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This declaration had a dual purpose, to defeat Germany and to expand the
American economy.
On March 11th, 1941, still 9 months before Pearl Harbor, the president
went further, announcing the Lend-Lease program. The U.S., FDR promised,
would provide aid to Britain, the Soviet Union, China, anti-fascists in France,
and other anti-Axis groups to fight against Germany and Japan. Congress
appropriated $50 billion for Lend-Lease, an amount equivalent to about $800
billion today. With this new aid, about one-fourth of all British munitions
came from Lend-Lease supplies. The Soviet Union, whose rail industry was
shut down by the German invasion, received 2000 locomotives and 11,000 rail
cars, and the Soviet Air Force got 18,700 planes, while about two-thirds of the
Red Army’s trucks were U.S.-built. After U.S. entry into the war, American
production soared, as did manufacturing by the British, Russians and other
Allies. By the mid-1940s, military spending reached 41 percent of the GDP,
the highest rate ever, and by 1945 expenditures for the war and other defense
measures accounted for 88 percent of all federal spending. What critics would
soon call the “Military-Industrial Complex” was already on display, had gotten
America out of the depression, was waging world war, and would create an
economic surge unlike any seen before or after the war was over.War for Global Power (Europe), 1941-1945
World War II was history’s largest and bloodiest conflict, affecting dozens of
nations and billions of people. It caused destruction on a massive scale and
death in huge numbers, involved a horrid ethnic and cultural genocide, and
introduced new weapons of warfare to the world with deadly consequences.
It was fought on two continents and two oceans and, in the span of a half-
decade, changed the entire system of global politics—with former powers
defeated and laying in waste while others, especially the U.S., in positions of
strength and power far beyond their prewar levels and any other countries. It
changed the world politically and economically, and had a huge impact in the
countries where the war was fought as civilians were targeted more than any
conflict before and entire societies, not just armies, had direct roles in the
conflict. Given the immensity of the war, it is not possible to discuss it in
detail here, so we will consider some of the more critical aspects of the war
itself in Europe and Asia, the outcomes, and the consequences for the future.
In Europe, Germany’s successful aggression of the 1930s had finally been