FDR - Jean Edward Smith [343]
For his part Churchill felt completely at home: up at eleven, two hot baths a day, a long nap in the late afternoon, bedtime at two-thirty or three. “We live here as a big family,” he cabled Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee, “in the greatest intimacy and informality,* and I have formed the very highest regard and admiration for the President. His breadth of view, resolution and his loyalty to the common cause are beyond all praise.”15
The day after his arrival, Churchill joined FDR at one of his twice-weekly press conferences in the Oval Office. The setting and informality were new, but after forty years’ experience with question period in the House of Commons, Churchill was in his element. Sitting to Roosevelt’s right behind the president’s crowded desk, the prime minister parried inquiries with deft aplomb.
Q: Mr. Prime Minister, isn’t Singapore [which had not yet fallen] the key to the whole situation out there?
WSC: The key to the whole situation is the resolute manner in which the British and American Democracies are going to throw themselves into the conflict.
Q: Mr. Minister, can you tell us when you think we may lick these boys?
WSC: If we manage it well it will take only half as long as if we manage it badly. [Loud laughter.]16
Roosevelt beamed as Churchill cast his spell. “The smiling President looked like an old trouper who, on turning impresario, had produced a smash hit,” wrote Newsweek. “It was terribly exciting,” confirmed Alistair Cooke, who covered the White House for the London Times.17
On December 26 Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress, the first foreigner accorded the privilege since Lafayette’s triumphal visit in 1824. For Churchill it was a signal honor, and a mighty roar greeted the prime minister as he was escorted down the aisle to the House rostrum. Roosevelt remained at the White House and listened to the proceedings over the radio.
Churchill understood the audience and crafted his speech to perfection. “I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have gotten here on my own.” The legislators clapped and cheered. Churchill continued confidently:
In that case this would not have been the first time you would have heard my voice. In that case I should not have needed any invitation, but if I had, it is hardly likely it would have been unanimous. [Cheers and laughter.] So perhaps things are better as they are. I may confess, however, that I do not feel quite like a fish out of water in a legislative assembly where English is spoken.18
More laughter and thunderous applause. Churchill spoke thirty-five minutes. It was magnificent drama, reported The Washington Post. As the prime minister left the floor he flashed his “V for victory” sign. The effect was electric. Throughout the chamber hundreds of arms were raised, fingers spread in a return salute: a stunning climax to a speech that the Post ranked with Edmund Burke’s defense of the American colonies.19
Churchill had intended to stay only about a week. But as in The Man Who Came to Dinner,* the visit lengthened to three and a half weeks, including brief side trips to Ottawa and Pompano Beach, Florida.20 Christened the ARCADIA conference by Churchill, the meeting produced agreement on the “Germany first” strategy deemed essential by the British. It also (with perceptible American misgiving) accepted a British-inspired plan for an Anglo-American invasion of North Africa (GYMNAST) later in the year. At General Marshall’s insistence the conference agreed that the war would be waged in each theater under a single supreme commander, who would control all of the forces in his area from all countries and from all branches of the service. The first supreme commander appointed was British General Sir Archibald Wavell for the Southwest Pacific.
To direct the actions of each supreme commander