us question!?

Question

discuss the effects of the us neutrality laws of the 1930s on both american foreign policy and the international situation in europe and east asia.

how did fascist dictators continually expanding aggression gradually erode the us commitment to neutrrality and isolatism?

Answer 1

When Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 touched off World War II, Roosevelt called Congress into special session to revise the Neutrality Act to allow belligerents (in reality only Great Britain and France, both on the Allied side) to purchase munitions on a cash-and-carry basis. With the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, Roosevelt, with heavy public support, threw the resources of the United States behind the British. He ordered the War and Navy departments to resupply British divisions that had been rescued at Dunkirk minus their weaponry, and in September he agreed to exchange 50 obsolescent destroyers for 99-year leases on eight British naval and air bases in the Western Hemisphere.

The question of how much and what type of additional aid should be given to the Allies became a major issue of the election of 1940, in which Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term. Public opinion polls, a new influence upon decision makers, showed that most Americans favoured Britain but still wished to stay out of war. Roosevelt's opponent, Wendell Willkie, capitalized on this and rose steadily in the polls by attacking the president as a warmonger. An alarmed Roosevelt fought back, going so far as to make what he knew was an empty promise. "Your boys," he said just before the election, "are not going to be sent into any foreign wars." In truth, both candidates realized that U.S. intervention in the war might become essential, contrary to their public statements. Roosevelt won a decisive victory.

Answer 2

There is a book by James Brown Scott, Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War (you can read it on Google, I think) that talks about WWI. This set the stage for the same song, second verse. Walter John Raymond's Dictionary of Politics (around page 331) speaks of the three neutrality acts (in 1935, 1936, and 1937). Then there was a law in 1939 that dampened the teeth of the 1934 Debt Default Act and permitted trade to European belligerants. Look up the Klingberg Cycle while you are looking. Good luck.