In the early days of the Second World War, there were isolationists, “America Firsters,” who felt that America should not soil its hands by intervening in the affairs of the rest of the world. The attitude of the America Firsters was epitomized by Senator Borah who, when the Nazis invaded Poland, famously said: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” Borah did not fancy Hitler was benign, but rather the senator thought that the superior wisdom and virtue of America could have saved the rest of the world from its own vice and folly.
