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When Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 touched off World War II, Roosevelt called Congress into special session to revise the Neutrality Act to allow belligerents (in reality only Great Britain and France, both on the Allied side) to purchase munitions on a
cash-and-carry basis. On June 10, 1940, when Italy entered the war on the German side and when the fall of France was imminent, U.S. President declared that the United States would oppose their by all material resources of America. The USA possessed the strongest navy in the Pacific, while Britain controlled the Atlantic, The fall of Britain would give Germany the possibility to get hold of its navy, which would put the USA in the position between the two fronts on the two oceans. Therefore, aid to Britain was vital for American stability. According to "Rainbow-2", Roosevelt started to aid the Allies. His Lend Lease Act committed the United States to supply them on credit. After France fell, he pursued this policy by aiding the British in their struggle against Germany and threw the resources of the United States behind the British. Roosevelt arranged for the transfer of surplus American war material to the British under various arrangements. The British decided to rely on the United States unreservedly and without regard to their ability to pay. The concept of lend lease was suggested to Roosevelt by Churchill in December 1940, proposing that the United States provide war materials, foodstuffs, and clothing to the democracies (and particularly to Great Britain) — Roosevelt agreed, and a bill to achieve this purpose was passed by the Congress in early 1941. Congress gave funds generously, amounting to almost $13,000,000,000 by November 1941. Other countries besides Britain began receiving lend-lease aid by this time, including China and the Soviet Union.
The question of how much and what type of additional aid should be given to the Allies became a major issue of presidential elections of 1940, in which Roosevelt won a decisive victory and was elected for an unprecedented third term. Public opinion polls preceding the election showed that most Americans favored Britain but still wished to stay out of war.
In August 1941 Roosevelt met with the British Prime minister, Winston Churchill, in Newfoundland to issue a set of war aims known as the Atlantic Charter. It called for national self-determination, larger economic opportunities, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, and disarmament.
Although in retrospect U.S. entry into World War II seems inevitable, in 1941 it was still the subject of great debate. Isolationism was a great political force, and many influential individuals were determined that U.S. aid policy stop short of war. Despite isolationist resistance, Roosevelt pushed cautiously forward. Plan "Rainbow-4" presupposing the defense of the whole of the Western Hemisphere became the only one that received further revision and fulfillment. In late August the navy added British and Allied ships to its Icelandic convoys. Its orders were to shoot German and Italian warships on sight, thus making the United States an undeclared participant in the Battle of the Atlantic. During October one US destroyer was damaged by a German U-boat and another was sunk. The United States now embarked on an undeclared naval war against Germany, but Roosevelt avoided asking for a formal declaration of war. According to public opinion polls, a majority of Americans still hoped to remain neutral.
The war question was soon resolved by events in the Pacific. As much as a distant neutral country could, the United States had been supporting China in its war against Japan, yet it continued to sell Japan products and commodities essential to the Japanese war effort. Then, in July 1940, the United States applied an embargo on the sale of aviation gas, lubricants, and prime scrap metal to Japan. When Japanese armies invaded French Indochina in September with the purpose of establishing bases for an attack on the East Indies, the United embargoed all types of scrap iron and steel and by extending a loan to China. In response, Japan promptly signed a limited treaty of alliance, the Tripartite Pact, with Germany and Italy. Roosevelt extended a much larger loan to China and in December embargoed iron ore, pig iron, and a variety of other products.
Japan and the United States started negotiations in the spring of 1941. Neither country would compromise on the China question: Japan refusing to withdraw and the United States insisting upon it. Believing that Japan intended to attack the East Indies, the United States stopped exporting oil to Japan at the end of the summer. Japan reacted a few months later by attacking Pearl Harbor.
