1. Neutrality
DID U.S. ACTIONS IN THE 1930s PROVE THAT IT LEARNED A LESSON DURING WORLD WAR I?

2. Dr. Seuss Goes to War (Collection published 1999)

3. Aim: Should the United States remain neutral during the 1930s and at the start of World War II?
Key Terms:
Neutrality Acts of —These acts made it illegal to exchange military equipment with nations at war, extend loans to belligerent nations, to travel on ships of warring nations and gave the president the power to restrict trade where he believed it necessary to preserve peace.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
Belligerent—a nation involved in war.
Lend-Lease Act 1940—The U.S. will lend or lease [rent] war goods to Britain.
Cash and Carry Policy—slightly revised the Neutrality Act of 1937, allowed foreign countries (even those at war) to buy U.S. goods and transport them in their own country’s ships, if they paid in full.
Essential Questions:
Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt support neutrality?
Does the U.S. develop policies during neutrality that seem anything but neutral? How does this affect our nation (Politically? Economically? Socially?)
How do these acts reflect similar arguments for neutrality made in the era leading to World War I?

4. FDR’s Address at Chautauqua, N.Y. August 14, 1936
“I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping...I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.”

5. Senator Bennett “Champ” Clark Discusses Neutrality, May 23, 1935
“The best way [to avoid another war]… is to examine the forces which are likely to involve us in war. In 1914 we knew very little about those forces. President Wilson issued his proclamation of neutrality and we went on with business as usual, in the happy belief that 3000 miles of ocean would keep us out of the mess…. They [State Department] told munitions makers that they were free to sell there war materials to either or both sides…. We are wiser today. We know more about war and much more about neutrality….
That a policy based on defense of our so called neutral rights led us into serious diplomatic controversy….
Passions are quickly aroused when American lives are lost—even though the citizens who took passage on belligerent ships knew in advance the risks they ran….
That the economic forces, set in motion by our huge war trade with the Allies, made it impossible to maintain that ‘true spirit of neutrality’….
That among these economic forces, those which involved us most deeply were the huge trade in arms and ammunition and other war materials with the Allies.”

6. Nye Report from the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry (Nye Committee)
This committee, chaired by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye, investigated the financial and banking interests which underlay U.S. involvement in WWI, and was a significant factor in public and political support for American neutrality in the early stages of WWII.

7. NEUTRALITY ACTS 1930s Isolationism
U.S. Passes Neutrality Laws to Keep U.S. Out of War
NEUTRALITY ACT
U.S. will not send guns or loan money to countries at war.
NEUTRALITY ACT 2 – 1937
U.S. can sell non-military goods to countries at war. But these countries must pay cash and carry the goods in their own ships.

8. Neutrality Act of 1935 Neutrality Act of 1936
...the prohibition of the export of arms, ammunition, and implements of war to belligerent countries; the prohibition of the transportation of arms, ammunition, and implements of war by vessels of the United States for the use of belligerent states; for the registration and licensing of persons engaged in the business of manufacturing, exporting, or importing arms, ammunition, or implements of war; and restricting travel by American citizens on belligerent ships during war.
Neutrality Act of 1936
It shall thereafter during the period of the war be unlawful for any person within the United States to purchase, sell, or exchange bonds, securities, or other obligations of the government of any belligerent country, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any person acting for or on behalf of such government, issued after the date of such proclamation, or to make any loan or extend any credit to any such government or person...

9. Neutrality Act of 1937
SECTION 1. (a) Whenever the President shall find that there exists a state of war between, or among, two or more foreign states...it shall thereafter be unlawful to export, or attempt to export, or cause to be exported, arms, ammunition, or implements of war from any place in the United States to any belligerent state named in such proclamation, or to any neutral state for transshipment to, or for the use of, any such belligerent state....
SEC. 9. Whenever the President shall have issued a proclamation... it shall thereafter be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to travel on any vessel of the state or states named in such proclamation...

10. Cash and Carry Policy 1939
This act slightly changed the terms of the Act of 1937, and effectively ended the arms embargo. Under this act, it was still illegal for U.S. ships to bring war goods to countries involved in conflict, but it allowed foreign countries (even those at war) to buy U.S. goods and transport them in their own country’s ships from the United States. This was known as “Cash and Carry.”

12. What is the difference between the Neutrality Acts?
U.S. will not send guns or loan money to countries at war.
U.S. can sell nonmilitary goods to countries at war
Must pay CA$H and CARRY the goods on their own ships.
1939
U.S. can sell guns to a country at war if country pays in CA$H and CARRIES goods on it’s own ships

13. Lend-Lease Britain does not have money to pay for war goods.
The U.S. will lend or lease [rent] the goods to them
FDR said that Britain was defending democracy against dictatorships
Is the U.S. behaving like a neutral country?

14. Isolationism in the Press

15. Fortune’s 1939 Survey on the War What should the US do?

19. Henry Stimson, October 1935
“From these patent facts we should have learned thoroughly that a war anywhere is dangerous and that a great war will ultimately make us suffer whether we go in or not. We should have learned that the chief problem of the world today is war prevention, not isolation; and that isolation in the modern world is a fantastic impossibility, so far as keeping out of economic trouble is concerned. Most of the other nations of the world have learned this lesson. They have learned that the only method of saving us from war’s consequences is for all the nations of the world to cooperate to prevent war from starting. If it starts it must be stamped out before it spreads.”

20. Editorial in the New York Times November 30, 1937
“The United States has lost its leadership in world affairs. The main reason for this loss is plain; treaty breaking governments and dictators have become convinced that for no cause short of actual invasion will the United States initiate or join in any effective movement to assure world peace…. The world was put on notice that the United States was out to save its own skin from immediate dangers; and the dictators were informed that the American group controlling policy was prepared to see the world remade on fascist lines without interference and apparently without understanding that this ould mean anything dangerous to us at all.”

21. President Franklin Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress (January 4, 1939)
“At the very least, we can and should avoid any action, or any lack of action, which will encourage, assist or build up an aggressor. We have learned that when we deliberately try to legislate neutrality, our neutrality laws may operate unevenly and unfairly—may actually give aid to an aggressor and deny it to the victim. The instinct of self-preservation should warn us that we ought not to let that happen any more.”