Franklin D. Roosevelt

Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Lend-Lease Act.

March 11, 1943

Two years ago, on March 11, 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was approved.

Hitler had promised his people that this war would be a short one, a single-front war—that our aid would be too little and too late.

Such also were the promises of the military Junta of Japan.

Time has given the lie to their promises.

Our promises have stood the test of time.

For today, as we observe the second anniversary of the Lend-Lease Act, the United Nations are on the offensive.

Two years ago the question was—where would the Axis strike next? Now, the question is—where will the United Nations strike next? The enemy will receive its answers on battlefields of our own choosing.

As we strike again and again, lend-lease and reciprocal aid will contribute increasingly to the inevitable defeat of the Axis.

And this mutual aid has become more than a joint weapon of war. In the smoke of battle, lend-lease is helping to forge the unity that will be required to make a just and lasting peace.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Lend-Lease Act. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209926

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