During the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress authorized the construction of one of America's premier weapons in the war on terrorism, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

The initial reaction of anyone reading that sentence probably is: "That can't be right!" Technically speaking, though, the origins of America's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier can be traced back to a critically important piece of legislation: The Vinson-Trammel Act of 1934.

Inaugurated in March 1933 amid a world depression, Roosevelt had inherited a grave domestic economic situation, and also faced major national-security concerns--e.g., an expansionist Japan in Asia and the ascendancy of Hitler in Germany. A former assistant secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt appreciated the importance of sea power not only for national defense but also for economic security. He also valued the advice of Rep. Carl Vinson, a still-young congressman from Georgia who had recently become chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee.

Outwardly favorable dispositions toward the Navy were not apparent, though, in Roosevelt's first budget--which cut military spending by nearly a third. In making the cuts, the president argued that the funds were more urgently needed for public works projects designed to get Americans working again. Congress responded by appropriating $3.3 billion under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). The administration then turned around and provided the Navy a $237 million slice of the total for warship construction. The Navy immediately let contracts to build 20 sorely needed destroyers, four submarines, four light cruisers, and two aircraft carriers--one of them the conventionally powered USS Enterprise of World War II fame.

That the appropriated funds represented the largest single shipbuilding expenditure in American history did not go unnoticed to the numerous pacifists and disarmament proponents then in Congress. Eventually, Idaho Sen. William E. Borah successfully passed an amendment to ban use of the NIRA funds for military purposes.

The funding appropriated for shipbuilding under NIRA represented only a jump start, though, for a longer-term effort to build the fleet up to the limits set by the 1922 Washington and 1930 London Naval Treaties. At the end of 1933, the U.S. Navy consisted of 372 ships, displacing 1,038,660 tons--150,000 tons short of the treaty limitations. The real problem, though, was that 288 of the ships were over age. In early 1934, Chairman Vinson sought to solve the problem by proposing legislation for additional shipbuilding funds. In the Senate, Park Trammel of Florida introduced parallel legislation.

Opponents argued that the authorization of additional shipbuilding funds would be premature at a time when a Second London Naval Conference was pending. However, Vinson argued that not having the shipbuilding program in place would undermine America's position at the conference, and that the nation could not gamble with national defense in any case. To assuage opponents, Vinson emphasized that the ships built would simply be replacing obsolete vessels, as permitted by the 1922 and 1930 Treaties. The United States was not launching a new naval arms race, he said. Vinson's logic won over his colleagues, and the bill was passed by the House on 30 January 1934. The Trammell Bill passed in the upper chamber on 6 March.

On 7 December 1935 the Second London Naval Conference convened. With the militarists firmly in control in Tokyo, the Japanese sought to expand their tonnage allotments and showed no interest in maintaining the status quo. The talks broke off in early 1936. The Japanese action demonstrated that Roosevelt and Vinson had acted with considerable foresight in championing an ambitious shipbuilding program.

Six years to the day after the convening of the Second London Naval Conference, the United States was at war. The ships built during the 1930s helped hold the line against the Germans and the Japanese. More importantly, their construction helped build an infrastructure and a work force. The building of the new ships led to the introduction of new technologies that laid the foundation for a wartime industrial mobilization unmatched in world history.

Included in the Vinson-Trammell Act is a little-noticed provision that "the President of the United States is hereby authorized to replace, by vessels of modern design and construction, vessels in the Navy in the categories limited by the treaties signed at Washington, 6 February 1922, and London, 6 April 1930, when their replacement is permitted by the said treaties."

More than 20 years after the Act was passed, the Eisenhower administration cited that provision as justification to request appropriations for the Navy's first nuclear-powered cruiser, the USS Long Beach, and for the "Big E," one of several U.S. nuclear-powered carriers that have played key roles in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sources: Charles V. Reynold's America and the Two Ocean Navy: 1933-1941 Ph.D. diss. Boston University, 1978. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (series), Naval Historical Center.