FDR - Jean Edward Smith [351]
Churchill was alone with Roosevelt at Hyde Park for a day and a half. Except for Hopkins, no aides or advisers were privy to their discussions. Official Washington waited nervously. “I can’t help feeling a little bit uneasy about the influence of the Prime Minister,” wrote Stimson. “The trouble is WC and FDR are too much alike in their strong points and in their weak points. They are both penetrating in their thoughts but they lack the steadiness of balance that has got to go along with warfare.”62
Stimson’s apprehension was well founded. Churchill presented a masterly case for why a second front in Europe should not be mounted in 1942. Aside from the severe shortage of landing craft—a problem that would plague the Allies for the next two years—America’s troops were unready and Britain’s too thinly spread. And the time to prepare was too short. “No responsible British military authority has so far been able to make a plan [for a cross-Channel attack in 1942] which has any chance of success unless the Germans become utterly demoralized, of which there is no likelihood,” said Churchill. “Have the American Staffs a plan? At what points would they strike? Who is the officer prepared to command such an enterprise? What British forces and assistance are required?”63
Churchill recognized that the Allies could not remain idle throughout 1942 and once again proposed an invasion of French North Africa (GYMNAST). “This has all along been in harmony with your ideas,” he told FDR. “In fact it is your commanding idea. Here is the true second front of 1942. I have consulted cabinet and defense committees and we all agree. Here is the safest and most fruitful stroke that can be delivered this autumn.”64
Roosevelt needed little convincing. The risk of a premature landing in Europe was one he did not wish to run, particularly with congressional elections looming in November.* As early as June 17, two days before Churchill’s arrival, he had indicated to the War Department his concern about a cross-Channel attack.65 Armed with Churchill’s reservations, the president cut short his sojourn at Hyde Park and summoned General Marshall and Admiral King to a meeting in the Oval Office on Monday, June 21.
In the course of four White House conferences, the last of which continued well past midnight, Churchill held forth on the advantages of invading North Africa. Marshall and King just as vigorously defended the cross-Channel attack. Marshall argued that GYMNAST was at best an unnecessary diversion that would indefinitely postpone the invasion of Europe. King doubted if the British would ever agree to invade the Continent. Both at one point suggested that if Britain persisted in its opposition to a cross-Channel attack, the United States should abandon the “Germany first” strategy agreed to at ARCADIA, “turn to the Pacific and strike decisively against Japan.”66 Roosevelt came down hard. The chiefs’ suggestion, he said, was “a little like taking up your dishes and going away.”67 Later he told Marshall and King, the “defeat of Japan does not defeat Germany. On the other hand … defeat of Germany means the defeat of Japan, probably without firing a shot or losing a life.”68
Over the robust objections of the American joint chiefs, Roosevelt ordered the North African attack. Aside from Britain’s reluctance, FDR now recognized that a cross-Channel invasion could not be launched in 1942 and it was imperative that U.S. ground forces be brought into action against Germany as soon as possible. American public opinion was howling for vengeance against the Japanese. To keep the nation’s strategic priorities straight, Roosevelt wanted to come to grips somewhere with Hitler. “We failed to see,” said Marshall many years later, “that the leader in a democracy has to keep the people entertained.