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Comment by protomyth | Hacker News Reader

When you won't accept a ship full of Jews, and given how many Stalin killed, I don't think anything short of the UK actually being invaded or Perl Harbor would have got the US into WWII. Lot of anti-semites in leadership positions pre-WWII. Hell, Wilson was a KKK member and re-segregated the federal government.

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> Wilson was a KKK member

I don't think this is true. A brief search finds nothing that says he was, and several places that don't say he was where I'd expect them to. E.g. http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/president-woodrow-wilson-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson#Civil_rights

President Wilson was a racist. The screening on March 21, 1915 of "The Birth of a Nation" that he so enjoyed (probably because he was friends of the author of the book it was based). You can search on all that information.

The Wikipedia page ignores all the other articles (do the search) about Wilson's beliefs, friends, and civil rights record. It is also ignored in HS history books just as President Lincoln's dealing with the Dakota is ignored. Let's also remember he was happy about the biggest KKK march on DC in US history. Never mind his dumb meeting after WWII in Paris.

I never said he wasn't a racist. I said he wasn't a member of the KKK. You haven't provided any evidence that he was.

"Not being a member of the KKK" doesn't mean someone wasn't a racist. If he was a racist, we can say that without saying he was a member of the KKK. You'll note that I linked an article titled "President Woodrow Wilson was a Racist", which successfully accomplished this.

The book I saw as the source "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White" detailing 5 Presidents who were members. The only dispute I see about the book is its deemphasis of churches over Republicans.

I wasn't think the US, particularly amongst the general population, particularly cared if the UK was invaded. There was strong anti-British sentiment, further boosted by the UK effectively defaulting on its WW1 war debts to the US, much of which came out of "ordinary" Americans' pockets.

:) "perl harbor", very HN typo ...

I always do that - I program in perl a lot at work - thanks

I think there were enough folks that would have cared just from a self preservation view if the UK had gotten invaded.

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