With the Battle of the Atlantic heating up, why was this not the reason the US was dragged into war, as in the first world war?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Isolationists had a lot of influence. After the horrors of WW1, the isolationists didn't want the United States to be dragged into what they felt was "Europe's problems". 

German raiders also focused mostly on British ships, or supply ships attempting to help them, but they did not intentionally target US ships if they could help it. Tensions were rising between the neutral US and belligerent Germany, but it didn't actually spill over into open warfare until days after Pearl Harbor when Hitler declared war against them. At that point, there was nothing to keep the US from jumping into openly supporting their allies.