The illusion of neutrality

"Robert A. Divine here takes a searching look at the 1930's, when the United States was attempting to escape the realities of the outside world behind a wall of neutrality legislation. Focusing on the struggle between isolationists and internationalists over the arms embargo issue, he shows that genuine neutrality in that era was an illusion.

A major concern of this book is the often ambiguous role played by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mr. Divine holds that the President failed to take a strong enough stand against isolationism and that he refused to risk his prestige to rally public opinion.

The rapid deterioration of world peace, starting with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, led to demands for an impartial arms embargo, and collective security went by the board. The efforts of Cordell Hull and Norman H. Davis to modify the embargo, so that it operated only against aggressors, were submerged in a rising tide of isolationism, which reached its height in the Neutrality Act of 1935. The administration fought to prevent a further extension of mandatory neutrality. In 1937 Congress confirmed the impartial arms embargo but permitted the sale of goods other than arms to belligerents on a cash-and-carry basis.

The Spanish Civil War, the Japanese invasion of China, the mounting menace of Hitler-all these increasingly made it clear that, where such obvious issues of right and wrong were involved, the American people could not remain morally aloof. It became clear, too, that the existing legislation was not neutral because it actually gave passive encouragement to the aggressors.

This exceedingly complex issue has been neglected in favor of the more dramatic events after 1939 which precipitated America into the war. Mr. Divine deepens our understanding of diplomatic history in the years of the New Deal by describing the roles of Congress, the administration, and the American public in the shaping of neutrality legislation." -- Provided by publisher