Lend lease
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] was a policy under which the
United States supplied the
United Kingdom, the
Soviet Union,
France,
China, and other
Allied nationswith
food,
oil, and
materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given for free on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.
President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease bill to give aid to Britain and China (March 1941).
House of Representatives bill # 1776, p.1
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 $719 billion in 2021) worth of supplies was shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.
[2] 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.
[3]
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 Aidtotalling $3.4 billion in supplies and services (equivalent to $61 billion in 2020) .
[4][5]
Lend-Lease effectively ended the United States' pretense of
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 WW2 is debated.
However, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov both stated that Lend-Lease enabled the Soviet Union to defeat Germany on the Eastern Front.
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US ndio mfadhili muhimu wa hii dunia kwa miongo mingi.