I am "not my true character", so this is the right question.

On July 7, 1937, Japan launched an all-out invasion of China, and the Sino-Japanese War officially broke out. Because of the Roosevelt family's relationship with China, Franklin Roosevelt, like most Americans, expressed sympathy for China. As early as 1936, the United States provided China with a credit loan of US$25 million, and also provided a military loan of US$12 million to China in 1937. Former US Secretary of State Cordell Hull once gave a speech to dissuade US aircraft manufacturers from converting aircraft into The aircraft is sold to Japan, etc. It can be seen that the United States at that time had been providing assistance to China. But what is less known is that during the same period, the U.S. Congress successively passed three neutrality bills.

The Neutrality Act formed the basis of U.S. foreign policy in the 1930s, expressing the important role of isolationist forces in foreign policy-making at that time.

After World War I, isolationism became prevalent in the United States because the United States attempted to use its strong economic advantages to compete with Britain and France for world hegemony, but failed in the end.

In 1933, then-US President Roosevelt asked Congress to authorize an arms embargo against aggressing countries. However, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee modified it to impose an arms embargo on both warring parties, believing that this could effectively avoid war. Roosevelt withdrew the proposal.

In 1935, the book "The Road to War: The United States 1914-1917" was a best-seller in the United States. The author of the book pointed out that the United States entered the war to maintain trade with the Allies. If it could maintain a neutral policy at that time , the United States can avoid being involved in World War I. With the continuation of civil petitions and the activities of some isolationist MPs, especially the related investigation activities conducted by the committee led by Gerard Nye, it provided a solid foundation for Congress to enact neutrality legislation. Moreover, the growing tension in the world at that time also forced the United States to formulate a policy of neutrality.

On August 31 of the same year, the U.S. Congress officially passed the "Neutrality Act", which stipulated: "When a war breaks out between two or several foreign countries or during the war, the President shall announce the matter and afterwards It shall be unlawful to export arms, ammunition, and military equipment from any point in the United States or other territories to the ports of a belligerent country, or to a neutral country for transfer to a belligerent country."

In February of the following year, Congress passed a regulation on " The Neutrality Act" was supplemented, stipulating that: loans to belligerent countries were prohibited and the president was granted discretion on this power; the validity period of the first Neutrality Act was extended to May 1937 and provisions were added to prohibit loans to belligerent countries. On April 29, 1937, the U.S. Congress passed the second amendment to the Neutrality Act, the "Permanent Neutrality Act", which added two important points: 1. The arms embargo applies to countries with civil wars; 2. The president has the power not only to or a country in civil war imposes an arms embargo, and may prohibit the export of any goods to a country at war or in a civil war country. Unless you purchase in cash and transport it yourself, that is, "cash and carry." Valid until May 1, 1939.

The scope of the neutrality law has been expanded, which shows that isolationist sentiment in the United States has gradually strengthened.

At that time, the intention of Germany and Italy to participate in the Spanish war was well known, and Japan also launched the "July 7th Incident" in China in 1937. In order to prevent Japan from monopolizing China, the U.S. government once again implemented the Neutrality Law. As a result, China's imports from the United States dropped sharply. On the contrary, Japan's imports from the United States continued to increase using the "cash and carry" principle, and most of them were military supplies.

The international situation became even more severe. On October 5, 1937, when Roosevelt presided over the inauguration ceremony of the Outer Bay Bridge in Chicago, he delivered the famous "Epidemic Prevention and Isolation Speech": "The lawless plague is spreading in the world. It seems that this is an unfortunate fact. Whenever a plague that harms people's health begins, the society will agree and implement the isolation of patients... to prevent the spread of the plague." He also pointed out: "We are determined to stay out of the war, but we are determined to stay out of the war. We cannot guarantee that we will not be affected by the war and avoid the risk of being involved in the war."

On September 1, 1939, Germany annexed Poland and the Second World War broke out.

Roosevelt made a speech: "We in the United States will remain a neutral country, but I cannot ask Americans to remain ideologically neutral." So he asked Congress to abolish the arms embargo. When talking about the Neutrality Act of 1937, he said: "I regret that Congress passed this law, and I equally regret that I signed this law." In November of the same year, the U.S. Congress passed the amended Neutrality Act, repealing the arms ban. The terms of transportation allowed belligerent countries to purchase arms in the United States, but they still had to "ship the goods in cash and take care of their own transportation." Since Britain had developed maritime transportation and a strong navy, it was more advantageous to Britain than to Germany.

However, in the East, China's navy and shipping are far inferior to Japan's, and China's ports are basically occupied by the Japanese army, making it impossible to transport purchased military supplies back to the United States, which actually benefits Japan.

In June 1940, France fell. In order to assist the United Kingdom, on March 11, 1941, the U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the United States to provide weapons, military supplies, and food in the form of leases or loans to certain countries whose national defense was considered to be of great significance to U.S. security. and various conveniences. As a result, American arms began to be shipped to Britain. Under this situation, the neutrality of the United States gradually became "an empty talk."

On December 7 of the same year, the Pearl Harbor incident broke out, the United States officially entered World War II, the Neutrality Law was officially abolished, and the neutrality policy ended.

Readers may ask, why did the United States not invoke the "Neutrality Act" in its war with China and Japan? In fact, the traditional Far East policy of the United States is to maintain China's independence, integrity and open door. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out and some isolationist US lawmakers demanded the implementation of the Neutrality Act, Pittman, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke in Congress Said: "Implementing the Neutrality Act will aid Japan and fascist countries more than not implementing it. If the United States implements the Neutrality Act in the Sino-Japanese War, it will be equivalent to abandoning its traditional policies and interests and completely withdrawing from the Far East." Therefore, from the perspective of US interests, Look, in the Sino-Japanese war, we should aid China and oppose Japanese aggression.

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