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Neutrality Acts

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Neutrality Acts
The Neutrality Acts of the 1930’s: Was the U.S. Truly a Neutral State?

The four Neutrality Acts of the late 1930s represented an effort to keep the United States out of "foreign" wars, an effort resulting in part from widespread questioning of the reasons for and results of America's participation in World War I, and were encouraged due to the increase of isolationism and non-interventionist views of the country. And while the United States wished to be viewed as a neutral state, policies of the neutrality acts did favor the allies over the axis powers. How did the U.S. government deal with the restrictions of the neutrality acts? How did programs such as cash and carry and lend lease favor certain belligerents of World War II? Was the U.S. …show more content…
The American public was dissatisfied with its involvement in World War I and hoped to avoid involvement another war that didn’t concern them and would take whatever steps needed to accomplish this. The United States clearly favored the allied powers over the Axis powers and used them as a buffer or defense against the axis forces. The U.S. government was confronted with other nations asking them to end its neutrality and help in some way. At first the U.S. would do what it could to stay neutral, but as time went by, revised its policies to look neutral while helping its allies. Obviously programs such as cash and carry and lend lease favored certain belligerents of World War II over others. The United States made the shift from true neutrality to a fallacy of neutrality from 1935 till their actual involvement in the war. By the third revision of the Neutrality Acts in 1937, it is obvious that neutrality is a misleading notion during a time of turmoil leading up to the …show more content…
General, the British Commonwealth and Europe." Foreign Relations of the United States. May 1, 1939. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=turn&entity=FRUS.FRUS1939v02.p0869&id=FRUS.FRUS1939v02&isize=text&q1=cash%20and%20carry (accessed November 29, 2011).
"United States Department of State / Foreign relations of the United States diplomatic papers, 1941. General, The Soviet Union." Foreign Relations of the United States. June 23, 1941. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=turn&id=FRUS.FRUS1941v01&entity=FRUS.FRUS1941v01.p0248&isize=text&q1=lend-lease%20act (accessed November 29, 2011).
"United States Department of State / Foreign relations of the United States diplomatic papers, 1941. General, The Soviet Union." Foreign Relations of the United States. November 7, 1941. http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=turn&id=FRUS.FRUS1941v01&entity=FRUS.FRUS1941v01.p0869&isize=text&q1=lend-lease%20act (accessed November 29,
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