STEP #2 - Neutrality Laws
While hostilities were building in Europe and the Far East, the U.S. Congress passed three pieces of legislation-- known collectively as the Neutrality Acts--designed to keep America out of war. Congress was determined to avoid the mistakes which had drawn America into the First World War.
Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed three separate neutrality laws that clamped an embargo on arms sales to belligerents, forbade American ships from entering war zones and prohibited them from being armed, and barred Americans from traveling on belligerent ships. The acts made no distinction between which country was an aggressor and which country was a victim. Clearly, Congress was determined not to repeat what it regarded as the mistakes that had plunged the United States into World War I. The leadership for neutrality in the Senate was Robert A. Taft, who (along with others) pushed for three neutrality laws.
The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited shipment of American weapons to any belligerent nation (that is, any nation at war). Against the wishes of FDR, this act did not differentiate between "the good guys and the bad guys"--nations defending themselves and nations on the attack.
The Second Neutrality Act of 1936 forbade American loans to any belligerent nation, again, without distinguishing between aggressors and victims.
The Third Neutrality Act of 1937 made the two previous laws a permanent part of American national policy and it forbade U.S. citizens to travel on ocean-going vessels of nations at war. This was clearly designed to prevent another incident like the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger ship with Americans aboard that was torpedoed by Germany in WWI.
Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed three separate neutrality laws that clamped an embargo on arms sales to belligerents, forbade American ships from entering war zones and prohibited them from being armed, and barred Americans from traveling on belligerent ships. The acts made no distinction between which country was an aggressor and which country was a victim. Clearly, Congress was determined not to repeat what it regarded as the mistakes that had plunged the United States into World War I. The leadership for neutrality in the Senate was Robert A. Taft, who (along with others) pushed for three neutrality laws.
The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited shipment of American weapons to any belligerent nation (that is, any nation at war). Against the wishes of FDR, this act did not differentiate between "the good guys and the bad guys"--nations defending themselves and nations on the attack.
The Second Neutrality Act of 1936 forbade American loans to any belligerent nation, again, without distinguishing between aggressors and victims.
The Third Neutrality Act of 1937 made the two previous laws a permanent part of American national policy and it forbade U.S. citizens to travel on ocean-going vessels of nations at war. This was clearly designed to prevent another incident like the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger ship with Americans aboard that was torpedoed by Germany in WWI.