Why did FDR’s increasingly bold moves to aid Britain in the fight against Hitler stir such a fierce national debate over the risk of being drawn into war and the best way to preserve America’s security?

Between 1939 and 1941, many Americans were in no hurry to engage in another European war.  American ideals were denied at the Versailles Treaty table when Britain, France, and Italy all sought to carve up German territory for their own use and place a nearly impossible reparations schedule on the German nation.  World War I was sold to the American people as a war to "make the world safe for democracy."  Yet, after the war, it seemed as though it had been a war to make munitions makers rich.  When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, there was not a strong movement in America to prepare for war.  Many saw sending munitions to Britain as a way to get involved in another European war: American trade had led to America getting involved in World War I.  There was also the question of whether or not Britain would be able to pay for these weapons, especially since the nation stood alone against Hitler after the fall of France.  Franklin Roosevelt negotiated deals in which the United States received naval bases in Bermuda in return for Britain receiving loans on battleships and tanks.  Isolationists cried out again when Churchill insisted on American destroyer escorts leading the British convoys across the Atlantic.  This was in response to increased German attacks against British shipping.  Roosevelt agreed that American goods did not help Britain at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, so he complied with Churchill's request.  Roosevelt used the analogy of loaning a garden hose to your neighbor if his house was on fire.  Roosevelt's logic was to supply Britain so that Americans would not have to die in another European war.  However, some isolationists in Congress disagreed with Roosevelt.  To many isolationists, this looked exactly like the kind of situation that led to American involvement in World War I.  By December 1941, American destroyers were already fighting an undeclared war with German U-boats in the Atlantic.  By that time, more Americans had become sympathetic to the British cause thanks to broadcasters, such as William Shirer, who reported from London during the Blitz and portrayed Londoners in a very positive light.