Hitler’s Declaration of War on the United States
The German invasion of the Soviet Union is often cited as the single biggest mistake made by Adolf Hitler which led to his downfall. While definitely a mistake, it was likely not his biggest. The United States declared war on Japan on the day following the Pearl Harbor attack. There was no mention of Germany. Roosevelt’s advisors were nearly all certain that a full American effort in the Pacific would mean the end of major aid to Britain and the Soviet Union in Europe. Churchill too believed that the war would be two separate campaigns, with Britain and the Soviet Union fighting Germany and Italy, and Britain, the United States, and China fighting Japan.
Hitler changed that in a decision which he apparently made with little consultation with his own advisors. The terms of the Tripartite Pact did not obligate him to declare war on the United States, since Japan had been the aggressor. Whatever his personal reasons for doing so were, among them was a growing hatred of Roosevelt and what the German leadership regarded as the Jewish influence in American politics.
In his speech before the Reichstag Hitler referred to FDR as the “…main culprit of this war.” A major portion of his speech to the Reichstag lists the activities of Roosevelt as a warmonger, driven by the need to hide the failure of his economic policies. Hitler claimed that it was Roosevelt’s clear intent to take over the British Empire, citing the destroyers for bases agreement and lend lease. Hitler listed the activities of the United States Navy in the Atlantic and Mediterranean which assisted the British in capturing or causing them to scuttle several German ships.
Many of his accusations were blatantly false, many were simply self-serving and many were directed towards Roosevelt personally, rather than the American people. Even though most of the Reichstag and German military leaders believed that the United States was in fact acting as a full partner in everything but major combat operations with the British it was still a blunder to provide FDR with the means to now fully engage Germany as an ally of the British and the Soviet Union.
In the formal, written declaration of war which was delivered by Joachim Ribbentrop to the American Charge d’Affaires the Germans listed formal charges against the United States, including the violation of the rules of neutrality which it claimed were severe provocations against Germany. It specifically addressed three United States Navy destroyers which were involved in incidents with German U-boats in which the Germans were fired upon by the Americans beginning in the autumn of 1941. The destroyers were the USS Kearny, the USS Greer, and the USS Reuben James.