FDR - Jean Edward Smith [355]
The elimination of German, Japanese and Italian war power means the unconditional surrender by Germany, Italy, and Japan. That means a reasonable assurance of future world peace. It does not mean the destruction of the population of Germany, Italy, or Japan, but it does mean the destruction of the philosophies in those countries which are based on conquest and the subjugation of other peoples.89
Roosevelt was not shooting from the hip. The doctrine of unconditional surrender had been discussed extensively in Washington in early January, Churchill was apprised of it during informal discussions at Casablanca, and the British war cabinet was informed on January 20.90 Far from being a spontaneous improvisation on Roosevelt’s part, “unconditional surrender” was deliberately announced at Casablanca to aid Allied morale, assure Stalin that there would be no separate peace with Hitler, and confirm that Germany’s defeat would be complete—that there would be no “stab-in-the-back” mythology that might lead to the re-creation of a new Third Reich. There is also no evidence that “unconditional surrender” prolonged the war. Hitler refused to admit the possibility of any defeat, and anti-Nazi dissidents accepted unconditional surrender at face value.91
When the conference ended, Churchill went to the airport to see Roosevelt off. He helped the president into the plane and returned to his limousine. “Let’s go,” he told an aide. “I don’t like to see them take off. It makes me far too nervous. If anything happened to that man, I couldn’t stand it. He is the truest friend; he has the farthest vision; he is the greatest man I have ever known.”92
* In January 1942 German U-boats prowling off the East Coast sank 48 ships of 276,795 tons; in February, 73 ships of 429,891 tons; and in March, 95 ships of 534,064 tons. The Navy did not sink its first German submarine until April 1942. Williamson Murray and Allan B. Millett, A War to Be Won 250 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000).
* One morning FDR wheeled himself into Churchill’s bedroom just as the prime minister emerged from his bathroom stark naked and gleaming pink from a hot bath. Roosevelt apologized and turned about, but Churchill protested, “The Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to conceal from the President of the United States.” Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins 442 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948).
* Written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and acted in the title role by Monty Woolley, The Man Who Came to Dinner portrays an eccentric, acid-tongued radio critic and lecturer (based loosely on Alexander Woollcott) who arrives as a houseguest for one night and suffers a fall, which confines him to a wheelchair and renders him unable to depart for several weeks. The play was a smash hit on Broadway and in London and was made into a movie in 1941, also starring Monty Woolley.
* The statutory basis of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and an independent air force) was not established until the passage of the Defense Reorganization Act of 1947. But the American side of the CCS, with Leahy as chairman, plus Marshall, King, and Arnold, provided the model for the act.
† Admiral Leahy had served with Roosevelt since FDR had been assistant secretary of the Navy and enjoyed the president’s complete confidence. Marshall, Roosevelt’s personal choice for chief of staff, brought a single-minded, take-no-prisoners dedication to his task—combined with a remarkable sensitivity to political nuance at the highest level. Arnold, underneath his affable exterior, had a genius for organization urgently required to create an air force virtually from scratch. King, to some extent, was odd man out: fiercely Anglophobic, incredibly stubborn, not as gifted intellectually as his colleagues, but a powerful command presence that the Navy needed after Pearl Harbor. FDR said King shaved with a blowtorch, and it was that