Vincennes had already served on Caribbean neutrality patrols when she was sent through the Azores to Casablanca as France collapsed. News of Italy's declaration of war reached the ship in French Morocco, where French and British resentment of the intervention was obvious to her captain. She then carried French gold back to the United States so it could pay for American weapons. The mission exposed how far cash-and-carry assistance to the Allies could stretch the legal and political meaning of neutrality before Vincennes later escorted the Doolittle Raid and fought at Midway.
Notable Point · 1:05:41-1:08:07
Vincennes carries French gold under a stretched neutrality
A voyage to Casablanca to retrieve French gold reveals how American neutrality supported Allied purchasing while remaining formally non-belligerent.