How do we get the USA to remain neutral in WW2?

[GauchoBadger]

Is it even possible?
My first guess for a PoD would be the USS Panay not being sunk, butterflying away greater diplomatic éntentes between the US and Japan. Or, we could have the US not recover from the Great Depression in some way. What do you guys think, is there any other plausible PoD? Or was the temptation to join the war, make some extra bucks with the arms industry and spread hegemony throughout the continent too great?
On a side note, how worse would the western allies fare against the third reich?

 

[Just a Rube]

The Panay Incident was a symptom of Japanese-American conflicts, not a cause. The US, which had significant cultural and business ties to China, had long been the leader of international opposition to Japan's aggressions against the Chinese. And the US was always strongly pro-Allies in the conflict with Nazi Germany, drifting towards open conflict even before Pearl Harbor.

The easiest way to keep the US out is to make the war end early, e.g. have the Germans lose the Battle of France (certainly doable). If it seems Germany will be crushed, there will be less diplomatic pressure on the US to get more involved, and the Japanese will be more hesitant about escalating things (occupying French territory with coerced Vichy consent is very different from invading French territory while France is actively fighting and winning a war).

 

[Hunter W.]

NOT putting an embargo on Japan, and possibly having a more isolationist Republican run in 1940 I assume the Soviets would get possibly as far as Hamburg because regardless Great Britain no matter how many defeats it suffered would most likely eventually win with its extensive resources and manpower. The only reason the Japanese entered the war was to secure resources not expansion "just because".

 

[Deleted member 1487]

No Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Have the Germans do better in Russia in 1941, perhaps that Japanese strike north into Siberia to take their cut of the spoils if they think the USSR is going to collapse. Another option is to avoid the Japanese moving into Indochina, so the US doesn't start the final round of sanctions that drove the Japanese to their attacks in 1941. Another would be to have the British quit in 1940, so the war in Europe effectively ends and Japan could potentially threaten Britain into the trade the US would deny it.

 

[Soup]

The German offensive into France fails, the Nazi regime implodes without its influx of loot, and the end of the war in Europe is the USSR, Italy, and the Allies messily dividing up what they can. There will still probably be conflict with Japan here, but it's more likely to be considered part of a decade of conflict, rather than the all-encompassing World War II.