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In OTL, the Brits spent most of the 1930s praying that Herr Hitler could be pacified and appeased. When he tore up the Munich agreement in 1939, that was the red line that the Germans crossed.

Problem for Chamberlain and co is that they hadn't taken the time to put together any realistic Plan B.
You could have written the British strategy on the back of a postage stamp. It seems to involve hoping the Poles would somehow hold out the Wehrmacht while the English Navy blockades the Nazi into surrender.
Fantasy.

My challenge to the board here is how could the Brits have induced the USA into joining them and the French into some kind of Proto-NATO agreement?
In my mind, that is the only way I can see war being averted in Europe (in the west at least).

Let's assume a point of departure of early 1937, after Roosevelts re-election.
That should just about give all parties time to sign on board for the proto-NATO pact by 1939. For simplicity, lets assume the pact is limited to just USA, Britain, France.

Obviously, given America's isolationist sentiment at the time, it would be a tough sell.
BUT, if Britain and France wanted the deal badly enough and were prepared to write an open check to the USA, who knows.

The only way I can see it happening is on 3 conditions:

1) Trade Benefits - Britain and France would have to give substantial trade access benefits to the USA.
Given their two vast empires, this would have been a juicy carrot to American firms, and as we know, money talks and money can sway public opinion.

2) Military Bases - Britain and France would have to give 99 year leases to the USA in strategically valuable places like Newfoundland and the Caribbean (which ultimately did happen anyway in OTL).

3) Strategic Ambiguity - There would need to be enough wriggle room in the agreement so that any American politician could assure his voters that Uncle Sam does NOT have to put boots on the ground (but they just might). I am thinking of something like the current policy of "strategic ambiguity" with regards Taiwan. Even if the USA didn't commit ground troops to Europe in 1939, just having the USA as part of a formal alliance would give the Germans pause.

What the Americans could deliver from the get go is:
- Financial and Economic embargo on belligerent states
- Confiscation of belligerent party assets in the USA
- Naval assistance in the North Atlantic
- Strategic Bomber and Fighter Squadron Assets in England/France.
- Materials and arms (which ultimately did happen as in Lend Lease in OTL).

If you want to take the scenario further, lets assume that Roosevelt wants to brand this as an idealistic "League of Democracies Pact" (he was an internationalist president at heart).
This could mean other democratic states like Belgium, Netherlands, the Scandinavians could join in.
The League of Nations was dead in the water by then and Roosevelt may have seen this as a way of America establishing it's leadership in the free world.

So in summary, would the above three inducements (trade benefits, bases and diplomatic ambiguity) have been enough to get the Americans into a proto-NATO in time to stop the Nazi invasion of western Europe?
If not, what other inducement could be offered?
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