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’s beleaguered helplessness582 that evoked most sympathy in Washington and helped to prepare the American people psychologically to intervene in the war.” It was certainly true that Americans pitied British material weakness. Yet an enduring source of U.S. resentment, reflected in polls throughout much of the war, was a belief that the British were not merely poorly armed, but also did not try hard enough. It was one thing for the United States to provide food and arms to a defiantly struggling democracy. It was quite another, though, to see the British apparently content to sit tight in their island, conducting lethargic minor operations in North Africa, while the Russians did the real business, and paid the horrific blood price, of destroying Hitler’s armies.

It was remarkable how much the mood in Washington had shifted since January. This time, there was no adulation for Churchill the visitor. “Anti-British feeling is still strong,”583 the British embassy reported to London, “stronger than it was before Pearl Harbor … This state of affairs is partly due to the fact that whereas it was difficult to criticize Britain while the UK was being bombed, such criticism no longer carries the stigma of isolationist or pro-Nazi sympathies.” Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana declared sourly that “there was little point in supplying the British584 with war material since they invariably lost it all.” Roosevelt’s secretary William Hassett wrote in his diary: “These English are too aggressive585 except on the battlefront, as assertive as the Jews, always asking for a little more and then still more after that.” Hassett claimed that the president found Churchill “a delightful companion,”586 but added: “With a softie for president, Winnie would put rollers under the Treasury and open Second, Third, or Fourth Fronts with our fighting men.”

As for the general public, an Ohioan wrote to the White House: “Tell that Churchill to go home where he belongs … All he wants is our money.” An anonymous “mother of three” sought to address Britain’s prime minister from California: “Every time you appear on our shores, it means something very terrible for us. Why not stay at home and fight your own battles instead of always pulling us into them to save your rotten necks?” A New Yorker’s letter to a friend in Somerset, intercepted by the censors, said: “I knew when I saw your fat-headed PM587 was over here that there was another disaster in the offing.” Such views were untypical—most Americans retained warm respect for Churchill. But they reflected widespread scepticism about his nation’s willingness to fight, and doubt whether the prime minister’s wishes matched American national interest. “All the old animosities against the British588 have been revived,” wrote an analyst for the Office of War Information. “She didn’t pay her war debts after the last war. She refuses to grant India the very freedom she claims to be fighting for. She is holding a vast army in England to protect the homeland while her outposts are lost to the enemy.”

A further report later in the summer detected a marginal improvement of sentiment, but found confidence in the British still much below that of the previous autumn. It noted: “Phrases such as ‘the British always want someone589 to pull their chestnuts out of the fire’ and ‘England will fight to the last Frenchman’ have attained considerable currency.” The OWI’s July survey invited Americans590 to say which nation they thought was trying hardest to win the war. A loyal 37 percent chose the United States; 30 percent named Russia, 14 percent China, 13 percent offered no opinion. Just 6 percent identified the British as most convincing triers. A similar poll the following month asked which belligerent was perceived as having the best fighting spirit. Some 65 percent said America591, but only 6 percent named Britain. The same survey highlighted Americans’ stunning ignorance about the difficulties of mounting an invasion of Europe. A 57 percent majority said they thought the Allies should launch a Second Front “within two to