GTCharlie:

>  I  see no mention of  those evil Americans actually helping the Soviets

I think it was not a matter of good or evil in the the sense of the US doing wrong on purpose.  The American govenment at the time was not sure of how to commit to the war.  It took the attack on Pearl Harbor to move the American government to stop turning a blind eye to those who traded with the enemy.  Those who helped Hitler (in the US, England and France) acted because they thought that Hitler was doing a good thing in destroying the Soviet Union.  By the winter of 1941 Hitler's eastern front was falling apart and as it became obvious that he would fail then those that supported him started withdrawing their support and losing their power base.  Notice that the Lend-Lease agreement came into effect in 1941, and the Trading with the Enemy Act in 1942.  1941 was the key year.  It crystallized full American commitment to the Alies.

American help was essential in helping the Soviet Union to stop Hitler.  The Soviets lost between 19 and 23 million citizens, and nearly 2/3 of their industrial production.  Perhaps Hitler would have failed sooner and killed a lot less people without the help of those that supported his war machine, particularly Sweden.  Sweden, a country that declared itself neutral, sustained that war machine by providing it with the steel to manufacture tanks, battleships and other war machinery.

Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact, and divided Poland and Czechoslovakia.  They did it to stall for time because neither one of them was ready for war.  However, they both knew that war was unavoidable.  Of course, those that traded with them and sold them weapons and materials made a lot of money.  War is like that.  Those that supply the armies make the money.  The real victims were the Czech, Slovak and Polish civilians who died as Hitler and Stalin sent their armies to divide those countries and make "buffer zones" out of them.