Which law made it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war?

• A. Neutrality Act of 1935
• B. Lend-Lease Act
• C. War Powers Act
• D. Trading with the Enemy Act

Answer: (A)

Before World War II, the United States pulled back from entanglement in overseas wars and tried to keep its military material out of conflict zones. The Neutrality Act of 1935 established an arms embargo that banned Americans from selling arms, ammunition, or other war supplies to any country that was at war. This reflected a desire to prevent the U.S. from being drawn into foreign wars through arms sales, keeping the country out of escalating tensions abroad.

As international circumstances changed, later laws shifted this posture—most notably the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which allowed the U.S. to provide aid to Allied nations on different terms. The War Powers Act deals with presidential authority in wartime, not arms sales, and the Trading with the Enemy Act from an earlier era gave broad powers to regulate trade with enemy nations, but it did not establish the blanket arms embargo described in the 1935 act.