How the Britain was lost by US
in 2nd World War
Review of Peter Clark Book by Aamir Riaz
We in South Asia have to rewrite their history for once. How many of us have heard about infamous LEND-LEASE ACT, From 1941 till 1945 under the act a total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $656 billion today) worth of supplies were shipped, or 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.[2] In all, $31.4 billion went to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies. Reverse Lend-Lease policies comprised services such as rent on air bases that went to the U.S., and totaled $7.8 billion; of this, $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth.i don't know many readers knew about these facts yet I can myself accept that after reading about the Act passed by US assembly cleverly I have to revisit post 1937 history of the world and perticularly of South Asia. How many people had an eye on it during 1940s is still a big question mark. The first major effect of Lend and Lease Act was Atlantic Charter signed at 14 August 1941. Britain and France signed it first and then till December 1941another 24 countries including Russia, China, etc had endorsed it in a conference held at Washinghton. All got huge US fundings. It was another big victory of US after 1918 14 Points presented by then US president Woodrow Wilson. Both documents supported end of colonialism smartly. It marked as bigining of the End of colonialism and birth of a planned Cold War. In 1943, it was Soviet Union who disbanned 3rd International, the pionier communist international organization and later formed Com-in-form , a pro-soviet lobby. Chinese used Lend and Lease arms against the King. So that Act played an important role during 1940s.
When Wilson was calling Shorts after WW1,It was Allama Iqbal who smelled it in-time and warned the Empire to listen what Wilson said. His address was on the record at Mochi Gate public meeting presided by Mian sir Fazl e Hussein organized by Lhorites in protest of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre in early 1919. But when Roosevelt unfoldef post Lend and Lease politics , few were aware from its impacts. Had UK accepted dominion status for all colonies instead of few after WW1, things may be different for her in 1940s. Out of 8 points in Atlantic Charter at lea st three were in favor of decolonization.
When Wilson was calling Shorts after WW1,It was Allama Iqbal who smelled it in-time and warned the Empire to listen what Wilson said. His address was on the record at Mochi Gate public meeting presided by Mian sir Fazl e Hussein organized by Lhorites in protest of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre in early 1919. But when Roosevelt unfoldef post Lend and Lease politics , few were aware from its impacts. Had UK accepted dominion status for all colonies instead of few after WW1, things may be different for her in 1940s. Out of 8 points in Atlantic Charter at lea st three were in favor of decolonization.
- No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
- Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned;
- All people had a right to self-determination
What we in South Asia teaching our children in Text books and what our court historians or smart anti-colonial historians are writing since 1947 is completely different from what Peter explored from 5000 pages letter exchanged between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Why after 67 years we South Asians are still stick with official British position. If we understand it then we can understand post Soviet politics well. From G8 till G20, Britain tries to regain old gllory but he failed to smell New Global alliences. Now read the Review i did for
Weekly HumShehri at late 2014.
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