The attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the greatest crimes against the United States of America and was the trigger for the United States to enter World War II. The United States had been in a period of isolation throughout the war until the time of the attack. The Japanese had made progress in the Pacific, which made the Roosevelt administration very uncomfortable. On the day of the attack, not only the port was attacked: from the airports to the bases, the island of Oahu was destroyed. Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned for isolation and to stay out of war forever, but some historians and large numbers of Americans believe he knew about the attack. Most Americans were very angry at the Japanese. All these events are subject to controversy, whether we as a country knew they would happen or whether they were prepared by us. In the case of Pearl Harbor, some argue that FDR knew about the attack. Tyler Kent, a clerk at the American embassy in London, discovered that FDR had told Churchill that he wanted to take America into the war (Perloff). The United States was trying to involve America in the war and was taking some measures to do so, such as helping England with supplies and freezing Germany's assets, trying to get Germany to react and make the first move to let America in America at war without doing so. obvious to people (Perloff). According to James Perloff, “the key to a successful attack and bringing America into war was to keep Kimmel out of the intelligence loop.” Earlier in the year of the attack the United States had broken the Japanese diplomatic code called “Purple” which seemed to help with Japanese intentions (Perloff). With his hidden agenda, the ordinary American had no idea that there might be any inkling that a horrific attack would come against our own military in a time of crisis.