WW2 - Churchill and Roosevelt

Question 1

Meeting in Canada (August 1941) from Conrad Black’s biography?

Answer 1

‘Churchill would not have noticed the conditions and qualifications and nuances with which Roosevelt clouded almost everything he said.’

Question 2

Where did Roosevelt snub at Churchill?

Answer 2

Tehran Conference 1943

Question 3

Message from Churchill to Roosevelt 12th September 1942?

Answer 3

‘You know I treasure the friendship with which you have honoured me and how profoundly I feel we might together do something really fine and lasting for our two countries.’

Question 4

When did Churchill send Roosevelt this letter?

Answer 4

12th September 1942

Question 5

How was their personal relationship viewed?

Answer 5

As ‘the partnership that saved the west’.

Question 6

How did Roosevelt view Churchill in 1918?

Answer 6

‘stinker’ and thought he ‘lorded it’ over him

Question 7

Who used unfavourable remarks Churchill made about Roosevelt in 1937?

Answer 7

1940 –> Wendell Willkie
During US elections

Question 8

What did Roosevelt promise as he was elected for his 3rd term?

Answer 8

that “no man or woman” should “thoughtlessly or falsely talk of American people sending its armies to European fields.”

Question 9

November 1939

Answer 9

Roosevelt repealed the Neutrality Act –> enabled Britain to purchase American arms

Question 10

October 1939

Answer 10

USA declared neutral zone along entire coast of USA and South America. –> US navy patrolled this to prevent the sinking of merchant ships by Germans. This involved Anglo-American naval co-operation.

Question 11

September 1940

Answer 11

Exchange with Britain –> 50 old US naval destroyers exchanged for leases to 8 British naval bases. Spread from Newfoundland to British Guiana.

Question 12

December 1940

Answer 12

Roosevelt defends sale of arms to Britain. –> Used the phrase ‘arsenal of democracy’

Question 13

March 1941

Answer 13

Lend-lease Act –> Permitted President to ‘sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend or otherwise dispose of’ defence articles to ‘any country whose defence the President deems vital to the defence of the USA.’

Question 14

April 1941

Answer 14

US troupes occupied Greenland

Question 15

1st July 1941

Answer 15

US troupes occupied Iceland

Question 16

What did the Lend-lease act lead to?

Answer 16

$31.6 billion of assistance going to Britain by 1945

Question 17

Why did US occupy Iceland and Greenland?

Answer 17

To prevent them from being used as German military bases

Question 18

Who was Sir Robert Vansittart

Answer 18

Chief Diplomatic Adviser

Question 19

What did Sir Robert Vansittart say about Roosevelt during the 1940 Presidential election?

Answer 19

“… as the MP says, President Roosevelt is ready to play a dirty trick on the world and risk the ultimate destruction of the Western Democracies in order to secure re-election…”

Question 20

Who uses Sir Robert Vansittart’s quote in their historic novel?

Answer 20

Joseph Lash 1977

Question 21

Where did the national leaders first meet?

Answer 21

Placentia Bay in Canada
August 1941

Question 22

What was the Atlantic Charter?

Answer 22

‘certain common principles’

Question 23

What is remarkable about the Atlantic Charter?

Answer 23

The USA had not declared war. Yet, the document referred to plans ‘after the destruction of the Nazi tyranny’.

Question 24

Who decided if the USA could join the war?

Answer 24

Congress

Question 25

Who was General Smuts?

Answer 25

A South African

Question 26

What did General Smuts write to Churchill to say?

Answer 26

‘the growing belief that Churchill intends to keep America out of the war, in spite of his brave words.”

Question 27

How did Churchill reply to General Smuts?

Answer 27

‘He may take action as Chief Executive but only Congress can declare war… we must have patience”

Question 28

Why did US not want to join the war?

Answer 28

• Military Chiefs were worried that Churchill was dispersing his troupes in South Africa and not France
• State department was worried that Britain would want to gain territories.
• Cordell Hull (secretary of state) was worried that the British Empire stood in the way of free trade.
• Roosevelt thought it was morally wrong for Britain to rule over the British Empire.

Question 29

What territories did Britain gain in 1919?

Answer 29

Turkish and German Colonies

Question 30

Why was the British Empires opposition to free trade a problem?

Answer 30

It would become a war aim of the US.

Question 31

Terms of Britain in war?

Answer 31

• Destroyers provided by USA were obsolete.
• USA took gold reserves in South Africa as Lend-lease payments.
• USA made large profits from supplying arms.

Question 32

Tariq Ali perspective

Answer 32

‘there was little doubt that the two allied powers would soon be heading upwards to the mainland’ after capturing Sicily