{"id":42,"date":"2026-01-01T06:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T06:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cfrdevwp.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:06:36","slug":"lend-lease-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/lend-lease-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Lend-Lease Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In December 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt with chilling news: Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy. The war with Germany, which had begun in earnest in the spring of 1940, had drained the British treasury. London would soon be unable to pay for the supplies and weapons it was buying from the United States. That might doom Britain\u2019s effort to hold off the Nazi onslaught. Churchill\u2019s news put FDR in a bind. A month earlier, he had won an unprecedented third term as president after promising Americans worried about the conflict in Europe that their \u201cboys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.\u201d But FDR also believed that a German victory would be disastrous for the United States. Knowing he had to act, he used the next three months to build congressional and public support for a plan to lend supplies to Britain and other countries fighting the Axis powers. The resulting Lend-Lease Act, which Churchill called &#8220;the most unsordid act,&#8221; provided more than $50 billion in aid to fifty nations and helped win World War II. SHAFR historians ranked the Lend-Lease Act as the fifth-best U.S. foreign policy decision.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In December 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt with chilling news: Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy. The war with Germany, which had begun in earnest in the spring of 1940, had drained the British treasury. London would soon be unable to pay for the supplies and weapons [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1415,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-decisions"],"acf":{"add_section":[{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Neutrality and War in the 1930s","add_section_content":"By the early 1930s, many Americans viewed U.S. involvement in World War I as a mistake. The United States had entered what was then known as the Great War after fighting had been underway for nearly three years, and only after Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on U.S. merchant ships. With the Great Depression wracking the country, however, the claim that President Woodrow Wilson had maneuvered the country into war so that business leaders could profit from the fighting gained popularity. One book that made this argument,\u00a0<em>Merchants of Death<\/em>, even made best-seller lists and was chosen as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.\r\n\r\nWith war clouds gathering on the horizon in Europe and Asia, Congress responded to anti-interventionist sentiment by passing the Neutrality Act of 1935, which banned the sale of arms and other materiel to countries at war. The law also declared that American citizens working in or traveling to countries at war did so at their own risk. The law\u2019s backers argued that if the United States remained scrupulously neutral, it would not be dragged into another war. Congress amended the Neutrality Act in 1936 and 1937 to expand the list of activities violating U.S. neutrality.","add_image":2089,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Second Thoughts on Neutrality","add_section_content":"The congressional and public insistence on rigid neutrality began to weaken after Germany seized Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Roosevelt pushed Congress to expand a provision adopted in 1937 that gave him discretion to permit countries at war to buy supplies (but not weapons) from the United States, provided they paid cash and shipped their purchases on non-American vessels. Roosevelt had pushed for this so-called cash-and-carry provision because he calculated that only Britain and France would be able to take advantage of it should Europe go to war. They, not Germany, were likely to control the high seas.\r\n\r\nWar came to Europe in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Two months later and after heated debate, Congress ended the ban on selling weapons to countries at war, provided they observed the terms of the cash-and-carry rule.\u00a0Britain quickly made use of the opening that Roosevelt had engineered to buy arms and other supplies from the United States. But the provision had one obvious weakness: countries had to have cash to pay U.S. manufacturers. The letter that Roosevelt received from Churchill on December 8, 1940, showed that would not be the case for much longer.","add_image":2870,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Arsenal of Democracy","add_section_content":"<div class=\"c-full-width__content\">\r\n<div class=\"c-full-width__body\">\r\n\r\nRoosevelt understood the domestic political obstacles that stood in the way of providing more support to Britain and other countries fighting the Axis powers. Most Americans opposed German aggression, but anti-interventionist sentiment remained strong. Knowing he had to persuade Americans to do more, Roosevelt used a press conference nine days after receiving Churchill\u2019s letter to float the idea of lending supplies to Britain. He likened to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was burning, with the expectation that when the fire is out, the neighbor \u201cgives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it.\u201d\r\n\r\nRoosevelt pushed the idea further at the end of December in one of his famed radio \u201cfireside chats.\u201d He argued that \u201cif Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the high seas\u2014and they will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere.\u201d The only sensible response, he argued, was for the United States to become \u201cthe great arsenal of democracy\u201d that would make it possible for Britain and others to win their fight.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"videolink","add_section_title":"Arsenal of Democracy","add_section_content":"<div class=\"c-full-width__content\">\r\n<div class=\"c-full-width__body\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio src=\"https:\/\/assets.cfr.org\/video\/upload\/v1762453986\/LendLease_yp06xr.mp3\" controls=\"controls\"><\/audio><\/figure>\r\nRoosevelt understood the domestic political obstacles that stood in the way of providing more support to Britain and other countries fighting the Axis powers. Most Americans opposed German aggression, but anti-interventionist sentiment remained strong. Knowing he had to persuade Americans to do more, Roosevelt used a press conference nine days after receiving Churchill\u2019s letter to float the idea of lending supplies to Britain. He\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/press-conference-3\">likened it<\/a>\u00a0to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was burning, with the expectation that when the fire is out, the neighbor \u201cgives it back to me and thanks me very much for the use of it.\u201d\r\n\r\nRoosevelt pushed the idea further at the end of December in one of his famed radio \u201cfireside chats.\u201d He\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/fireside-chat-9\">argued<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cif Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the high seas\u2014and they will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere.\u201d\u202fThe only sensible response, he argued, was for the United States to become \u201cthe great arsenal of democracy\u201d that would make it possible for Britain and others to win their fight.\r\n\r\nIn January 1941, Roosevelt unveiled a draft Lend-Lease Act. The proposal was sweeping in scope. It\u202f<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usnews.com\/usnews\/documents\/doctranscripts\/document_71_transcript.htm\">authorized him<\/a>, \u201cwhen he deems it in the interest of national defense\u2026to sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of\u201d war materiel to the \u201cgovernment of any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.\u201d Such a grant of discretionary authority to the president was unprecedented in American history. It would be a bitter point of contention in the legislative fight to come.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"President Franklin Roosevelt's \u201cArsenal of Democracy\u201d Fireside Chat, December 29, 1940","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-ySdFOSreME?si=f6sIFLRNBDKskaaQ"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Lend-Lease Proposal ","add_section_content":"Roosevelt recognized that he could not provide Britain with aid on the scale it needed without Congress\u2019s approval. In September 1940, he had issued an executive order trading fifty old U.S. Navy destroyers for the right to lease naval and air bases in eight British territories in the Western Hemisphere. Anti-interventionists were outraged. They argued that he had exceeded his constitutional powers with the \u201cdestroyers-for-bases\u201d deal and risked embroiling the United States in the war in Europe. Indeed, Churchill called the trade a \u201cdecidedly unneutral act.\u201d FDR knew he had tested the limits on what he could do on his own authority and now needed congressional consent.\r\n\r\nWith the 1940 presidential election safely behind him, Roosevelt took up the challenge. In January 1941, he submitted a draft Lend-Lease Act to Congress. The proposal was sweeping in scope. It authorized him, \u201cwhen he deems it in the interest of national defense\u2026to sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of\u201d war materiel to the \u201cgovernment of any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.\u201d Such a grant of authority to the president had no precedent in U.S. history. It would be a bitter point of contention in the legislative fight to come.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"Roosevelt Warns of Danger to US if Nazis Win War, December 29, 1940.","video_link":{"title":"","url":"https:\/\/collections.ushmm.org\/search\/catalog\/irn1001488#rights-restrictions","target":""},"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Battle on Capitol Hill","add_section_content":"Roosevelt and his congressional supporters pulled out all the stops to make Lend-Lease sound as American as apple pie. Besides giving speeches and writing newspaper articles hailing the need to act, they titled the legislation the \u201cBill to Promote the Defense of the United States.\u201d That did not go far enough for Democratic Majority Leader John McCormack of Boston, who introduced the bill in the House. He worried that voters in his heavily Irish-American district would oppose any proposal to help the British. So to stir up patriotic passions, he arranged for the Lend-Lease bill to be designated House Resolution 1776.\r\n\r\nThese efforts did not convince ardent non-interventionists on Capitol Hill. They came from both sides of the political aisle and attacked the legislation for entangling the country in another European war and for vastly expanding presidential powers. Democratic Senator Burton Wheeler\u202fof Montana dismissed the idea that helping Britain would keep the United States out of war by arguing that \u201cyou can\u2019t put your shirt tail into a clothes wringer and pull it out suddenly when the ringer keeps turning.\u201d Republican Senator Robert Taft of Ohio called the bill \u201cthe most extraordinary delegation of legislative power which has ever been proposed to the Congress of the United States.\u201d These congressional critics had public support. Anti-interventionist protesters marched on Capitol Hill carrying signs reading: \u201cKill Bill 1776, Not Our Boys.\u201d","add_image":2847,"image_position":"right","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Congress Decides","add_section_content":"For two months the Lend-Lease Act was, as Roosevelt put it, \u201cargued in every newspaper, on every wavelength, over every cracker barrel in all the land.\u201d Americans on both sides of the debate understood that the bill\u2019s passage would unquestionably commit the United States to the Allied cause, even though its prospects seemed bleak. Most of Europe had fallen to Germany by the end of 1940. As Churchill\u2019s letter to Roosevelt indicated, Britain\u2019s ability to remain in the war was in doubt. German retaliation against the United States was a clear risk.\r\n\r\nIn the end, the votes broke Roosevelt\u2019s way. In March 1941, lopsided majorities in both the House and Senate voted for the bill. It passed in good part because Roosevelt presented it as a peace measure, and he adroitly finessed the question of how the United States could help Britain without antagonizing Germany. Roosevelt also benefited from the fact that Democrats held large majorities in both houses of Congress. And he received the support of the man he had defeated for the presidency just four months earlier: former Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie endorsed Lend-Lease because it gave Americans the only \u201cchance to defend liberty without themselves going to war.\u201d","add_image":2128,"image_position":"bottom","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Legacy of the Lend-Lease Act","add_section_content":"The United States provided more than $50 billion in supplies and services to fifty nations under the terms of the Lend-Lease Act over the course of World War II. Britain received approximately half of all Lend-Lease aid. The Soviet Union, which no one during the debate over the legislation imagined would become a recipient because it was allied with Germany at the time, received around one-fifth. Lend-Lease did not fulfill Roosevelt\u2019s claim that it would keep the United States out of the war by enabling other countries to defeat the Axis powers. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor nine months after the bill passed brought the United States into the war. Lend-Lease nonetheless helped sustain Britain when it stood nearly alone in resisting Germany, and it became a critical source of support for the Soviet Union after Germany turned on it in June 1941. Lend-Lease also boosted the U.S. economy. The law defined aid broadly, meaning that everything from weapons to grain exports to ship repair services were covered, which spurred the agricultural and industrial production that the United States would need when it entered World War II.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""}],"add_testimonials":[{"author_name":"Thomas Bottelier","add_testimonial_content":"The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 created the largest aid program the world has ever seen. Not only did it commit the United States to resist Nazi and, later, Japanese aggression (a good decision in itself), it also helped create the material infrastructure, such as bases and the use of American weaponry by allies, that underpinned U.S. hegemony after 1945.","add_university_department":"Lecturer in International Relations and History, Utrecht University","add_image":2138},{"author_name":"Paul Harold Rubinson","add_testimonial_content":"The Lend-Lease Act ensured the defeat of the Axis powers in WWII and by vaulting the Soviet Union and United States over the British Empire (and the French Empire) by the end of the war, Lend-Lease helped finally end the age of imperialism.\r\n","add_university_department":"Professor of History, Bridgewater State University","add_image":2140}],"learn_more_title":"Learn More","add_learn_more_content":"Primary documents, books, articles, and more on the Lend-Lease Act. ","add_sources":[{"add_sources_title":"Primary Documents","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"George Gallup, \u201cGallup Polls January 1940-January 1941\u201d","url":"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/document\/gallup-polls-january-1940-january-1941\/#footnote1","target":""},"source_content":"A compilation of polling data on American views of the war in Europe.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Winston Churchill, \u201cLetter to Franklin Roosevelt,\u201d December 7, 1940","url":"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/historicaldocuments\/frus1940v03\/d20","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the letter Churchill sent informing Roosevelt that Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy and asking for U.S. aid.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Franklin D. Roosevelt, \u201cMessage to Congress on Exchanging Destroyers for British Naval and Air Bases,\u201d September 3, 1940","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/message-congress-exchanging-destroyers-for-british-naval-and-air-bases","target":""},"source_content":"The text of Roosevelt\u2019s message informing Congress that he had traded fifty old U.S. navy destroyers to Britain for the right to lease military bases in eight British territories in the Western Hemisphere. ","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, \u201cPress Conference,\u201d December 17, 1940","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/press-conference-3","target":""},"source_content":"Roosevelt used a meeting with journalists on December 17, 1940, to describe how Lend-Lease would work and why it would be consistent with U.S. neutrality laws.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, \u201cArsenal of Democracy Speech (Audio),\u201d December 29, 1940","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8oI-xc7XbWA","target":""},"source_content":"The audio of a national radio address that Roosevelt gave a year before Pearl Harbor arguing that the United States should be the \u201cgreat arsenal of democracy\u201d that helped free countries turn back the Axis powers.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, \u201cArsenal of Democracy Speech (Text),\u201d December 29, 1940","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/fireside-chat-9","target":""},"source_content":"The text of a national radio address that Roosevelt gave a year before Pearl Harbor arguing that the United States should be the \u201cgreat arsenal of democracy\u201d that helped free countries turn back the Axis powers.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Senator Burton Wheeler, \u201cRadio Speech Opposing the Lend-Lease Act,\u201d December 31, 1940","url":"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/document\/radio-address\/","target":""},"source_content":"Two days after Roosevelt gave his \u201cArsenal of Democracy\u201d speech, Wheeler used a national radio address to lay out his reasons for opposing the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Senator Tom Connally, \u201cSpeech Urging Senate Passage of the Lend-Lease Act,\u201d February 17, 1941","url":"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/document\/pass-the-lend-lease-bill-we-must-aid-great-britain\/","target":""},"source_content":"The chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Connally made the case to his fellow senators that passage of the Lend-Lease Act served U.S. national interests.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Senator Robert Taft, \u201cSpeech Against Lend-Lease,\u201d February 1941.","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Iow8E1mIenM","target":""},"source_content":"Taft argued in a national radio address that the Lend-Lease bill was \u201cthe most extraordinary delegation of legislative power which has ever been proposed to the Congress of the United States.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"The Lend-Lease Act, March 11, 1941","url":"https:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&amp;psid=4075","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the Lend-Lease Act as passed by Congress.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"President Franklin D. Roosevelt, \u201cSpeech on the Lend-Lease Act (Text and Audio),\u201d March 15, 1941","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YIdGZhM-W9M","target":""},"source_content":"Roosevelt argued that the passage of the Lend-Lease Act told the world that the United States was ready to meet \u201cthe danger that confronts us.\u201d","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Books","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Warren Kimball, The Most Unsordid Act: Lend-Lease Act 1939\u20131941","url":"https:\/\/www.press.jhu.edu\/books\/title\/5801\/most-unsordid-act","target":""},"source_content":"Kimball traces the history of the Lend-Lease Act from development through implementation.","source_image":1455},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Anna E. Kohler, Passage of the Lend-Lease Act","url":"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Passage-Lend-Lease-Act-Anna-Kohler\/dp\/1013491467","target":""},"source_content":"Kohler analyzes the political and legislative processes that led to the passage of the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":1457},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Lynne Olson, Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939\u20131941. ","url":"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/209471\/those-angry-days-by-lynne-olson\/","target":""},"source_content":"Olson recounts the bitter debates over the possible entry of the United States into World War II.","source_image":1458},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Albert L. Weeks, Russia's Life Saver: Lend-Lease Aid to the USSR in World War II","url":"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/russias-lifesaver-9780739145630\/","target":""},"source_content":"Weeks discusses the importance of the Lend-Lease Act to the Soviet war effort during World War II.","source_image":1459}]},{"add_sources_title":"Articles","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"History.com, \u201cLend-Lease Act\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.history.com\/articles\/lend-lease-act","target":""},"source_content":"The popular history website provides a brief overview of the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Mark Seidl, \u201cThe Lend-Lease Program, 1941\u20131945\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.fdrlibrary.org\/lend-lease?utm_source=chatgpt.com","target":""},"source_content":"A historian traces how Roosevelt persuaded Congress and the country to support his proposal to aid countries fighting Nazi Germany.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"SocialStudiesHelp.Com, \u201cThe Lend-Lease Act: Arsenal of Democracy\u201d","url":"https:\/\/socialstudieshelp.com\/american-history-lessons\/how-the-lend-lease-act-shaped-americas-wwii-strategy\/","target":""},"source_content":"A popular social studies website tells the story of the genesis and passage of the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"The Collector, \u201cWhat Was the Lend-Lease Program?\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.thecollector.com\/what-was-lend-lease-program\/","target":""},"source_content":"An accessible overview of the origins and passage of the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Documentaries and Short Videos","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"British Movietone, \u201cLend-Lease Act 1941\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FKFqRFqCcFc","target":""},"source_content":"A two-minute short featuring Roosevelt championing the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"History.com, \u201cWhat Was the Lend-Lease Act?\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ljDyho6AZ6A","target":""},"source_content":"A three-minute summary of the history of the Lend-Lease Act.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Lectures and Podcasts","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Susan Dunn, \u201cA Declaration of Interdependence: Lend-Lease\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f3KdqUcT7AY","target":""},"source_content":"Dunn discusses how Roosevelt prepared the United States for war and global leadership in the critical months between November 1940 and March 1941.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"History of World War II Podcast, \u201cLend-Lease Act\u201d","url":"https:\/\/worldwariipodcast.net\/2015\/06\/04\/episode-129-lend-lease\/","target":""},"source_content":"An exploration of how Roosevelt persuaded a reluctant Congress and the American people to provide financial assistance to countries fighting the Axis powers.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"National World War II Museum, \u201cAn Epidemic of World Lawlessness\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.nationalww2museum.org\/war\/podcasts\/best-my-ability-podcast\/season-3\/episode-1-epidemic-world-lawlessness","target":""},"source_content":"Historian Stephanie Hinnershitz examines how Roosevelt sought to prepare the United States as war raged in Europe.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"World War Two TV, \u201cLend-Lease: Western Aid for the Soviet Union\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lnRdVzWLVyg","target":""},"source_content":"Historians discuss the importance of the Lend-Lease Act for the Soviet Union.","source_image":""}]}],"add_bottom_title":"","add_bottom_image":"","add_background_image":"","add_bottom_button":"","add_year":"1941"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/build.mini.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/23-0336M.jpg_1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":93,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3871,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/3871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}