The Time for Thanks

The time for thanks is after the war is over.

After the recent meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskiy in the Oval Office, there was considerable criticism of Zelenskiy’s attire, and his lack of direct thanks to President Trump for previous US military support.  Critics also complained about the size of US support for Ukraine, and questioned our ability to pay for that support.

The entire situation reminds me of US support during Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.  The US created a program called Lend-Lease to provide military support to our allies fighting against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.  The agreement was that any equipment not destroyed would be returned to the US after the war.  In reality, all of the equipment provided was destroyed, none was returned.  

 

President Roosevelt met with Stalin and Churchill at Yalta, in Crimea, in the closing months of the war against Germany.  I  would note that Stalin wore his wartime military uniform, not a suit and tie.  I do not know if Roosevelt demanded personal thanks for our military support, but I doubt it.  Roosevelt did not demand 50% of the Soviet Union’s mineral wealth in compensation for Lend Lease.  

From 1941 to 1945, the US provided $145 billion (in today’s dollars) in military aid to the USSR.  This sum represented 1.7% of US GDP over that period.  Three decades later, the USSR repaid the US about 3.5% of the total for equipment that was delivered to the USSR after the end of the agreement.

President Trump has repeatedly cited a figure of $350 billion in supporting Ukraine.  His figure is incorrect.  Numerous sources, including a current State Department webpage, show a lower total.  The total direct aid to Ukraine has been only slightly over $100 billion; we spent an additional $70 billion on logistics and replacement of those weapons in our inventory.  Anecdotally, some of the equipment sent to Ukraine was obsolete and scheduled for destruction and replacement soon.  Congress authorized a slightly higher figure of $183 billion, but not all of it has been spent.  

Notably, the total of $170 billion in spending for Ukraine represents about 0.2% of the US GDP from 2022 through 2024.  If we could afford to spend 1.7% of our GDP to save the USSR  in the depths of World War II, we can afford to spend 0.2% of our GDP now to save Ukraine.  

The book Танки Ленд-Лиза в Бою  (Lend-Lease Tanks in Battle) was given to me by a Russian friend, in thanks for the program.  The time for thanks is after the war is over.

Coming back to Trump and Zelenskiy, President Trump wanted personal thanks for something he hadn’t done, and wouldn’t have done.  Trump wants compensation for something that was freely given in the past, a behavior for which we have a nasty ethnic slur.  Trump has ignored Zelenskiy’s request for security guarantees as part of any peace agreement, despite ample evidence that Russia will ignore all agreements and attack again whenever it is ready.  And President Trump and Vice-President Vance were grossly disrespectful, disregarding President Zelenskiy’s efforts to set the record straight on the need for security guarantees.  I have rarely been so ashamed to be an American.

 

More detailed numbers on our support for you Ukraine can be found here:
https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine   
and here:
https://www.state.gov/bureau-of-political-military-affairs/releases/2025/01/u-s-security-cooperation-with-ukraine