Germany broke the spell of the "phony war" on 9 April 1940 by
invading Denmark and Norway. The United States by then had only
partially completed its preparations under plans drafted in 1939
for maintaining American neutrality and at the same time
forestalling military attack on the Western Hemisphere. In
RAINBOW 1, the Army and Navy had an approved plan for hemisphere
defense, but the ground forces and, even more seriously, the air
forces, of the Army were still considerably below the strength
needed to execute missions under the plan. American naval power
was concentrated in the Pacific with only enough vessels in the
Atlantic to maintain the neutrality patrol, because the United
States since September 1939 had counted on British and French
naval power to provide the bulwark against any German thrust
across the Atlantic. Assisted by the neutrality act of November
1939, the administration was encouraging the British and French
to make "cash and carry" purchases of American arms, with the
primary objective of