Best Friends?

The bond between Churchill and Roosevelt is often cited in histories of the war.

Their characters were very different but they did seem to get along. To begin with Churchill knew he needed to get America into the war and, in schoolboy parlance, sucked up to Roosevelt. They met in Washington DC, Hyde Park (FDR’s house in New York State), Canada, Cairo, Casablanca, Malta, Teheran and Yalta. Churchill spent Christmas 1941 at the White House but FDR never came to Britain in spite of many invitations.

A digression. The Germans broke a code used by the Allies and knew in advance about the meeting at Casablanca in January 1943. At that time Germany could have attacked from the air but they didn’t – not out of chivalry. The location of the meeting got lost in translation; they thought Casablanca referred to the White House.

When Roosevelt died suddenly in April 1945 he was mourned in the UK and especially by Churchill. It is said the “special relationship” after the war grew out of their friendship. But Lynne Olson in Citizens of London paints a different picture. She writes that in mid 1943 Roosevelt became much cooler towards Churchill. “In the last eighteen months of Roosevelt’s life, I thought the openheartedness diminished, the brotherly tone of the President’s messages seemed to change” (Jock Colville, a secretary to Churchill).

When it was apparent the Allies would win the war Roosevelt started planning the peace and what the new world order would be. Certainly he wanted a more just and fairer world but one in which America played a greater part. That could only be achieved by dismantling the British Empire and its preferential trade tariffs. “One thing we are sure we are not fighting for is to hold the British Empire together.” (Life editorial, October 1942) Churchill held the empire dear declaring he had “not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire”.

America was already winning the economic war. During the war American exports trebled and British exports halved. At the end of the war Britain abandoned imperial trade preference allowing America to break into markets that had been the preserve of Britain. America won the war for the Allies and got its reward.

Another factor in the deterioration of the Churchill/Roosevelt relationship, Olson avers, was their ill health. After the Casablanca conference Churchill had pneumonia and FDR influenza. Both leaders became tired and looked old after the immense stress of the early years of the war. She concludes that the bond between the two leaders is a myth, at least after 1943. I say they were two leaders fighting for the interests of their countries and in 1943 these diverged.