FDR signs the Lend-Lease Act to provide aid for allies in WWII
On this day President Franklin D.Roosevelts Lend-Lease program which provides money and materials for allies in the war goes into effect.The Lend-Lease program was devised by Roosevelt as a means of aiding Great Britain in its war effort against the Germans by giving the chief executive the power to sell transfer title to exchange lease lend or otherwise dispose of any military resources the president deemed ultimately in the interest of the defense of the United States.The reasoning was that if a neighbor was successful in defending his home the security of your home would be enhanced.
It also served to bolster British morale by giving them the sense that they were no longer alone in their struggle against Hitler.The program was finally authorized by Congress and signed into effect on March 11 1941.By November after much heated debate Congress extended the terms of Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union even though the USSR had already been the recipient of American military weapons and had been promised 1 billion in financial aid.By the end of the war more than 50 billion in funds weapons aircraft and ships had been distributed to 44 countries.
After the war the Lend-Lease program morphed into the Marshall Plan which allocated funds for the revitalization of friendly democratic nationseven if they were former enemies.
