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| Other short titles | An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States |
|---|---|
| Long title | An Act further to promote the defense of the United States, and for other purposes. |
| Nicknames | Lend-Lease |
| Enacted by | the 77th United States Congress |
| Effective | March 11, 1941 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 77–11 |
| Statutes at Large | 55 Stat. 31 |
| Legislative history | |
| |
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (Pub. L. 77–11, H.R. 1776, 55 Stat. 31, enacted March 11, 1941),[1][2] was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, the Republic of China, and other Allied nations of the Second World War with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given free of charge on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.[2]
The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law on March 11, 1941, and ended on September 20, 1945. A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $672 billion in 2023 when accounting for inflation) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[3] In all, $31.4 billion went to the United Kingdom, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to other Allies. Roosevelt's top foreign policy advisor Harry Hopkins had effective control over Lend-Lease, making sure it was in alignment with Roosevelt's foreign policy goals.[4]
Materiel delivered under the act was supplied at no cost, to be used until returned or destroyed. In practice, most equipment was destroyed, although some hardware (such as ships) was returned after the war. Supplies that arrived after the termination date were sold to the United Kingdom at a large discount for £1.075 billion, using long-term loans from the United States, which were finally repaid in 2006. Similarly, the Soviet Union repaid $722 million in 1971, with the remainder of the debt written off.
Reverse Lend-Lease to the United States totalled $7.8 billion. Of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. Canada also aided the United Kingdom and other Allies with the Billion Dollar Gift and Mutual Aid totalling $3.4 billion in supplies and services (equivalent to $61 billion in 2020) .[5][6]
Lend-Lease weakened the United States' neutrality which had been enshrined in the Neutrality Acts of the 1930s. It was a decisive step away from non-interventionist policy and toward open support for the Allies. Lend-Lease's precise significance to Allied victory in World War II is debated. Khrushchev claimed that Stalin told him that Lend-Lease enabled the Soviet Union to defeat Germany.
- ^ Ebbert, Jean; Hall, Marie-Beth; Beach, Edward Latimer (1999). Crossed Currents. Brassey's. p. 28. ISBN 9781574881936.
- ^ a b "Lend-Lease Act (1941)," in Milestone Documents, National Archives of the United States, Washington, D.C., retrieved February 8, 2024; (notes: "Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed 'vital to the defense of the United States.'"; contains photo of the original bill, H.R. 1776, January 10, 1941, which referred to itself as "An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States." )
- ^ McNeill. America, Britain and Russia. p. 778.
- ^ Christopher D. O'Sullivan (2014). Harry Hopkins: FDR's Envoy to Churchill and Stalin. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 53. ISBN 9781442222229.
- ^ Granatstein, J. L. (1990). Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939–1945. p. 315.
- ^ Crowley, Leo T. "Lend-Lease". In Walter Yust, ed., 10 Eventful Years (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 1947), 1:520, 2:858–860.