G. Kurt Piehler, ed. The United States in World War II: A Documentary Reader.

The Second World War commenced in 1939 when Germany’s Nazi regime invaded the nation-state of Poland. The violation of Polish sovereignty by both Germany and the Soviet Union compelled the British and the French to stand alongside their Polish allies as was stipulated in pre-existing treaty obligations. In spite of Nazi-Soviet cooperation in Poland, war between the two ultimately came to fruition in 1941 when Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa. With all major powers involved in the war,..