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The U.S. united the Allies at this meeting.

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FDR and Churchill seated in front of other Allied leaders at the Casablanca Conference.
The main conflict between the U.S. and Britain in August 1941--the U.S. refusal to enter the war--was gone by December 1941. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. joined the war and committed itself to fighting the Axis. But as the war progressed, the Allies found that they had other disagreements with each other about how to fight the war. The Soviets had been invaded by Germany in June 1941, and they wanted an invasion of western Europe immediately so that Germany would have to fight on a different front. The British wanted to focus Allied efforts on North Africa. The Americans felt like they were fighting Japan all alone and wanted Britain and the Soviet Union to join the war in the Pacific.

As the largest and strongest free Allied power, the U.S. was in a position to enforce its will on the other Allies, but FDR chose to meet with Allied leaders to hammer out agreements with them over the course of the war. An important meeting took place in January 1943 in Casablanca, Morocco—the Casablanca Conference. Learn what conclusions the U.S. led the Allies to at this meeting by reading each row in this table.

Arguments at Casablanca The debate FDR had to resolve was about where to focus the Allied war effort. FDR wanted to invade western Europe through France, but Churchill argued that the time wasn't right. Churchill wanted to invade Italy by going through North Africa. FDR said that if the Allies weren't going to invade France, they should focus their efforts on the Pacific, not Africa.
Solutions at Casablanca FDR and Churchill reached a compromise: Italy would be invaded, and Britain would send more ships and soldiers to help the U.S. fight Japan in the Pacific.
Announcement at Casablanca The biggest news from the Casablanca meeting was that the Allies announced they would accept nothing less than the Axis powers' unconditional surrender. FDR was the force behind this decision. Britain and some leaders of Allied nations that were occupied by Axis forces were willing to make peace and leave the war if the Axis nation occupying them withdrew its soldiers. Some leaders thought a peace could be negotiated to end the fighting before the Axis powers were totally conquered. FDR disagreed, and pressured all the Allied leaders to agree to fight the Axis until those powers were completely unable to make war.

Question

Why would FDR insist on fighting until the Axis powers were completely unable to make war?

The U.S. wanted the Soviet Union, which was fighting off a German invasion, to know that the other Allies were dedicated to stopping the German war machine.

Question

What was the U.S. worried the Soviets would do if they heard there would be no invasion of western Europe in 1943?

The U.S. was worried that the Soviet Union would negotiate a truce with Germany. FDR knew that the leader of the Soviet Union had no concern for the fate of other nations fighting the Axis; he cared only about his own country’s safety—and expansion.