The Lend-Lease Act

"And so our country is going to be what our people have proclaimed it must be-the arsenal of democracy."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Speech on Lend-Lease Act, March 15, 1941

Lend-Lease to Britain. English Girls, Members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, Move Armfuls of American Rifles Just Arrived from the United States under Lend-Lease,
[between 1940 and 1946].
America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, ca. 1935-1945

The Senate passed a $5.98 billion supplemental Lend-Lease Bill on October 23, 1941, bringing the United States one step closer to direct involvement in World War II. The Lend-Lease Act, approved by Congress in March 1941, had given President Roosevelt virtually unlimited authority to direct material aid such as ammunition, tanks, airplanes, trucks, and food to the war effort in Europe without violating the nation's official position of neutrality. The supplemental bill brought the amount of available aid to nearly $13 billion. This aid was intended to assist in the defense of nations whose security was deemed vital to the security of the United States. President Roosevelt, who favored U.S. intervention in WWII, advocated creating the program as a way to provide indirect support for the Allies without engaging the U.S. in a war for which there was not yet overwhelming public support.

The United States formally entered the war itself in December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

President Roosevelt Signing the Declaration of War against Japan,
December 1941.
By Popular Demand: Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present

Initially created to help Great Britain, within months, the Lend-Lease program was expanded to include China and the Soviet Union. By the end of the war, the United States had extended over $49 billion in Lend-Lease aid to nearly forty nations.

Lend-Lease to Britain. A Shipment of 155 mm. Howitzers Just Arrived from the United States under Lend-Lease is Prepared for Service at an Ordnance Depot in England,
[between 1940 and 1946].
America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, ca. 1935-1945

Cincinnati, Ohio. Preparing Canned Pork (Russian: "svinaia tushonka") for Lend-Lease Shipment to the USSR at the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company…,
Howard R. Hollem, photographer,
June 1943.
America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, ca. 1935-1945

Baby Betty Rothwell Loves her Orange Juice. She was Very Thin and Ailing until Lend-Lease Concentrated Orange Juice Arrived in England…,
April 1943.
America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, ca. 1935-1945

For more information about lend-lease and the United States during World War II:

•  Search on the phrase lend-lease in the American Memory collection America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.
• View A Guide to World War II Materials which gathers in one place links to World War II-related resources throughout the Library of Congress Web site.
• Search on lend lease in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog to view additional images including political cartoons.