Lend-Lease

The Act to Promote the Defense of the United States allowed the President to supply arms, equipment and raw materials to any country whose defence he deemed vital to American security, without payment in cash; settlement was deferred until after the war. It let Britain, whose dollar reserves were running out, carry on the war while the US remained formally neutral.

From the autumn of 1941 deliveries reached the USSR, and later China, the Free French and more than thirty other countries. The British Empire received the largest share (over 30 billion dollars) and the USSR about 11 billion: lorries, aircraft, food and fuel. Supplies travelled by the Arctic convoys, through Iran and across the Pacific. Recipients reciprocated with so-called reverse Lend-Lease. The programme ended after Japan's surrender in 1945.