So then what did we believe ww2 was about as young students whose parents had fought it? Whatweweretaught in school was it was about was leaders who had gotten too powerful and thus were dangerous because they might attack the usa. This was what people thought was bad about Hitler. If he wasn't stopped in Europe he would be attacking new York next. It wasnt his programs or Germans. And it certainly wasnt about Jews. No one thought much about Jews except to avoid them because they would cheat you if they could and they were killing Christians and "White Russians" in Russia and they just weren't nice people. (Keep in mind this was when Christians ran the nation and got married and had kids and families and didn't fuck without marriage and didn't cheat or commit adultery and if you did you lost your job and societies respect. Jews didn't follow the same morality and so weren't included in polite society built around morality.) Hell the whole world admired Germanys recovery from the great depression. Hitler had been made man of the year by Time magazine. There was open debate in the usa about whether our legislative system didn't allow the president to act boldly enough when the nation was in trouble like during the great depression and whether the usa president should have more power like Hitler. Most Americans didn't think it was worth fighting about. most didn't want to get involved in the war in Europe. Sure once it got started and the usa became invocled Americans pulled together but it wasn't by initial choice.