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By Root 1028 0

Japanese army. Given Roosevelt’s rambling conversation, “W. had to play the role of courtier825 and seize opportunities as and when they arose. I am amazed at the patience with which he does this … Though the role of attendant listener was uncongenial to him, the Prime Minister played it faultlessly all these days, so that we came through without the loss of any feathers, if not with our tails up.” But presidential needling of the prime minister was more pronounced than usual. Roosevelt reproached Churchill for allowing Eden to tell the king of Greece not to attempt to return home, once his country was liberated, until it was plain that his subjects wanted him. This was an odd intervention, given the Americans’ subsequent hostility to the monarch. The British were furious with the president for encouraging Greek recalcitrance.

Churchill lamented to the British delegation Roosevelt’s casual approach to business, observing that while he was “a charming country gentleman,” his dilatory habits wasted time. The prime minister and his colleagues were surprised and irked by the Americans’ failure to hold bilateral discussions with them before meeting Stalin. “PM and President ought826 to have got together, with their staffs, before meeting the Russians but that through a series of mischances has not happened,” mused Cadogan. The British were slow to perceive that such evasion reflected policy rather than “mischances.” This would be the president’s first meeting with Stalin. Earlier in the year, Roosevelt had sought a meeting with the Soviet leader without Churchill present. When his initiative came to nothing, he coolly lied to the prime minister, asserting that the proposal had originated with Moscow, not himself. Roosevelt believed that he could forge a working relationship with Stalin, which must not be compromised by any appearance of excessive Anglo-American amity or collusion. It did not trouble him that to such an end Churchill must be discomfited.

Hopkins bemoaned the prime minister’s “bloody Italian war”827 and warned Moran: “We are preparing for a battle at Tehran828. You will find us lining up with the Russians.” The doctor wrote wonderingly of the American attitude to Churchill: “They are far more sceptical of him than they are of Stalin.”829 Hopkins’s enthusiasm for the prime minister had diminished, and so too had his influence in his own country. Roosevelt’s secretary wrote pityingly: “Poor Harry, the public is done with him830. He is a heavy liability to the President.” The U.S. delegation in Cairo leaked freely to correspondents. The Washington Post was among many newspapers which afterwards disclosed to the American public “the reported recalcitrance of Churchill”831 towards U.S. strategic wishes. No military agreements between the British and Americans had been reached by November 27, when Sextant adjourned for the principals to fly on to Tehran.

Churchill seldom showed much concern for his own security, but raised an eyebrow when his car was almost engulfed by crowds as the convoy approached the British legation in the Persian capital. Roosevelt had accepted lodgings in the Russian compound next door, and chose to meet Stalin for the first time alone. The opening session of the summit took place on the afternoon of November 28, in the Soviet embassy under Roosevelt’s chairmanship. It bears emphasis that, for every participant with a scintilla of imagination, these gatherings were awesome occasions. Even Brooke, tired and cynical, found it “quite enthralling832” to behold the “Big Three” for the first time assembled together around a table. Those present knew that they were sharing in the making of history. Most strove to speak and act in a fashion worthy of the moment.

Churchill began by asserting his firm commitment to an advance to the Pisa-Rimini line in Italy; to a landing in southern France; and to Overlord, provided his preconditions about maximum German strength in the invasion area were met. “It will be our stern duty,” he said, in a trumpet blast notably discordant with his haverings about the operation,