"I have in my possession a map of undoubted authenticity made in Germany by Hitler's government. It is a map of South America and a part of Central America, as Hitler proposes to reorganize it… This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States itself -" Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his nationally broadcast Navy Day radio address October 1941.
With this bombshell revelation of German intentions towards - per the century old Monroe Doctrine - "America's backyard", the last vestiges of American isolationist sentiment were swept away. Considering the slim possibility of successfully prosecuting a two ocean war against the burgeoning Japanese Empire and in defense of a besieged Great Britain, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull quickly hammered out a non-aggression pact with Japan as part of the Midway Accords. Beginning in 1937 with the Battle of Shanghai, forces of the Third Reich had been providing assistance to the Republic of China in their struggle against the invading Japanese; consequently, securing co-operation from Minister of Foreign Affairs Shigenori Tōgō was "easy as falling off a log. After Shanghai, the Japs were happy to hold Uncle Sam's coat while we busted Adolf's jaw, I'll tell you what." *
* from the journals of Vice Admiral Wm. "Bull" Halsey, commander of Task Force Eager aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6), which transported Hull and his Department of State team to the remote Pacific atoll chosen as the site for the negotiations.
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