White House press secretary Steve Early knew, of course, but could not tell the press or confirm or deny that the historic meeting was forthcoming. Only until an announcement was made in Great Britain could he go ahead and tell the press corps. “Early’s desk will never look the same. In the scramble for mimeographed statements a lamp was knocked over, a porcelain donkey was broken, gadgets and knickknacks were jumbled.” The Boston Globe noted, “Three days before the birth anniversary of the Prince of Peace two great leaders were deep in discussion of war.”27
It was the second time in six months that Roosevelt and Churchill had met, but this time he was already in the White House, deep in conversation over drinks and dinner with Roosevelt before the Americans knew “Winnie” was in the country. Their first meeting was about the HMS Prince of Wales in August of 1941, when they devised the Atlantic Charter. Churchill’s mother, Jennie Jerome, had been an American, and had visited the U.S. four times before; the first in 1890, the second at the invitation of Mark Twain in 1900, and again in 1929 and 1931 on lecture tours.
FDR set an “all hands” conference for the next day at 6:00 p.m. On Tuesday, top brass and civilian leadership were to meet with the Prime Minister and the eighty political and military experts who had accompanied him on his boat trip across the Atlantic. Churchill’s presence in the United States was a tonic to the country’s morale and to FDR’s morale.
Roosevelt so looked forward to seeing Churchill, he went by car to an unidentified nearby airport to meet his friend as he flew into Washington. Churchill arrived in a blue navy “pea jacket” and “dark yachting cap.” The uniform was that of the Trinity House Lighthouse Service, “a semi-governmental organization concerned with life-saving and the operation of lighthouses.”28 In his hand, he carried a cane, equipped with a flashlight for blackouts. Roosevelt was in a gray double breasted business suit whose pant legs, while cuffed, appeared too long. The snap brim of his fedora was turned up, befitting the style of the obliging nobles of the era. “The car slipped in through the gates of the southgrounds, then rolled up at the entrance looking out across the still-green lawn and to the towering Washington monument in the distance.”29
Churchill’s trip—which had been his idea—had been risky to say the least, boarding a blacked out train in London, then a crossing over the war-torn Atlantic to Massachusetts, and then a flight into Washington. It took a number of days to complete and rumors floated around London and Washington as to his whereabouts. “The White House would neither confirm nor deny the reports, but issued warnings of the possible grave consequences of speculation or mention of the subject in any way.”30 Despite the arduous journey, Churchill looked in good health.
Upon arrival at the White House, they posed briefly for photographs and Churchill hid his cigar for a moment. FDR was using his leg braces, a cane in his right hand and his left hand was gripped on the arm of White House naval attaché Captain John R. Beardall.31 “The sheer drama of the meeting on American soil . . . should have salutary psychological reactions. . . .”32 Just over their heads were parts of the White House that had been painted over to cover the scorch marks made by the fire the British had set to the White House in the War of 1812, nearly burning it to the ground. Then they were bitter enemies. Now the two countries were allies “forged” by a fire set in a different century.33
While waiting for Churchill to arrive, FDR had met that day with his fifth cousin, Teddy Roosevelt Jr., who was a brigadier general.34 Most of the day, he spent in the Oval Office, in one-on-one and small meetings with foreign dignitaries accompanied by Vice President Henry Wallace.
FDR also went through paperwork including sending a memo to John Franklin Carter, responding to an obliquely circuitous memo in which “Jack” (which FDR called him) discussed at length their concerns about security in New York. Carter, between the lines, was suggesting the creation of an independent security force comprised of individuals “now debarred by reason of age, formal education . . . .” He had already identified some willing to help and said they did not lack for “funds or facilities. The individuals . . . seem to be able, intelligent and know what they are doing.” He suggested to Roosevelt that in recruiting a certain kind of help in the New York area, that what was needed was “a relaxation of red tape, especially at the moment when rapid expansion of functions and activities is essential.”35
After darkness had covered Washington, he went to the south portico entrance and got into a car and went to meet Mr. Churchill.36 That evening, FDR and the British Prime Minister stayed up talking until 1 a.m.37
The next morning, the two world leaders, exhausted, slept in. “Both rose long after the White House staff was bustling with its duties of the day.”38
The rest of that Tuesday brought more unwanted news. Japanese forces had finally made a landing on Wake Island after a dozen or more strikes against the marines and navy seamen. But there was no word from the G.I.s that they’d surrendered or that they were still fighting. “The invaders landed Tuesday morning, the navy said. Information was not immediately forthcoming whether the ‘leatherneck’ defenders were still resisting.”39
The Japanese had also made yet another landing on Luzon where the American forces were attempting to throw them back into the sea, and though the battered British garrison was holding on in Hong Kong, two top Canadian officers were killed there. Worse, the Japanese claimed they had taken over a thousand prisoners in Hong Kong. Many news reports on the situation in Hong Kong took note of the hour of the day, so as to keep a running story in perspective. It was reported that on Monday alone, “about 100 bombs fell on the island.” The tenacious Brits, Indians, and Canadians had destroyed a bridge and two enemy ships.40 If they were going down, they were going down fighting.
The Japanese had landed and taken Borneo, but found only burnt offerings left behind by the British. “Three men of the Royal Engineers said they began putting the torch to wells, pipe lines, pumping stations and refineries a few days after war broke out.”41
The fighting on Luzon was described as “intense.” Douglas MacArthur was issuing hopeful statements, still saying he had things “well in hand” but his tanks and artillery were more useful in fighting off the enemy surge.42 Commanding the troops in the field under MacArthur was a capable man, Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright.43 U.S. forces had reportedly sunk “47 Nipponese Troop Transports” which was welcomed news. But Japanese planes had also bombed a civilian center on Luzon where many Filipino government officials were being housed. The Japanese had also landed a strong contingent at the Lingayen coast, some 150 miles north of Luzon, an apparent “pincer” move.44
In spite of his brave public statements, MacArthur was sending fraught telegrams to the War Department, pleading for reinforcements. “PURSUIT AND DIVE BOMBER REINFORCEMENT BY MEANS OF AIRCRAFT CARRIER STOP PRESENT ENEMY ENCIRCLEMENT PERMITS INTERRUPTION OF FERRY ROUTE TO SOUTH DUE TO DAY BOMBARDMENT MINDANAO FIELDS STOP EARLY REINFORCEMENT BY CARRIER WOULD SOLVE PROBLEM STOP CAN I EXPECT ANYTHING ALONG THAT LINE . . . IN THIS GENERAL CONNECTION CAN YOU GIVE ME ANY INKLING OF STRATEGIC PLANS PACIFIC FLEET . . . MACARTHUR.”45
Time magazine wryly observed, “The U. S. had been reacting to ‘other peoples’ war. It was now in its own war.”46 Between Hawaii, Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, the waters of the West Coast and Midway, America knew all too well. Guam hadn’t been heard from since the tenth. The last message from the navy said, “Last attack centered at Agana. Civilians machine-gunned in streets. Two native wards of hospital and hospital compound machine-gunned. Building in which Japanese nationals are confined bombed.”47
Curiously, even with all the action in the Pacific occupying the American forces and with so little action against Germany so far, the Gallup Polling organization surveyed the American people and found that, by a whopping margin of 64 percent to 15 percent, they considered Germany to be the greater threat to America than Japan.48 The poll results presaged what would become a continual source of tension and debate
among American and British military leaders: which theater of war deserved the most attention, Europe or the Pacific? From the beginning of the global conflict until V-E day, the effort in Europe would take precedence. Despite the desperate lobbying of generals such as MacArthur, who wanted ever-more resources to combat the Japanese, the Nazis were always perceived by FDR and Churchill as the greater menace. Hitler would have to be dealt with, first and foremost. As early as December 1941, American opinion in this regard was influenced by the news of yet another sinking by the Germans, this time of the British carrier Formidable. The loss of the 23,000-ton ship had a devastating effect on the war effort and on public opinion.49
In Hong Kong, some of the fiercest fighting was taking place on the “broad playing fields of the Happy Valley recreation areas east of Victoria.”50 News reports of Hong Kong noted the upbeat tones of the British forces, even as the reports also called the soldiers there “beleaguered.”51 Some 20,000 British soldiers were fighting on, standing their ground while also defending “3,000 white women and children who remained [and] are now living in caves. . . .”52 The Japanese had been blasting away at Hong Kong by plane and warship for days and now their troops were closing in on the desperately outnumbered Brits.
Some observers said the fall of Hong Kong would not be as devastating as the loss of Singapore. But in point of fact, Hong Kong was an excellent, natural harbor, strategically important. “Japan gains a fine naval anchorage behind the fortified rocky island, a good airfield only 600 miles from Manila, and some shipbuilding facilities and three dry docks. . . . Hong Kong was the Gibraltar of the East and well named that.”53 From Hong Kong, the Japanese could intensify the fight south. Australia knew that if the Philippines fell and Malaya fell, it would only be a matter of time before the Japanese landed on their northern shores.
Churchill was becoming a beloved figure in America—described by the Atlanta Constitution as a “rotund little fighting premier”54—perhaps more popular in the land of his mother’s birth than the land of his father’s birth. Indeed, some of his political adversaries held his mother’s country of birth against him.55 “Britain’s ruling class still considers him brilliant, erratic, unsafe.”56
His arrival in America was reported on widely and enthusiastically. He was an extrovert and a character, again like his mother, with a knack for tossing off the perfect bon mot. Once at a dinner party, he told his seat mate, “We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.”57
He’d been up and down in British politics, and had changed parties several times; it was sometimes difficult to keep track of the state of his career. But beginning in the early 1930s, he saw the German military buildup and began to loudly protest it, despite the claims of the status quo in Parliament that he was wrong and that Hitler would abide by the Treaty of Versailles. Even as Hitler moved into other European countries, the British pooh-poohed it. They simply had no more stomach for war. After the Germans invaded Poland—with whom England had a mutual defense agreement—in September of 1939, the die was cast.
Churchill was a Renaissance Man. A soldier, a statesman, writer, and many other guises, he’d seen battles, both military and otherwise, many political battles he’d started himself. After losing a seat in Parliament in 1923, he packed his troubles and his brushes and went to Egypt to paint scenery. He’d won medals in 1895, 1897, and in 1916 for helping the Cubans fight the Spanish; for his bravery in India; and for action in the Nile, in the Boer Wars, and service on the Western Front. “Soldier, newspaper man, adventurer, lecturer, artist, bricklayer, politician and statesman, Churchill has served in more wars, held more offices and practiced more arts than any man of his time in the British Empire. In the middle of the last war, Churchill was a colonel in charge of a regiment. In a foxhole being shelled, he was urged to move on by a superior officer saying, “I tell you, this is a very dangerous place.” Churchill replied, “Yes sir, but after all this is a very dangerous world.”58
The day before, Sunday, December 21, Roosevelt asked Americans to pray and declared that January 1st, 1942 would be a national day of prayer. “We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of strength. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.” He declared January 1 “a day of . . . asking forgiveness for our shortcoming of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God’s help in days to come.”59 The proclamation was widely reported in the press without cynicism or rancor or question.
Unlike Woodrow Wilson, who cancelled all his press conferences during the Great War, FDR was holding them on an almost daily basis now. From the night of the eighth, when he’d broadcast a national radio message to the country from the basement of the White House, already partially blacked out—where he’d invited reporters and photographers in—right up through the coming of Christmas and beyond, Roosevelt courted the press, seeing them as an important ally, unlike Wilson, whom the press turned on. “Mr. Roosevelt met the press, lectured them on what they might and might not print. He looked calm, rested, cheery and buoyant.”60
Archbishop Francis J. Spellman was the military vicar of the United States. He gave a radio broadcast over the CBS radio network and in front of a live audience of three hundred military and civic leaders in New York at the National Catholic Community Service clubhouse. In this, his first speech as the military vicar, he asked the American people not to go on strike, but the speech went much, much further. It was a testament to the high moral plane upon which he believed America operated and the direness of the world situation. “What will it profit us, however, to emerge victorious over attacks from abroad if at the same time we do not preserve the ideals of democracy at home and their indispensable supports of religion and morality.”61
Spellman had worked on the address for hours, pouring over news clippings. At one point he quoted publisher Henry Luce. “The high resolve is yet to come . . . it would be better to leave America in a heap of smoking stones than surrender it to the mechanized medievalism which is the Mikado, or to the Antichrist which is Hitler.”62 The speech was a magnificent testament to the “American Century” of the country’s charity and selflessness, of its moral bearings, but also a warning to not lose its moral compass. Luce had coined the phrase, “American Century.”63
Even with the surprise visit of Churchill and his huge entourage and all the comings and goings in the White House because of the war, it still promised to be a quiet Christmas for the Roosevelts. All four sons were now on active duty. “For the first time since the Roosevelts moved into the White House, there won’t be a child or a grandchild home for Christmas.”64 Mrs. Roosevelt was busy though. Because of her duties as assistant civilian defense director, she had meetings to attend and speeches to give. She also attended a “slum clearance project” where Christmas carols were sung. There, “a tiny Negro woman edged up to her . . . very elderly but very pert.” She was introduced to Mrs. Roosevelt as “Betty Queen Anne.” When her age of ninety-seven was mentioned to the first lady, the elderly woman replied, “Lordy, I’m more dan dat.” Betty claimed she had been a slave near Fredericksburg, Virginia.65
When Eleanor Roosevelt arrived back at the White House, a dinner had to be prepared for Churchill and his aides. She also hung a stocking in the Oval Office containing a bone for “Fala,” the family pooch.66
Before the meeting of the “War Council,” Churchill and FDR sat together behind the president’s untidy desk cluttered with keepsakes in the Oval Office and faced the journalists in an historic press conference which lasted about half an hour.67 The setting was described as “electric.”68
Churchill pulled on his customary cigar, and the president smoked several Camel cigarettes, as always attached to his ivory cigarette holder clamped between his teeth. Roosevelt was in gray suit and was still wearing the mourning band on his left arm for his mother. Churchill was in “formal striped trousers and a dark blue coat. He was wearing polka-dot
blue and white bow tie.”69 The New York Times said he stared “unperturbedly into space” as he waited for things to begin.70 As always, Harry Hopkins was standing off to the side.
The reporters in the back could not see the two men, so Roosevelt asked Churchill to stand for a moment “while those in the crowded back rows could get a glimpse of him.” Churchill, 67, immediately jumped to his feet but still, he could not be seen, so he clambered onto his chair “grinning broadly and waving his cigar.”71 The reporters applauded and cheered.
During the course of the press conference, the leaders said “the key to the whole conflict is the resolute manner in which the American and British democracies are going to throw themselves into this war.” The Evening Star reported, “Pulling on his cigar from his mouth, [Churchill] smiled wryly then as he remarked that someday the Allied nations might wake up and find themselves short of Huns.”72 Asked about how long the war might take, the prime minister remarked that it would take twice as long if it were managed “badly.” FDR and the reporters laughed. “The reporters hurled a barrage for questions—and soon found the prime minister adept in swift replies.”73 The prime minister was eloquent, and “displayed his marked gift for turning phrases—a gift which has made his speeches and writings literary achievements.”74
Churchill also announced he would broadcast a Christmas Eve message to the American people the next day and said there was much to thank God for. Prior, they’d met with State Department officials.75 Roosevelt announced yet another new bureaucracy, this one the new Office of Defense Transportation.76
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