Answer :
Final answer:
The U.S. adopted an isolationist policy during World War II primarily due to disillusionment from World War I, the economic depression, and a desire to avoid internal division given its diverse immigrant population. The Neutrality Acts were passed to legally enforce this stance, even as President Roosevelt prepared to support the Allies indirectly. It wasn't until the attack on Pearl Harbor that the U.S. officially abandoned isolationism to enter the war.
Explanation:
The United States initially pursued a policy of neutrality in World War II for several reasons. Throughout the 1930s, echoing its post-World War I sentiment, the country once again embraced isolationism due in part to the disillusionment with the previous war and the losses incurred. The findings of the Nye Committee, economic depression, and the desire to avoid another costly conflict reinforced this stance. Congress, reflecting public sentiment, passed a series of Neutrality Acts in the mid-1930s designed to prevent the United States from being drawn into external conflicts by imposing strict trade and financial restrictions on wartime interactions.
During this period, President Franklin Roosevelt faced a delicate balance between apparent public neutrality and a private inclination to support the Allies against aggressive totalitarian regimes. Although U.S. businesses were officially forbidden from dealing with nations at war, behind the scenes, the Roosevelt administration prepared the U.S. to be an "arsenal of democracy." By selling armaments and supplies to Allied nations, the U.S. aimed to bolster the global fight against Axis powers while also kickstarting its own economy, still recovering from the Great Depression.
The U.S. sought to remain neutral to avoid internal division, as the country was home to many immigrants with ties to nations involved in the conflict. Wilson, earlier, and Roosevelt, later, both hoped to keep the U.S. out of direct involvement in European wars partly due to fears of fracturing the American populace, which was largely made up of recent immigrants from belligerent countries.
