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1936 › Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) › Neutrality, arms embargoes and staying out of foreign wars
Keep the United States out of war: true neutrality, take the profits out of war, no political commitments
pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A Diplomacy & International InstitutionsWar & Peace⚡ Italian invasion of Ethiopia⚡ Spanish Civil War similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Observe neutrality in others' disputes, use the neutrality legislation to cut war profits, avoid League political commitments, and resist the clamor for war trade if war comes abroad.
Rationale
'I have seen war... I hate war'; war profits made the false prosperity of 1914-20 and the dust storms of the plowed-up prairie; 'if we face the choice of profits or peace, the Nation will answer... We choose peace.'
Statements (5)
We shall continue to observe a true neutrality in the disputes of others; to be prepared, resolutely to resist aggression against ourselves; to work for peace and to take the profits out of war; to guard against being drawn, by political commitments, international banking or private trading, into any war which may develop anywhere.
We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war.
I have passed unnumbered hours, I shall pass unnumbered hours, thinking and planning how war may be kept from this Nation.
If we face the choice of profits or peace, the Nation will answer--must answer--"We choose peace."
Today there is war and rumor of war. We want none of it. But while we guard our shores against threats of war, we will continue to remove the causes of unrest and antagonism at home which might make our people easier victims to those for whom foreign war is profitable.
Follow-through
partialcontested among sources
The United States stayed out of war through the term. But the policy changed shape: a Spanish embargo (Jan. 1937), the 1937 cash-and-carry Neutrality Act, the 'quarantine' speech (Oct. 1937), the 1938 rearmament message, and after September 1939 repeal of the arms embargo so that Britain and France could buy arms -- a move from strict neutrality toward aid short of war.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937-01-06 | message | Annual message asking a Spanish embargo | Neutrality extended to the Spanish civil war.an addition to the existing Neutrality Act to cover specific points raised by the unfortunate civil strife in Spain | yes | Annual Message to Congress |
| 1937-05-01 | statute | Neutrality Act of 1937 (cash-and-carry) | Mandatory arms embargo; cash-and-carry for other goods. | yes | Neutrality Acts of the 1930s - Wikipedia |
| 1937-10-05 | message | 'Quarantine' address, Chicago | Suggested collective 'quarantine' of aggressors; retreated under criticism. | partly | Address at Chicago. |
| 1938-01-28 | message | Message recommending increased defense appropriations charted on: Federal outlays as percent of GDP | Naval expansion 20 percent.our national defense is, in the light of the increasing armaments of other Nations, inadequate for purposes of national security and requires increase for that reason. | partly | Message to Congress Recommending Increased Defense Appropriations. |
| 1939-09-21 | message | Message urging repeal of the arms embargo | Arms sales on cash-and-carry to belligerents (Nov. 4, 1939).Having thus striven and failed, this Government must lose no time or effort to keep our nation from being drawn into the war. In my candid judgment we shall succeed in those efforts. | partly | Message to Congress Urging Repeal of the Embargo Provisions of the Neutrality Law |
Obstruction
war The European war of September 1939. source
Assessments
In the President's framing every step, including embargo repeal, served keeping the nation out of war.
The 1936 promise of 'true neutrality' and 'taking the profits out of war' gave way to selling arms to one side by 1939.
Other positions on this issue
- Promote peace by all honorable means; no League, no World Court, no plan that could involve the U.S. in a war it had no part in beginning — Alf Landon, 1936 directional_stance
1936-fdr-keep-out-of-war-neutrality · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed