ABSTRACT
Most of the Nye Committee's charges were dubious or simplistic, but they added momentum to the growing isolationist movement." This chapter demonstrates that there are other contexts in which to consider the Nye Committee and that from these, new insights into the committee can be drawn. Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) approached the Nye Committee with purpose, but his purpose is obscured when the munitions investigation is considered within the confines of isolationism and internationalism. FDR warmed to the munitions investigation and the interests it represented in the election years of 1934 and 1936, while he challenged or ignored the actions and ideas of the committee in 1935 and 1937. The political aspects of a munitions investigation could hardly have escaped consideration by a master politician like FDR, with his decision coming as big business and big finance completed their break from the administration during the climax of the battle for the Securities and Exchange Commission Act.
