The Impact of Pearl Harbor

From a 1981 American Heritage article by Edwin O. Reischauer:

On that Sunday morning most Americans sensed that a great change was taking place, but they had little concept of what was really happening. There undoubtedly would be a terrible war, they knew, but beyond that most assumed that the eventual defeat of Japan and Germany would give birth to a new world order that would permit the United States to continue in its old semi-isolated calm. How many foresaw the collapse of all overseas empires, the cold war between the communist and noncommunist nations, and how these developments would split the world into at least three major segments? Who realized that America itself would have to serve for a while as the main support of world order, and that even after the other great nations had recovered, American military power would have to continue to play a major stabilizing role? Who foresaw that economic and technological advances would make even a rich continental nation like the United States economically dependent on the rest of the world and banish for good the dream of splendid isolation? Finally, who for a moment could have imagined that in this strange new world it would be America’s erstwhile enemies, Japan and Germany, who would prove to be its most stalwart supporters and allies?