Lend-Lease

Military and related economic aid extended to Great Britain and other allies in World War II as the United States eased out of its neutral posture in the conflict. A year before entering the war, the United States broke out of its neutrality in order to provide needed assistance to Great Britain, and later more than 40 other nations. After the reelection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, the president was emboldened to appeal to the U.S. Congress for legislation authorizing the circumvention of elements of the Neutrality Act of 1939 and make American war materiel available to the Allies.

The Lend-Lease Act, passed by Congress on March 11, 1941, authorized the president to “sell, transfer, exchange, lease, lend” any defense implement to any government considered vital to the defense of the United States. The act also provided for the use of U.S. shipyards by the same countries. The act should not be confused with an earlier, “destroyers for bases” deal (in September 1940), a violation of neutrality in which the United States provided 50 obsolete destroyers to the British Royal Navy in return for 99-year leases to British naval and air bases in the Western Hemisphere.

After passage of the Lend-Lease Act, President Roosevelt moved more aggressively to support the British by declaring the protection of sea lanes in the neutrality zone and the territory of Greenland a U.S. responsibility. Lend-lease was extended to the Soviet [Page 430]Union on June 24, 1941, two days after the Nazi forces of German dictator Adolf Hitler had invaded that nation in violation of the German–Soviet nonagression pact. Some 63% of the lend-lease program assisted the British Commonwealth, and 22% aided the Soviet Union.

The total amount of lend-lease during World War II approached $50 billion, and the ability of the United States to defer payment via gift, or to accept other compensation or exchange, also solved much of the problem of postwar debts. Lend-lease also provided a stimulus to the U.S. defense industry, already beginning to gear up for the war after the 1940 National Emergency legislation and various rearmament measures had begun.

The political ramifications of lend-lease were profound and remained the subject of vigorous debate, especially during the Cold War era. The safety of Great Britain in 1941 had been greatly assisted by the program, as British finances could no longer support the “cash and carry” concept enshrined in the 1939 Neutrality Act. However, Britain also incurred a heavy postwar debt, later adjusted to about $13 billion.

The case of the Soviet Union proved more problematic, because of false premises adopted by each side. The Soviet government limited the release of lend-lease information and did not acknowledge its details for decades. On the other hand, most materiel did not begin to arrive in the Soviet Union until 1942, and interruptions of the most direct convoy route, the dangerous Murmansk Run, continued throughout the war.

After the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, the Soviets received more civilian-type supplies than military hardware under the lend-lease program. Essentially, the Soviets saved themselves in the decisive first year of the Russo-German War, while lend-lease supplies, when most plentiful, facilitated the vigorous counteroffensives of 1943–44, which shattered German hopes in the East. At the end of the war, the United States cut off lend-lease immediately and refused loans to the Soviet Union, a decision that contributed to the tensions leading to the Cold War.

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