No. far from it. and you’re right. there was a lot of appeasement that happened. (Austria, Czechoslovakia. Poland…) and while france, the UK and the USSR were all down for appeasement… there were plenty of people who were very hawkish and wanted a more direct military confrontation- Churchill became a very unpopular figure for his opposition to Appeasement, for example. I’m also pretty sure Stalin himself outright hated Hitler (I do know Hitler hated Stalin with a passion… including fucking over their momentum to break the non aggression pact. Ostensibly they needed oil. They could have steamrolled the middle east, who were armed with ww1-era cast offs. his military leadership wanted to do just that.)
US became Isolationist after ww1, but even before the war, FDR was hawkish- but restricted by the neutrality acts. Which he flouted all the same to supply China against the japaneese in '37. FDR did manage to get some concessions the acts (like cash-and-carry); and eventually got them repealed with lend-lease. As much as Americans showed up late and took credit anyhow. (heh.) one of the critical factors leading to an allied victory in ww2 was the allied industrial output. IIRC, the US alone was outproducing the entire Axis- for examples, the US commissioned 140 carriers and 18 or so battleships (we dove head first on carriers,) Japan had 15 carriers and 10 battleships. we similarly outpaced them on subs (though our subs were very different than the German raiders.) we also outpaced on tanks, aircraft (fighters, bombers…) weapons. munitions.
Something to think about… because I see a lot of parallels with Ukraine, and the Spanish Civil War. Including that both HItler and Putin are not mere assholes. but assholes.
I’m also pretty sure Stalin himself outright hated Hitler (I do know Hitler hated Stalin with a passion…
They were both keenly aware that their alliance of convenience was only ever going to end in one of them trying to consume the other too after the convenience ran dry. You don’t stop at conquering half the world.
