hitler and Stalin to fight it out against each other is exactly what led to the infamous Non-Aggression Pact between the two.
Hitler & Stalin would not have stopped. We would have still been involved and the deaths would have been greater then the 50 million +
Best case scenario, Hitler takes Moscow, Stalin is deposed along with most of the Bolsheviks, and Russia rallies to defeat Nazi Germany.....Bolsheviks and Nazis, both out of the picture.