1937-1938. Fascism had already made its presence felt. Japan had begun a new phase of its war for the conquest of China. Germany and Italy were fully assisting General Franco's fascists in suppressing the Republicans in Spain.
             

By September 1939, the war had been raging for years—Japanese aggression in China, Italian aggression in Ethiopia, Nazi aggression in Spain, and Hitler's annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Each time, the Soviet Union aided the victim of aggression, while the West repeatedly succumbed to Nazi aggression.