On September 4

On this day in ...

... 1939 (70 years ago), Argentina declared itself neutral in the conflict known today as World War II. Despite the declaration, a German diplomat wrote Berlin that he believed the Latin American country sympathized with the Allies, not with the Axis Powers of which Germany was a member. The complexities inherent in Argentina's policy are in this chapter. According to this website,

It has been said that Argentina's economic interest [lay] with the allies but its heart and culture [lay] with the Axis. This contradiction with in society is one of the main reasons Argentina remained neutral until March of 1945.

(Prior September 4 posts are here and here.)

On June 5

On this day in ...

... 1794 (215 years ago today), Congress approved the Neutrality Act of 1794 which provided guidelines to ensure that the United States remained neutral in time of war. Among other things, it prohibited the outfitting of foreign belligerent vessels in U.S. ports and the recruitment by foreign belligerents of U.S. sailors or soldiers inside U.S. territory. Violation of its terms constituted a crime.

... 1944 (65 years ago today), having been liberated from Nazi German occupation the night before by the arrival of American troops, "[t]he people of Rome have crowded onto the streets to welcome the victorious Allied troops," as depicted in this video clip. It would be many months, however, before the rest of Italy was freed.

(Prior June 5 posts are here and here.)

On March 11

On this day in ...

... 1941, "immediately after receiving it from the Capitol," U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Lend-Lease Act, by which "undisclosed quantities of war materials" were, The New York Times reported, immediately "to be transferred at once from the American Army and Navy to the British and the Greeks, to bolster these powers in their life-and-death struggle with the Axis." The Act, it is said here, served dual purposes of "meeting Great Britain’s deep need for supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral." Also provided was food, as illustrated in the December 1941 photo at left, which the U.S. Office of War Information captioned "Lend-Lease in Action: Vegetables for British Children." (credit)

.... 2006, 5 years after the deposed Serbian President (right) had been brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges of genocides, crimes against humanity, and war crimes stemming from the Balkans wars of the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic died in his cell at The Hague, Netherlands. (AP photo credit) The ICTY ordered the trial against the deceased terminated, without verdict, 3 days later.

(Prior March 11 posts are here and here.)