THE GREAT DEBATE – NEUTRALITY OR INTERVENTION
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Lend-Lease proposal sparked a massive debate over foreign policy, pitting
"interventionists" against "isolationists." It was a debate that was waged in the halls of Congress, on the editorial
pages of major newspapers, on the radio, in meeting halls, and across kitchen tables throughout the country. For
nearly a year this debate divided the nation.
The so-called "interventionists" claimed that America's security depended on the defeat of Germany, and
called for providing whatever Great Britain and its allies needed to bring that about, save actual troops. The British,
they maintained, represented the last great defense of democracy from Nazi tyranny. Moreover, they argued, the
United States could not survive as a free and prosperous society in a world dominated by Hitler. If provided with
sufficient military and economic aid from America, the British and their allies would win the war, making actual U.S.
involvement unnecessary. Those who embraced this view were attracted to a group called the Committee to Defend
America by Aiding the Allies, whose name was later shortened to the Committee to Defend America.
Their opponents were usually referred to as "isolationists," although most of them preferred the term "antiinterventionist." They were driven by a variety of motives, but tended to agree on several common points. The war,
they believed, was more about protecting the British Empire than it was about defending democracy, and hence was
none of America's business. If the United States provided direct economic and military aid to Great Britain, they
claimed, the country would have abandoned neutrality and placed itself on an inevitable course toward intervention.
The anti-interventionists flocked to a national organization called the America First Committee, based in Chicago
and boasting a number of celebrities, including the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, among its membership.
For nearly a year this debate divided the nation, until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—bringing
about the actual involvement of the United States in the war—rendered it moot. While the attack on Pearl Harbor
effectively ended the debate between interventionists and isolationists, it left unanswered some of the most
important questions that it had raised:
1. What are some examples of America’s attempt to stay neutral throughout the early years of the war?
2. Can the country really claim to be neutral when it openly assists one side against another?
3. To what extent did the security of the United States depend on the survival of friendly foreign powers?
4. How far may the president involve the country in a foreign conflict without a formal declaration of war?