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The Nye Committee ruling
A US Senate committee, chaired by Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, to investigate the dealings of the munitions industry and bankers and their reputed profits from promoting foreign wars. It found that bankers had pressured Wilson to intervene in the war in order to protect their loans abroad. Also, the arms industry was at fault for price-fixing and held excessive influence on American foreign policy leading up to and during World War I. -
The Neutrality Acts
Between 1935 and 1937 Congress passed three "Neutrality Acts" that tried to keep the United States out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to belligerent nations. These acts clamped an embargo on arms sales to belligerents, forbade American ships from entering war zones and prohibited them from being armed, and barred Americans from traveling on belligerent ships. -
Start of WWII
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. On September 17, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. -
Destroyers for Bases
The destroyers-for-bases deal was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940, according to which 50 Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
Hemispheric Defense Zone
Hemispheric defense zone the western half of the Atlantic which was declared part of the. Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral (page 603) Atlantic Charter an agreement between the United States and Britain to a postwar world. of democracy, nonaggression, free trade, economic advancement and freedom of the seas. -
Lend-Lease Act
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. -
The Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a statement issued on 14 August 1941 that set out American and British goals for the world after the end of World War II. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941.