Congress bars arms sales to any nation at war

Four years after Japan seized Manchuria and with Mussolini massing troops near Ethiopia, Congress moved to keep American guns and money out of foreign wars. On August 31, 1935, lawmakers passed the Neutrality Act, banning arms and war-material sales to any nation at war and warning citizens who traveled on belligerent ships that they did so at their own risk. The law was written to expire in six months. Roosevelt signed it reluctantly, then used it within weeks against both sides when Italy invaded Ethiopia…