Given this public sentiment, it is no wonder that America has always worked under the Neutrality Act of 1937, which had prevented trade of arms with the parties involved in the Spanish Civil War. Initially, the war was widely seen as a European conflict, in which entry into the conflict would not fit with the isolationism that had reigned during the Depression. Roosevelt was seen as willing to go to war and this, coupled with the fact that Roosevelt was running for a third term, led to unsuccessful campaigning by Wendell Willkie and the Republican Party in the 1940 election. This initial neutrality and ignorance of However, a major conflict could not last long since on September 2, 1940, Roosevelt formally approved the long-term lease of fifty American destroyers to the British. This served as a precursor to the Lend Lease Act of 1941, which symbolized the United States' unofficial involvement in the war by allowing massive amounts of military and financial aid to reach the Allied powers. During this period, huge quantities of orders for arms and munitions were placed, leading to a massive decrease in unemployment and sparking a new economic recovery that built on the New Deal and had a statistically significant impact more important. In early 1941, Republicans were skeptical of apparent wartime preparedness policies.