Editing Lend-Lease (section)

===Lend-Lease proposal===
After a decade of neutrality, Roosevelt knew that the change to Allied support must be gradual, given the support for isolationism in the country. Originally, the American policy was to help the British but not join the war. During early February 1941, a [[The Gallup Organization|Gallup]] poll revealed that 54% of Americans were in favor of giving aid to the British without qualifications of Lend-Lease. A further 15% were in favor of qualifications such as: "If it doesn't get us into war," or "If the British can give us some security for what we give them." Only 22% were unequivocally against the President's proposal. When poll participants were asked their party affiliation, the poll revealed a political divide: 69% of Democrats were unequivocally in favor of Lend-Lease, whereas only 38% of Republicans favored the bill without qualification. At least one poll spokesperson also noted that "approximately twice as many Republicans" gave "qualified answers as ... Democrats."<ref>"Bill to Aid Britain Strongly Backed". ''The New York Times'', February 9, 1941.</ref>

Opposition to the Lend-Lease bill was strongest among isolationist Republicans in Congress, who feared the measure would be "the longest single step this nation has yet taken toward direct involvement in the war abroad". When the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] finally took a roll call vote on February 8, 1941, the 260 to 165 vote was largely along party lines. Democrats voted 236 to 25 in favor and Republicans 24 in favor and 135 against.<ref>Dorris, Henry. "No Vital Changes". ''The New York Times'', February 9, 1941.</ref>

The vote in the Senate, which occurred on March 8, revealed a similar partisan difference: 49 Democrats (79 percent) voted "aye" with only 13 Democrats (21 percent) voting "nay". In contrast, 17 Republicans (63 percent) voted "nay" while 10 Senate Republicans (37 percent) sided with the Democrats to pass the bill.<ref>Hinton, Harold B. "All Curbs Downed". ''The New York Times'', March 9, 1941.</ref>

President Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease bill into law on March 11, 1941. It permitted him to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government [whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States] any defense article." In April, this policy was extended to China,<ref>{{harvnb|Weeks|2004|p=24}}</ref> and in October to the Soviet Union, which was [[Operation Barbarossa|attacked]] by Germany on 22 June 1941. Roosevelt approved $1&nbsp;billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain at the end of October 1941.

This followed the 1940 [[Destroyers for Bases Agreement]], whereby 50 US Navy [[destroyer]]s were transferred to the Royal Navy and the [[Royal Canadian Navy]] in exchange for basing rights in the Caribbean. Churchill also granted the US base rights in [[Bermuda]] and [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]] for free; this act allowed their British garrison to be redeployed to more crucial theatres. In 1944, Britain transferred several of the US-made destroyers to the USSR.<ref>{{harvnb|Neiberg|2004|pp=118–119}}</ref>

After the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] and the United States entering the war in December 1941, foreign policy was rarely discussed by Congress, and there was very little demand to cut Lend-Lease spending. In spring 1944, the House passed a bill to renew the Lend-Lease program by a vote of 334 to 21. The Senate passed it by a vote of 63 to 1.<ref>H. G. Nicholas, ed., ''Washington Dispatches 1941–1945: Weekly Political Reports from the British Embassy'' (1981) pp. 113, 148, 238, 262, 338, 351, 359</ref>