<text id=00he0501><title>Air Corps Investment</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Air Corps Investment</hdr><body>
<p>It would require a massive investment to strengthen the US air arm, and FDR asked Congress for $300 million in appropriations earmarked solely to buy new military planes for the Army Air Corps. By April, Congress had written, reported out, and passed legislation to build the air arm to 5,500 aircraft. The bill doubled the authorized officer strength, and increased enlisted strength by 150 percent.
</p>
<p>It marked a shift in American policy away from isolationism, away from the concept of disarmament and toward rearmament. Later in 1939, after the invasion of Poland, the United States declared that its policy would be one of neutrality, but that—in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine—it would fight to keep the Axis powers out of the Western Hemisphere.
</p>
<p>As the fortunes of war buffeted France and Britain, it became apparent to US leaders that the country might have to fight to defend the Western Hemisphere. Consequently, a new defense policy began to evolve, one that was based on dynamic concepts, using mobile forces, rather than on a static concept, waiting for the enemy to arrive on your shores.
</p>
<p>It also was apparent that the United States would tilt its neutrality toward France and Britain; on no account could it be seen as supporting the black deeds of the Nazis. Gradually the tilt increased: in 1940, with open aid to the Allies, and in 1941, with Lend-Lease.
</p>
<p>Because of the effective use of air power by the Germans in the early phases of the war, and the superb defensive use of limited fighter strength by the British during 1940, the military leadership of the United States began to think more favorably about air power. By the eve of the country's entry into war, air power had become a major factor in the advanced plans and strategy of the US.
