By Kim Beazley *
In 1946, US President Harry Truman, addressing Congress on the state of the Lend-Lease program, observed: ‘On balance, the contribution made by Australia, a country having a population of about 7 million, approximately equalled that of the United States to Australia.’ Actually, that’s not quite right. Our contribution exceeded that of the US. We forgave the Lend-Lease debt at the end of the war.
