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> That's why we entered WWII

The US entered World War II in the pacific after Pearl Harbor and in Europe after Germany declared war.

Before those 2 events, there was still a strong isolationist contingent in the US.

For years leading up to that point Congress was passing "neutral" bills that allowed the country to sell weapons to the Allies but not the Axis. Since we're discussing weapons production, yes, the US joined the war effort on the side of the Allies well before formally declaring war.

Yes, there were isolationists, but there weren't enough to change the fact that fascist/communist victories in Europe would be bad for America. The neoliberal thing where we support liberal democracies is an evolution of the Monroe doctrine, because we've recognized for a long time that the best path forward for America is free trade and interdependency with other like-minded countries.

That wasn’t the US supporting liberal democracies. A full 20% of Lend-Lease went to the Soviet Union, and the US provided plenty of support to Nationalist (and very authoritarian) China.

We had friendly relations and supported many counties that weren’t liberal democracies before the war. We were friendly with Japan before they started expanding and threatening free trade/access to Asia.

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