March 11:

1941 : FDR signs Lend-Lease

On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 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 nations-even if they were
former enemies.

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