Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease, programme of military and economic aid given by the United States to nations warring against the Axis powers in World War II. Despite the proclaimed neutrality of the United States, Congress empowered President Franklin D. Roosevelt, by the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, on behalf “of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States, to sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government any defense article” not expressly prohibited. The law originally authorized an appropriation of $1 million. The Office of Lend-Lease Administration, established in October 1941 to administer the act, was incorporated into the Foreign Economic Agency; in 1943 the office was transferred to the Department of State.

In addition to Great Britain, China, and the USSR, 35 other governments received lend-lease aid. They included the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Free French. By the Reciprocal Aid Agreement with Great Britain, the Free French, Australia, and New Zealand, popularly known as reverse lend-lease, American troops stationed overseas in return received material assistance from the signatory nations. By August 1945, when the war ended, lend-lease appropriations totalled about $48 billion. The United States had received more than $6 billion in reverse lend-lease. Arrangements for the repayments by the recipient nations were begun shortly after hostilities ceased. Except for the Soviet debt, of which less than one-third was repaid, repayment was virtually complete by the late 1960s. The United States, in 1972, accepted an offer by the Soviet Union to pay $722 million in instalments between then and 2001 to settle the indebtedness.