[Borodog]

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Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearney and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German sub-marines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that-American destroyers attacked German submarines.

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I would give Nazi propaganda a little less credit. According to wikipedia, both the Greer and the Reuben James were attacked by German U-boats, not the other way around.

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American naval forces were attacking German naval forces, at Roosevelt's order, prior to the reverse, regardless of which side precipitated any particular engagements. If you would like to argue that such actions are not "provocative", you are free to do so.

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Your argument that Roosevelt provoked either war is quite weak. The embargo against Japan was a response to Japan's entry into the Axis.

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So what?

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Continuing to send them oil to power their fleet to threaten British and US holdings in the Pacific would have been bizarre.

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They weren't threatening US holdings until after Roosevelt initiated the embargo.

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The situation in Europe is a bit more grey, but as a matter of historical fact, I think it's well-established that Roosevelt's actions did not provoke Germany's declaration of war. It was a response to the US declaration against Japan.

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Pearl Harbor and the US Declaration of War against Japan provided a convenient trigger, but American naval attacks on German ships, along with America providing material and support to Great Britain was the reason.

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Whether Germany would have declared war, or would have induced the US to declare, is an interesting question, but I don't really see grounds here to infer that Roosevelt would have launched an insane war against the USSR. (His wussiness at Yalta strongly suggests he was trying to avoid said war.)

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Why not? He maneuvered the US into insane wars with Japan and Germany, which was my point. And yielding territory at Yalta lays the groundwork for later "reliberation".

All of this is a nice discussion, but what Roosevelt would have done had he not died when he did is an impossible counterfactual. All I'm stating is that Roosevelt's economic policies drove him to maneuver the United States into the war in the first place, and had he not died and many of those policies been abolished, his depression would not have ended in '46 and he would have needed another war, and the most likely target would have been the Soviet Union.

I've said my piece on the subject, and whether or not you find it credible really does not interest me.