U.S. At War: War Outlay

Government estimates of war spending, once thought visionary, had already become obsolete. Budget Director Harold D. Smith presented new ones: in the fiscal year ending in June, $28 billion instead of $26 billion; in the new fiscal year, $70 billion instead of $56 billion.

In 1940 the U.S. averaged $230,000,000 a month on preparation for war. Last year the spending doubled, tripled and quadrupled, to $1.5 billion a month. But Pearl Harbor really tore off the brakes. Within two months spending leaped to $2.3 billion, to $3 billion by April. By June it...

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