The Lend-Lease Act: Resources

Hear it (or read it) from those who know best: the historians and custodians of the FDR library. Their online database is chock full of details about the Lend-Lease Act, as well as just about anything and everything FDR under the sun.

We're talking about the events leading up to and following the enactment of Lend-Lease from a particularly American-centric point of view, and we're giving a lot of attention to FDR. To be fair, he totally earned it, but he wasn't the only major international figure during the war (and, no, we're not talking about Hitler). Winston Churchill was actually just as instrumental in developing the Lend-Lease Act as FDR. His efforts, before, after, and during WWII are remembered by the International Churchill Society.

Just in case you haven't had enough of Churchill (and frankly, who has?), you can check out his war speeches, which have been conveniently uploaded for us all.

Eleanor and Franklin appears to be a television series from the 1970s that chronicles the remarkably soap-opera-like personal lives of America's 32nd First Family with remarkably low production values.

The lives of great leaders make for great stories—especially when their lives are super intense or completely crazy. It's little surprise that Churchill shows up fairly often on screens large and small. This rendition of his life, aptly titled Churchill, delves into the conscience of a man in charge of a nation at war.

As Stalin! In the made-for-TV movie Stalin. Clocking in at just under three glorious hours of early 1990s period drama, this tale covers the Soviet dictator's whole biographic shebang. If it doesn't, then, well, there isn't enough time in our lives to watch the whole thing.

FDR and Churchill were both a couple of talkers, and they were good at it, shootin' out one-liners like spitballs. The problem with famous quotes, however, is that very often they get twisted or misappropriated. Such is the case with Churchill and his description of Lend-Lease as "the most unsordid act in the history of nations." Read all about the mix up here.

After the Cold War, it is difficult to imagine diplomatic and cultural relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R./Russia as ever having been super tight, but the Lend-Lease Act did form this kind of bond—at least for a while. Check out this article that describes the friendship between the two nations in the 1940s and what some pilots are doing to remember it so many years later.

The Russian foreign minister visited the U.S. in May 2017 during a time of political controversy, in which the Trump Administration was under scrutiny for possible unofficial ties to the former Soviet world power. In the context of Lend-Lease, this visit is particularly charged, highlighting how frequently the relationship between the two countries shifts. Minister Sergey Lavrov made a point to visit the Lend-Lease Memorial in Alaska before he returned home, further underscoring the complexity of U.S.-Russian postwar diplomacy.

In the 1930s and 1940s people didn't really have televisions (they were more of a 1950s-bored-housewife-postwar thing) so people got their news and entertainment from the radio and from movies. In those days, going to the movies was a big "to do," and the experience came with a lot of extra stuff (not unlike today). Often, films were preceded by newsreels that reported on current events, like this one here about the cheery topic of Nazi Germany invading Austria. That probably didn't make for the most relaxing matinee.

This jaw-dropping animation breaks down the number of deaths during World War II with unforgettable infographics. If you had any doubt as to the magnitude of WWII, this will settle the issue for you.

Sometimes it's difficult to grasp which armies were where at any given time during the war. There was so much back and forth, and this front and that front, and what's all this talk about theaters? To help us get our bearing on the military movements in the eastern hemisphere, this map changes to reflect battle lines for every day of WWII. Very cool (and convenient).

With the help of some fancy talk (which he was known for), FDR used his public presence and emphatic rhetoric to convince the United States citizens and members of Congress to accept and approve Lend-Lease. The moment was quite an American Experience, one that PBS's This American Experience highlights in the clip provided here.

Here we have a somewhat famous, and no doubt staged, photograph of FDR signing the Lend Lease Act—making it official.

Prior to Lend-Lease going into effect, the U.K. was in short of supply of just about everything, from bullets to britches and even to food. Everything was rationed. Lend-Lease helped relieved much of that hardship when it supplied not just military equipment, but daily essentials to Brits in need. This image, which depicts school children holding their food for a photograph when they probably just wanted to eat it, is evidence of Lend-Lease's far reaching impact.

Not what you might call a "chick magnet," the Willys Jeep was used widely by allied troops in the European Theater during WWII. These jeeps, one of which is pictured here, were among the war materials supplied by the U.S. (again, it wasn't just all bombs and explosive stuff).