Most historians zero in on 1939 as the actual beginning of World War II, the most destructive conflict in modern human history. It was then, fifty years ago, that Hitlers forces invaded and blitzed through Poland, precipitating a declaration of war by Britain and France on Germany. Inexorably, virtually the entire world became enmeshed few escaped its consequences. America was aware in 1939 that it would be drawn into the conflict. President Roosevelt expressed the feeling «Let no one imagine that America will escape, that it may expect mercy, that this Western Hemisphere will not be attacked.» But at first, the United States sat on the sidelines, a concerned spectator temporarily satisfied in building an «arsenal of democracy» for its allies. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor near the end of 1941 came the inevitable American commitment to the war. More than 16 million men and women served in the armed forces…