STEP #7 - The "Arsenal of Democracy"
"H.R. 1776, A Bill Further to promote the defense of the United States and for other purposes." January 10, 1941 National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives By late 1940 Great Britain was increasingly unable to pay for and transport the war materials it needed in its fight against Nazi Germany. Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealed to President Roosevelt to find a way for the United States to continue to aid Britain. FDR proposed providing war materials to Britain without the immediate payment called for in the Neutrality Act. A bill, assigned the patriotic bill number "1776," was introduced in the House on January 10, 1941, by Representative John McCormack of Massachusetts. After extensive hearings and debate, Congress passed "Lend-Lease" and President Roosevelt signed the Act on March 11, 1941. After the United States entered the war, Lend-Lease became the most important means for supplying the Allies with military aid.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/page_20.html#
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/page_20.html#
|
To explain the Lend-Lease Act to Americans, FDR used an analogy of a garden hose …
Well, let me give you an illustration: Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose 400 or 500 feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire. Now, what do I do? I don't say to him before that operation, "Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it." What is the transaction that goes on? I don't want $15 - I want my garden hose back after the fire is over. All right. If it goes through the fire all right, intact, without any damage to it, he gives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it. But suppose it gets smashed up - holes in it - during the fire; we don't have to have too much formality about it, but I say to him, "I was glad to lend you that hose; I see I can't use it any more, it's all smashed up." He says, "How many feet of it were there?" I tell him, "There were 150 feet of it." He says, "All right, I will replace it." Now, if I get a nice garden hose back, I am in pretty good shape. In other words, if you lend certain munitions and get the munitions back at the end of the war, if they are intact - haven't been hurt - you are all right; if they have been damaged or have deteriorated or have been lost completely, it seems to me you come out pretty well if you have them replaced by the fellow to whom you have lent them. |
The Lend-Lease program was stunningly successful in getting much-needed supplies to the Allies and keeping them in the war. In 1941 alone, more than 1,000,000 tons of food was shipped overseas. Great Britain received almost $700,000,000 worth of goods including munitions, raw materials, tools, fire-fighting equipment, food, vitamins for children, medical supplies, and tractors in just the first three months of 1943. From 1942 to September 1945, the Soviet Union received 9,000 tanks or self-propelled guns, 362,000 trucks, 47,000 jeeps, 131,633 submachine guns, 3,000 rocket launchers, 14,000,000 boots, 532,000 tons of U.S. sugar, 485,000 tons of canned meat (i.e., Spam) and hundreds of other items. Twenty percent of the Lend-Lease supplies the Soviets received was military, while the rest were food, metals, chemicals, petroleum products, and factory machinery.
In all, from March 1941 to July 1946, the program cost the United States almost $51 billion, with the majority going to the British Empire ($31 billion), the Soviet Union ($11 billion), Free France and its possessions ($3.2 billion), China ($1.5 billion), and Brazil ($322 million). The U.S. also received billions of dollars worth of goods through reverse lend-lease, including several hundred million dollars’ worth of food and supplies from Australia and New Zealand for American troops. http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/supplying-allies.html |
|