The lend-lease act was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, Republic of China, and other Allied nations of the Second World War with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. Seven billion dollars were sent to Britain, extended to USSR after German invasion in June 1941. The aid was given free of charge on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.