The Lend-Lease Act, passed in March 1941 after two months of vigorous public debate, provided new legal authority for the president to offer war supplies to the country’s allies, thereby pushing the United States closer to full participation in World War II. Its enactment marked a victory for the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a defeat for his opponents. These included isolationists and pacifists, who had succeeded during the 1930s in passing neutrality laws designed to keep America out of foreign wars. Between the beginnings of World War II in Asia and Europe in the late 1930s and the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the biggest step taken by the United States toward entry into the global conflict.