- Joined
- 12 July 2008
- Messages
- 394
- Reaction score
- 115
The point is I think, that the abrupt end of all aid was a lot more disrupting then a gradual taping off would have been. This was compounded by the senseless requirement that aid which could not be returned be destroyed leading to things like aircraft that could have been scrapped being thrown off the decks of RN carriers into the sea in the Pacific. In fact the US realized the situation was absurd after about a year, and in 1946 authorized the large Anglo American Loan. That included writing off Lend Lease debts, and selling the Britisha lot of remaining equipment and supplies at a highly discount rate.Its repayment of that loan that took fifty years, and its terms caused other problems as it was. A more sensible US policy wouldn't have made the British wealthy, but it certainly would have taken the edge off of things.