WWII: Neutrality & Lend Lease

1. World War II
MAST High School
US History – Period 4
Ms. Richardson

2. United States: World War I Statistics
• # of causalities:
– approximately 323,018
• Cost of war:
– Approximately $32 billion
The wars end bought widespread disillusionment in the
early 1930s and the belief that the United States had
been drawn into the war through loans and trade with
the Allies. The media blamed bankers & munitions
(weapons) companies for the war.

3. Isolationism
a policy of
remaining apart
from the political
affairs and
interest of other
countries.
Internationalism
a political
principle which
supports a greater
political or
economic
cooperation
among nations
and peoples.

4. Allies
Powers
• Great
Britain
• Soviet
Union
• France
Axis
Powers
• Germany
• Japan
• Italy

5. Territory Controlled by the Axis Powers (1941)

6. Neutrality Acts
Congress enacted the Neutrality Acts, as follows:
• No sale or shipment of arms to belligerents
• No loans or credits to belligerents
• No travel by U.S. citizens on belligerents' ships
– Neutrality Acts 1939
• Purchase of nonmilitary goods by belligerents to be paid
in cash and transported in their own ships (cash-
and-carry)
• Purpose: to limit U.S. involvement in future wars

7. Lend-Lease Act 1941
• Ended U.S. neutrality!
– U.S. becomes “arsenal of
democracy”
• Britain had no $$ to pay
for war goods.
– U.S. would lend or lease
arms & other supplies to
“any country whose
defense was vital to the
U.S.”