Roosevelt and the Arms Embargo

The American neutrality laws, passed in the 1930s, prohibit the sale of arms to any belligerent. For President Roosevelt, this is an obstacle: in the event of a European war, this embargo would strike above all the democracies — France and the United Kingdom — which, masters of the seas, could otherwise buy American matériel and transport it themselves.

Roosevelt therefore wants the law revised to authorise the sale of arms under the 'cash and carry' formula: pay in cash and carry it away yourself. But Congress is dominated by a powerful isolationist current, determined to keep America clear of European quarrels.

In the summer of 1939, the President must choose his tactics. To push with all his might to obtain the revision before the parliamentary recess, at the risk of a public and humiliating failure? To temporise and wait for a later, more favourable session? Or to give up so as to spare isolationist opinion and his own political capital? The stake goes beyond procedure: it is a question of whether the democracies will be able to count on the American arsenal.