Books: Side Door to War?

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND THE COMING OF THE WAR 1941 (614 pp.)—Charles A. Beard—Yale University ($5).

Was World War II forced on the U.S. or did we ask for it? To Historian Charles A. Beard, the answer already seems plain: President Roosevelt worked for it and got it, all the time pretending that his objectives were peace and defense. Sounding more like a prosecuting attorney than the historian he is, Dr. Beard makes President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War a study in dissimulation.

Historian Beard carefully avoids the implications of an Axis victory had the U.S. stayed "neutral." Instead, he confines himself...