[Miss Saigon]

I just read about this in a book on MacArthur. The book said that Roosevelt imposed the embargo after Japan occupied IndoChino. It said his intention was to use it as a political tool. The idea was that the embargo could be loosened or tightened to express varying degrees of approval or disapproval about Japanese actions and policies. Much the way LBJ thought he could send messages to the North Vietnamese with his bombing campaign. Both men miscalculated badly.

The Author of the book I am reading suggests that Roosevelt was thinking Politically with the embargo, not militarily.

I have to agree with those who said that Roosevelt wanted into WWII. He wanted to fight Germany. Provoking war with Japan would not necessarily have forced that had Hitler not declared war. It could very easily have gone the other way, where Americans wanted to now focus all their efforts on their own war, not Europe's.