Hey there, /u/JCAPS766. Your question is kind of subjective, so it's difficult to answer. Let's ask Adolf Hitler what he thinks.

"With no attempt at an official denial, there has now been revealed in America President Roosevelt's plan by which, at the latest in 1943, Germany and Italy were to be attacked in Europe by military means. In this way, the sincere efforts of Germany and Italy to prevent an extension of the war and to maintain relations with the U.S.A. — in spite of the unbearable provocations which have been carried on for years by President Roosevelt — have been frustrated. Germany and Italy have been finally compelled, in view of this, and in loyalty to the Tri-Partite act, to carry on the struggle against the U.S.A. and England jointly and side by side with Japan for the defense and thus for the maintenance of the liberty and independence of their nations and empires."

That dense little paragraph was delivered by Hitler on Dec. 11, 1941 in a speech to the Reichstag. It was his declaration of war on the United States.

Now, you should be puzzled by Hitler's assertion that the U.S. planned to attack Germany in 1943. (I'll give you a moment to go back, re-read that sentence and become puzzled.)

The source of that assertion was the famous "Big Leak," the huge scoop published by the Chicago Tribune one week earlier. In a damning expose, the Tribune published details of the War Department's "Rainbow Five" war plan. In its story, the Tribune exposed how the U.S. military planned to wage war on the Axis powers.

This was a huge deal — FDR had promised during his 1940 presidential campaign to keep Americans out of the war in Europe. Most Americans believed that promise, and FDR was re-elected by a huge margin. Despite that pledge, America had become increasingly involved in the war. FDR led the creation of the Lend-Lease Act, which sent war supplies overseas. He sent U.S. Merchant Marine ships into war zones including the Red Sea. He sent the U.S. Navy on active "neutrality patrols" in the Atlantic.

Destroyers on neutrality patrols actively collaborated with British antisubmarine efforts and sometimes paid the consequences. On Sept. 11, 1941, the destroyer Greer was torpedoed by a German submarine — after three hours in which the Greer had been stalking the submarine. (Roosevelt neglected to mention the second half of that action.) On Oct. 31, 1941, the destroyer Ruben James was sunk by a German submarine, the first American warship loss of WWII (if you ignore the gunboat Panay.)

Despite all this, American public opinion remained against entering the war. In August 1941, after Roosevelt's meeting with Churchill in Newfoundland, the Tribune had caused a furor by declaring that the two men were planning an American expeditionary force to Europe to fight in the war.

At the time of the "Big Leak," you have to remember that the idea of war planning was not well known in the United States. Most members of the public believed that war would not strike out of the blue. They believed that there would be time to prepare, much as there had been in WWI. That was why the "Big Leak" was such a big deal. In the few days between the "Big Leak" and the attack on Pearl Harbor, it seemed to provide evidence to the neutrality movement in the United States that Roosevelt was lying about his campaign promises and planning to get the U.S. involved with a war against Germany, regardless of what the public thought.

Now, was that actually true? We don't know. We don't have a smoking gun.

Let's look at what happened between Dec. 7 and Dec. 11, 1941. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech does not mention Germany once. The day after that famous speech, however, Roosevelt delivered one of his famous radio Fireside Chats. Here's an excerpt from toward the end of the speech:

"Your Government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share in dividing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised by Germany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetual control of the whole of the Pacific area-and that means not only the Far East, not only all of the islands in the Pacific, but also a stranglehold on the west coast of North, Central, and South America.

We also know that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considers all peoples and nations which are not helping the Axis powers as common enemies of each and every one of the Axis powers.

That is their simple and obvious grand strategy. That is why the American people must realize that it can be matched only with similar grand strategy. We must realize for example that Japanese successes against the United States in the Pacific are helpful to German operations in Libya; that any German success against the Caucasus is inevitably an assistance to Japan in her operations against the Dutch East Indies; that a German attack against Algiers or Morocco opens the way to a German attack against South America.

On the other side of the picture, we must learn to know that guerilla warfare against the Germans in Serbia helps us; that a successful Russian offensive against the Germans helps us; and that British successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain and Russia. And Germany puts all the other republics of the Americas into the category of enemies. The people of the hemisphere can be honored by that."

Now, you have to look at what we do know and make up your mind. Do you consider the existence of war plans to be evidence that Roosevelt intended to use them? Do you consider the U.S. Navy's increasingly aggressive actions in the Atlantic to be evidence that Roosevelt was trying to force a war? Do you consider Roosevelt's Dec. 9 speech to be evidence that he was looking to extend the war?

Unless someone turns up a definitive statement, the evidence will be in the mind of the reader.