Isolationist Leader
Post-WWI
By 1935, concerns of war in Europe had risen once again. Vandenberg was already prepared with his stance: pure neutrality.
Will there be war in Europe? If there is, can we stay out? To the first question I answer: I do not know. To the second I answer: Yes, we can and will stay out if we have sense and courage enough to maintain a real neutrality, and protect it… against the appetites which love commerce in spite of casualties. |
Vandenberg’s participation in the Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry led him to conclude that the only way to keep America out of future war was complete isolation.
While we are greatly devoted to world peace, we are devoted first of all to our own peace. We have learned that inadequate and inconclusive neutrality leads into, rather than out of trouble. The old rule was a failure. The new rule is freighted with hope. |
Fight for Neutrality
After the 1936 election, only seventeen Republican senators remained, including Vandenberg. As Roosevelt introduced New Deal reforms, Vandenberg gained prominence through his willingness to compromise while still standing for his beliefs and was soon propelled into a leadership role among isolationists. War had broken out in Europe by 1939. Vandenberg, now convinced US entry into WWI was a mistake, fought for continued isolation.
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During a battle against a repeal of the arms embargo, which had helped ensure American neutrality, he wrote:
The same emotions which demand the repeal of the embargo will subsequently demand still more effective aid for Britain, France, and Poland… it is a tribute to the American heart, but not to the American head. Oh yes, all these people abhor the thought of our entry into the war; they are all opposed to that… My quarrel is with this notion that America can be half in and half out of this war. |
The arms embargo was repealed, but Vandenberg claimed one victory.
It is going to be much more difficult for FDR to lead the country into war. We have forced him and his senate group to become vehement in their peace devotion… this lip service may last quite a long time. But we have definitely taken sides with England and France. There is no longer any camouflage about it. |
In 1941, however, the passage of the Lend-Lease Bill, which allowed America to give monetary aid to Britain, destroyed Vandenberg’s hopes for continuing neutrality.
“If America “cracks up” you can put your finger on this precise moment as the time when the crime was committed. It was at this moment that the Senate passed the so-called [Lend]-Lease Bill… We have torn up 150 years of traditional American foreign policy. We have tossed Washington’s Farewell Address into the discard...We have taken the first step upon a course from which we can never hereafter retreat. |
Two weeks later he elaborated:
I fought it from start to finish. I think it was wrong… I think it will not stop short of war. But it is now the law of the land. It is now our fixed foreign policy whether we like it or not. We have no alternative except to go along unless and until [the Lend-Lease bill] is used by the President in a fashion which is not short of war. |
Although these words reflect a shift in Vandenberg’s attitude, he continued to oppose legislation that would bring America into the war. Just a few months before the fateful day that sealed American entry, he spoke to the senate.
Just so long as America can stop short of all out war, though scrupulously faithful to every commitment we have constitutionally made, I shall serve that objective with my heart, my mind, my hopes, my prayers, and with my vote. |