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President Roosevelt promptly applied the law when Italian Premier [[Benito Mussolini]] invaded Ethiopia in October 1935. When the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out in July of 1936 Roosevelt discovered the Neutrality Act did not apply to [[civil wars]], but only to wars between countries.  Roosevelt requested of Congress to have the law amended immediately to apply to civil war, which Congress did and Roosevelt promptly declared the Neutrality Act in force as to Spain.  

President Roosevelt promptly applied the law when Italian Premier [[Benito Mussolini]] invaded Ethiopia in October 1935. When the [[Spanish Civil War]] broke out in July of 1936 Roosevelt discovered the Neutrality Act did not apply to [[civil wars]], but only to wars between countries.  Roosevelt requested of Congress to have the law amended immediately to apply to civil war, which Congress did and Roosevelt promptly declared the Neutrality Act in force as to Spain.  

During the [[Presidential Election of 1936]] Roosevelt said "We shun political commitments which might entangle us in future wars; we avoid connection with the political activities of the League of Nations...­ the effective maintenance of American neutrality depends today as in the past on the wisdom and determination of whoever at the moment occupies the office of President of the United States and Secretary of State." <ref>Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume 5, pps. 285-292. (Random House).</ref>  And he warned that in the event of war abroad the [[United States]] would have to be on guard against arms manufacturers seeking "fool's gold," or war profits from arms trafficing, those who would find it hard to look beyond, "to realize the inevitable penalties, the inevitable day of reckoning that comes from a false prosperity." America could keep out of war, "if those who watch and desire have a sufficiently detailed understanding of international affairs to make certain that the small decisions of today do not lead toward war and if at the same time they possess the courage to say no to those who selfishly or unwisely would lead us into war." This is what was called [[isolationism]].

During the [[Presidential Election of 1936]] Roosevelt said "We shun political commitments which might entangle us in future wars; we avoid connection with the political activities of the League of Nations...­ the effective maintenance of American neutrality depends today as in the past on the wisdom and determination of whoever at the moment occupies the office of President of the United States and Secretary of State." <ref>Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume 5, pps. 285-292. (Random House).</ref>  And he warned that in the event of war abroad the [[United States]] would have to be on guard against arms manufacturers seeking "fool's gold," or war profits from arms trafficking, those who would find it hard to look beyond, "to realize the inevitable penalties, the inevitable day of reckoning that comes from a false prosperity." America could keep out of war, "if those who watch and desire have a sufficiently detailed understanding of international affairs to make certain that the small decisions of today do not lead toward war and if at the same time they possess the courage to say no to those who selfishly or unwisely would lead us into war." This is what was called [[isolationism]].

==Second Sino-Japanese War==

==Second Sino-Japanese War==

In 1937, when Japan invaded the Chinese mainland in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], the United States economy had relapsed into a depression and Roosevelt refused to apply the Neutrality Act but rather permitted arms shipments to China and Japan from United States arms manufacturers. The Neutrality Act did not require a declaration of war by an aggressor; it merely required the fact of war. The United States was the [[Nationalist Chinese]] government's only source of defense materials, while at the same time the United States was shipping six times as much to Japan as to China. The [[New Deal]] social programs needed the arms trafficing with Japan to keep people from becoming unemployed.  As one commentator observed, President Roosevelt defied the mandatory provisions of the Neutrality Act because his administration required that at this moment America needed some of that "fool's gold" from Japan.

In 1937, when Japan invaded the Chinese mainland in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], the United States economy had relapsed into a depression and Roosevelt refused to apply the Neutrality Act but rather permitted arms shipments to China and Japan from United States arms manufacturers. The Neutrality Act did not require a declaration of war by an aggressor; it merely required the fact of war. The United States was the [[Nationalist Chinese]] government's only source of defense materials, while at the same time the United States was shipping six times as much to Japan as to China. The [[New Deal]] social programs needed the arms trafficking with Japan to keep people from becoming unemployed.  As one commentator observed, President Roosevelt defied the mandatory provisions of the Neutrality Act because his administration required that at this moment America needed some of that "fool's gold" from Japan.

 

In December 1937 an American gunboat, the ''Panay'', was bombed in the Yangtse River in China in the heart of the Sino­-Japanese war area. Japan immediately apologized and agreed to pay full damages and to punish the guilty officers. Critics have observed, had the President taken care that the laws be faithfully executed under the Neutrality Act, ­ the ''Panay'' would not have been protecting American oil tankers delivering oil in the midst of two warring armies in China.  The purpose of the Neutrality Act was to avoid precisely an incident of this nature.

==Molotov-Ribbentrop pact==

==Molotov-Ribbentrop pact==

After the signing of [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] in what was called the Communazi alliance, [[Communist Party of the United States of America|American Communists]] denounced President Roosevelt for proposing that the Neutrality Act's embargo provisions be repealed to aid the countries that were fighting Hitler. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes & Kyrill M. Anderson, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, pg. 75.</ref>

After the signing of [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]] in what was called the Communazi alliance, [[Communist Party of the United States of America|American Communists]] denounced President Roosevelt for proposing that the Neutrality Act's embargo provisions be repealed to aid the countries that were fighting Hitler. <ref>''The Soviet World of American Communism'', Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes & Kyrill M. Anderson, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, pg. 75.</ref>

==References==

==References==