Lend–Lease Act (1941) Facts & Worksheets

• The Act provided for a great supply of materials, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, aircraft and ships, supplied by the US. In addition, non-military goods, such as food, clothing and medical supplies, were supplied to support both military personnel and civilian populations in allied countries. This was a crucially helpful bit of overall assistance to sustain the war efforts of recipient nations.
• The following nations all received aid from the Lend–Lease Act: British Empire, Brazil, Soviet Union, Mexico, France, Chile, China, Peru, Netherlands, Colombia, Belgium, Ecuador, Greece, Uruguay, Norway, Cuba, Turkey, Bolivia, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Poland, Paraguay, Liberia, Dominican Republic, Iran, Haiti, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Iceland, El Salvador, Iraq, Honduras, Czechoslovakia and Costa Rica.
• The Act was financially beneficial since it provided aid without immediate payment. The terms, however, stipulated that the recipient countries would repay the US in one manner or another, possibly by returning the borrowed equipment after the war or mutually giving aid to American forces. It removed the immediate financial cost on allies and allowed for rapid deployment of what was needed.
• The legislation also included provisions for the repair and maintenance of defence articles. Recipient countries would need to agree to let the US set up bases and facilities to service and maintain the equipment it supplied, in order to maintain the equipment’s operational readiness and encourage closer military cooperation. This provision of the agreement increased American military presence everywhere in the world, which gave strategic advantages in many theatres of war.
• The Office of Lend Lease Administration, formed in October 1941 and absorbed into the Foreign Economic Administration in 1943, handled the administration of the Lend–Lease programme. 
• This organisation was responsible for the production, distribution and transportation of materials and their successful delivery to allied nations. 
• The challenges of logistics were enormous, but the success of the programme proved effective coordination and management.
• At the end of the war, the United States had channelled about $50 billion of aid to more than 30 countries, with the same countries receiving the largest amounts from the UK and the Soviet Union. This substantial support had a vital role in making allied nations’ military stronger and further contributed to the enemy’s ultimate defeat.

REACTIONS TO THE LEND-LEASE ACT

• The Lend–Lease Act received different reactions domestically and internationally. The proposal sparked debate between so-called interventionists, who backed aiding allies in order to maintain stability around the world, and isolationists, who were concerned about becoming entangled in foreign conflicts. However, the divisions did not prevent the Act from passing Congress, although it was just barely enough to get it through because there was a recognition of the increasingly global threat.
• The Lend–Lease programme welcomed with profound relief and gratitude the allied nations, especially the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. Winston Churchill remembered it as the ‘most unsordid act’ in history because it helped make it possible for Britain to go on fighting the Axis. However, the aid also proved very valuable to the Soviet Union itself, which was waging an equally epic battle on the Eastern Front and had plenty of war production of its own to catch up on.
• In the meantime, the Lend–Lease Act was seen by Axis powers as a provocative Act that undercut American neutrality. In particular, Nazi Germany viewed the programme as a de facto alliance between the US and its enemies and further exacerbated existing tensions, which ultimately culminated in the declaration of war by Germany against the United States in December 1941. This implicated full American involvement in the war.
• Lend–Lease was watched with caution by neutral countries, fearing it could tip the balance of power in the conflict to its favour. Some nations feared that increased US backing of the Allies might provoke Axis powers to retaliate, while others hoped that America would bring an end to the war quickly. The enactment of the Lend–Lease Act clearly changed the global geopolitical landscape.
• The war changed public opinion within the US. Initially, people were very wary of getting caught up in foreign wars. But as news of Axis atrocities grew and the threat to world security became clearer, support grew for aiding allies. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, American resolve was galvanised, and the principles that underpinned the Lend–Lease programme, including backing the war effort, received widespread backing.

IMPACTS OF THE LEND-LEAST ACT

• The Lend–Lease Act had profound and far-reaching impacts on both the Allied war effort and the post-war world order. Its immediate and long-term effects reshaped global geopolitics, economies and the trajectory of the war.
• The Lend–Lease programme was vital in terms of military effectiveness. Early on in the war, when the United Kingdom stood virtually alone against the Axis powers, it heavily relied on American supplies. In critical battles such as the Battle of the Atlantic, aircraft, tanks and naval vessels reinforced the British forces. The steady coming in of resources had allowed the UK to keep its defences up, launch counterattacks and help the Allies be able to hold the line.
• Another major recipient of Lend–Lease aid was the Soviet Union, with an enormous advantage on the Eastern Front. The programme supplied the USSR with trucks, jeeps, locomotives and other equipment necessary for mobility and logistics. Food supplies also sustained Soviet troops in gruelling campaigns. The Soviet Union produced a great deal of its own military hardware, but the support provided by the Lend–Lease programme was crucial to its ability to resist and repel German advances.
• The Lend–Lease Act gave American industry a much-needed economic boost. 
• During the Great Depression, vast factories were dormant, but they roared back to life to produce vast quantities of goods for the war effort. 
• In large part, this surge in production not only primed the United States for its eventual entry into the war, but also provided the infrastructure for postwar economic prosperity. 
• The Lend–Lease programme required the transformation of the United States into a global manufacturing powerhouse in order to meet its industrial mobilisation needs.
• The aid had lasting consequences for the recipient nations. An example of this is that the United Kingdom incurred a lot of debt to the United States from carrying out the programme. Much of the debt would later be forgiven or restructured, but the money still left Britain grappling with its postwar economic policies and acting as a global superpower. The war strengthened the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex, in part because of the supplies and infrastructure of Lend–Lease.