Roosevelt supported the Neutrality Acts of 1935-37, which halted the sale of arms and loans and stopped US citizens travelling on ships of belligerent nations. He also publicly agreed with Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, and his policy of appeasement regarding Hitler and Germany following the Munich Agreement of 1939, which gave him the Sudetenland.
At the outbreak of World War Two, Roosevelt declared he intended to remain neutral to the American public and later made a campaign promise not to send America to war. He argued that, by supplying arms to the Allies, America would be able to remain out of the war; this followed the traditional isolationist policy as it showed America would intervene if it was in its interests.
Roosevelt also aimed to prevent Japanese expansion in the Far East by holding talks with leaders but, when it attacked China and later invaded Manchuria, the US did little to intervene. Roosevelt still wanted to avoid a war with Japan as America was becoming more involved in the war in Europe and he did not want either America or Britain, which might have to defend its colonies, to be fighting on two fronts.
Roosevelt started to accept a more interventionist approach once the dictators became overtly expansionist: such as Mussolini in Ethiopia but, more importantly, Hitler in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Even after the German invasion of Poland, in 1939, FDR would not commit the US to the Allied cause other than allowing economic aid through Cash and Carry and later Lend Lease.
He believed that the US should play a key role in foreign affairs in order to defend democracy and human rights around the world. Roosevelt thought that America should be involved in the League of Nations, even though the public and the Senate had refused to ratify its participation.
He saw the policy of appeasement by the British government toward Germany only as delaying war. He pushed Congress for air force and naval expansion and organised military talks to prepare for war. Following German and Japanese expansion, Roosevelt made a speech advocating the ‘quarantine’ of aggressive nations, with some historians believing it to be a sign of a change in US foreign policy.
However, soon Roosevelt faced an isolationist Congress and had to move slowly towards a more Interventionist stance. FDR’s role in the Neutrality acts shows this. Roosevelt also used the Munich Agreement and the Kristallnacht incident to win support for his growing opposition to Nazism in Europe.
In 1940 Roosevelt faced his third presidential election campaign and could not commit himself to more intervention abroad until he was re-elected in November 1940.
FDR’s progressive move towards supporting the Allies, against a reluctant Congress and country, was shown by Cash and Carry, Lend Lease and the Atlantic Charter of 1941.
In my opinion to a certain extent FDR abandoned isolationism against his own will however his view on Foreign Policy was interventionist. It can be argued that the only reason Roosevelt stuck with the policy of Isolationism is due to the fact previous presidents saw this way and that public opinion was in favor of Isolationism to aid America in economic growth during the great depression.
However his changing policies occurred to try and keep up with what the people and the Congress wanted or expected. I do not believe that to the full extent Roosevelt didn’t have the power to turn and oppose those who were trying to force him to abandon isolationism, yet he did it on his own, for what was best for the US and the recovery from the Great Depression and the Wall St. Crash.
To some extent he was forced to give up isolationism to move with the times, but he had to have a motive to not want to fight for isolationism. Roosevelt must have known that abandoning isolationism was the way forward and that interventionism was the new policy to introduce ready for the ‘New Deal’ policy later.
