It is important to realize that up until Pearl Harbor, and even after, public sentiment did not support our getting personally involved in the European war. Roosevelt's hands were tied and he was only able to send equipment and material aid rather than troops. All this changed when Hitler allowed himself to be swindled by his Japanese allies. Hitler wanted Japan to attack the Soviet Union, which would have probably been enough to crush them between both countries attacks. Japan had no intention of attacking Russia; preferring to consolidate their chain of islands and keep fighting China instead. Still, Japan intimated to Hitler that if he would declare war on the US then they would declare against the Soviets. Hitler fell for it and his declaration against the US untied Roosevelt's hands; allowing a much greater presence in Europe and ultimately Germany's downfall.
During the 1930s, US public opinion as well as several Senators questioned the validity of US involvement in the Great War.
The belief became increasingly common that the nation was deceived into taking part in this bloody conflict by Allied propaganda and to serve the interests of profit-thirsty bankers and industrialists. The conclusions of the Nye Committee in 1934, tasked with investigating the excessive profits made by the war armament industry, reinforced the antiwar position of the American people and finalized the country's isolationist policy.
As a reaction to Germany's re-armament, and to prevent any US involvement in a possible European war, the US Congress voted the Neutrality Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 31, 1935. The Act prohibits trade in military material with warring countries and travel by US nationals on ships belonging to warring countries. It was amended in 1936 to prohibit loans to warring countries, and then in January and March...
US neutrality and WWII
While your essay contains a great deal of information about the various Neutrality Acts, your conclusion needs more support than 20-20 hindsight. Even since Washington's 1796 farewell address in which he warned against entangling alliances abroad, America has shown an historical aversion to involving itself in foreign wars. Recently, that has changed, but in the 1930's America was preoccupied fighting the Great Depression. While the threat from Germany and Japan was acknowledged, it was thought to be a European and Far East concern oceans away and not a direct threat to our shores. Prior to the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japan had not committed an act of war against the US and neither had Nazi Germany. America's European allies should have stood up to Hitler long before the invasion of Poland rather than follow a policy of appeasement. It was appeasement and not American neutrality which most encouraged Hitler.
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