december 8th and we didn t declare war on germany until december 11th, after you mentioned correctly, obviously, they were foolish enough to declare war on us, which really put us into a third world war. we may not have gotten into the world war if germany and bulgari, by the way, declared war on us december 11th. and now we re truly an internationalist country and have been for the last eight years. michael, you and craig and jon meacham have written about the pleas, almost love letters from winston churchill to fdr in 1940 and 1941, please, please, please get in the war. please help us. europe will fall. the world may fall after it.
happen today in 2021. craig, remarkable book december 1941 you talk about the three days that changed america and saved the world. for those that really haven t studied the history of pearl harbor and what led up to it, of course, winston churchill was and britain was hanging on just by a thread, saving western civilization from adolf hitler. and hitler, of course, in another extraordinarily stupid strategic blunder decided to use this opportunity to declare war on the united states. so we were in it. and as you said, we quickly got launched onto a mission to save the world. yes. yes, we did. i think by the way, hi, michael, how are you and, mika, good morning, everybody. i think the most significant
day. despite the weather here, they say they re going to hold ceremonies, they re going to make sure that nobody ever forgets the sacrifice made that day. of course, it was that attack in pearl harbor that drew the united states into world war ii. mika? nbc news correspondent kerry sanders reporting from hawaii, thank you very much. and joining us now, author and nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss and best-selling author, hi torrian and presidential biographer craig sherley. his acclaimed book on pearl harbor entitled december 1941: 130 days that saved america and the world. we had you on and talked about november 22, 1963, as probably the most significant day over the past 60 years for changing the arc of american
craig, as remarkable obviously, and we ve talked about the remarkable job that our men in uniform did on that day in moving forward, but i want to talk about america going to war. it s one of the extraordinary stories. churchill had lord dever brook, a man who was as much despised by polite society, but he used him to help mobilize the country, industrial base. talk about the extraordinary industrialization when detroit went to war, when america went to war, following december 7th. you know, that s a great question, joe, it became instantly a country and destroyed the democracy, fdr said. within three weeks of december