Churchill & Roosevelt during the Second World War: The Special Relationship

Résumé du document

The 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbor. From then on, the war is no more only European but officially global. The next day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States, declared war on Japan. With the coming into play of the American giant, the conflict acquired a new dimension, and it's Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, who got first the extent of it, declaring "We are all in the same boat now" . The "Special Relationship" is birth, and the Churchill-Roosevelt story will influence the History. Yet, at the beginning, the two protagonists really seemed to be poles apart. The relation they'll develop will mix different feelings in a specific context: the one of Second World War.
Associates, partners, friends? The particular link that united the two men seems to be difficult to get and to understand, all the more because it developed and changed between 1941 (date of the end of the American isolationism) and 1945 (a full of events' year: Yalta conference, German capitulation, Roosevelt's death). To what extent did the privileged link which united the two politicians reveal its complexity, at the same time as it decided on the end of the war and the reconstruction of the world? Roosevelt and Churchill developed throughout these years a relation based on confidence and solidarity. But it seemed to hide rifts, which tended to reveal themselves more and more. Whereas their friendship seemed to be both personal and political, differences began to emerge and the relation progressively changed.

Extraits

[...] The next day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president of the United States, declared war on Japan. With the coming into play of the American giant, the conflict acquired a new dimension, and it's Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, who got first the extent of it, declaring are all in the same boat The “Special Relationship” is birth, and the Churchill-Roosevelt story will influence the History. Yet, at the beginning, the two protagonists really seemed to be poles apart. The relation they'll develop will mix different feelings in a specific context: the one of Second World War. [...]

[...] Coming from the landed gentry (and cousin of Theodore Roosevelt), he was, as O. W. Holmes said, second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament”[3]. He had served as secretary of the navy during the First World War but knew little about international affairs. His prestige came from his origins and his glorious past. On the contrary, Winston Churchill was known in 1940 for the mistakes made during the First World War (notably during the bloody Expedition of Dardanelles as First Lord of Admiralty) and his bad management of the crisis of 1929. [...]

[...] Roosevelt and Churchill developed throughout these years a relation based on confidence and solidarity. But it seemed to hide rifts, which tended to reveal themselves more and more. Whereas their friendship seemed to be both personal and political, differences began to emerge and the relation progressively changed. A beginning friendship While the Second World War was getting worse and was spreading beyond the European theatre, two men got at the head of their respective countries: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president of the United States since 1932, and was reelected for the third time in 1940, and Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great Britain the 10 May 1940. [...]

[...] Actually, the Grand Alliance was fundamentally an Anglo-American partnership that included the Soviet Union primarily because they had a common enemy and an important goal to reach. Before each conference, Churchill and Roosevelt adopted a common position (until Tehran). Moreover, since the Quebec conference in august 1943, they shared the atomic secret and agreed to exclude everyone else, even the Soviet associate. III_ Two men at the head of rival states The Roosevelt and Churchill's relationship has to be put in context. If these two men shared a personal and sincere affection, their political alliance was distorted by their diverging domestic situation and interests. [...]

[...] Shared values Churchill and Roosevelt shared common values they claimed the 12 august 1941 in the Atlantic Charter (cf doc even before the entry of the United States into the Second World War. This solemn declaration marked the first meeting of the two men, and allowed to declare the solidarity between London and Washington. The main values that were claimed were mainly the condemnation of territorial annexation, the right for people to choose their government and regime, commercial liberty, security and disarmament. [...]