Lend-Lease Signed: America Ends Isolationism to Aid Allies

Franklin Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor, effectively ending American neutrality by authorizing the president to transfer military equipment to any country whose defense he deemed vital to US security. The program eventually supplied over billion worth of food, oil, weapons, and equipment to thirty-eight nations, with Britain and the Soviet Union receiving the largest shares. Churchill called it 'the most unsordid act in the history of any nation.' The Soviets received over 400,000 trucks, 14,000 aircraft, and millions of tons of food that kept the Red Army fighting during its darkest hours. The program was controversial: isolationists accused Roosevelt of dragging America into a European war, while interventionists argued it was the only way to prevent a Nazi victory without committing American troops. Lend-Lease represented a decisive shift from isolationism to active engagement in world affairs that the United States has never reversed.