Roosevelt Approves $1 Billion Lend-Lease to Allies
President Roosevelt approved a $1 billion Lend-Lease package on October 30, 1941, extending massive military aid to the Soviet Union just five months after Germany invaded. The program eventually shipped 400,000 trucks, 12,000 armored vehicles, 11,400 aircraft, and millions of tons of food to the Soviets through Arctic convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific route. Total U.S. Lend-Lease aid to all Allied nations reached $50.1 billion by war's end, equivalent to roughly $700 billion today. Roosevelt sold the program to a skeptical public by comparing it to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire. The aid kept Britain and the Soviet Union fighting through their darkest hours and ensured that American factories ran at full capacity before U.S. troops entered combat.
October 30, 1941
85 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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