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Explanation:Twenty years after World War I ended, 70% of Americans polled believed that American participation in the war had been a mistake. The United States was only involved in the final nineteen months of the bloody conflict, between April 1917 and November 1918, but the war (and the influenza epidemic that immediately followed) resulted in the deaths of more than 116,000 American soldiers.
After the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson lobbied extensively for US support for the League of Nations, believing that an international representative body would prevent future wars. The US Senate, however, refused to approve participation in the League. The United States never joined the League of Nations, nor ratified the Treaty of Versailles.
In the 1920s, the US government took measures to reduce the threat of foreign conflict. The US signed treaties limiting naval construction, and signed the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, outlawing aggressive war. The United States also sought to lessen foreign influence by reducing immigration. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 limited overall immigration and set country-specific quotas, privileging immigrants from northern and western Europe. These laws, which reflected a widespread belief in eugenics and deeply held antisemitic prejudices, marked the end of a period of mass immigration to the United States. The number of arrivals immediately fell to less than 20% of the pre-World War I totals.
Neutrality
International unrest in the 1930s, including Japan’s occupation of Manchuria, Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, Nazi Germany’s remilitarization and territorial seizures, and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, threatened US isolationism. In response to these conflicts, the US Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts, designed to prevent American involvement in these conflicts. Longstanding diplomatic practice held that countries unwilling to become involved in a conflict had to maintain strict neutrality; even economic sanctions, or selling arms to one belligerent but not the other, could be considered acts of war. The Neutrality Acts, therefore, defined the terms of American neutrality to the world.
The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited exporting arms and ammunition to any foreign nation at war. In 1937, a new neutrality act prohibited Americans from traveling on ships owned by any belligerent nation, and declared that American-owned ships could not carry any arms intended for war zones. At Roosevelt’s request, however, the Neutrality Act of 1937 removed impartiality, allowing the President to distinguish among nations at war when enforcing neutrality. Favored nations could purchase non-military products in the United States, provided they paid with cash and transported the goods on their own ships, an arrangement known as “cash and carry.”
Portrait of Secretary of State Cordell Hull signing the president's Neutrality Proclamation.
Cordell Hull signs neutrality proclamation
Portrait of Secretary of State Cordell Hull signing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's neutrality proclamation. September 5, 1939.
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
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On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, leading Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Americans who were polled immediately after the war began overwhelmingly hoped for the defeat of Germany, but more than ninety percent opposed getting involved in the war. A majority did not want to join the fight even if Nazi Germany defeated Great Britain and France.
In November 1939, two months after the beginning of World War II, Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1939, which lifted the 1935 arms embargo and placed all sales to belligerent nations on a “cash and carry” basis.