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[tisogai]

Please help;

A. I had to earn money because I was going to the U.S.

B. I had to earn money because I would go to the U.S.

What's the difference between A and B in the meaning??

Thanks so much.

[CP]

A. I had to earn money because I was going to the U.S.
Means I had to earn money because I had a plan to go to the U.S. in the future.

B. I had to earn money because I would go to the U.S.
Not the way you would say it. Once upon a time, saying this meant "I had to earn money because I wanted to go to the U.S.," but most people wouldn't get that meaning these days.

"Will" and its various forms, including "would," originally meant "want." In Latin, "wolere" means "to wish, to want to." In German, the cognate to the old form of "will" is "wollen," and it still means "to want to" or "to want." Ich will gehen means I want to go.

A couple hundred years ago, "will he, nill he" (English, nowadays "willy-nilly") and "wolens, nolens" (Latin) would have been understood to mean "he wants, he doesn't want / wanting, not wanting."

Whatever we want to do is what we end up doing, most times, so "will" began to be used as an auxiliary verb to make up the future tense. And the connotation of "want" has slowly slipped away from "will," so that nowadays, only ancient specimens like myself hear that connotation automatically.
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