For most of America's brief past, her foreign policy has been dominated by an isolationist attitude. Her leaders and citizens have always been reluctant to involve the country in the affairs of other nations, outside of trading. There are several exceptions to this generalization, but until World War II, America has tried desperately to keep to herself. These exceptions to America's isolationist policy were made mostly on the basis of morality. The Second World War was a turning point for America. Instead of this war being another exception to her habits, it opened the eyes of many the United States" leaders. America needed to lead the world away from the "might makes right" balance-of-power politics and into the morals based ideology of American democracy. .
There were two main reasons that it was in the United States" national interest to participate in the Second World War. First, American values and beliefs, in the case of Hitler and fascism, were contrary to those of traditional isolationism. America has always justified past international intervention with moral principle (McCormick 26). There are several examples to back up this statement. The United States entered the War of 1812 after she perceived Britain of continuously violating the international law of freedom of the seas for neutral states. The tyrannical colonial rule of the Spanish over Cuba and the Philippines and the sinking of the U.S. battleship Maine predicated American declaration of the Spanish-American War. President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly lead America into World War I after German U boats attacked Atlantic merchant shipping and their audacious aggression symbolized by the Zimmerman Telegram sent to Mexico. Applying all these examples found in McCormick's text to the Second World War, how could the United States allow Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to abuse, oppress, and slaughter all of these "political undesirables.