Here we go again.... Just to get the juices flowing....

When the U.S. entered WWII it is said that FDR thought the ETO more urgent than the PTO due to political reasons. Thus the focus of resources and effort were expended more in the ETO.

Was that the BEST decision he could have made? Which theater was more strategically vital/politically important???

I would have to go with FDR here, it's hard to argue with success. Japan was certainly a formidable foe, but didn't have much of a chance of actually defeating the United States. The fact that this decision was made prior to the war, to me, shows how smart the brain trust was then. One major point in favor of the decision to focus on Europe first, the effect the United States had on the allies. If the decision to focus on Japan had been made what effect would that have had on Britain and the Soviet Union? I can't really say that they may have gone for a separate peace, but they may have. Without full support from the US would these two have been able to stay in the fight as long as they did?

I too agree with FDR's decision. Germany was on the verge of busting Russia out of the war, threatning the very doorstep of the Suez canal. If they had been able to stay focused and we had put all our emphasis on the Pacific it is possible they could have eventually linked up and controlled the canal and oil in the region. It would have been the "devil to pay" to bust Germany loose from all that in 44 or 45.

The decision was made long before the U.S. was in the declared war. FDR had the U.S. involved almost from the beginning as escorts in the Atlantic, lend lease and so on. Just how easy the plan would have been to impliment if Hitler had not declared war on the U.S. is another question.

The ETO was more important in the political sense, to help Europe. For the U.S. the strategic value of the Middle East was very limitted at the time. Most of the big oil was from local regions before WWII, as was most of the natural resourses.

So the decision was a good one, and paid dividends later. Keep in mind though, some of those smart people also trusted Stalin.

Absolutely the ETO. Japan was a much smaller threat than Germany&Italy.

Reading books on the US and it's role WWII it seems that the whole point in entering the war was to aid England. (It seems very possible that Japan was indeed provoked intentionally to strike against the US. Read a lot pro and contra, and though direct evidence is lacking, all the signs put together point that way. But then again; I'm no historian.)

By the way, one very good reason to enter the European theater was to deny the Russians the continent. It seems after the tide turned at Kursk, they would have been more than capable to fight the Germans by themselves, and sweep them off of Europe by late '46. And nothing would have stopped them at the German border. I don't think a red star over the Eiffel Tower would have been a good thing.