Dictatorships unleash World War II  As the real nature of
totalitarism became clear, and as Germany, Italy, and Japan
continued their aggressions, attacking one small nation after
another, American apprehension turned to indignation. In 1938,
after Hitler had incorporated Austria into the Reich, his
demands for the Sudeten land of Czechoslovakia made war seem
possible at any moment. The American people, disillusioned by
the failure of the crusade for democracy of the First World War,
announced that under no circumstances could any belligerent look
to them for aid. Neutrality legislation, enacted piecemeal from
1935 to 1937, prohibited trade with or credit to any
belligerent. The objective was to prevent, at almost any cost,
the involvement of the United States in a non-American war.
Both President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull from the
first opposed this legislation. The President now undertook the
task of bringing the American people to a realization of the
destruction these forces were working and